We had our final Oregon rest day today. We wandered the streets of Florence in search of adventure.

Florence facts:

• Florence marks one of the western ends of Adventure Cycling’s TransAmerican bike route
• The talking crosswalk signals are ridiculously loud
• In 1970, a beached whale carcass was to be destroyed by dynamite, with hilarious results. There does not appear to be local pride over this event. We could not find any relevant placards.

We wanted to go to the Pioneer Museum a few blocks from the hotel, but it’s closed on Mondays.

For Memorial Day, there were full sized flags planted every 20 feet or so in the sidewalk. They were just the right height to slap me in the face every time the wind shifted. I’m not quite sure how I should interpret this omen.

After exploring the waterfront, we decided to get lunch at Mo’s, a regional chain that’s very proud of its clam chowder. We’ve been seeing billboards for various locations for many days. I guess it worked eventually. It was tasty enough.

We got our grocery shopping in the afternoon, then wandering round two. Anne did some antiques window shopping, and looked at neat wooden sculptures. We checked out an abandoned and overgrown football stadium, then killed some time at the dollar store.

We got some pizza for dinner, then a final evening wandering. This time we explored the residential neighborhood to the west. The sidewalks are inconsistent, but there are a lot of cute houses and views of the dunes on the other side of the river.

Tomorrow we get back on the road for a four day stretch out of Oregon.