Tag United States of America

Elk Crossing

After a delightful night in the Redwood Forest, we figured the rest of our return journey would be rather rote. It was time to dig in and get to our friend's house outside of Sacramento where we could take a break from traveling and get some work done. But little did we know what a truly beautiful remainder of a trip we had left. Well, we did rather know. I made a point to route us along the coast for a while before heading inland for a mountain pass. So I knew there would be beaches and sea side views. What I didn't expect was an elk crossing.

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Jedediah Smith Campground

In keeping with our tradition of shoehorning additional stops into an already busy schedule, we extended our trip by a day to camp in Redwood National and State Parks. Parts of it are national. Parts of it are state. As far as we can determine, there aren't any drive in camping spots in the National park, so we found an ideal spot at the State Park. The site is flanked by massive redwood trees, within hearing distance of a sonorous river, and a hop skip an a jump from bathrooms that don't stink. To me, the perfect spot.

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Willamette Valley

Barn in the Vineyards of Willamette Valley

I'm not sure if Willamette Valley pinot just appeals to a different taste than mine or if the people of Oregon are getting ripped off. We've spent the last few days touring vineyards and tasting rooms across the Willamette Valley and expected more than what we experienced.

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Mount Hood

Spiked cocoa from Timberline Lodge along the Fruit Loop of Mount Hood

Nearing the conclusion of our trip to Portland, we couldn't help but draw it out a little longer by taking the "fruit loop" around Mount Hood. As 84 got busier, we diverged onto 35 where produce stands sell fruit, nuts, vegetables, and other locally grown produce from the side of the road.

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Maryhill Stonehenge

Maryhill Stonehenge on the hill

No, not that Stonehenge, the other one. The one along the Washington-Oregon border that some road baron built along with his utopian society. Samuel Hill had dreams of creating an ideal quaker community. Instead, his home is now an art museum and he is, possibly best known for his concrete reproduction of Stonehenge. The Maryhill Stonehenge happens to hold the distinction of being the first WWI memorial in the United States built to honor the dead. It may have helped that it was built before the war was even over. At the time, scholars considered Stonehenge to be a place of human sacrifice. As a Quaker, Hill considered building his Stonehenge as a reminder that people were still being sacrificed to the god of war.

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Arches

Arches National Park vista

We wing things. That's what we do. I've made a map of places we would like to go to and then base our routes on our final destination and what mapped points fall between our current location and destination. Exactly how our trip plays out each time is something we play by ear. In this case, we had ten days to travel to Oregon. Half way in, we discovered that we would be swinging by Arches National Park. Arches ranks as one of the most exciting National Parks that neither of us has ever visited. So, of course, we went.

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PUMPNIT

Driving down the Utah Highway

For your consideration, we present: PUMPNIT—a vanity license plate we encountered at a pungent rest stop in Utah. It took a heavy foot on the accelerator to keep pace with the truck in order to preserve this moment for posterity in photographic form.

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