Day 11: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we drove from Seattle, Washington, to Mount Shasta, California.
I grabbed a small breakfast before our drive day began, heading across the road to the blandly named Local Coffee Spot and ordering a serving of yoghurt in a plastic cup with four slices of strawberry, seven blueberries, and a sprinkling of granola.
There were 860 kilometres between us and our hotel in northern California and if anything could get us there on time and adhering to the strict standards of comfort demanded by this band it was a silver Chrysler Pacifica. We left at 10am, hopping straight onto I5 and enjoying the abundance of lanes on this busy section of the interstate, which has sometimes as many as six in each direction. I was behind the wheel of the Pacifica, and I while I can’t remember exactly which of the six lanes I plonked myself in it was probably in the middle, until I worked up the confidence to move to the second fastest lane which is usually free of trucks and has the least amount of aggressive tailgating.
It was a few hours’ drive to Portland and while the road was boring the scenery was handsome with vast forests stretching out on either side of the highway and the Cascades keeping us company on the western horizon. We crossed the Columbia River to enter the state of Oregon and were treated to the majesty of Interstate Bridge, a historic structure which carries vehicle traffic across this waterway. What looks like a tangled mass of steel beams and cables as you drive past is actually a vertical lift system that can raise an 84m span of roadway 41 meters vertically to allow the passage of tall watercraft.
We had a lunch stop in downtown Portland and then continued south, hopping back onto I5 as it carves its way through the heavily wooded coastal forests of western Oregon. The rest of the drive was so full of highlights and excitement that I’ve had to narrow it down to only a few select moments for fear of reaching my word limit. Our next stop was in the town of Cottage Grove, just south of Eugene, where we filled up the petrol tank of our Pacifica and emptied the bladder tanks of our human passengers.
The petrol station in Cottage Grove.
Jon took over the driving at that point and the next place we stopped was a Mobil station in Grant’s Pass, an establishment that once wore a sign that read “cleanest restrooms on I-5”. The sign was nowhere to be seen but the restrooms were still in good shape.
Our dinner stop was in the town of Ashland, close to Oregon’s southern border. Gabe directed us to one of his favourite stops on this I5 route, the Ashland Food Coop which as well as being a wonderful organic grocery store serves up hot and healthy takeaway meals. We dined outside the coop, sitting amongst the pumpkins which were large and plentiful at this time of year.
At 9:30pm we made it to Mount Shasta, checking into the hotel and relishing the next eleven hours straight we would get to spend outside of a vehicle.