I really should talk about all the travels I did over this past summer and fall (I was originally going to post about some of it sooner, but I accidentally pressed F5 while I was writing the post and lost everything I wrote, and was too frustrated to re-write the post). Yes, this is going to be a long post.
On Memorial Day weekend, on the way home from vacation at a beach house on Netarts Bay near Tillamook, Oregon, I drove US101 from Pacific City to Astoria. It was my first time driving the stretch of US 101 between Pacific City and Cannon Beach. I'd driven the section of US101 between Pacific City and Otter Rock (located between Depoe Bay and Newport) on August 21, 2017 when our family went to see the solar eclipse. Anyway, I continued north on US101 from Cannon Beach to Astoria, crossed over into Washington, continued north on US101, clinched the ~1 mile long US 101 Alt Ilwaco, and continued north on US101 to Raymond, where I turned east onto WA 6 in order to clinch that highway for the first time.
In early July, from July 5 thru July 13th, I took a roadtrip down the west coast to California and then to Nevada. On this trip, I took I-5 down to Portland, OR, clinched I-405 in Portland, and then continued south on I-5 and got off the freeway at OR 99W in the south part of town. I filmed a lot of the roadtrip and have started posting videos of it to YouTube; here's the first video:
Alright, so after driving through Portland, I headed southwest on OR99W until Newberg, where I got on the new Newberg-Dundee Bypass (OR 18), and continued west on OR 18 out to Lincoln City, where I then continued south on US101 all the way through the state. I filmed most of US 101 on the Oregon Coast and am currently working on the first video from the coast. As a result of this trip, I've now clinched US 101 in Oregon. Then I continued into California on US101, passing through the Redwoods at various points. I also clinched CA 254, aka Avenue of the Giants, enjoying the view of the redwood trees. At Leggett, I took CA 1 back out to the ocean and followed it all the way into San Francisco. In the Bay Area, I clinched I-980 and I-238, and drove parts of I-80, I-880, I-580, I-280, CA 1 and US101. I also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Upon leaving San Francisco, I took I-280 south to CA 1, and followed CA 1 along the coast to Santa Cruz. Then I drove CA 17 over the Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as parts of CA 9 and CA 35 to get to my campsite for that night at Portola Redwoods State Park. The next day I continued on CA 1 through the Big Sur, and then hopped on US101 at San Luis Obispo, continued on the 101 to Ventura, then got back on the 1 (aka the PCH) from Ventura to Santa Monica. I continued on I-10 to the infamous 405, which I took to get to Garden Grove, which is where I stayed with some friends. After staying with them for two nights, I then proceeded to do some driving around LA. I clinched CA 110 and I-110 as well as taking CA 47 over the Vincent Thomas Bridge and then crossing the Gerald Desmond Bridge, whose replacement is currently under construction. After taking a quick look at the
Queen Mary in Long Beach, I then made my way back up to downtown LA via the 110, and then took the 101 to the 10 to make my way out of the LA area, which was kinda slow due to traffic.
I then headed north on I-15 over Cajon Pass, heading to Las Vegas for the night. I planned to see Hoover Dam, then head through Death Valley to US 395, then head north on US 395 to CA 120, which would take me over Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park. After checking out the park, my plan was to head back to I-5 via CA 120 and then take I-5 all the way back to Seattle. However, as I was driving up the mountain north of Baker, CA and still an hour out of Vegas, my car engine started making a rattling noise. Thinking it just needed more oil, I stopped at the next gas station and purchased some. However, this did not solve the problem, so I got it towed to a shop in Las Vegas. They looked at the car and told me that the engine was toast and would cost $4500 to replace, which was more than what my car (a 2001 Toyota Corolla with 180K miles) was worth. So I ultimately sold it to a junkyard for $200. And I had to take a flight home from Vegas. The lesson: Don't take an old car that burns oil on a long roadtrip and if you do, do a better job at monitoring the oil levels than I did. Anyway, I still had fun, it was great seeing the Oregon and California coasts. It was disappointing not to be able to see Yosemite and Death Valley, but it's probably better to visit those places in the fall when Yosemite is less busy and Death Valley is less hot.
Now, I should talk about my more recent travels that I took in the south. A year ago, my brother decided to move out to Columbia, SC, so we went out to visit him for a week earlier this month. We flew into Atlanta, and then spent that day checking out Atlanta a little bit, then the next day, we drove out to Savannah via I-75 and I-16. We saw Fort Pulaski, drove through downtown Savannah and left Savannah via US 17 to I-95. We then made our way to Charleston, staying at a house of someone my parents knew there. The next day my brother came out from Columbia, and we all did some sightseeing in Charleston, including taking the boat out to Fort Sumter. That evening, we drove up to Columbia, and my brother spent the next morning showing us around town and we also went to the state fair, where they had all the fried things you could imagine, even fried cookie dough, Oreos, and Reese's.
(no we didn't eat all that stuff) We then went up to Greenville, and walked along the Reedy River, which runs through downtown Greenville.
Then we went up to Asheville, NC, and stayed at a hotel near there. The next morning, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Mount Mitchell, and then continued east on the Blue Ridge Parkway to NC 80 southeast through the Devil's Whip, a very windy stretch of road. After that, we made our way back to Asheville on I-40, had lunch, and then drove through the Appalachian Mountains along US 74 and then US 23 south into Georgia, eventually heading to the Road Atlanta raceway just northeast of Atlanta and saw the Petit Le Mans race that next day. He really likes watching races (not NASCAR) and this is one of the reasons why he moved to the south. At the end of the day, we said goodbye to my brother. The day after that we flew home to Seattle. It was a fun trip!
Anyway, hope you made it through all that. I'm all caught up on trip reports--for now.
