Esta's Adventures

[scratchpaddy]

For the past three years, I've driven up to Oregon twice a year to visit my parents. I drive because I love seeing the country, and I have two dogs. I take a different route there every time, avoiding interstates whenever possible. Way too boring. This time, I used I-10 to get out of Phoenix, and that was it for interstates until I got to the 580 in San Francisco.

By 6:00 in the morning, I was on Highway 62, going through the Mojave. There was a massive headwind, and I got terrible gas mileage (29). There were ribbions of sand blowing across the road. This picture is kind of a trick: it's a 20-second exposure to get the landscape visible, and I flashed the headlights for about half a second (longer would have overexposed the picture) to make it look more like what I saw going down the road. That's how deserted this road was: I was doing long exposures while parked on the road.



From there I took 395 to 58 to Bakersfield, then 99 to 46 to 33 to 198 to 25. I just write where the turns are on a sheet of paper, and I keep an atlas in the back if I get lost. I didn't need it. Those last two highways were definitely the highlight of the first day, twisty two-lane roads winding through the hills on the west side of California's central valley.





I got a little too enthusiastic, and Skippy barfed on the back seat, but I always keep the seat covered for the dogs. The road eventually straightened out as we got closer to San Francisco.



I spent the rest of the day crawling through Bay Area traffic to Richmond, where it turns out one of my great uncles lives. I had never met or even heard of him until a month ago. Almost all of my family lives in upstate New York, and I hadn't known I had any relatives in California. I was so glad to finally meet him. He has a secret facility full of classic cars, all the ones his family couldn't afford growing up. Several of his cars have been on the cover of Hemmings Motor News. I was like a kid in a candy store.



Day 2 was uneventful. I took the 101 all the way to Newport, then 20 over to Albany. It was sunny and clear the whole day, which I had not expected at all this time of year. I finally hit a wall of fog while crossing the coastal range on 20 late that night. On the other side, Corvalis was covered in snow, which is also very unusual. I made it to my parent's house without incident.



It was nice to have Christmas with the family again. I've been taking walks along the river and around town with the dogs. The cold, rain, and fog is a nice change from the perpetual sunshine of Phoenix.





I'm pretty impressed with the car so far. It handles everything competently and efficiently. It's not quite as efficient as the Metro, but it can keep up with traffic even going 70 up a mountain. I do wish the seat were a little lower, and the steering wheel a little further back, but I didn't get any aches or pains while driving it 1,400 miles up here. It's a great car.