Hanging At the Mall, Eugene, OR

 

It was a scenic drive along Hwy 126 east from the coast at Florence to Eugene. We had read about free camping at the Valley River Center on freecampsites.net and several blogs. This is just parking near a shopping mall where you can spend two nights in a quiet lot behind the center. We weren’t sure exactly where to park, so we stopped in the lot and a security guard pulled up momentarily. He had us fill out a registration form to put in our window, and told us exactly where we could park for our two night stay.

Since there were no other RVs there yet we pulled parallel to the Willamette River right next to the Ruth Bascom Riverbank Trail. How nice to have a view of the river and the trail. After lunch we went for a 12 mile  bike ride on the trail. Crossed over a couple bridges and even went through a bit of downtown and found ourselves in a rose garden. Eugene looks like a great place to live.

We really like the beer and pizza at BJs Restaurant and Brewery and noticed there was one in front of the mall, so we invited Russ and Donna to join us for happy hour last evening. They are fellow Lazy Daze owners living in Eugene who some of you may know from the blog Travels in Therapy. We had not met before but have communicated over the years through our blogs and emails. We spent a fun couple of hours getting to know them and hope our paths cross again one day.

Sorry guys, the “funny” picture didn’t turn out at all so I had to use this one.

Today was spent shopping at nearby Trader Joe’s and Safeway, a walk to the mall looking for a few things we didn’t find, and then a couple of walks on the trail in between some rain showers, It actually turned out to be a nicer day than the weatherman predicted.

This pretty area is just a short walk from our “site”.

Sunset from our living room last night.

Looks like there is a lot to do around Eugene but that will have to wait for another time. Tomorrow we’re heading to Sisters.

Oh, this fifth wheel pulled in this afternoon. He tried backing in behind Debbie but didn’t fit for the tree limbs. He managed to take a couple with him when he pulled out to move in front of us, and didn’t bother to remove them. We have no idea where the sod came from or why it’s there, but it appears to be tied down under the generator. And the driver was also wearing a hard hat. Quite peculiar.