Wheeler Dealer- Visit to Wheeler, Oregon

After leaving Seattle, our drive took us along the Pacific coast on Hwy 101. Little longer drive than down I-5 but certainly more picturesque. The drive is about 4.5hrs from Seattle to Wheeler and takes across some of Oregon’s most famous bridges, such as the Astoria-Megler bridge built in 1962 and criticized as the “bridge to nowhere”. Well the 1232’ bridge certainly goes somewhere and was pretty impressive to cross.

Once on the other side we needed to get gas for the ole hot rod so we pulled into a small town and hit up the local Fred Meyer store and gas station. Unbeknown to me but Oregon does not allow self-service gas, they have mandatory attendants to provide you with that service. Well, not that our hot rod is that expensive but having some snot-nosed high school drop-out put gas in my car doesn’t sit well with me. So without knowing the law, I just got out of the car and started to pump my gas as I have done all along our drive.  WOW! Did that piss off the juvenile delinquent! He informed me, immediately, that it was against the law for me to pump my own gas. He would be more than happy to assist me. And with that he turned and walked away from my car to help another pump-criminal. Just then the pump shut off so I took it out of the car and placed it nicely back in the pump. After a few minutes the pump-master returned and told me again that this was against the law and that they could get fined by the pump police if I did that again. I promised him that I would never pump gas at his station again, all was well. Still, I could see he felt threatened that I may take his job after demonstrating my petroleum transfer skills.

Not being interested in relocating to Oregon and taking up a second career as a pump tech, off we went to Wheeler.

Now Wheeler isn’t a major stop along Hwy 101. There are no large balls of string, giant donuts or alien sightings that made us pick this town to stay in. It was simply close to 5hrs driving time and along the coast. As a matter of fact, Wheeler consists of about .52sq.mi. of land, has a population of over 410 people of which ~54% are female. More information than is necessary.

Without much effort we found our hotel, Wheeler on the Bay. Nice place with reasonable rates and a nice deck to sit on and enjoy the sunset.  At check-in our host walked us through the video library, had us select our 3 items for breakfast (piece of fruit, pastry and a croissant sandwich), then showed us to our room. Unfortunately, our room didn’t face the bay, it faced the parking lot but still it was clean and came with comfortable settings, including a spa tub for two! Well maybe not for this two, but close.  Comfortable room and the hosts were very pleasant.

Swanky!

Dinner was at the Tsunami Bar and Grill just at the end of the parking lot. The food was pretty good and so was the service for only having one waitress. This poor lady literally ran from table to table and also covered the bar area. She did a great job, but then again we’re in no hurry, we’re retired, hahahaha!  Collette had the orange chicken dish and I chose fish and chips.

Why yes that is a Cape Cod!

Tomorrow we head for Bandon, Oregon where they say their attractions are always open, but their visitor’s center isn’t.