Oregon Coast: Takin' a Break: Day Six!

 July 12, 2026: Once the highway 101 traffic died down, it was a very quiet night. I woke up at 5am. I love this time of the day. People still sleeping. No traffic. I feel like I have the earth to myself. The photo below is the morning view of the coastline. The clouds and drizzle are finally clearing, but it's time for a break from the gray and damp.

I drove south, back to Florence, and headed east to Eugene on highway 126. Did a bee line to Whole Foods for a shot of civilization. It's so nice when they have a meat/fish counter and I can buy one piece of stuff instead of huge packages that just go bad since I don't eat it fast enough.

Then on to the Amazon Swimming Pool which opens on Sunday at 11:30. It's big, but so darn crowded! There are no reservations so the line outside started around 10:30am. Way too chaotic and noisy with lap swimmers, water walkers, hoards of screaming kids and many lanes of the swim team practicing. I did my 45 minutes and got the hell out of there. But I couldn't smell any chlorine! I recently read the smell of chlorine isn't really the chlorine, but the chlorine mixed with sweat and other human excrements so the stronger the smell, the dirtier the pool. I find that hard to believe. I'm sure chlorine right out of the bottle stinks. I don't know....

I planned to go to Bend, but found a nice pullout on a little road past Blue River Reservoir that goes to the revervoir's official campground.  I washed my Goodwill clothes that still stink (third handwashing) soaking them in Borax. I washed my rims that no longer have hubcabs because one fell off and I won't spend $50 on a hubcab so I took them all off. Washing the rims did not make them look better. Then I ate blueberries and gazed at the view:

It's much warmer here at 80 degrees and the sun is actually out!