Wednesday August 20, 2014 Salem, OR

We only had to travel about 100 miles today.  We anticipated that the road wold be curvy.  So we had our coffee while getting ready to travel.  We left Whaler's Rest at 9:10.  We had to back track on US-101 to Newport and then head west on US-20.  It had been several years since we had traveled this route and we were correct in our anticipation.  There were a lot of curves and hills.  After  getting to I-5 we headed north to Salem and the Phoenix RV Park.

Our main purpose in going to Salem was to visit our old friend and co-worker Walt Myers.  Walt and his family moved to Salem a number of years ago when he got the job of Police Chief.  He had been a Deputy Chief at Las Vegas Metro PD.  We had also been in contact with a couple we met in Bailey Harbor, WI.  Iva and David Starke.  We met them at an RV rally in 2004 and had sporadic contact with them over the intervening years but had not met with them.  They have their coach at a shop in Junction City, just south of Salem and are staying at a hotel near the RV Park where we are staying.

The travel today was through farm and forest.  When we got on I-5 there were also a lot of grape fields. We got to the Phoenix RV Park and set up in site 105 by 1:30.  Gerri went shopping while I set up the coach.  I hooked up all of the utilities since we will be here 3 days.  They have 50 amp electric service here so we were able to run all the AC units to cool the coach down after traveling.

I called David and Iva and we agreed that they would come to our coach at 3 and later decide on where to have dinner.  I also called Walt to let him know we had arrived.  He was in a meeting and said he would call me back.

I went to a nearby Walgreen Pharmacy and dropped off a prescription that I needed to be transferred and filled.

Gerri, Iva, David and me

David and Iva arrived at the coach a little after 3.  We had snacks and quite a gap fest catching up since we were last together.  We went to dinner at Schroder's Guest House.  This restaurant was recommended by the park staff as a good place for comfort food.  Gerri and David had Liver and Onions, Iva had a hamburger and I had a Chicken Fried Steak.  All the portions were large and we had leftovers.  The Chicken Fried Steak reminded me of one I had years ago in Texas, it overlapped the edges of the plate.

From the restaurant we went our separate ways, us back to the coach and David and Iva back to their hotel.

Some time during the evening I missed having my Jeep keys.  Back at the coach I searched in places I had been, including the car.  I even went to the trash can across the street but it had been emptied since I had put a bag of trash in earlier.  No luck in finding the keys.

We went to bed at 10:30.  Except for the car keys it was a good day.