Road Trip 10 - The Pacific Northwest
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Bless me! It's been 4 years since our last (major) Road Trip! It's about time! We've visited 46 of the lower 48 states and now it's time to cross the last two off our list. We are heading through California to Oregon and Washington and maybe even a bit of Canada, eh?
We have no itinerary except for spending a week in a bungalow in a vineyard near McMinnville in the heart of Willamette Valley Wine Country. We'll go where the Sportsmobile, the weather and the scenery takes us. Stay tuned!
First Day Out
We drove through beautiful LA and on up beautiful I-5 through the Central Valley and made our first stop at San Luis Reservoir State Park, about 400 miles from SD
In the driveway packing up to go
I--405 and Wilshire Blvd. Just love driving through LA!
Rest stop - time for lunch
Padre, son of Pedro the Cactus Man, is not doing so well.
We are worried that his arms will fall off so we may have to do preventive surgery.
Never saw so many trucks
We didn't see any runaways, though.
Monday afternoon, San Luis Rey Reservoir Campground
Hardly a soul around
Time to relax
Yup!
The nearby countryside
Getting ready to go...
San Luis Rey Reservoir
Day 2 - continuing on I-5 into Northern CA
We stayed at Castle Crag State Park
Again we had the place almost to ourselves
Lots of tall pine trees and Lorri pretending to read a map!
The river
The views from the view point
Castle Crags
Lorri
Selfie with Lorri and Castle Crag
Mt. Shasta
Another mountain
Day 3, guess what? More I-5
Mt Shasta (14000 + feet high) from the road
More Mt Shasta
More trucks and another mountain
Oregon! Finally! What do you think our first stop was after getting off I-5?
If you guessed anything other than "winery", you don't know jack.
They look ripe to me
Here we are in the tasting room of Eden Vale
Rogue Valley is one of the AVA's of Southern Oregon
We thought their wines were pretty good, especially the 2005 Cab but it was $65 a bottle.
We bought a couple bottles of their lesser wines and had a nice Adirondack chair picnic lunch
The buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places
Next stop was Jacksonville.
What do you know? Another historic place.
It looked pretty historic to us. Apparently a few western films have been shot there.
Most importantly, the Boomtown Saloon is located in Jacksonville. Did I mention "BOOMTOWN!"?
Oh yeah, I picked up a couple bottles of Castle Crags Ale as we were leaving Castle Crags State Park. It's made right up the road in Weed, CA.
Who'd a thunk there would be a town named "Weed" in Northern California?
Our next night of "camping" was spent at this place.
It's about a mile away from the Casino of the same name, but don't worry, they have shuttles that will pick you up at your campsite and take you to the casino!
It was probably the most luxurious RV park in which we have stayed: indoor swimming pool and spa, fitness center, etc.
Except for various vehicles being towed behind gigantic RV's, we were the tiniest vehicle there.
We hit a bit of rain as we drove around the Oregon University campus. This is the track and field stadium, I think.
We bought a shot glass at the Duck Store
I like the "O" in the fence.
We heard a rumor that Michigan State will be playing the Ducks next year. My advice to Spartan fans: bring rain gear and get a map so you can figure out where the stadium is. It's not on campus and we never did find it.
On the other hand, Eugene looked like a nice town.
We had a very nice lunch at this place.
Ambrosia.
Our last stop before Portland was an RV park just off I-5. We usually try to stay in places a little more quiet and rustic than RV parks but somehow we found ourselves too far away from the State and National Parks and closer to cities as we drove north in Oregon.
As great as Seven Feathers was, this place was the opposite - it cost more for a lot less.
They packed 'em in.
Oh yeah, my camera sometimes likes to change to black & white without my permission.
Links to Road Trip 10: Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7