The Road to Recovery..
So, yesterday was bit of a wipe out - having flaked out as soon as I got to the hotel but today, after dosing up and a mere 12 hours sleep, it feels as though the cold is in retreat. Turkey Tail FTW! As the kids have never said.
Still I should probably take it easy to make sure. Having survived the night in the murder motel, some early morning research suggested that Eugene might be a good place to stop to break up the journey down to Crater Lake. I gave booking.com a chance to redeem itself, and it seems to have worked out, finding a reasonably priced place in Downtown Eugene which seems very pleasant. Same motel form factor, very different vibe. I am also taken with their obvious leaning towards internet privacy:
Anyway, that’s for this evening. Before that I have an appointment with Silver Falls State Park and the Trail of the 10 Waterfalls. I had been planning to do this 8 mile loop, but wondered if I should just conserve my energy and check out the waterfall closest to the car park. Of course after my senior citizen episode yesterday, I could show no weakness and so set off on the trail.
It is a beautiful, heavily wooded canyon replete with (as mentioned), many waterfalls. Now I like a good waterfall, but as you can see 8 of them and only walk 6 miles, I thought that this was a good ROI and more suited to my convalescent status.
A spot of lunch, double espresso and a quick post-prandial snooze and I was ready to head off to Eugene.
As I head further south and east, the landscape is starting to change, with epic looking mountains in the distance. This is the Oregon I have come to see: mountains, lakes and forests. The Williamette Valley may be very fertile and wine friendly, but it is fairly dull to drive through - except of course for the Oregonian inability to avoid hairpin bends on all their roads.
I have had to keep myself amused by trying to bend the gas-guzzling leviathan to my will - aiming to try and keep the average MPG above 20. Of course this means trying to drive efficiently (and I’m fairly certain irritatingly for the locals). For one glorious moment on I5, the MPG hit 22.2, but it couldn’t last. Still, as the cold clears and I have gotten the measure of the white whale, the pleasure of hitting the open road has started to return - or at least it would if I ever saw an open road, but give it time!
Crater Lake tomorrow for 4th July. Can’t wait. Weather forecast is for upper 90s into low 100s for the next 4 days, but I suspect it will be a tad cooler at Crater Lake.