ROAD TRIP! Up Country on a Sunny Day

We turned west at the little town of Sutherlin. Like California, Oregon legalized recreational marijuana use, so dispensaries are everywhere. Sutherlin undoubtedly won the most obvious advertising category. How can you hate a place that has a joint the size of the American flag?

The drive west to the coast was glorious. The day was unusually sunny (we actually had sunny weather continually on our trip to this point); we passed forest and meadow, and an elk preserve dotted with dozens of mothers and calves dozing in the sun. We decided to gamble on the night’s lodgings by not booking until we reached a place we wanted to be. We landed in Reedsport, a town that definitely appealed to sportfishers. No room at the inn there, so we drove up to the next town of any size, Florence, and cruised around for a while.

The entrance to Florence was through a historic iron structure, the Siuslaw River Bridge. Built in 1936, its graceful curves can best be seen from old town Florence (more on that, later).

The weather had turned cloudy and windy, and we were definitely looking to book a stop. Good old hotels.com led us to the Landmark Inn, which, due the odd configuration of streets off Hwy 101 combined with roadwork, we had a difficult time finding. When I asked at the desk, I was told it was “a newish place made to look old,” an apt description.

The Landmark Inn

Not fancy, but certainly worth a night– clean, smallish rooms, very comfortable beds, and away from the highway, where trucks rumbled ceaselessly. Lovely, extremely helpful people at the desk for check-in. We were directed to the town’s good restaurants (don’t eat at the ones on the water), where to see the dunes, and Siuslaw River Jetty (quite an engineering feat) without crowds (the end of Rhododendron Drive).

At the Landmark’s suggestion we had tasty and very fresh fish dinners at Bridgewater’s/Zebra Bar. It’s set in the original part of Florence, a charming street below the Siuslaw River Bridge leading into town. On the way back we were pleased to see the Inn’s very steep driveway lit up like a runway – much easier to find in the dark.

A sign in downtown Florence in the evening