It seems as though I'll be posting at least a day late for the next couple of days. There just isn't any signal out at the campground for me to use, and quite frankly, I'm tired of sitting in McDonalds all the time. Plus their $ollar menu really sucks these days. (Not that I won't partake once in awhile still).
    Anyway, it was pretty slow yesterday anyway because of all the rain. There was one really nice high point though.... I managed to finally track down a good friend, Dave, that I had been stationed with in Depoe Bay 32+ years ago. He and his wife are living in Newport now and I met up with him while he was at work, so we couldn't talk for to long. It was a good meet up though, and I have to say it was fun to talk to him after all these years and catch up with what he has been doing all these years.
   He ended up staying with the Coast Guard until he retired at the rate of Master Chief Boatswains Mate or E8. For those of you who aren't in the know, a standard Chief Bosun is considered to be so smart and good that they can take their place at the right hand side of Jesus. So a Master Chief, well we won't actually go into where he sits... Of course I'm kidding about all of that, but I will say this, if you were ever on a sinking boat, out in the middle of a hurricane, with 100 foot waves crashing on you and only moments from death... you would want Dave Edwards to be running the Motor Life Boat that was coming out to save your poor sorry butt.
    Evidently I am not the only one who thought this because at different times during his career he was not only the head instructor at the world renowned Heavy Weather and Surf school at Cape Disappointment, but he also went on to be the officer in charge at several small boat stations along the Oregon and Washington coast and on several 110' cutters and other boats. He had a wonderful career and he is what everyone should aspire to if they join up to be on small boats.
    But that aside, we also talked about life after the CG and how his daughter, whom I last saw at the age of about 5, is now married, lives in S. California and is about to have her first baby.  We only had an hour or so, but he called up this morning and invited me to go out for breakfast with he and Nancy, his wife. I'm looking forward to seeing them both and having some more time to hear what they are up to.
    Other than that meeting yesterday there wasn't much else that went on because of the rain. I drove soft for a few miles but between the rain, the wind and the fog there wasn't much chance or reason to get out of the truck.
    Today however, has been much nicer. It rained all through the night, but by late morning it had cleared up enough that there was actual blue sky and sunshine outside. I spent several hours just walking along the beach out at the campground. It is one of the best beaches in the area as far as not being full of people most of the time. Plenty of time to wander the surf line and watch the sandpipers doing their little dance among the wavelets on the shore.
    Grabbed the truck after getting back and headed up to Cape Foul Weather to check out the view from up there. A full 30 miles of visibility, but no sightings of whales from the view point today. I hung out there for an hour or so and made a couple of phone calls that needed to be done, before heading on into Depoe Bay.
   The plan was to have a late lunch there at the Spouting Horn overlooking the bay, because they had been closed the other day when I had been up there. Turns out it wasn't because they are always closed on Sundays and Mondays, it turns out it's because they closed permanently and the building is now for sale.  So with a heavy heart I turned away and went across the street to a new Mexican restaurant that had opened since last time I was in town. It turned out to be pretty good over all, they did a nice tamale and chili relleno plate, and with a couple of glasses of ice tea it sated my hunger pangs pretty well.
  Another hour spent wandering around town taking pictures while the sun was out and then I headed south into Newport. I'm sitting in the public library right now using their WiFi. I'm still needing to go online before I get out of here to see if they still have tickets to the theatre in Lincoln City this evening and a Mandolin concert on Sunday here at the City Theatre in Newport. Will try to up date in another day or two, but I'm not promising anything.


brk*