The road from Florence to North Bend was beautiful but marred by heavy and incessant rainfall. The winds were howling at gusts over 50 kmph and at one point it threw me off the road and dashed into the fence on the side of the road. Within the first two hours I was soaked, tired and cold. Frustrated, I began to sing silly poems in the rain in a feeble attempt to keep up my spirit.

Finally at around 5 pm I reached the outskirts of North Bend and spotted a really charming and colorful looking inn by the road called the Itty Bitty Inn. I was low on energy and spirits and I couldn’t care less to ask how much the room would cost. It was 45 USD, very expensive for a man on a budget, but I was wet, my socks were drenched and I was shivering in the cold. So I gladly signed up for the night. The owner turned out to be a third generation – Mexican/American of Indian origin. His name was Ricardo. He was a jovial guy and I felt happy to have met him.

That night I was too tired to even cook dinner so I just ate some biscuits, made coffee in the bathroom, placed all my wet clothes in front of the heater in the room and went to sleep!