Seaside ... City of Good Burgers and Internet!!!

Being single, it's always a chore to get my rig and my toad together again.  There's never enough room to park while I hook up ... or at least that's what the other guy thought.  Patience is a virtue but I see more and more unvirtuous (is that a word?) people, including myself on some occasions.  On the other hand, I was offered help hooking up by a sweet gentleman walking his dog.  THAT made my day!!  One act of random kindness can make a difference in someone having a good day or a bad one!!

We left the park around 10:00 and headed across the Nick bridge under cloudy skies!!  For some reason, this bridge bothered me more in my vehicle than it did my RV.

That is until we got to those little orange signs and had to stop.  I'm still pretty nervous about stopping on hills and am constantly asking Dan Chance about the brakes ... thankfully he is patient with me!!  :-)

This big ship was coming up the river just as we were driving over.   You can tell he's empty because he's riding high out of the water (the rust color wouldn't be visible if he were loaded).  The brown  stripe in the water is sand ... that's how far out the tide is.  I read that they are constantly dredging the channel to allow ships through.

I've become pretty adept at getting one handed shots with my point-and-shoot camera while driving (don't tell anyone though).  The interesting part of this picture is the bridge railing in the mirror.  As a photographer, it's a bad out of focus image ... but the railing with low tide is neat!!  

Here's the picture I wanted ... a total one handed shot in the dark that actually came out.  The ship is really moving fast, pushing out a pretty good wake and will cross under the bridge right where we are.

Okay, that was fun!!  A short time later, we arrived at Seaside, and thanks to a very nice Ranger, we are parked together.  I only have a Zone Pass for Thousand Trails, and can't go park-to-park.  You CAN however make reservations under Passport America!  I have mixed feelings about that, but I suppose if it keeps the parks going in a bad economy, I can't complain.  The best part?? ... we have GREAT internet here!!  I'm loading 10 images at once and it's FAST!!!  There must be a Sprint tower very close, and since we aren't "roaming", we don't have to count megabytes or kilobytes or whatever it is!

Nick & Terry Russell met us upon arrival ... and being lunchtime, we voted on the destination.  Miss Patty lost the "healthy food" vote (but got big hugs) and off we went to the Relief Pitcher for a burger, supposedly the best on the coast!

You probably wouldn't think to stop here.  For one, it's a bar!  For two, it doesn't exactly look like the Taj Mahal!!  But definitely stop in ... the burger was the best I've had in a LONG time!!

The waitress/bartender was a kick!!  A great funny personality can make a good place even better!!  We laughed and laughed ... feeling good on pepsi and iced tea ... and had a fantastic lunch!!

Back at my rig, I had an unexpected visitor about 7:30 pm.  The Thousand Trails rep came to see if I wanted an upgrade.  I still have to work out the details, but essentially, I would get 21 days in, park to park, yearly dues less than what I pay now and unlimited stays for a one time fee of $3900, less some other credits I have on the books.  I rushed over to get Dan for a consultation, then on to Nick for his opinion.  I'll let you know if the deal works out!!