On the Road. Again.

Got off the Spirit October 9 in Portland, Oregon. My timing for October was based around being back in Seattle by the end of the month in order to get the Explorer ready to head to San Francisco and then Hawaii in mid-November. I had a flight from Seattle on the 20th to fly east and see family in New York and Philadelphia. Thus, despite the Hawaii season being canceled, I still had a week or so to drift before responsibilities of family and being unemployed caught up with me.

I decided to drive a loop in Oregon. Started in Astoria, a town I have always liked and which has a bakery named Blue Scorcher with this delicious-looking artisan bread with a tough chewy crust. It was a worthy place to begin. Drove down the coast, stopping to camp at any place that didn't seem to be too dominated by RVs. Oregon does indeed seem to be RV central. The first campsite at which I stayed was a relatively popular placed called Beverly Beach, and had little heated yurts you could rent if you so chose. As the weather stayed gorgeous and sunny and blue, it also got colder and colder, and I, with my 15F down sleeping bag and three-season tent, was nonetheless freezing. Each night I added layers, until I was sleeping in a thermal shirt, sweater, thermal pants, fleece pants, rain pants, gloves and a fleece hat, inside my sleeping bag, and with a towel and various jackets piled outside by bag to keep in the heat . Sadly, I never again encountered a campground with yurts.

But it was a gorgeous trip, and it had been a long time since I'd traveled on my own. Many of my assumptions about my life had rather recently been pulled out from under me, and while an intense period of introspection was just what I needed at the time, 3:30am freezing in a tent in some unknown place in Oregon can be a depressing place to be. But it was a good trip.

Cape Blanco State Park

Left the coast and drove over a pass on a small road that I had seen on the map, and which was labeled "road closed in winter," but my GPS seemed to think it was a valid route, and it was only mid-October. But I saw my first snow of the year! I am not used to this climate...