We spent the last two nights in Florence, OR, about half way down the Oregon coast with two of the sweetest hosts we have had on the trip, Ursula and Rudy Dittl.  They are members of the Affordable Travel Club and made our stay in Florence so relaxing and enjoyable.  Rudy is a true American hero, one of the Marines on the first wave of landing craft that landed on Guadalcanal in WWII.  He doesn't speak of it often, but then true heroes did what needed to be done at the time and just keep moving forward through life keeping their personal tragedies and experiences to themselves. We are so thankful for the unswerving dedication and perseverance that he and others made for our freedom.  

Ursula, Rudy, Joe and I.

Ursula is an incredible fiber artist - working with flax and with, of all things, kelp, seaweed and driftwood.  She is well known locally as "The Kelp Lady" and has provided huge wall hangings for Bloomingdales, teaches at the local college and has exhibited in many locations.  I would give anything to have only 1/1000th of her talent!  To take nothing but what washes up on the beach as trash and make works of art is an amazing talent!

This is kelp, the type seaweed that Ursula uses to create her artwork.

To take that plant from the sea and make this wedding dress sculpture is absolutely brilliant!

One of her wall hangings, made of kelp, seaweed, driftwood and fishing line!

Our second day in Florence started out early with an interview and photos with Jack from the Siuslaw Newspaper and then Joe and I explored Old Town, ate at a quaint seafood restaurant along the pier (he ate seafood and I had a hamburger).  That's what happens when one grows up near the Chesapeake Bay in MD and the other is from North Louisiana and has lived everywhere but near the ocean.  The limit to my seafood tolerance is shrimp boiled in "Old Bay" seasoning.  Joe will eat anything that slithers, swims sideways or crawls on its belly - from the sea or on land.  That proves that he is "tweeked"!!

While at the the pier I saw this sea lion.

Also, there were a ton of jellyfish swimming around.  They are fun to watch but you sure don't want to fall in the water with them.  They sting like fire.

After visiting in Old Town Florence, a couple from Venetta, OR, east of Florence who are HCCA members came over to visit us.  They are Diane and Ron Hellekson and have a 1912 Cadillac Touring car and he is restoring a Brass era Jackson car.  We have corresponded and talked on the phone with them but had never met them so this was a real honor to have them come all the way from Veneta to visit .  One of Ursula's friends came over and took us out to visit some sites in the area and Joe and I found a huge patch of blackberries that we did our best to "clean out". Blackberries are definitely considered a weed in Oregon because they are so prolific, but you have to love them for the abundance of fruit they produce, and if you have a good recipe and are a good cook, blackberry cobbler is just around the corner.

Yummy!!  All of the bushes you see behind us are just covered in blackberries!!

We are spending the night in Port Orford, about 3/4 of the way down the Oregon coast.  It is right on the ocean and just before we went to eat dinner down by the docks, we were watching whales spouting.  We watched for about 30 minutes - I mostly watched while Joe did the daily maintenance on the car.  That is the best kind of division of labor!  He does all the driving and maintenance and repairs on the car and I am the navigator, do the blog and tell him where to turn into antique store, thrift store or yard sale parking areas.  I definitely like my job better.

As a general rule we go about 100 miles a day unless something catches our fancy. Tomorrow we are going to try to take a trip up the Rogue Rive in OR on a jet boat.  We have been told it is a fantastic trip and you can see elk, deer and bear if the "fates are with you"!