07/05/13 – Oregon and the Unexpected Journey Home
Link to Oregon Facebook Pictures
When I woke up, Molly had already been up for awhile and gotten some things done. She made Ramen noodles and coffee on the propane stove, took a “shower” using the solar shower, and was just hanging out by the river. I got out of the tent, took a shower myself, got in the car, and started heading up the 101. There was another scenic byway that went through the Redwood National Forest, which we decided to take. It was nowhere near as magnificent as the Avenue of the Giants from the other day. After seeing the Redwoods, we decided it was time for Oregon!
Looking at a map of Oregon, you’ll notice that most of the major national forestlands are in the middle of the state. We got off the 101 and headed up the 199 towards central Oregon. Shortly after crossing the state line, I pulled into a parking lot and we were looking at a map. I put my car in first gear and started to go forward, and heard a metallic sound coming from my clutch area. I also felt a slight vibration / rattle sensation under my clutch foot. When we were sitting still, clutch pressed in, in first gear, the car “hopped” as if I was a new driver and had accidently pulled my foot off the clutch while it was still in gear. I thought all of these could be warning signs that my throwout bearing was going bad, and we made the decision to turn back and head home.
At this point, we had been on the road for exactly a month. That’s a month without the day-to-day comforts that you usually take for granted: a shower every morning, a bed with warm sheets, a place to stretch out all the way (since some nights we had to sleep in the Honda), not traveling 100+ miles on a daily basis, knowing where your next meal is coming from, and the list goes on. I’m not complaining, just saying that these factors really do take a toll on you, physically and mentally. We were both tired, and we decided that if we were to have continued on, we probably would have rushed through the rest of the sites. All we had left anyway is Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Since the only places we had to see in Washington and Vancouver were Seattle and Vancouver, we decided to take those off of our lists completely – at least until we find more reasons to explore that area and drive the hundreds of miles around there.
We decided that we would head home, and make a “round two” type trip, where we will try to hit Colorado and Utah, and HOPEFULLY NW Wyoming as well. We will allocate about three weeks for this second trip, and it will take place sometime after Molly’s cousin’s bachelorette party, which is the second week of August. We are trying to convince my sister Paige to come along with us this time, and we might look into taking the minivan if my mom would be willing to part with it for a few weeks.
So there you have it: we’re tired, hungry, and ready for our own houses/beds. And I miss my dog! I didn’t realize how living with an animal for 3.5 years can really make them feel like your “dogter”.
I am sure that in a few days to a week, I will be all rested and ready to hit the road again, especially with the rain that I keep hearing about in Georgia!
Before leaving Oregon, we saw signs for Crater Lake. We had to check it out!! The lake is on top of a huge volcano, and it’s some of the deepest and most beautiful water in the world. There were even patches of snow on top of the volcano. There was a rim drive that went all the way around the crater, which we did about 1/3rd of.
I was getting low on gas and hadn’t seen a gas station in the past 50 miles or so…
And after Crater Lake, our adventure home begins. At approximately 8pm PCT (11pm EST) we left Crater Lake for home. My GPS was taking me on two-lane highways for a good hour and a half, with no gas stations in sight. Furthermore, we were going a totally different direction than we had come in, so we had no idea when we would see a gas station. We were supposed to take a left on a certain two-lane highway, and I punched “gas station” into the GPS. I was down to only a few gallons of fuel in the car, and the closest gas station was 35 miles in the other direction..I had no choice but to head there. We ended up in a small town called Klamath Falls (population 3, I swear) and finally found a gas station which was open. By now it was around 10pm. I stopped at the pump, and unscrewed my gas cap. I was reaching for the gas pump when a man approached me..he looked like a maintenance man for the gas pumps. He was wearing an orange reflective vest, and was literally standing about a foot away from me.. it was awkward. “How are you doing?” he asked… “Fine,” I said, not knowing what he was doing. Then he told me. In Oregon it’s state law that you have to have an attendant pump your own gas. Therefore, most gas stations are closed, or few and far between after 9-10pm. I was lucky to have found this gas station when I did. He filled up the car, and we kept on our way.
The GPS led us down more two-lane roads and along the southern border of Oregon. We entered into extreme northern Nevada and rode parallel to the Oregon border for awhile. By this point, it was pitch black outside and the speed limit was 70mph. I almost hit at least a dozen large white rabbits. They were EVERYWHERE, and JUST quick enough to escape my tires. At that speed, though, hitting one of them probably would have sent the tire of my car off of the ground a bit. That would have been scary. I was the only car on the road for quite some time, and it got to the point that I was wondering when we would see the next gas station. We drove like this for around 300 miles, and my car was getting close to empty again. We finally reached a highway with a self-serve pump (in Nevada), where I filled the car. Within the next tank of gas, we were on an interstate. I had never been so overjoyed to be riding on an interstate – somewhat lit up, with wide, visible lanes, and even the occasional trucker!
We drove throughout the night. Around 3:30am, I stopped to switch places with Molly. She drove for about an hour, and I dozed off for what felt like 5 minutes, but I think was close to about 30 minutes. Molly and I switched off driving a few times, and the sun came up ridiculously early..like 5am I believe. We stopped for lunch at one point at a place called Smith’s (kind of like a Wyoming version of Kroger). On this escapade, we journeyed from Oregon, through Nevada, through Utah, and into Wyoming.
We kept driving all day, without anything too exciting to report. We pulled off at a gas station and slept for about an hour and fifteen minutes before continuing. Surprisingly, these little cat naps helped a good bit. We have been on the I-80 for quite some time..I think our stretch on it is supposed to be 900 miles or so. We stopped in a town called Laramie, in Wyoming, and got a hotel. We were in desperate need of a shower, a toilet, a warm bed, and a meal. I figured it would be good for us to get a good night’s sleep before continuing to drive tomorrow.
We’re not sure where we will end up stopping tomorrow, but we still have 1500 miles left in our journey home. We started at 2,600 miles..it’s more than just a number. It’s hours upon hours upon hours of driving through repeating landscapes. It’s a test of your endurance. If I map us home from here using Google Maps, it says we have 1,507 miles, which would take 22 hours and 37 minutes. So far, we started around 8pm (PCT) and stopped at 5pm (MT) the next day. That puts us at about 21 hours before you factor in the 1.25 hour nap stop, and all of the bathroom breaks / gas stops. Pretty insane.