Started Early, Took My Car

...and went visiting friends, a road trip I've been talking about for two or three years. The first day, July 30th, I got as far as Medford; had intended to go over OR58 from Eugene and then down US97 to Klamath Falls, and it would have been possible by pushing, but it already too late in the day by the time I reached Eugene, and I was scared to commit to back roads with few lodging options.

Blogger is hard to use from the iPad. It can be done, but it's hard. I posted to twitter instead of making a blog post that night, and so continued for the whole trip.

First Road Day, July 30, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

In the morning my route was free of the Interstate, I had a wonderful drive, and by noon arrived in Cedarville, California, in the Surprise Valley. I call it Northeast Nowhere, because it is so close to Oregon and to Nevada (you can actually see Nevada from their house) and so very remote.

Second Road Day, July 31, 2011 (Click for larger image.)White pelican in the sloughs between Upper Klamath Lake and the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge (Click for larger image.)Mount Shasta Looms to the South from West of Klamath Falls (Click for larger image.)Attempt to manipulate image so you can see Shasta (Click for larger image.)

I pulled in under the huge Siberian elms at SA and MC's house in the Surprise Valley. I gave them two containers of Triple Ginger Snaps for a hostess gift. We started talking.