Road Trip North
Get your kicks on Route 66.
Jive on Hwy. 5. The Road trip. American as apple pie,
mom, and an over exuberant obsession with your car.
Karen and I not wanting to
be unpatriotic, recently took a 1100 mile or so road
trip. Over a three day weekend. Did I mention that we are crazy.
Anyway, our friend Alex had
been bugging us to visit him in Eugene Oregon.
I suppose we could have flown.
But durm, angst, details. Fly to Portland, take
a puddle jumper and connect to Eugene? Fly into Portland, rent a carand
drive to Eugene? Fly to Portland, make Alex make the two hour trip and
pick us up? Take a bus from
Portland? Take a bus from S.F? Decisions,decisions.
Far easier to just get in
your car, a home a away from home, and just go. After
all we are not only Americans, but Californians. And since mostCalifornians
wouldn't balk at a road trip to L.A. (a mere 400ish miles
away), how could we shy away
from a trip to Eugene. 8-9 hours on the road.Not a bad trip.
We studied maps and saw that
it was a straight shot via Hwy. 5. Now I will say,
we unfortunately didn't study them enough, in that we went about anhour
out of our way on our way up. (Who knew that Hwy. 5 had a connector that
bypasses Sacramento entirely?
Well, us now. And if I may say, the connectorslices off a big chunk of
bland scenery too.)
But whatever, we set out
on the open road armed with a car full of toons and munchies:
Cheetoos, beef jerky, sodas, and you know a little brie andcrackers.
 Amazingly
the hours flew by. We'd look at the clock and two hours would havepassed,
time to switch drivers. Sit chat, look at the scenery, listen to the
music, daydream about the black
tarmac stretched out in front of you. Takingyou somewhere you've never
been.
We passed Lake Shasta with
its house boats and blue, blue water. We drove by Mount
Shasta, tall and tall and tall. Through rough wild country that looksmore
like Montana or Northern Idaho than California (then again we are a big
state.) Then across the state
border into Oregon, which is a very prettystate. We stopped at road side
rests beside rivers. Past trees and meadows and
trees.
And then we arrived. Spent
the day with Alex and his wife Diane seeing the sights
of Eugene. Saw the downtown fair (very post-modern hippy). Walked bythe
Willamette River. Watched a bunch of cartoons.
Then Sunday at noon, we made
our way home. Back down the open road.
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