Oregon: Driving North into Eugene

After the initial hiccups and mechanical mischief that delayed our morning a bit, we made good time heading north. As I'd mentioned already, there was a fair bit of forest to make our way through before we fully escaped the clutches of the Deschutes National Forest, but the drive was beautiful so we weren't exactly upset at this predicament. It was a bit difficult to make time to pull over for every stop, so we weren't able to make that happen, but we did try to stop and make time to enjoy the scenery every few hundred miles or so. You might think that over time, the forest would simply become more forest, stretching off into the distant horizon, but in reality, it's more nuanced than that. Shades of green and blue blend together, offset by puffs of white or sharp interjections of yellow or brown. 

The timing for our road trip worked out extremely well, too. Initially, I had wanted to leave earlier and get out of Vegas before the fall settled in, but timing simply didn't pan out with various vehicular issues popping up, work arrangements and gigs that cropped up. We only had to delay by a month or so, though, so it wasn't the worst of situations despite my melodramatically losing faith sporadically along the way. There's a lot of talking and planning involved before actually taking the leap, and with each new hurdle, there were more possibilities for cold feet to settle in and squander our chances. Leaving when we did, at the very beginning of October, however, meant we caught verdant green expanses of forest with some bright shocks of color thrown in as the leaves just began to take on their changing for the season. Pops of yellow and little flashes of orange cut through the foliage to make the drive all the more exciting. I'm glad that we were able to make the majority of the drive under the sunlight, as the days grow shorter going into the cooler months. 

Onward and upward, away we go. Off to the forests of the Northwest!

Oregon: Morning in Merril

After another night curled up in our vehicles, this time the two of us shivering a little in my Volvo, we unfurled ourselves in the warming sunlight to a bright, fresh new morning in Merrill, Oregon. Mount Hood glistened in the distance, and the bright green leaves were practically glowing in the early morning dew. We couldn't help but explore the area and scope out a nearby grassy field full of mushrooms! I know, mushrooms might not be that big of a deal to most people, after all, they're generally harbingers of rot and decay, right? But for us, they're absolutely fascinating! I've long been intrigued by mushrooms and the field of mycology, but the desert isn't exactly an environment prone to fostering a plethora of fungal varietals.  We found several different fungi popping up in the field, but we're not educated enough to identify them in the wild like that, plus the sheer variety and volume of fungal forms makes it a daunting task even for the well-educated shroom-hunter. 

After whetting our curiosity in the field, and growing more awkwardly uncomfortable as we gained the awareness that we may have been exploring in an actively watched school field, we headed back to the vehicles. Antho ended up making friends with a woman who, quite literally, popped up out of the bushes while he was taking photos. When a local patrol officer rolled into the same parking lot, our mystery friend laughed and greeted him, informing us that there were only two cops for the entire town, and this one was Brian. Our single serving friendly eagerly told us we needed to swing on down to Medford to take advantage of some of those legendary cheap weed deals that legal weed had brought to Oregon before venturing off. As enticing as that offer was, we were more concerned with making it from Southern Oregon to North-Western Washington, ideally before the day was done. That meant a lot of roads to cover yet! I made a quick jaunt to the local market, where I encountered our mysterious friend enthusiastically discussing pregnancy (and a failing bladder caused by pregnancy) with a very-far-along and visably uncomfortable shop-girl, as I paid for our brunches and coffee. 

Freshly stretched, caffeinated, with snacks and rodents packed and ready, we started to hit the road. Started to, anyway. I didn't make it far at all- literally a block or two at most- before I had to call it and pull over. Despite taking my old grumpy girl to a shop in Vegas and throwing more than $600 at repairs, they hadn't actually addressed the transmission problems (refusal to reverse, on-going leak, etc) I had specifically taken her in for. Given her leak, and the fact the shop had happily informed me "she was just low on fluids", we figured the best option was to check her levels, top her off, and try her out. Since we ended up pulling over in a residential neighborhood, we had to park in front of a home... We were quite surprised when within moments of killing our engines a slight young woman popped out of the house nearest us to inquire if we were alright and ask if we needed help. After talking, we learned her name was Diana, and Diana was such a sweetheart! She called up her roommate, who coincidentally works on big trucks, to see if he could help us any but he was still several hours away yet. We thanked her for her concern, and politely declined her offers to feed us, not wanting to be any trouble. I had transmission fluid I'd picked up at one of our previous stops in Reno, but given how quickly I'd needed it after leaving Vegas, I made sure to make it a priority to get more as soon as we hit Eugene, just to be safe. 

Olliver, my co-pilot, was only bothered by the intensity of the sunlight infiltrating his cage, interrupting his nap. Once we had poured a bunch of fluid back into my thirsty old girl, checked her levels again, and let her run for a minute, we tentatively decided to go for it. We'd made it this far, after all, so why quit now? We were on the final leg of our cross-country run, and if we could make it to Seattle we'd be home. Home at last.  

And wouldn't you know it... it worked. Freshly hydrated, Svetty roared back onto the road with all the fury of a Valkyrie.  Onward and upward!

To Valhalla!!!!

Oregon: Night in Merrill

Hours behind the wheel, rolling down the road, and we managed to find our way to the very little (no, really, it's quite small) town of Merrill, Oregon, home to only about 800 people. The entire town could be walked pretty easily as the main road itself is only about a half mile long, so you blink and you'd miss it. We stopped to get gas, then found our way to the Polar Bear snack shack parking lot to sort out our selves and our belongings, tend to our squeaks, and inevitably end up spending the night. We initially only planned to stop briefly and then keep heading on towards Eugene, but after surveying our surroundings we realized we'd coincidentally stumbled into a parking lot where they 100% allowed overnight parking! There's no easy guarantee that we'd be able to find an inconspicuous place to pull over and sleep after driving another 3-4 hour stretch where we'd be allowed to stay, so we figured we'd take the synchronicity and roll with it. It worked out well, as Antho realized that he was already having issues with his credit cards due to the transactions being out-of-Nevada, so he was able to get that sorted while waiting for an order of what ended up being very tasty fried gizzards from the above shack.  

Once we were fed, our finances sorted out, and our rodents secured and safely locked away from the hungry birds swirling above, we decided to take a walk through town to see if we could grab a drink. 

We managed to find our way to the local cafe/bar/restaurant, which was a fun joint with a lively and friendly crowd! The bartender was awesome, and she blew Antho's mind when she offered him the option to choose the vodka used in his White Russian. We went with dealer's choice, which ended up being very good! One of the local barflies approached and asked my permission to touch Antho's dreads, which we both found amusing. Don't get me wrong here- we absolutely and 100% appreciate that she asked before getting handsy! It's just not an everyday occurrence that someone comes up to us and asks to touch Antho's hair. After our first drink, the jukebox started pumping and things started to pep up a bit. We were pretty tired and didn't want to get swept into any rowdiness, so we took an Irish exit and returned to the vehicles to conk out for the night. I definitely couldn't resist trying my luck on the archaic coin-machine in the bathroom! I got "Pandora's Box", which I'm pretty sure is really just a condom. 

California: Eagle Lake

Once we finally wrapped up all of our errands in Reno, we headed North and a wee bit west which found us striking out into Northern California in our pursuit onwards and up. Naturally, upon entering California, we hit some of the worst traffic throughout the entire duration of our trip thus far, leading to the necessary "California traffic" jokes we more or less feel obligated to make after being their neighbors for way too long. There's nothing inherently wrong with California- it's a beautiful state with a lot of coastlines and a lot of people. Like, a lot of people. In 2016 there were an estimated 252 residents per square mile, whereas Nevada has an average of about 26 people per square mile...quite a contrast there, right? This is going to change in time, however, especially now that the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas and bringing the state their first professional football team, ever. For now, the cost of living in Las Vegas is a fair bit below anything you're likely going to find in any part of California, but as people begin to relocate this may change. 

All that population density, though, seems to fall away when you're in a natural park like this. Most of our drive through northern Nevada into Northern California and Southern Oregon lead us through winding national park trails, past many lakes and water bodies, and most of it felt quite secluded. Sure, we'd get the occasional long-haul trucker pulling out from a rest stop  in some small town and trailing us for a while, or the impatient SUV driver who takes the first opportunity to swerve around us at break-neck speeds, but for the vast majority of the drive it felt like just the two of us making our way through these lost lands. When we found our way to Eagle lake and saw all the cows milling around by the water, we couldn't help but to stop and take a moment to absorb it all. There may or may not have been some shouts of love and "aren't you a pretty moo-cow", too. 

After catching our breathes and sufficiently satisfying ourselves with our adoration of the distant cows, we resumed our trek. You've got to stop and smell the flowers, or in this case admire the bovine, every once in a while, right?

Reno: Surreal suburbia

Come along and join me for a bite of my favorite muffin, won't you?

All jokes aside, there's a surreal sort of nature to Reno that we discovered during our stay. There's the familiarity, of a city being somewhat akin-to-but-not-quite like our hometown, yet there's the weird throwbacks to the 80's and 90's that linger, giving an age to the city not unlike the crow's feet cracking through the thickly caked on makeup of your diner waitress clinging to decades past. We weren't finished with the city, not yet, as we still had a couple of errands to run while we were still surrounded by some vestige of civilization. On top of the usual things, like getting some snacks, vehicular fluids and checks, there was the shuffling of finances and additional fluids to purchase. Rather than try to keep driving through the dense forest of traffic cones that seemed to crop up once we left the downtown touristy area, we opted to walk to our next destinations. This allowed us the opportunity to appraise an area outside of the main drag, which is always a good idea for getting the true feel of a city beyond its neon-spackled traps.  I suppose I can see why many of my peers opted to go north and settle in Reno, but it's still a little too-close to Vegas for me to feel like I've truly escaped the vortex-like nature of the city...but for those who find this affinity appealing for nostalgic purposes, it's quite the nice touch, I suppose. 

Reno, like many cities favored by millennials, is growing. There are more little artsy-fartsy coffee shops popping up, along with multi-megaplex apartments that offer everything you could ever want or need in a residence, from gyms to pet parks. It's still a little city trying very much to feel like a bigger one, so for people who want that, it's got it in bounds. Reno isn't a bad place, not at all, and there's a lot of things to be said for consistent sunshine and cheap food and booze. Once we'd stretched our legs and tended to our various errands, however, we returned to our vehicles to strive outward and onward. While Reno certainly made for a nice pitstop, we weren't planning to settle here any time soon. 

Road Tripping: Leaving St. George, Utah

Well, St. George, it's been lovely. We didn't get to partake in too many of your bountiful offerings due to our limited time available, but what we were able to see was lovely. From the giant, creepy spider statue and flinging-babies statue adjacent to it in the Historic District, dipping our feet in the water in the park, greeting the velociraptor and enduring parking challenges nearby in the shopping district, to hiking among the beautiful red stones and posing on a giant boulder overlooking the city, it was fun. It's not too hard to see why people are moving there in droves. It's easily accessible to other, larger, cities like Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, but it absolutely feels like a small town. Families gather in the public spaces and let their kids splash around together in the water, ice cream men roll up on mountainside parks with sweet treats to cool off the family, it seems pretty sublime. We did see someone getting battered about the face while sitting next to the road when we were driving through their downtown area, so obviously, it's not all picture perfect sitcom-worthy bliss, but it's nice. I'm sure if we spent more time and dove more in-depth into the area and the recent population growth explosion it's been experiencing, we'd hear some fascinating stories. Any city that experiences the kind of rapid growth that St. George has will undoubtedly undergo some degree of growing pains in the process. Each municipality and governing body deal with it differently, which can lead to a city's thriving or declining. For the time St. George seems to be on the up and up, and I imagine that as populations continue to become more mobile it will likely continue to experience a surge in traffic. 

Not only is it a hot spot for young families looking to settle down somewhere quaint, but Dixie State University brings droves of youth from nearby towns looking to glean and education with a side of independence. Many of the graduates I talked to from Mesquite mentioned that they were planning to go to DSU for their post-high school education, which makes sense. It's not far down the road so they can easily make a trip home to visit their families, but it's far enough for them to feel their first bit of freedom. It's not hard to imagine that some of these starry-eyed young dreamers will meet some other lovely youth and fall in love, and potentially end up settling down in the area. Storybook romance, right? The cycle continues. The force has balance. 

Yadda yadda. Anyway, we weren't looking to put down roots here, not this time. We packed it into the van again and started rolling out, with our end destination being home with a few side quests along the way. Join our adventure!

Road Tripping: Hafen Fishing Pond in Mesquite, NV

Upon actually making our arrival into the town of Mesquite, we had a fair bit of time free before we were obligated to be anywhere or do anything so we opted to use the time to explore. There are several casinos in Mesquite, like the Casablanca, the Eureka, or the Virgin River Hotel and Casino, if you're into gambling, buffets, bowling or arcades- or drinks, movies, live music... Casinos are pretty much a one-stop-shop for entertainment when you're traveling. A safe bet, as it were. At least, they are if you have money to spend and ample time to waste! We did explore some of the casinos later on, but while it was still nice and sunny out we figured it would be preferable to drive around the city and try to get a feel for the lay of it. Once you get away from the casinos, which tend to be clustered around the freeway exits like grapes on a vine,  it veers decidedly suburban. This makes sense, of course, as this isn't really a city built upon thriving masses of tourists, but rather a small town that takes advantage of it's proximity to transit hubs to feed their families and keep the town thrumming along. The residential areas stretch out into the edges of the desert, a diffusion of buildings unevenly distributed in pockets of new growth huddled together, blocks adjacent to vacant buildings dotting one of the larger streets.  There's not a lot of stop lights to be bothered about, and those there are proliferate in the business neighborhoods. Some of the neighborhoods were very new, but there's still many older buildings lingering around that have their own unique charms. It would seem that some of the money being brought in by the casinos has gone into the Parks and Rec department, because we found ourselves at the Hafen Fishing Pond which was a beautiful little park with a 2-acre pond sporadically populated with rainbow trout and catfish, alongside jogging/walking trails, playground, tennis courts... not to mention the miles and miles of open desert beyond, where BMX and ATV routes ran alongside the park's exterior. We saw several people dart past on the sandy paths, clouds of dust following their tires. 

We were happy just to have found such a lovely little park, but when the sprinklers came on it was a bonus awesome surprise. Riding in the van all day, despite the opening of many windows and utilization of fans, didn't leave feeling super great. A quick sprint through the sprinklers woke me right up and cooled me off considerably. We also chatted with a friendly gentleman with an adorable little dog, who told us a bit about the park and nearby area. There were families playing on the little playground near the parking area, enjoying the weather, too. Can you blame them? It was warm, but not the full brunt of summer heat yet, and with the waning sunlight it was growing even more pleasant. 

More photos below~