Medford to Acarta. Back to the 101

Driving out of Medford we were struck by the influence of the Rogue River. It was funny to see the Rogue Community Centre, Rogue Community College and the Rogue Bank. Would you feel comfortable leaving your money in that bank?
There was still some evidence of the fires in the area and we passed a large "fire camp" set up on vacant land beside the river. There was also roadworks going on as the roads were being repaired for winter. There were still repairs being done to the 101 where land slips during last winters heavy rains caused the edges of the road to vanish down the hill. This reduced the road to one lane and we were either escorted through the roadworks or had our turn to proceed managed by traffic lghts.
Close to the coast we entered Redwood Country.. These trees are so magnificent that we pulled into a layby just to look at them. Then we discovered that there was a day use area just up the road with a short walk and we stopped there to take the walk. This was lovely and peaceful with people just quietly rambling around enjoying the forest. We learnt from small plaques around the walk that most of the Redwood Forest pockets have been saved by private individuals purchasing the land and handing it over to the State and  National Parks to be managed. As we left the forest and turned south on the coast road there was an abrupt change in the weather. While the forest had been cool we now encountered the Pacific Ocean fog bank that California is famous for. Hunting for a lunch spot we found a picnic area right on the beach and had to haul out jumpers because of the cool wind. We had set off in shorts and T shirts and I had goose bumps on my legs by the time we retrned to the car.
We had found a "Fred Meyer" store as we left Medford and discovered that they sell their French Bread in paper bags so they don't go soft and they also had a real deli where I could buy sliced cold meat by the ounce and not predigested and packaged in plastic. We had a good lunch despite the wind.
We stopped at a National Parks information centre and for the first time found the person responding to our queries was not very knowledgeable about the area. This was only realised after we had driven down the road and opened up a magazine we had picked up discovering we had just left an area we would have explored more thoroughly. Fortunately there a more Redwoods ahead of us.
Our motel is comfortable as usual. Having checked out the two nearest options for dinner we had Mexican and both enjoyed our menu choices.