This is what it looked like for 90% of the driving. We'll get to that eventually.First thing: I think it's obvious that me (Carin) will be doing all the writing, because I'm the one who insists on documenting stuff like this. Justin is happy to do the interjections and random witticisms. (Besides, he's got enough house stuff to do that I am not allowed to do--hello, I can't build a porch railing.) So I refuse to talk about ourselves in the third-person. Anyway.
I also realize that the point of blogging is to blog as you go and not when you are back to summarize. But I tend not to take my computer with me if I'm not traveling for work (traveling for work? what's that? sigh).
Summer's here. And you know what that means: roadtrip!
We've been North (Vancouver, BC). We've been West (coast). We've been South (Eugene, and Justin's been to CA more than me lately). But, we hadn't really been East, save for a race I'd like to forget. So, have we been East? No!
So: Roadtrip!
Plus, Nellie (my car) told me she wanted to go. (Nellie is both the name for my car "Whoah, Nellie!" and "Nellie the Navigator." They will be used interchangeably throughout this writeup.)
Why we took an all-black car to the desert is anyone's guess, and it's also the same twisted reasoning that we went there during record high temperatures. But after checking weather.com and realizing that it was going to be hot as hell everywhere, we figured why not. And we bought a dorky sunshade. It looks like something an ancient Floridian uses to tan.
It was a dry heat.
It was a hot heat.
It was the best of times, the worst of times...
So let's begin.
Justin works Saturdays. He was able to leave work early, but not until 3 p.m. This actually wasn't all bad; it allowed time for a run, some freelance work, and laundry. I picked him up at 3 p.m., bags packed, ready to go...
...except for the fact that we had to come home for Justin to:
- fix a leak under the sink that I thought I would mess up further if I attempted
- use the facilities
And, so about 3:30, we were off.
Our first stop for the evening would be Burns, Oregon (about a 6-hour drive from Portland). Nellie the Nav said we'd be into Burns around 9:55 p.m. I figured we'd stop for dinner in Bend somewhere, and then continue on.
We took 26 out, past Powell, past Gresham, and eventually it starts to look like a real road and not a street,which is how it looks in Portland. This takes you by Mt. Hood. It was a very bright and hot day and the mountain was out, super-crisp and clear:
The last time we drove east (it was for a race I'd like to forget, remember?) once of the things I noticed most was the demarcation line.
See, here's the thing: If you take 26, you basically drive around Mount Hood. And so you're climbing up, up, up, past the mountain and higher and higher and it's all alpine and foresty...
...and up up up, the air has that good clean smell of dense wet greenery and up up up, sparkling streams, verdant, green, dense, and you're going and going and...
the line of demarcation. You're now in the high desert.It doesn't gradually shift so much that you don't notice it. It's totally abrupt, a literal line in the sand. There's no marker or anything. You just know. It is like a finishing line. Bang! New! Scenery! NOW!
(We were going too fast to get a photo. It's that quick.)
And then it starts to look like this, deep and wide and dry and crevasse-y:
Then when you're starting to get to Bend, the trees get nubbier, stubbier, there's some roll rather than deep dives of land again:
I was dumb and lazy and didn't get a AAA book of Oregon, like I should have. So we wanted to get something to eat when we got to Bend, but didn't know where to go. And we didn't want to take too much time. The AAA book would have been good for suggestions, but I didn't get a chance to go over there and pick one up. And my awesome Next Exit Before You Exit book is only good on the interstates, which didn't apply for most of our trip.
We drove by a Sonic.
"Oooh, I said, I wouldn't mind trying that."
"Really?" said Justin.
"Really," I answered. "Except we're not eating in my car."
(I have a no eating or drinking rule in my vehicle. I'd like to keep one thing I own nice. The only exceptions are water and the coffee thermos my friend C takes with us on winetasting trips because we leave before her usual alarm goes off. She's grandfathered in, and it's partly because she brings all the yummy snacks.)
So we get out of the car. I use the bathroom. And then go to look at the menu.
There's nothing there I can eat.
Breaded this! Fried and breaded that! Meat this! Chicken that! Fried and breaded! Cheese! Fried! Breaded!
I can't do bread. It makes me...uncomfortable. I wasn't hungry enough to have my first meat experience in 15 years be at a Sonic, outside Bend, Oregon, before a 4-day roadtrip to remote destinations.
We didn't even bother with a slushie. Slushie not good for actual hunger.
We drove on. We drove into town but they were having some sort of bike event and there was no parking and strollers abounded. So we continued on.
And good eye! Justin spied a Whole Foods. Score! It was kind of a lame one, but hey, it was dinner. Salads and free samples FTW.
We continued onto Burns.
Adam and I were just outside of Bend in the Cascade Lakes. We went on the same road trip. We cooked all our own food (camping) and Adam got a million skeeter bites. They bite me, but I don't get the welts at all. I'm really lucky. We camped at a place called Little Fawn on Elk Lake. We escaped the region right before the HUGE bike race. It was glorious!
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