The Saga Continues!!!!

Ok, so I know it's been a really long time since my last post. We got back to Edgerton and had a really great time hanging out with our families and since then, we've been back to Pella for a while to work on the house and yard to make it ready for sale. We are now settled into Iowa City but more about that later. Last I wrote, we were on the Oregon coast. Maybe the reason I haven't written again is because I enjoyed this trip so much I just don't want it to be over. Oh well, there is more story to tell and further adventures await



So here goes...



Where we last left off, Bambi and I had just had one terrific Gooney adventure!! The date was Monday, September 8 and we woke up this morning in Tillamook Oregon with the Pacific Ocean in our backyard. Another beautiful Oregon morning was upon us and our goal today was to head South down the 101 taking in as much of the coastline as we could.

We drove to a town called Newport when we decided to stop for lunch. By now, you all know that Bambi and I have a little affinity for Pizza. Well, we decided to stop on the edge of Newport at a little restaurant called Izzy's. Neither of us had ever heard of it before but the setting looked great. We drove uphill to the parking lot and entered the place to find that the entire side of the building was all windows with just an amazing view of the ocean. We got a seat by the windows and when we turned around, we saw another view that rivaled the beauty of the sea... that's right Pizza... and lots of it!! This place was nothing fancy but was easily the best pizza and pasta buffet I'd ever laid eyes on!! Now, I know that people will say... Oh, if you liked that place, you'll love such and such place. Seriously, I know that people will tell me of places where they've had the best pizza buffet ever, but just know that none of them compare to Izzy's. Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic but it seriously was the best pizza buffet we could remember. Sitting there looking out over the Pacific with a belly full of pizza and pasta is a pretty cool thing!

We waddled out of Izzy's and headed back South on the 101. We drove into the next town where I placed a call to my Uncle Rod. See, one of the best parts of this trip was that I was going to be passing nearby to where my Uncle Rod lives in Roseburg OR. In my life, I'd never had the opportunity to go and see Rod's place so we weren't going to miss this chance. My uncle Rod (my moms brother) is a retired policeman who lives in Roseburg Oregon. We got ahold of him on the phone and he gave us directions to meet him at a cafe in Roseburg as he lives out of town and it can be dificult to find his home if you're unfamiliar with the area.
We met Rod at a place called Casey's Restaurant. This is Rod's regular coffee place and when we met and walked in, everyone inside knew him which was fun. Over the course of three days, we'd be at Casey's a few times which was really fun for us. The place had good food and reminded me a bit of Mel's Diner on that TV show Alice from back in the 80's.
Seeing Rod was really great and the time we spent on Roseburg over the next two days was some of the most relaxing time we spent on our whole trip. We didn't really have anything specific scheduled for our time together, we just kind of did whatever we felt like doing for a few days and Rod was a great host. He took us on a driving tour of the area and even made us a great supper the second night at his house. He lives in a really cool area, outside of town and his yard is huge and has lots of trees on it. He gets plenty of company from the local deer who come to his apple tree right behind his deck in the back yard to eat apples off the trees. There was always at least one deer on the yard at all times and at one point in the morning, I counted 14 deer under his apple tree. They seem to be very used to him there as we were able to sit out on the deck and just talk normally and they just went about their business eating apples and laying around on the yard.
While we were visiting Rod, he had a little construction project going on to install a carport next to his garage. Rod and I "Supervised" the project and we think the project went quite well because of our input!!
Rod really wanted to take a day and drive us up to Crater Lake. My parents have been there with him before and said it is just amazing to see. We wanted to go but unfortunately, there was a large forest fire blocking the road from the West entrance and going around to the East entrance would take us several hours out of our way each way.
All in all, we spent two nights and three days with my Uncle Rod and we had a really great time. Rod was a great host and the best part was that we just got to have a few days with him to visit and see where he lives and what his life is like in Oregon. He lives in a beautiful place and we will be sure to visit again - this time it won't take us 34 years to get it done!!