Newport, Oregon: Just 267.9 miles north of where we were last night, just had an easy day and enjoyed the scenery. Crossed out of California into Oregon this morning, the majority of the fog had disappeared, just a light haze out to sea. Spent several hours in Bandon, Oregon visiting our friends Matt and Cindy Hrebar and their new home. They live just off the beach in Bandon in a new home they had built to fit their needs, moving here from Colorado after they each retired. A beautiful home, one car garage but two additional garages built on to house their boats. Tomorrow we will continue to work our way up the coast, kind of dragging our feet as we know what lays ahead of us on our final push into Alaska. We are going to meet up with Al and Patti Pyhala in Washington state tomorrow or Saturday. Plan on spending the evening exploring the nightlife at one of the casino's.

Found yet another river to add to my list today, the Smith River. Flows through the dense forest of redwoods and great looking water. A good number of boats on the river today but did not see any action taking place.

As of today, we have driven 9,194.8 miles this trip. In reviewing some past comments, it came to my attention that several person's was wanting me to slow down, don't speed and take my time. Some comments were down right critical of my driving habits pertaining to exceeding the regulated and posted speed limits. I took the time to review this data this evening. Since we left Anchor Point, we have been on the road 29 days, that is only an average of 317.1 miles per day. During this time, I have utilized 585.8 gallons of fossil fuels with a small corn additive while we were in the Midwest. The old Ford -150 is not getting the mileage that I had expected on an"open road" drive, currently the average is 15.58 miles per gallon. Far below the expected federal guidelines. The average price to date is $3.10 per gallon. The cheapest gas prices were while we were in Arkansas and Oklahoma where we took on fuel four times. The next cheapest gas that we have seen was in Anchorage, Alaska. Forget California, $3.29 a gallon was the cheapest we saw but as soon as we crossed the border into Oregon,it dropped twenty cents a gallon.

Knowing that my calculations may also create comments, I did ask Suzie to give me a print out in order to verify my data. Since she logged onto the trip, she has logged 8,977.2 miles driving distance with an average of 55.2 miles per hour actual moving time. She also logs in all down time or non-driving time so that average is moving down the highway. Now according to my instructor who has been using this system, if you are pulled over by a state trooper for speeding, Susie will stand up in court showing the speed being driven at the time and of course the average of the total miles driven. However, there is one small block that also shows highest speed obtained, Susie is indicating 90.1 mph however, I am sure it was likely on a cloudy day, raining, and interference from overhead power line that created that erroneous reading. I really, do truly love her and hate to see the day when the trip ends. To keep her happy, I will more than likely drive out to the Homer Spit each day, purposely taking a few wrong turns and drive through McDonald's a couple of times, just to keep her happy. To hear her voice each day brings a sigh of relief. I do not know why Ranger Bill does not upgrade and get rid of Tom-Tom, hearing his rough whiskey voice each day on the highways has to get on the nerves eventually. As the Old Ranger would say, "Gonna ride out at first light, see you up the trail".