North Bend Oregon Mill Casino!!

At about 8:30 am, the rain finally quit as I was packing up to leave Florence Oregon and head south with Patty and Dan.   It was kind of weird not following the black jeep, but I soon caught sight of them ahead.  We figured if Dan got his windshield replaced monthly, he would never have to clean it!!  What a deal!!

As we took off, he said I was in for a long days drive ... DARN!!  I didn't fix a lunch!!  Right off the bat we came to a big high "Nick" bridge as we crossed over to North Bend.  It's the Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge, named after the designer responsible for many bridges in Oregon.

Even at this height, the Swedish ship Elgaren hit the bottom of the center span.  Seems they came in when the tide was three feet higher than normal.  That's not much leeway!!  

Soon we pulled into North Bend, home of The Mill Casino and RV Park, where Dan planned to stay.  Hey!!  I thought this was going to be a long day????  With no reservations, we weren't sure if we would get two spots, but soon pulled into our bay view spaces, full 50 amp hookup for $35.   At this time, we were told there are NO sites available for tomorrow night.  We planned on going down to Bandon on Wednesday, but will have to move our rigs to the "you-don't-have-reservations-gravel-lot" before we leave.

                                                

After a great salad bar with clam chowder (good, but not as good as Bay City) Patty and I immediately took off for the local yarn shop in Coos Bay, just a mile down the road.  When we first drove by, I decided to forget this store.  They were closed ... a couple of reviews said they were never open ... and it looked like a hurricane had gone through.  Patty with her sixth sense said it might be a "diamond in the rough".  Boy howdy was she right!!  We went to the quilt store and returned an hour later to find the biggest yarn shop I have ever seen.  You could barely get through the aisles ... there were skeins of yarn stuck everywhere, including the bathroom!!  You just had to dig through the boxes, baskets and shelves.

Seriously, I think someone has a little problem here!!!  There's probably 25 times more than what you see in these pictures.

We took our time and dug through shelf after shelf, coming up with some great yarn I've never seen anywhere else!!  

This will make a most spectacular afghan ... so I got it ... along with some other pretties!!

I've heard of Dan's cousin the Head Chef who worked here some time ago ... about how good the food was.  When we saw this Tasty Tuesday sign ... and it was Tuesday ... well you KNOW where we had dinner!!!  All you can eat Prime Rib ... and it was excellent, as was the pork loin and beef tips, even though we waited in line over 30 minutes.  Of course I scarfed up on the desserts ... had to get my $14.95 worth!!!

Back at the rigs stuffed and miserable, I figured I better stay up for awhile if I wanted to sleep!!  While checking out the internet using The Mill Casino WiFi, I saw "RV Park Reservations".  Just for kicks, I clicked on it, put in todays date and VOILA!! up came an open reservation.  I picked it up immediately and got a confirmation number.  Well lets just try that again and see if I can get one for Patty and Dan.  Sure enough ... here's another!!  Either there WERE sites available or someone put in a cancellation.  We're heading to the office this morning to see if our confirmations hold true!!   Keep your fingers crossed!!

Once settled wherever we are staying, we'll head to the Animal Park in Bandon.  

Here's a little tidbit ... Coos Bay is the home of Steve Prefontaine, running legend who competed in the 1972 Olympics.  He once held every record in every long distance running event.  I watched him run many times when I was in high school.  Unfortunately, he was killed in an automobile accident at the age of 24.