State No. 2

Addendum:  Driving into Oregon, it brought back memories of us on our honeymoon trip over 35 years ago.  We had been on the road about a week, and we pulled into a Rest Stop, and I used a pay phone to call home.  I got an intercept saying the number had been changed.  I knew this was a mistake, so I dialed again, and got the same intercept.  I knew this was ridiculous!  I called the operator, and she was very nice, suggested in her warmest voice that we try the new number the intercept message gave, so I said okay, thinking if this will convince her something is wrong, I'll go along.  I was so shocked when Dad answered the phone!  What the heck?!  Gone less than a week and they change the phone number we've had for decades?!  It turned out Dad had received a promotion, and needed to get new telephone options, requiring a new phone number.  Pretty funny.


We got an earlier start yesterday, Friday the 22nd, which helped us get done earlier, here at the Roseburg OR Motel 6.  Kathy likes to drive early, so she took the wheel for many miles.  I used to hate riding shotgun, but no more, taking the opportunity to see the scenery and enjoy it much more, and to even sleep some.  It's all still so surreal, driving a brand new car, old ones gone, including the Honda we had for over 16 years, house cleaned out, headed to a new city in a new state, and a new kind of life on an island. 
For the last couple of years, we have talked about moving, to another state even, but at least to another community, where we could walk to most of what we were driving to, and how nice that would be.  But this grand and abrupt change, I would never have predicted it.  It's only been since July 1 that this was definite, barely three weeks! 

Yesterday started out cooler, then got back up to low to mid-90's.  We must have crossed the Sacramento River five times, didn't realize it was so windy (is that how you spell it?  Looks like too much wind!).  I've got pictures to post on FB when my phone recharges.  By the time we got a bit further into Oregon, it cooled down to high 70's.  Even in the area around Mt Shasta it was in the low 90's!

We took a little detour at Redding, for lunch along the Sacramento River at the Turtle Bay Nature Center and Sundial Bridge.  The bridge is amazing:  part of its structure is a huge sculpture that is also a giant sundial, brilliant!  Here we also saw our first Canada Geese of the trip, floating down the river. 

Leaving Redding, the scenery began changing:  the flat agricultural Central Valley faded into rich light brown rolling hills, dotted with oak trees and scrub, and later into forests, denser and denser until the scenery was like a tall green carpet, covering  deep valleys and sharp ridges.    

Traffic lightened, too, as we left reading Redding behind.  It had thinned even more when we passed the turnoff to San Francisco and Sacramento.  It knotted up now and then when the odd 18-wheeler felt he was going fast enough to pull out and pass another, supposedly slower one.  In southern Oregon, this happened for the umpteenth time, causing three cars to back up behind the passing truck.  We were the fourth vehicle, about 300 yards back, when all of a sudden there was a load noise and the truck tossed what looked like a complete tire tread about ten feet into the air, causing all behind home hit the brakes hard and steer right to avoid debries.  Luckily all of us were on the ball, and maintained control, avoiding what could have been a nasty accident.  

Mt. Shasta, wow!  I haven't been up this way in maybe 35 years:  it comes into view and takes your breath away.  It's so massive and apart from all other mountains that it looks like it creates its own weather:  it was covered in snow, and surrounded by clouds.  For miles, it keeps looming larger, until we were at its foot, and stopped for a break in the town of Mt Shasta, on its slopes.  It really is beautiful, covered in snow.  Lake Shasta is pretty impressive, too, but not as much as it's namesake. 

Into Oregon, and the terrain became much more up and down.  It was not fun watching the miles-per-gallon indicator drop to 8.5, as we climbed up, at speed, with the A\C on, but it was fun watching it max out at 99.9 mpg as we hurled down the other sides!  We are averaging about 25 mpg, exceptional considering it's full-time all wheel drive, loaded down with cargo, and the A\C on constantly. 

We saw our first logging trucks of the trip, something we don't see in SoCal, or even the Bay Area.  It's definitely a sure sign of being in a forested world that actually gets rain, vs. our normal 10" a year.  Have I mentioned that Prince of Wales island gets 120" of rain?!  Another new sight was triple-trailered trucks in Oregon.  I remember having seen them in Utah, but don't remember seeing them previously in Oregon.

We went for a walk last night, and ordered food to go at an Applebee's-type restaurant, with better food.  Kathy had a nice steak and I had an excellent roast beef dinner.  :-)  

Sitting outside this morning, using the Motel 6 free wi-fi, enjoying the early morning coolness and watching for the sun to break over a hill.  Today we have a shorter day of driving.  The scenery will continue to be very dark green, with plenty of water in the creeks and rivers we pass over.  The more miles we cover, the farther we get from home, the more real this all-encompassing change settles into our heads.  At some point, I'll have to change out of my very comfortable tee shirt and shorts and flipflops.  :-(  Oh well, there is always a price to change, even when it's a positive change.  :-)  Different, of course, isn't automatically negative, though even positive and neutral change require adjustments.  

Kathy's still sleeping.  She caught a cold, bummer.  I made a run for Dayquil/Nyquil, and she slept through the night, so should at least feel better this morning.  She is the one facing the most change, with a new job, new boss, new patients, new office, working with Alaska natives.  I don't have any of that to contend with:  my adjustments will be to new trees and wildflowers and other plants, new birds, new animals, oh, and new friends of course.  :-)  I plan on volunteering, too, expecting jobs will be no more available than they were in San Diego. 

Well, getting later in the morning, time to start getting ready for another day of travel.  Tonight we stay in Bellingham.  I haven't stopped here since we bundled up 18 month old Brady and moved to San Diego, a long, long time ago.  That happy, chunky little boy is in Spain right now, with his wife, starting a nice European vacation.  How time flies.  Have a good Saturday.