My husband and I are roadtrip junkies. We love getting out on the open road and just driving. I’m pretty sure my husband could be a long-haul truck driver. He can drive for hours without getting tired and stopping. I on the other hand get antsy and bored after 30 minutes. Last weekend we decided to hop in the car and drive north and kind of make up our route as we go. The weather was terrible; it was rainy, cold, and dark. We ended up driving pretty far since we didn’t make too many stops in the rain. We took off on Friday night at 7pm and stayed overnight in Redding,CA (off I-5) at a Rodeway Inn ($50-$80 per night). Cheap, comfortable, no frills, just the way we like it.
The next morning we drove all the way up I-5 to Medford, OR, which took about 2.5 hours. We drove past Mount Shasta and Lake Shasta. I know that California is going through a drought, but I couldnt really quantify it. If you take a look at Lake Shasta now, you’d get a good idea of how bad it really is. Once we got to Medford, we stopped at Harry & David where I proceeded to buy everything. Pears, mandarinquat ( yes, those are a thing), chocolate, pretzels, licorice, and much more than I’d like to admit. The weather was still pretty terrible so my husband and I decided to just go to the hotel and watch movies and relax.
Over the night we decided our next stop should be Coos Bay/North Bend on the coast of Oregon. We hung left on Route 42 and made it to Coos Bay within 4 hours. It normally would take 3 hours, however, we tried to take a Tour Route which took us way too long. I won’t even mention it because it was so terrible. We stayed at the Motel 6 for $60 and watched Tree House Masters all night. They make shows about anything now a days.
Our Monday was probably the best day ever. The weather was beautiful and the ride down back to San Francisco was one of the best scenic routes I’ve ever taken. We woke up nice and early and took off to Shore Acres State Park. The waves there were CRAZY. The ocean would just batter these gigantic rocks creating 100 ft sprays of ocean water. It was literally one of the coolest places I have ever been. The churning water and waves breaking on the rocks was just such chaos. It was unreal. Next we continue down Seven Devils Road towards toward Bandon,OR. This was one of the most interesting drives we did. You curve around the pine forest and can see the different stages of the effects of the lumber industry. We initally drove through a devastated area of land. It looked like someone came and just plowed through the forest. As we drove further down the road you could see the trees the lumber company had planted at past lumber sites. You hit the coast again 20 minutes into the drive and the views are fantastic. These behemoth sizes rocks just laying on the beach, I never saw anything like it!
Once we reached Bandon we stopped at The Face Rock Creamery , where I tried every cheese sample they had. (Hey,I was hungry and we had been on the road for a while! ) The cheddar cheese they make is on point! The 3 chili and vampire cheddar cheese were the best. I ended up buying a block with some italian crackers for a fancy schmacy snack. Also be sure to check out the cranberry jams as Bandon is the highest producer of cranberries on the West Coast.
At this point we decided to continue driving to Eureka down US 101, a 4 hours drive. The next morning we drove through the Avenue of Giants where there are groves of massive Redwood trees. I had been here before, but at the time I had a corneal eye infection and was blind. Rhut put the car in cruise control and we rolled through the tunnel of trees.We made it back to SF at 5:30 pm and stretched out for the rest of the evening.
