Day 1: Portland, OR to Weed, CA

Stops: Cottage Grove, OR, Ashland, OR., Weed, CA

We start the trip off leaving the rain behind in Portland and heading to sunnier pastures.

BTW, Timber Jim is leading the helm and is also our tie-breaker vote decider and all around decision maker.  

Our first stop was for lunch in Cottage Grove, OR.  B wanted to see this mural of Opal Whiteley.  She had read her diary while living in Australia.  Also, Cottage Grove is known for a covered pedestrian bridge which they painted in the mural.

We came across Buster's Bottle Shoppe near 7th and Main st.   BTW, I think every small down in America has a Main St.  Busters carried a great selection of sodas, beers, wines, meads, ciders,and specialty drinks.

Our first disappointment came already with not being able to find a roadside attraction of a giant spider  with a VW bug for the body.  It was suppose to be in Wolf Creek, OR. but the directions were not that good and after trying 3 times to find it, we gave up.

We managed to contact our friends, who happen to be attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland,OR.  Downtown Ashland is adorable with a pretty park area and gardens and little river and walkway.  It also as 3 theaters for the plays going on.  We managed to see lots of Westies and VW buses there.  A lot of folks came up from Northern California.

There is also this natural water coming from the Lithia springs which you can drink.  I'm sure it's super healthy but it tastes like blood.

We had dinner with our friends at the Sesame Asian Cuisine restaurant where they had coconut milk Thai ice teas and also some awesome vegetarian Bibimbop.

We continue our trip crossing the border into California where we forgot about the agriculture check and pulled out our two naval oranges.  The inspector laughed and said, oh you two are breaking some pretty serious federal laws.  He looked at our oranges and handed them back to us, and to think I was gonna make a break for it with our oranges imagining some kind of Thelma and Louise scene were we punch it and had the the CHP chasing us until we drive over a cliff.  Oh well, I guess not.

We drove down I-5 watching a beautiful sunset on Mt. Shasta off in the distance. Finally, we ended up in Weed for the night, I mean how could you not stay in a town called Weed?  The town boldly posts an abundance of pot jokes but they did use one sign I thought was clever, "Weed like to welcome you!"

I had a beer at Mt. Shasta Brewing Company, which is great little bar adjacent to their brewing and bottling plant.  I was all set to relax after a long day of driving but there just happen to be that one guy with the loud, obnoxious voice that carried above everyone else's.  I wanted to tell him to shut up, as he was becoming quite annoying, but instead, I drank my beer and just left.  Don't you just hate it when one person becomes so obvious to how annoying they are and ruins it for everyone?  This guy also had little children under the age of 5 after nine.  I don't know if minors in a bar are allowed after 9 pm, but the bar was severely short-handed with only a young 20's something girl server beer from behind the bar.  No hot food available, no body to serve you.  I image she didn't want to kick out the annoying man or just didn't know about minors in a bar.  Maybe that rule doesn't apply in California?

Oh well...