On the road...Day 2

When I think back to my decision to leave I-5 in favor of US-101 I can't quite figure out what I was thinking. I guess I figured it was better to be on the road an extra day than to impose on our friends for another day in Washington. Whatever I was thinking, I should have gotten us going earlier...MUCH earlier.

We were probably on the road some time between 10:30-11AM. This drive took us through Oakland, across an (pictured) expensive toll bridge, and up past Napa, the drive-thru tree, & the hill people of Northern California. We were starved as we went through town after town in search of something not named McDonalds or Burger King. Around 4pm we found a Subway in some one-horse town that was part of a gas station/CS. Strange employees & customers did not deter us & we were back on the road in 15 minutes.

As we neared the coast and the Oregon border things started to get a bit tense. Hairpin switchbacks ascending and descending, around 300-year old redwoods with semi-trucks approaching every oncoming encounter with a little more reckless abandon than their predesessor, only to be made worse by a rolling fog from the sea - this was to be our final hours in California. By the time we reached the boarder it was almost 9 and the sun's light was being stretched across the sky by the light cloud cover above us. We had two options: 56 miles up the coast to a Motel 6 in Oregon or 106 miles through the forrest to Grant's Pass and the (safer, wider) I-5. Fearing the fog would get worse along the 101 we headed towards Grant's Pass hoping for a clearer route. What we found was a beautiful river-lined passage where we only encountered 10 other cars in an hour. It was extremely dark and I was on the lookout for wild animals darting into the road. By the time we reached Grant's Pass I thought for sure the power grid had failed. We hadn't seen a streetlight or electric sign in over an hour. The glow of the town was enough to make our eyes hurt.

As we pulled in to the motel, I had never been so happy to be in Oregon in my life. What I thought would be a scenic bypass with a couple additional hours drive time turned into an all-day stress test. I've driven from Tacoma to Salinas in 12 hours...I covered half that distance today in the same amount of time. Disgusting.

I was determined to make day 3 end in success.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē