Go North Young Woman!

A little re-cap from the drive...

Day 1: OC to Ukiah, CA

We strayed off the 101 and headed to the coast at Morro Bay, where I was promptly distracted



Fortunately, or unfortunately, just as I was about to buy an entire set of red transferware in a pattern I'd never seen before at an unbelievably good deal, and a new end table I realized one very important thing...I had absolutely no room in the car for it and no desire to drive 1400 miles with a table strapped onto the car. So we (sobbing) pressed on...

Then we continued on up the coast, through San Francisco, back onto the coast highway which I have to say was quite thrilling. The southern coast highway compared to the northern coast highway is like comparing wine spritzer to tequila. It was the perfect pick-me-up after being stuck in San Fran traffic for an hour, I threw on the Bourne Identity soundtrack, tightened up Dante's harness (yes, my dog has a seat belt) and we were off! And lived to tell the tale :-) Then we stayed on the coast until Point Reyes and hopped back on the 101 to make some time into Ukiah. I'm now the worlds biggest fan of Motel 6, they love dogs, no extra fees, in a world where everyone charges extra for anything associated with a dog this was a beautiful thing to witness. We hit the road bright and early, for about two minutes and then I had to pull off and take pics of the sunrise


After Ukiah came the redwoods and an amazing drive through the Avenue of the Giants




And then we were onto the Northern California Coast driving through what I kept imagining as an enchanted forest, the fog rolling through huge redwoods, each curve in the road providing a new spectacular view

Until we got to this and I was so aghast I ran off the road. Not really but it was a possibility

We headed east to Medford, stopping at the Smith river along the way, and then through Grants Pass and the fateful AC meltdown. Once we got out of hell, it was north into the Cascade Lakes region, where we spent the night at Bend in the Westward Ho Motel and woke up bright and early to back track along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Route (the suicidal squirrel road I mentioned in yesterdays post).





After a long stretch on hwy 97 we hit the freeway again and were into Yakima, WA by late afternoon and Roslyn, WA about an hour later.

Roslyn is amazing, it's a tiny little town nestled into the mountains, the air is fresh and cool and smells of pine trees and I think my lungs were screaming in delight at the impact. I woke up this morning to the sound of the wind in the trees, and nothing else :-) This is heaven.

Last night after unpacking I headed into town for dinner, found myself at the Bar R Bistro, where the owner proudly served me a cheeseburger called the Big Ern, which she named after her father who I'm guessing was a large man, named Ern, and who I am hoping to learn more about in the next few days because based on the burger, he was a man worth knowing about. It was heaven on a bun, toasted ciabatta with a 1/3lb of grass fed beef, sauteed mushrooms, grilled walla walla sweet onions, creamy swiss cheese, smoked bacon and fresh tomatoes. Heaven. I'll be eating there a lot, see if she's got some more family members that can compete with Ern.

After lazing around on the front porch this morning and feeding the neighbors (the owner's horses, how perfect is that, a cabin, in the mountains, with horses) I headed to Ellensburg where I heard the Saturday farmers market was the weekend hot spot. I heard correctly, and the foodie in me went crazy on some local produce, unlike a lot of CA markets where you often wonder how "local" and "fresh" the goods are, this one was pretty obvious, there was dirt on the tomatoes, and the zucchini held the many shapes and sizes that only comes from not having been sorted multiple times on its way to the store, oh and have now discovered red garlic, can't way to try that out on the grill tonight. On my way back to Roslyn I stopped at Cle Elum, a slightly larger town just five minutes away, where I stopped at the hardware store and made what may be my most important purchase thus far (besides the Big Ern), the fishing license. I got an annual one, you know, in case I never leave. :-) The kid who sold it to me told me that the fishing hadn't been very good lately, I was slightly disheartened until I learned that he'd only been here a month, and he's from Florida... not the least bit worried now. Am waiting until Monday to wet the hook, too many tourists on the weekend (she said with a cannibalistic disdain for her own (tourist) kind).

Writing about the burger made me hungry, heading back to see what kind of damage I can do on a charcoal grill...