Oregon 2013 – Part One
Happy 2014!
We wrapped up 2013 with our annual road trip to Oregon to visit family. Of course, we also took the opportunity to explore some trails and see some sights along the way.
We always look forward to this trip. And with 2013 having been a difficult year, we really were ready to put our daily lives aside for ten days and just try to relax and enjoy ourselves for a short time, and take a much-needed break. Once we got past the early stresses of packing, making sure we had everything in order, and hitting the road, we quickly settled into a groove. “On the road again….”
The weather was unseasonably dry for the time of year, with very little snow to be found. In fact, I’m pretty sure that we had more snow (and rain) on every previous trip over the last dozen years. And since this was a late December trip, it was even more unusual. On the plus side, it was nice to have some sun in Oregon for a change and it definitely made the long drives easier. And we did find just a little snow to play in.
Speaking of driving, as usual we spent a lot of time doing just that. On the 10-day trip, 6 days featured drives of 3 hours or more. Sometimes much more! Maybe about 34 hours or more in total. I put in over 1,400 miles driving the Land Cruiser, plus we probably got in another 400 miles in the in-laws’ vehicle. Having the dual gas tanks in the Land Cruiser is a blessing, reducing the number of required fuel stops on the trip and giving greater flexibility for when and where we stop.
The trip schedule was pretty typical for us. We drove for seven hours up to Grants Pass on day one, having dinner at Wild River Brewing and breakfast at the Train Depot before continuing north the following morning. We drove up I-5 until making our way over to the coast on pretty Highway 38, and then north to Newport and Rogue Brewing’s headquarters for an always-anticipated lunch. From there it was under an hour’s drive to our primary destination, my in-laws’ home in Lincoln City, on Sunday night.
I had several side trips in mind along this part of our drive, but with the weather outlook being good for the trip home I decided to save them until then. This way we’d get up to be with family as quickly as possible. So it was pretty much a straight shot from San Jose to Lincoln City, with just a few quick diversions along the way.
One brief side visit we did manage was at this nice covered bridge.
Monday was a day of rest & recovery, and we didn’t get out of the house until we drove up to Pacific City for a sunset dinner at the Pelican Pub. Tuesday was Christmas Eve and we had a 3-hour drive to Astoria and then east to Clatskanie to Dan & Kathy’s epic log home where the family was gathering for Christmas. We overnighted there and had a wonderful, laugh-filled time. Although it was no white Christmas this year, we had a “white elephant” Christmas Eve gift exchange that was a lot of fun… Good times!
The house was full with all of the visiting relatives so for the first time Carrie and I were put up in Dan and Kathy’s big trailer, complete with heat, shower, bathroom and satellite TVs! It was a fun experience for us, especially as we’re used to tents. And we slept well, until getting up too early as always on Christmas morning. Most of the adults – including me – then went straight for the coffee pot.
And so the first several days of the trip blew past in a bit of a blur… And I’ll wrap up the general trip report with part two next. I’ll also have the Drive posts which will cover the side trips we did manage to do.
Here’s the Oregon 2-13 Photo Gallery #1.
As a side note, here’s a collection of links to our previous Oregon road trip reports, just to put them all in one place:
Oregon 2001
Oregon 2006
Oregon 2007
Oregon 2008
Oregon 2009 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Oregon 2010 part 0, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Oregon 2011
Oregon 2012
Oregon Road Trip Drives: Klamathon Road, Coos Bay Wagon Road, North Fork of the Siuslaw River, Mt. Hebo
