We left Portland on Friday to commence our drive south. We have given ourselves a week for a trip that takes about four hours on the freeway by taking Highway 101 – the Pacific Coast Road – along the Washington, Oregon, California coast. This drive is also recognised as being one of the world’s greatest road trips. So, we didn’t come all this way just to go to Spokane for a dog conference. Actually when we go to conferences (this is the third and we also did one in Canada) we always look to see where it is situated and if there is anything around that would make the trip into a worthwhile holiday as well as an informative five day conference.
Back on the road and I had planned a certain route that would have us picking up the coast a little farther south than Portland but the concierge recommended picking up the highway at Tillamook (farther north than where I was headed) so we took his advice as I’d be guessing he’d know a little more than me and Google maps. Our actual target for day 1 was Eugene, which is about 2 hours south of Portland on the freeway but where is the fun in that – and the freeway is inland. So our planned trip would take us through the mountains to the coast, south to Florence then cut back through the forest to Eugene – a bit under five hours.
It was a pretty easy drive, the road system over here is excellent and you know one of the biggest differences is that they aren’t doing roadworks everywhere and when they do they don’t see a need to block half the road and reduce the speed to almost nothing. Although there was one section of the coast road that was reduced to one lane and luckily we were in the direction that got flagged through first as the opposing traffic was about a kilometre long (or at least it seemed that way).
Also, everyone here in Oregon and moving back into Washington are very polite drivers. No-one sits in the left (the right for us) unless passing, trucks stay on their reduced speed limit (65mph for vehicle on the freeway, 60 for trucks – on the coast road this is 55mph for cars). The roads are smooth and hardly a anyone speeds or tailgates.
Nice drive through the mountains but I was wondering where the bloody hell was the coast. A highlight was petrol in Beaver Town (it was beaver something anyway) where there was someone to fill the car and do the windscreen for you and the guy inside was in for a chat and the toilets were great – such a contrast to Connell from one of my earlier posts. And the petrol prices, this is the second time for a refuel – it costs about $3.45 a gallon (which is expensive the attendant told me), which for us is about 90 cents a litre – and that’s expensive!
We finally picked up the coast, had a nice seafood lunch (fish and chips and a cup of clam chowder) in Newport and headed inland to Eugene. There are a few viewing points along the way but the sky was quite hazy but the views are worth seeing. And so was the highlight, which was a visit to the Sea Lion Caves the largest sea lion caves in Nth America. Unfortunately we were out of sea lion season (they return to the caves about tend of November, not the start) but we were lucky enough to see two of them swimming around in the rather rough ocean (and we did get a discount as there was no guarantee of seeing a sea lion). Great views from here and the cave was pretty amazing, even had to catch an elevator down.
So day one ended in Eugene as expected. More to follow.
I have been watching the Great Truck Stop Race….can you do a food critique of one for me.