Heading Down the Coast

The Google told us it would take about 14 hours to get from Seattle to San Francisco, with no stops and driving the speed limit the whole time.  So we are giving ourselves two days to make the trip, with some opportunities for unplanned detours.

By now we have some established routines in the car.  Now that our lives are governed by Jon's phone, it seems that I drive a lot more than I used to. I am learning to navigate with that little handheld tool, but I am still baffled by the ways that it changes scale and I really like to be able to see more of a map than is commonly available on the screen.  So whenever there is map-reading or decision-making to be done, I am usually the driver.  Today I did, however, locate all the supermarkets along Route 5 and I picked out a Whole Foods that was close to the highway and we only had to go around one extra block before we pulled into the very busy parking lot.  

This was one fancy Whole Foods.  We don't think we have seen one like it before.  It had multiple dining areas -- picnic tables in the middle of the store where you could eat barbecue and drink beer.
Bar stools around one of those moving sushi tracks.  An outdoor, heated seating area.  And a really extensive hot food bar filled with so many choices plus the six kinds of soup plus the salad bar.  I don't remember ever seeing real dishes for people who eat in -- the bowls and plates were hideous, like hospital dishes, in a nasty green color.  No one would ever steal them  Plus real silverware. And a plethora of recycling/composting options.  So we had a delicious hot lunch on real dishes, put them in the tub, and then we headed south.

I also drive while Jon works. He gets text messages and emails and phone calls, he sets himself up with all his plugs and wires and computers, puts in his earbuds and shouts at Al over the phone as if they each have a tin can at the end of a string. Today we thought he was all done working so he was driving when he got 12 text messages in rapid succession.  So I read him the texts and typed in the answers.  At the end I revealed to the group that it was me doing the typing and Tony responded:  "None of this is real.  We just make up obscure sounding terms so that we can bill Al."

Today something happened in the category of Wishes Coming True.  I was driving along, a tiny bit faster than the speed limit, and a big SUV came up behind me and practically pushed me off the road. I moved over as soon as I could and glanced at the license plate as he zoomed past.  A few minutes later I had forgotten all about him when I saw a police motorcycle zipping onto the road...then he got the guy in the SUV with the license plate I recognized.  That is so rare.  I exulted at his misfortune.

Now that we are traveling by smartphone, most of the mystery is gone.  Jon reads reviews and chooses the cheapest motel he can find that still has the basics (we seem to have settled on America's Best Value Motel).  He looks for the cheapest gas that won't take us far out of our way -- today we broke all previous records and paid $2.49/gallon for diesel.  And he is getting speedy at sorting through the dinner options.  Price is not the only factor, but it is definitely part of the equation. Fortunately we have other rules about food and what kinds of businesses we will patronize when it comes to food.  Usually we eat at places that are unique to their region/town. Tonight we went to a tiny Mexican dive and our waiter was clearly the owner and the person who wrote out the menu and also the one who swept the floor.  The food was authentic but the salsa was not at all spicy.  It just needed some oil and vinegar and oregano and cilantro and red epper flakes and then it would have been almost as good as the Tortilla Factory.

We didn't know where we would stop for the night but I said I didn't want to go all the way through Oregon and Northern California without seeing some big trees.  We weren't paying too much attention when we realized there were lots of signs for the Redwood Highway and Ocean Beaches.  It was already almost dusk but we got off the interstate and headed west.  It was suddenly quite foggy and the road was good but had lots of twists and turns. I had to keep all my attention on the road for the whole 85 miles through the mountains, mostly going downhill.  Reminded me of Beulah Road or Swinks Mill Road or the road to Hana except that I knew we were missing some dramatic landscapes in these mountains.  And then suddenly we were driving through a forest of humongous trees right up at the edge of the road. It made me so happy, instantly.  Even though I couldn't see more than the bottom 20 feet of these gigantic trunks, just knowing they were there filled me with joy.  Tomorrow we will see lots more.  

We are spending the night in Crescent City.  Never heard of it but it has everything that is everywhere else in the United States:  Home Depot, Starbucks, Burger King, etc.  We are here because now we are positioned for a long drive down the coast with lots of California scenery. Today there was just about nothing to photograph, or we weren't paying enough attention.