Road trip to CA

This past weekend, Tracy moved out of Seattle, en route for San Diego to begin her residency. I drove with her as far as Oakland, and we tried to use our three days to see as much interesting stuff as possible. Here's a transcript of our journey:

Our plan on Friday was to drive as far as we could, hopefully past Portland. Since we were towing a 1500-pound Uhaul and couldn't go faster than about 50 mph, we weren't too optimistic. When we didn't leave town till after 8pm, we were even less so. It was a slow go right from the start. Any minor grade on the highway caused us to slow down to 40-45, and by Tacoma, we both agreed that this wasn't the way to go. So, while Tracy had received a very good deal on the UHaul rental, we decided to drive back to Seattle, unpack the trailer, pack the boxes to ship via mail, and drive a full carload of stuff down the coast.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early, in preparation for returning the UHaul to the rental place. By 8am, we were once again on the road southbound, except we were going a lot faster this time. In hindsight, we wouldn't have been able to do half the things we did had we been towing a trailer, and it would've taken just as long, if not longer, to reach our destination. By the early afternoon, we were past Portland and I decided that I had had enough of I-5, and recommended we take a backroad east, toward the Cascades and Crater Lake. Needless to say, this wasn't the most direct route, but that's what road trips are about, right? Central Oregon is very beautiful, with a volcanic history that caused the soil to be the color of dark mahogany, with evidence of dried lava all over the place. Along one of the Forest Service roads, we came across a hot springs and decided to take a dip. Tracy was a little nervous, since it was a clothing-optional area, but it turned out to be relatively harmless, and a good way to break up the drive. Once we were done, we hit the road toward Crater Lake, in the most indirect route imaginable. By 6pm, we were approaching the north entrance to the park, but a friendly gas station attendant warned us that the north entrance was still closed due to snow(!) and we'd have to go all the way around to the south entrance, adding another hour to our day. I was hoping we'd have a place to camp, but as we drove up the road to the south entrance, the snow deepened considerably (about 6-8 feet) to the point where it was pretty obvious the campgrounds wouldn't be open. Sure enough, when we entered the park, only the two park lodges were open, and we were forced to stay at one of those. It was nice having a bed after such a long drive, but it was a lot more expensive than we were expecting.

Sunday morning we awoke early again, hoping to get a glimpse of the lake before going on our way. There is a road that encircles the lake, but all but about a 1/2 mile was closed due to snow. Even so, we were able to get up to the ridgeline and see the lake in all its magnificent azure glory. We left the park and headed west toward the California coast, stopped along the way at some of the volcanic formations that created the Rogue River in Oregon. We also stopped at the magnetic vortex area of Gold Hill, Oregon, where the magnetic forces are so strong that a person could appear to lose a few inches in height by walking only a few feet (and the cameras tell the truth!). Even though I had read about it, I was still amazed. Following Gold Hill, we continued down Highway 199 to California, and the Redwood National and State Parks. A little different setting than central Oregon, but equally as beautiful. We camped out Sunday night at Patrick's Point State Park, in Trinidad.

Our goal on Monday was to get me to Oakland Airport in time for my 6:40pm flight. There were about 300 miles separating us, and we milked every last moment out of the day, as it turned out. We started the morning looking for two geocaches along the beach in Trinidad, to no avail. Then we got in the car and drove. And drove. And drove some more. The road took us through the Avenue of the Giants, home to a large concentration of very tall redwoods. It eventually took us through Napa valley and all the vineyards, before dropping us into the Bay Area freeways. Amazingly, we planned it just right to get me to the airport 45 minutes before my flight departed (that's perfect for me!). Our chief source of entertainment on the way down? Scanning through the radio stations trying to pick out the Jesus music as early in the song as possible. Yeah, there's no a whole lot out there.

After I departed, Tracy continued a little ways further to her relative's house, where she spent the night before driving down to San Diego the next day. She arrived safely, surely exhausted from all the miles (we covered 1200 just getting to Oakland), but she's got 3 whole days before she begins her actual residency orientation!

For all of my pictures from the trip, click here.