Today, we began our journey east on US 20. After breakfast, we took a walk along the beach and bid farewell to the Pacific Ocean. As we turned back towards the hotel, the sun broke through the clouds as if to smile on us. We had a truly wonderful stay at Best Western Plus Agate Beach in Newport, OR.

We are treasuring the wonderful views and lack of traffic. Our route took us past the field in Corvallis where we camped and watched the eclipse in 2017! As we approached the town of Sweet Home, we decided it was time for a break. Shortly after that we passed through the town of Sisters on the eastern edge of Deschutes National Forest. Coming from the west it seemed to have popped up from nowhere. It was a cute, western themed tourist town.

Once we got east of the Cascade Mountain range, the landscape changed to more desert like. It was quite a contrast from the green fir tree covered hills and mountains.

Since Hines, OR was about 6.5 hours travel time, we decided to stay in the same hotel we stayed in a little more than a week ago. Because the holiday weekend is over and school is still in session, we assumed (Yes, we all know what that means.) there would be no trouble getting a room, so we didn’t make a reservation. Well, surprise “there was no room at the inn”. We went down the road and got the last room at that hotel. The manager said more people are traveling and they also have construction workers. There are pluses (less traffic and more scenic views) and minuses (less hotel availability) to not traveling on the interstates. There are some other motels in this small town, but they didn’t look very appealing. Population in Hines is 1,600 and the adjacent town of Burns us 2,300. We settled into our comfortable lodging and set to work catching up on the blog.

Road sign: Paradise Alley; Gribbling Rd