November 2011: And we were off. One of us was less excited about a road trip than the other two.
First a brief stop in Portlandia to show Heather the dream of the '90's and to meet with Susan, one of Heather's Paris tour clients who was graciously letting us use her family's house in Black Butte Ranch along the way. We ate at Pine State Biscuits (on Rachel Mayfield's recommendation). Biscuit sandwiches for all, and corndog for Heather. We closed the place down (they stop serving at 2pm) but the bonus was they gave us a bag of their biscuits for the road. A brief stop at the wrong Powell's bookstore for book and coffee purchasing, then back on the road.
Photo from scene of Heather's heart attack when I pulled off too abruptly to let a tailgating truck pass. These clouds just seemed pretty when I took the picture. Little did we know we were heading into a snowstorm on a mountain pass. Fortunately, we ended up right beyond the snowplows, so although it was, for me (with little snow-driving experience), a little harrowing, we made it to Black Butte Ranch safely.
Where we were rewarded with Metro Market wine & mini-cheese cheese plate and some soup with our bonus biscuits on the house's ranch-themed plates.
We ate - and quite frankly, did most everything - by the fire Heather diligently maintained. Also picture: NaNoWriMo on the laptop.
The night's snowstorm gave us our workout the next day.
Both Heather and I were challenged to take a decent photo to effectively capture the beauty of the snowy scene.
Water frozen on the chain hanging from the side of the house, which Heather later discovered are used to help drain water from the roof.
We ventured out to check out the general store (which was well stocked with wine, thank goodness, and manned by a cashier with whom we discussed popular novels and their flaws).
Black Butte Ranch has a nature walk around its lake. The path was snowed over, so we just sort of tramped around the lake in a general sense. But it was a walk and it was in nature, so it counts.
Rose hips by the water
Geese in flight
We'd thought the sky was clearing, but it started clouding over again.
So we headed into the lodge for some apres-walk coffee.
We lucked out, and when we left on Sunday, although it still looked a little ominous, we made it out okay without having to use chains.
And the sky cleared making it all winter wonderlandy.
Rest stop goose.
We drove across Oregon to the coast, where we took a quick, Griswold-style trip to the dunes.
Oregon coast
Then the longest drive ever in history down to the Redwoods in California. We arrived near midnight; I was delirious from the endless driving and Botts' dots-induced hypnosis.
...but the hotel was so adorable it was worth it.
Baby checking out the view the next day.
View from the back of the hotel.
Back side of the hotel. Our room was on the lower level, right behind those bushes in the center of the shot.
The night tables had these little labeled drawers. I don't know if they were genunine old timey pharmacy drawers or just an affectation, but they were cute.
The only wifi was in the lobby, but we did have in-room sherry.
Breakfast at the Benbow Inn. Good food, bad coffee.
The next day we drove the Avenue of the Giants and took a walk in the redwoods.
First a stop at the visitor's center, with its list of flora and fauna that had been identified. Included on the list of fauna: Sasquash (sic), humans.
They also had some items (like this old beer can) that had belonged to early homesteaders who moved to the area to start apple and pear orchards around the redwoods.
The center has Charles Kellogg's "Travel Log" on display. The Travel Log is, per NPR, "the world's first mobile home, hand-hewn from a chunk of fallen redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and mounted on the back of a 1917 Nash Quad truck." Kellogg was an interesting guy - " an American vaudeville performer who imitated bird songs, and later a campaigner for the protection of the redwood forests of California." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kellogg_(naturalist) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1521510
Our hike, we were told, was across the street from a corn cob statue. We were charmed by the statue, less so by the grammatical error on the plaque.
We took a hike on the Drury-Chaney Trail. It's an easy trail - flat and a couple miles.
And it has lots of big trees!
Also had lots of my old pal wood sorrel.
Heather spotted this mushroom, I believe it's a shaggy mane aka "lawyer's wig." (Coprinus comatus)
A giant uprooted stump.
Also saw some puffballs, I showed Heather how they disperse their spores in the air. Even though these had already exploded, we could still generate a cloud by tapping them.
Lotsa ferns around, too.
Back to the hotel for some NaNoWriMoing.
Display of historic Benbow Inn paraphenelia. You've always been the caretaker. I ought to know: I've always been here.
Heather and I NaNoWriMoing by the fire in the lobby.
The next day, we headed south, with a short detour through the drive-through tree.
Heather in a car in a tree
Leaving the redwoods
Heather contemplates the dream of the 90's, also alive in the artwork at this Jack in the Box in Willits, CA. Willits' population, at least along the stretch we briefly saw, seemed disproptionately high in people who looked like they were on their way to or from occupying something, including several young homeless guys in non-military camo who were traveling with dogs.
We took this trip at a particularly excellent time of year, with brilliant fall foliage all over the place, including the vineyards of Sonoma County.
More candy-colored vineyards...
Now through San Fran, no time for stopping...
Past the city, watching the landscape change...
Catching the sunset at a vista point
Random discarded snakeskin at vista point.
We didn't stop long, still miles to go!
Arrived in Bakersfield for an evening of TV and in-room wifi. Baby by now had adjusted to the road or we had effectively broken his spirit as it took only minutes for him to transition from cowering to exploring. Heather had a good idea, and so, in anticipation of our drive out of the Central Valley the next day, I downloaded 7 hours of the Grapes of Wrath audiobook. I also downloaded Pepper by the Butthole Surfers because this was the dream of the 90's road trip and we could not pull into Phoenix without having listened to it at least once.
I was up early (well, early for this trip) the next day for a jog through the least scenic part of a not particularly scenic city. Birds on a wire. Based on their activity and fearlessness, it appears the starling mafia runs Bakersfield.
Heather noted she was excited to see Wolfgang Puck coffee in the room until she noticed something we dislike about as much as the misuse of "it's" on the corncob sign: a three-word tagline of floofy-poofiness "live love eat."
We tried to check out the Buck Owens Crystal Palace in the morning before we left, but it was closed. They like to sleep even later than we do. So it was goodbye to Bakersfield. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXqeCi1ADhA
We took a brief detour out of town to see Weedpatch Camp. "The camp is significant in the history of California for the migration of people escaping the Dust Bowl. These migrants were known by the derogatory term of Okie and were the subject of discrimination from the local population. The plight of the Okies and a description of Weedpatch Camp were chronicled by novelist John Steinbeck in his book The Grapes of Wrath. The book is dedicated to camp administrator Collins." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weedpatch_Camp
Orchards made impressionistic by the Central Valley tule fog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)#Tule_fog
A gorgeous day to be on the road.
Our trip to Weedpatch meant we had to take a detour back to the highway, but we were glad for it as it took us past the Bakersfield National Cemetary for veterans. It's new, with the first remains being interred in 2009. The space and the layout were very well done, with beautiful views.
It was really affecting to read the tombstones, some with straightfoward listings of service and familial relationships, others with some quick description of something personal (one veteran's tombstone noted he was a civil war reenactor). This man, Michael Barden, who served in Vietnam in the Navy, seems like he must have had a good sense of humor in life as his tombstone just reads "That's all folks."
We continued on towards Phoenix, but could not resist a stop in Boron at the Borax Visitors Center. Here's their plaster cast of the original twenty mule team that used to haul borax out of Death Valley. The team was described thusly in 1892, "The most civilized pair are placed in the lead and the next in intelligence just ahead of the tongue, while the sinful, the fun-loving and the raw-hides fill in-between." Considering this as possible people management technique.
The visitor center has a selection of products made with borax. Note the homeopathic pet anxiety remedy in the bottom left. If only I'd known before we left.
The borax mine. The roads leading to the mine all have unusual speed limits - 37.5 mph, 23 mph, 17 mph. We were wondering if it was some kind of engineering joke, but we asked the security guard, and he said it's for safety - the unexpected numbers make people pay attention.
One of the (surprisingly many) staffers at the visitor center gave us a sample of ulexite, AKA "TV rock." Per wikipedia: "The fibers of ulexite act as optical fibers, transmitting light along their lengths by internal reflection. When a piece of ulexite is cut with flat polished faces perpendicular to the orientation of the fibers, a good-quality specimen will display an image of whatever surface is adjacent to its other side."
We listened to the excellent audiobook version of The Grapes of Wrath (occupy Oklahoma!) until evening fell, stopped for one final road snack of junk food, and finally rolled into Valley of the Sun after dark. We were technically 15 minutes ahead of schedule, except that Heather, the GPS and I had all forgotten that Phoenix isn't on Pacific time right now. So now we were almost an hour late. Fortunately, most parents, like hotels, allow for late check-ins. I dropped Heather off in Peoria at her dad's, and headed into Scottsdale when my parents had a room ready for me (and a scratching post ready for Baby, which he used with vigor). All in time for a happy Thanksgiving.