My weekend trip

[Steve Dallas]

I needed to take my computer down to Medford, Oregon to get some hardware on it replaced. So, I used that as an excuse to take a drive (I don't really need an excuse, but it sounds good).

I got off work and immediately headed south from Seattle down I5. I wanted to make it as far into Oregon as I could. Got through traffic in Seattle and Portland and made it to Roseburg by about midnight, so got a motel room for the night.

Woke up bright and early at 6:15 (my body is conditioned to get up then, even without an alarm), and continued south to Medford. Dropped off the computer and continued heading south to Redding. Why Redding? I figured I wanted to head back up the coast on 101, and that was as good a place as any to head west. Plus, I had lunch at In n' Out Burger.

I headed west first on CR-A5 which had a ton of horse ranches. Fun road with through a lot of rolling hills further west. Eventually met up with Route 36. As I headed west, went through some areas that had been hit by fire, though I have no idea how long ago.

Route 36 turned out to be a VERY fun drive. Lots of winding road, and there was one section that was a wide single lane road, where you had to be careful of oncoming traffic at all times.

Finally hooked up with 101 in the Fortuna/Eureka/Humbolt area, and headed north. I was born and raised in California, and I have to say that 101 here, though beautiful, was annoying as hell. I think CHP/CalTrans decided to put every old out of service x-band radar they had on the road to warn of 40 mph curves and tell you your speed. There was one section where they had multiple signs on a straight road saying you were doing 51 in a 50. Of course, my radar detector was going off like crazy for a lot of the time until I got into Oregon.

The southern Oregon Coast was amazing. As it got dark, I started looking for a place to stay the night. That ended up being the Yachats Inn in Yachats. I have no idea how to pronounce that, but the room was 90 bucks, was a suite (only room they had left) with a wood stove, and had an AMAZING view in the morning (though foggy).

Continued driving north the next day, and cut back inland at Raymond, and the rest of the trip was pretty boring heading back I5 to Seattle.