Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Oregon...

Yeah, I was right, rainy and gray, LOL

We made amazing time yesterday.

We left the house at 1 am, I like driving as much as possible at night with the boys (less complaining, fighting, stops), and arrived at my parents at 7 pm. I really must see what Google uses as a travel time point of reference. Google maps lists the trip as 18 hours and 17 minutes. Which makes me think closer to 20 hours with stops for gas and food.

And while I have been known to have a lead foot, I was not excessively so yesterday -- speed limits were 65 or 70 for the majority of the trip, just a small section of 55 through the mountains on I-5 and a section of 60 through Salem, Oregon -- staying within 5 mph over. We stopped in Fresno for gas and breakfast (maybe an hour to hour and fifteen minutes), and we stopped in Redding for gas and lunch which we ate in the car (maybe half an hour). We had no traffic issues until we hit Salem. All in all, a very smooth trip where the boys didn't get on my nerves until about Cottage Grove, LOL.

The only weather I had was along 58 between Barstow and Bakersfield where I encountered rain and fog. Now the fog was interesting. First of all 58 is in the middle of nowhere. The only lights are those of vehicles on the road, which at 3 in the morning was me and the big rigs LOL, and I literally watched the fog move down from the hills/mountains to cover the road. It was so cool to watch it settle in bit by bit in literal stages. Yes, I'm easily amused at 3 in the morning.

The other thing that was interesting about that stretch of road was the coyote I saw. Sitting on the side of the road, I noticed it first when his eyes flashed in my headlights, waiting for the cars to go by. I happened to be the last in a line of about 6 vehicles, as soon as I passed, I looked in my rear view mirror. I swear that coyote looked both ways before dashing across the highway behind me!

1 comment:

Maria Zannini said...

Glad you made it all right. I leave night driving to the husband.

--smart coyote.

Hope you have a wonderful time!