Grants Pass

Home was over 15 hours away, which meant we weren’t going to make it in one day. Smoke was making most inland destinations unpleasant, so we would just have to look for a place to stop when we started getting tired.

We decided 9 hours was a good enough chunk of driving, so we found a place to stay in Grants Pass, Oregon, which is actually a destination in itself, especially for those wishing to raft the Rogue River.

After checking into a Knights Inn, we set out to walk up the main drag, which has been designated a National Historic District because of its historic buildings. A big banner proclaiming “It’s the Climate” greets visitors upon entry.

We had two dinner places in mind. One, very popular one was called Tap Rock, and it is located right on the Rogue River with a lovely outdoor dining patio. The other one, the Twisted Cork, was supposed to have the best food in town.

Since we were passing the Twisted Cork first, we decided to stop in to look at the menu. Looked great, but the wait for an outdoor table was 45 minutes. Although we could sit inside right away, because of Covid, we decided to put our name in for an outdoor table. So glad we did, because we later learned that Grants Pass is in the county with the worst outbreak of Covid right now.

We continued walking through town to the riverfront and stopped in Tap Rock only to find that their wait would be an hour and a half. While we were mulling over our decision, which was a tough one because their location was truly spectacular, the Twisted Cork called me to tell me that they were ready to seat us outdoor now.

Not wanting to eat at 9:30, we headed back to the Twisted Cork, where we had the best dinner of our entire trip. We both had the Creamy Alfredo Linguini - me with Shrimp and Herb with chicken. It was absolutely delicious.

It was a nice way to end a wonderful road trip