Venturing Into The Great Unknown

This morning we woke up around eight and headed next door to The Wild Goose for breakfast. Mum had a cinnamon roll and a slice of cheese and I had a small order of bacon & eggs. Most importantly…we had coffee – good coffee. After packing up the car, we headed downtown Ashland and then north up US-99 towards Medford where we met up with I-5. We continued up the Interstate, getting off briefly in Tri-City to grab some necessities for lunch, and then continue on our way. The drive was quite uneventful, and by one o’clock we were pulling into downtown Eugene, and heading to our picnic spot.

Two years ago, we discovered  Skinner Butte Park, a hill rising above the city of Eugene and our go-to picnic spot in Eugene. Mum grabbed a picnic table while I grabbed the food and my camera. As I have done for the last two years, I took some pictures before I sat down to eat. What I had forgotten from our prior visits was the wasps that like to fly around while we ate. I am not a fan of anything that flies and can sting or bite me – wasps especially. I attempted to get my salad put together so I could eat it – several times forced to walk away from the table (and my food) to avoid the wasps. I then decided to try to eat standing up while holding my food – this did not work either as the wasps continued to follow me. By this point I was swatting at wasps, jumping around trying to get away from them, and general looking quite spastic from what I understand. Mum sat at the picnic table; laughing at me and telling me that I was lucky that she didn’t have my camcorder. Although I didn’t care what I looked like, I am glad that I didn’t end up of Youtube.

After lunch, we checked into our motel and relaxed for a couple of hours before heading to the mall. Our shopping trip only yielded one shirt for me from Macy’s, but it was a nice break from the hecticness of travelling. By this time is was almost dinner so we jumped onto the highway and went to the Outback in Springfield. We, of course, ordered a bloomin’ onion to start. Mum had a 6 oz. sirloin and I had the chicken tacos…well, I ordered the chicken tacos – I couldn’t eat them. I took one bite and all I could taste was the seasoning on the chicken and cilantro. Rarely, in the fifteen years that I have been going to the Outback, have I had a meal I didn’t like – unfortunately, today was one of those meals. I mentioned it to the waitress, who took it off the bill and bent over backwards to make sure there was nothing else that she could get me. As Mum was almost done, and anything I would have grabbed would have been to go, I didn’t bother ordering anything else. I still had leftover Bloomin’ Onion and bread so I wasn’t too upset – if  there had been onion issues that would have been a different story.

We got back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours googling and youtubing broadway songs and watching reruns on the Food Network before heading to bed. Tomorrow we are heading to Portland, and may or may not, stop at Woodburn Outlet Mall. It will depend totally on the number of people there – as it is Labour Day, it’ll be a crap shoot.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

L

This morning we had coffee and juice at the hotel while we waited for rush hour to end. After packing up the car, we headed downtown to have breakfast and grab something to take with us for lunch. We ended up going to Bacon Boise, which was featured on Bacon Paradise. Mum had a biscuit with honey butter and I had three slices of bacon (spicy hot, maple rosemary and chocolate). We also picked up a BLT sandwich for our picnic lunch. One thing that I thought was cute about Bacon is that they make deliveries downtown on their “bacon bike”.

After our late breakfast, we headed west towards Bend on I-84 and then US-20. We drove along US-20 last year and enjoyed the slower pace – this year was no different. Although it started out as a sunny day, it wasn’t long before it started spitting. We stopped for a quick stretch in the Malheur Valley, in between showers, and I took a picture of the open farmland in the area.

We then entered the dry area called the Great Sandy Desert. Last year, we experienced temperatures in the mid-20’s – this year, however, it was much cooler and we were under cloudy skies. We stopped in Burns and had our BLT at a small city park, then went for a walk to explore downtown. We stopped in several of the small stores on the main street and Mum lucked out and found a pattern in the quilt shop.

After grabbing gas, we continued westward towards Bend. Not far outside of Burns, it really clouded over and we could see the fingers of rain in the distance. Before long, it was pouring rain and even hailing for a short time. Although we got stuck behind some slower vehicles, we were able to pass most of them quite easily. One diesel-pusher motorhome, however, was holding up quite a few of us in an area that was difficult to pass in – we were the second car in line behind him. When he signalled that he was pulling over, we were overjoyed and followed the car in front of us as he went to pass the motorhome. The motorhome, seeing the car behind him pass, pulled back out onto the highway, totally oblivious to our presence. Maybe it’s just me, but if you are a slow-moving vehicle and you pull over to let someone by, you let EVERY car by that you are holding up. We were able to squeeze by him without incident, but it definitely gave us both an adrenaline rush. I had originally rolled my window down slightly to wave thanks to the motorhome when I saw he was pulling over…needless to say, it wasn’t a wave that I gave him after he tried cutting us off.

We arrived in Bend around five and decided to chill at the hotel until just before seven. We then headed downtown to Deschutes Brewery Pub for dinner. I guess we should have expected that it would be busy on a Friday night of a long weekend, but we were still surprised that there was a 35-45 minute wait. Since we had no backup plan, we decided to wait. While waiting, I had a pint of Deschutes River Ale which I quite enjoyed. We were finally seated and immediately ordered a pretzel, and I grabbed a Black Butte Porter…I must say, their beers are quite good and I’m not a big beer drinker. For dinner, both Mum and I ordered wings. Mum had the Honey Sriracha and I had the Buffalo – both of us making sure that we had leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.

After dinner, we headed back to the motel and did our Googling and Wiki’ing before getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we are heading to Ashland, via Klamath Falls. I am not sure if I will be able to post our day’s events before bed as we are going to a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but I will do my best. Thanks for reading and I will talk to you soon.

L

This morning we had coffee and orange juice at the hotel while we waited for morning rush hour to end, then we headed the 30 minutes or so east to Coeur d’Alene for breakfast. For the third year in a row, we had breakfast at Jimmy’s Down the Street; and for the third year in a row I had the Chicken Fried Steak Skillet. This year, Mum had a smaller breakfast of poached eggs and a biscuit. The food, as always, was phenomenal and we were lucky enough to get not only “our” booth but also, “our” parking spot right out front of the restaurant.

After breakfast, we gassed up the car and headed south on US-95. Although it was mainly overcast, it was a beautiful drive through the forests and rolling hills west of the Bitterroot Mountains. We passed through Moscow, which is your typical western rancher town and then stopped at the top of Lewiston Hill above where the Clearwater and Snake Rivers meet.

It is hard to tell from the picture on the left, but, there is a road, called Old Spiral Highway, that is a series of sharp curves that weave back and forth for ten miles down the 2,000 ft hill. We stayed on US-95, but may consider taking that route if we are ever in the area again. You can also see some of the haze in the distance caused by the Clearwater Complex and other fires burning in the Nez Percé Reservation and surrounding National Forests. Thankfully, recent rains have helped firefighters and they are getting the fires contained.

We continued on to Grangeville, arriving just after 4, and checked into our motel. When we arrived the hotel parking lot was completely empty and we were able to park right outside of our room. After a brief rest, we went out and walked around downtown, stopping in the quilt store and department store, where both Mum and I found something.

When we got back to the motel, we noticed a few more vehicles in the parking lot, and as we were eating our dinner of leftovers, noticed more and more vehicles were arriving at the motel. When I went outside to grab something from the car I could smell smoke…that is when I realized that the firefighters that are fighting the nearby fires were staying at our motel and the smell was coming off their vehicles. (The giant yellow fire truck from out of state that was parked next to the hotel on the street was also a dead giveaway).

That is all for today. Tomorrow, due to the firefighters being at the hotel, will probably be an early day so I will bid you all good night and catch up with you again from Boise.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

L

Today was a very short day of travelling. Mum and I arrived at the ferry terminal with plenty of time to spare, though with the rain, decided to stay in the car to wait for the sailing. We also spent the sailing in the car as the wind and waves made exploring above the vehicle deck, unappealing.

Arriving 10 minutes late in Tsawwassen, we headed towards our hotel, stopping briefly at what seems to be the only mall in Langley to pick up some last minutes supplies for our trip.

After chilling for a bit at the hotel, we decided to head out to grab some dinner. By this time, it was pouring rain, and everywhere we tried going had an hour to hour and half wait for a table. Finally, wondering why it seemed that EVERY restaurant in town was full, I asked a hostess and found out that quite a few of the restaurants were without power. At this point, feeling hungry and deflated, stopped at Superstore for salads to take back to the hotel. Definitely not the way we planned on starting out trip, but tomorrow is another day.

Tomorrow we are crossing the border at Aldergrove, visiting the small Dutch town of Lynden and then carrying on to Leavenworth where we will be staying tomorrow.

Talk to you soon

L