Sutherlin, Oregon

We've been here before. We like staying at Hi-Way Haven RV Park. It's tidy and well designed, and it used to be a drive-in movie. This is the first time we've been here when the park was actually showing a movie on the old screen. I'm told they will be screening Braveheart tonight. We can get the sound on our car radio, if we want to see the movie. I'm not much of a Mel Gibson fan, though. Maybe I'll ask them to show Pride and Prejudice instead. I could lend them the DVD!

This morning, we woke up at 8:00 - late, for us - and both sat around drinking coffee, playing on our respective computers, until Robin said, "Oh, no - it's 10 o'clock!" Whereupon we scurried around, dressing and packing. It was nearly 11 o'clock before we got going, and we didn't drive as far as we had planned, but when we saw that we were approaching Sutherlin, we knew what our destination for the day was. I think maybe we're clinging to the last few days of holiday now. We have made this journey often enough that we have our favourite places all along the route. We're savouring them. Yesterday, there was The Olive Pit in Corning, California, where we have to stop to buy olives stuffed with garlic. I've never had better olives than the ones at The Olive Pit. And today, of course, there's Sutherlin.

We did travel far enough to get over both the mountain passes that always cause us concern - the Siskiyou Pass and Grants Pass, just north of the Oregon border. There are certainly higher points on our journey, but the weather on these two passes can be frightful. Last year, in fact, we altered our southbound journey because both of them were closed due to snow. This time, they were both open and dry. Piece of cake. I see that it's expected to rain here tomorrow, but we've done the difficult bit, so we should be fine.

This morning, I started creating an outline for my novel. I've also started giving my characters names, checking to see that the names are appropriate for the period and location. Don't you just love the internet? Only one of my characters came with a name. He's not the main character, but he's the first one that walked up and introduced himself. His name is Billy Mitchell. I don't know why, but I guess I'll find out in due course.