The road home had its pleasures, like being among the fruit orchards near Marysville, and surprisingly, the stretch of I-5 past Castle Crags and Mount Shasta and over Siskiyou Summit. That's the high point of I-5, the signage informed me, and at 4300' it was just about the elevation of Cedarville, my first destination on this trip. Another sign on I-5, this one just south of where the 205 bypass leaves the mainstem, informed me that I was crossing the 45th parallel, and was halfway between the equator and the pole. This was entertaining food for thought for quite a few miles: nearly to the Columbia River and in everyone's geographical imagination far far north, but by golly just halfway to the pole.
As expected, it did take forever to get out of California, forever to cross Oregon, forever... in part my own doing: by keeping an attentively light foot on the gas pedal, lengthening the trip by hours, for the trip overall the little 15-year-old Tercel averaged 42 miles per gallon.
You know you're from Port Angeles when you wake up in Roseburg, Oregon, and are thrilled to see that the sky is overcast after a week of relentless sun. Stopped along 101 and managed to get a picture of the North Hamma Hamma rainbow arch bridge through the south one. Yes there are two. I don't know why it pleases me so.
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