The road trip was a welcome break! After months of fighting with the remnants of the company that five years earlier had renovated our top deck over who would pay for repair of the defective waterproofing and the damage to the ceiling below from the resulting leak, the repair work finally started (what was left of the company sent us a check after we hinted at legal action!) but not before the living room furniture was moved via a few days in the garage into a storage container parked in the driveway. That coincided with days spent packing the contents of our kitchen cabinets into moving boxes, culminating in the complete demolition of the kitchen over the space of less than a day.
We loaded up the Jaguar and headed north for its biennial journey to Seattle
Aug 5: Home-Santa Barbara 154.4 miles
Leaving on a Sunday afternoon avoided the struggle and stress of getting around Los Angeles during the Monday morning rush hour. Santa Barbara away from the waterfront was surprisingly quiet. The clue was State Street strewn with confetti - the remains of several days of “fiesta” and we suspect that many locals were nursing hangovers
Aug 6: Santa Barbara-San Francisco 338.5 miles
The drive north up “101” away from the coastal route and the main I-5 was very easy and relatively free of traffic even heading through Silicon Valley and into San Francisco. Most of the traffic seemed to be heading away from the city even mid-afternoon. We have a really fun dinner in a Basque tapas restaurant with Jo and Mike. Another reunion - we think it must be at least ten years....
Aug 7: San Francisco-Klamath Falls, Oregon 357.2 miles
It takes us more than an hour to get out of the city and it’s late morning before we make it to the I-5 and begin the long trek north towards the Oregon state line. The air gets smokier and smokier as we approach Redding where one of California’s worst and most destructive forest fires is still smoldering. The border towns, including the descriptively named Weed (unsurprisingly selling T-shirts emblazoned with “I Love Weed”) look like movie set border towns - quiet, hot and dusty mostly agricultural and mostly Hispanic. Where would we be without them? Just across the state line, we arrive in Klamath Falls - or rather a little outside the beauty spot and spend the night at the Running Y ranch. Despite the very smoky air, we enjoy dinner- and a very red sunset - on an outside terrace overlooking a picturesque valley
Aug 8: Klamath Falls -Grandview, Washington 366.8 miles
The longest drive through the very varied landscape volcanic desert that is eastern Oregon. It’s hot, well over 100 degrees F all day. A brief stop for lunch in Bend, eastern Oregon’s largest city (or actually only city!) at the most impressive “supermarket” we’ve seen in the US outside Whole Foods’ flagship store in Manhattan! Surprising what you come across in the “back of beyond”!! We cross into southeastern Washington approaching the state’s main wine growing areas. Except the B&B we’ve found is in the middle of a vast hop-filled valley! A very lucrative crop explains our B&B host, clearly jealous of a neighbour who owns the several hundred acres of hops. Despite short notice (and we’re the only guests that night) his rather eccentric wife cooks us a delicious evening meal because she likes my English accent!
Aug 9: Grandview-Seattle 194.2 miles
We stop at a couple of wineries just outside Yakima to pick up a few bottles for ourselves and a few as a housewarming gift for Ian and finally pull into our building mid afternoon. Five days and four nights, and a little over 1400 miles. The third time we’ve done this road trip but a different route each time has given us a great glimpse of California, Oregon and Washington.
We’ve made it home just a few hours before Ken and Debbie arrive for a long weekend visit from New York. And the Jaguar gets its obligatory 30 second smog check and new license tabs before being loaded onto a transporter for the journey back to Laguna.....
