Getting to Know Medford, Oregon

The Comfort Inn was quite nice. It even has a pool and hot tub and allows dogs in the room.

Breakfast was included; cook it yourself waffles, scrambled eggs (possibly from powdered eggs) which were quite dry, bacon, sausage patties, a few dry cereals, toast, English muffins, coffee, tea, juice. Nothing to write home about (which is why I'll write it here) but enough to get you going. And a darn site better than the usual stale coffee and muffin that many places call a "Continental Breakfast".

I must mention here our thoughts on this hotel, the Comfort Inn on Biddle street in North Medford (Exit 30 off the I-5). Just off the exit and a little hard to find, tucked in behind another hotel. We were very pleased with what turned out to be a three night stay. All the staff were friendly, courteous and helpful. The room was clean and spacious with a fridge, microwave, coffee and tea, iron and ironing board. And of course the hot tub. Far far better than the motel we stayed in in Seattle when we picked up Prana.

We had been getting messages on our phones, which now of course have the AT&T chip in, that after December 31st our 2G phones would no longer work on their network, and to contact them to arrange a new free replacement 3G phone. We eventually found the AT&T shop (next day) to find that yes, even for the Pay As You Go phones there was a free replacement. But they had none left. Could be ordered on line and one would be sent to us. Not though to Canada, which wouldn't do us any good at all. Art did later buy a cheap SMART PHONE! (Though to tell the truth he still hasn't transferred the sim card.) Gillian did put her phone number in it for him though.

We were directed to a great fenced large off-leash dog park a few miles away by one of the hotel staff who had her dog at work. Prana in particular needed a good play and run and had a great time.

We did some shopping, chasing down restaurants for lunch and dinner and generally kept ourselves occupied. A few comments on the restaurants:

Shari's at the north end of town ( I think just out of the city) was very disappointing. Dirty, shabby, the salad could have been made yesterday, the fries mediocre at best and when we asked for malt vinegar were given a bottle of what had probably once been balsamic vinegar but was so thick it would hardly pour. No complaints about the staff. We were told by one of the staff at the hotel that that particular location has been like that for some time and the other one in the city was much better.

Red Lobster. We ate here twice, the first time just a light lunch, a wonderful seafood chowder and a large salad. The next day we were a bit disappointed though the chowder was still great.

McGrath's Fish House  Located near the AT&T store in the center of the city. Excellent! Wonderful chowder, a large plate of breaded oysters--at least 20 small ones, MMMMM

Cicily Italian Restaurant, advertised as "Voted Best Italian". By whom? we wondered. Powdered parmesan cheese on the table though Gillian's pasta did come with grated parmesan on top. Art's salad again could have been made yesterday.

Next day the shop phoned to say that the supplier had only shipped two of the four air bags. The fuel line had arrived and was being installed, the other two bags should arrive by noon tomorrow.

The rest of the day was occupied much as mentioned above, including a run to the dog park.



Next day we got some good news from Pacific Truck Center; the last two airbags should be here in an hour, they think the cruise control problem has been solved so should be back in the rig later this afternoon.

It turned out to be quite late before all was done. We had checked out of the hotel and didn't see the value of checking into an RV Park so the shop moved the rig to a pad alongside the shop where we settled in for the night. After going out for the disappointing Italian dinner mentioned above.