Day Three: Crater Lake National Park, OR to Oroville, CA

Today. Was. HOT! We had a lot of ground to cover, and instead of taking the slow and scenic routes, we took the most direct route possible. This was due to the failing front brake material on Scrap. We started the day with a drive around the rim of Crater Lake. The lake is a beautiful blue color, and almost perfectly round. The drive around the top rim of the lake is 30 miles, and well worth it. We learned the Native American story of how the lake was formed by two warring spirits Llao and Skell and their destruction of Mount Mazama. After concluding our trip around the lake, and saying one last goodbye to our mosquito infested campsite we headed South. When we passed through Redding, CA the temperature read 109 degrees. We were traveling at 80 MPH with all four...

Day Two: Ashland, OR to Crater Lake National Park

Wow. What a day! After yesterday and traveling over 500 miles, I am pleased to report that we traveled under 200 miles today, total. The day started early, as our camping neighbors in Ashland were far too loud for their own good. All three of us took turns being forcibly woken by their antics starting from about 10 PM on day one. Regardless of that, the day’s activities were enough to make me forget any unpleasantness in the morning. We headed out after packing up the campsite and made our way about half a mile down the road. The previous evening we had noticed a floating dock with a few people jumping from it, enjoying the last little bit of daylight. We almost made it to the dock that evening, but we decided it wasn’t prudent to go jumping into unfamiliar...

Day One: Port Townsend, WA to Ashland, OR

Well! After lazy departure from Port Townsend, around 11 AM we made pretty good time covering just under 500 miles. WA-101 was beautiful, as always and we took I-5 through the boring Northern parts of Oregon. We would have liked to take 101 most of the way through both states, but we were trying to make it to Ashland by around 8:30 in order to observe a production as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Oregon has the most unfortunate drivers I’ve witnessed in quite some time. Tailgaiting at highway speeds, failing to signal, ridiculous! We ate at Carl’s Jr. another first for me. It was delicious! It was getting dark when we arrived in Ashland, so finding a camp-site and getting the tent up was our first priority. We stopped at a 7-11 and Amber...