19th Day (Kelso - Monmouth)

At 7 o'clock, departing guests wake me up with a loud conversation in front of my door. The otherwise perfectly located room (because it faces the back) is not to blame. So I sit down with my Rand McNally Road Atlas and look at today's route. 2 hours later, I start driving as planned, and drive the 30 to Astoria, where the Columbia River flows into the ocean. The already powerful river swells up here again, and many container ships at the mouth testify to how wide it has become. A family asks me about parking if I have seen any seals. I decline. Funny enough, I meet the 5 in 2 more places, and their search for the funny companions is still unsuccessful, as they tell me.

After visiting this touristy port city, I drive back to the familiar 101 and cross Youngs Bay before turning into the small village of Warrenton, where the Deep Sea Crab & Fish Shack is hidden on a small kay, a fish shop that is highly praised on the internet. When I enter the small store, it becomes clear to me that you only get the outskirts of the mass tourism streams here - everything is very plain and functional. They are not allowed to open oysters for me (they don't have a license), so I ask for an oyster knife that I would like to borrow, after all, I took a course in Ireland a year ago and can crack the delicacies myself. I get one and buy 6 large oysters, the largest I have ever seen. According to Celie, who has been living here for 45 years and working for over 20 years, they are 2-3 years old and come from the bay. I have one of them weighed and it weighs an impressive 350g. Madness. After half a dozen, it feels like I've eaten three times as much, and after buying Oregon Shrimps, the best cup of Clam Chowder I've ever eaten, and Salmon Jerky, I continue driving. It should be mentioned that one oyster cost 99 US cents, and my entire shopping only cost 7 euros. Oh, if only there was such a store near me.

The 101 now takes me further south along the Pacific coast. And you can clearly feel the main travel time. Sometimes the traffic stops, and especially in the small towns along the way, which are all crowded with hordes of tourists, the hustle and bustle is particularly evident. Nevertheless, the Oregon Coastline is simply beautiful here as well, once you have arrived at one of the numerous viewpoints and treat yourself to this view. At Arcadia Beach, where the number of visitors is limited because there is only a tiny parking lot where I just manage to find a space, there is so little going on that you could think from pictures that I am alone on this huge beach. However, a few kilometers further, much larger parking lots are also completely full, and from the road you can already see that many vacationers are exposing themselves to the radiant Oregon sun, which shines intensively at a pleasant 21 degrees on the beach. However, few people are swimming, the water is still relatively cold. Nevertheless, I like it here much better than in southern California, with its uniform beaches, even though the temperatures there are much warmer.

Motels on the coast are relatively few here, and the supply is significantly lower than the demand. So I find that booking.com offers me the cheapest room for 300 dollars in some places, and I am not willing to pay that. That's why I drive a little inland, where prices become significantly more moderate after a few kilometers, and I got a well-rated room in Monmouth for 75 dollars. The drive through the coastal forest is also a special event before the hinterland opens up again scenically. I stop at Carls Jr., one of the well-known burger chains here that only exist in Turkey, France, and Spain in Europe. I sometimes wonder why only Burger King and McDonald's have caught on in Germany because the (admittedly more expensive) burgers taste completely different.