Movin' West - Day 29

Tuesday, September 30 - Day 29 (starting our 4th week on the road!).

Sorry, no pictures today. We left Canby this morning at about 11AM. We had hoped to be out earlier, but I ran into a problem with my battery filler system, and I spent about 1/2 hour fooling around with it before finally giving up.

The drive south to Grant's Pass, OR has to be the worst travel day yet. The first part of the trip was OK, but the final leg, about 70 miles worth, was over more mountains than I thought even existed in Oregon!! It was very warm outside (mid-80s), and the load we were carrying, plus the car in tow, caused the engine temperature to rise to dangerous levels, so I had to slow down on the uphill grades and drive in 2nd gear at about 25mph. At one point, the temperature alarm went off, so I had to pull off to the side of the road and rev the engine in Neutral to bring it down. At that point, we unhitched the car and Kathy drove it the remaining 35 or so miles to our destination - a Wal-Mart parking lot in Grant's Pass. Our original plan was to spend the night here in the lot, then take the car tomorrow morning to explore Crater Lake National Park, which is about 75 miles to the northeast. As I said, that was the ORIGINAL plan.

The new plan is that tomorrow we will, instead, head southwest toward the California coast to the town of Crescent City, CA, and spend some time just chillin' on the beach. We really haven't taken much of a break on this trip. We did spend 4 days at Yellowstone, but every day we were up and out exploring in the car. So, we decided we needed a break from "the tour", to just chill, sit in our lounge chairs in the sun and read (or nap).

After we arrived this afternoon, at about 4:15PM, we set out to find the Post Office here in Grant's Pass. The GPS has been infallible on this trip (and invaluable). It has taken us to wherever we wanted to go, although not always via the quickest route. Anyway, after taking care of business at the PO, Kathy decided she felt like pizza and beer, and she didn't want to cook it. So, we asked the GPS to find us a place for pizza. It came up with the "Wild River Brewery & Pizza", a great place! After we were seated, Kathy asked me if I thought they might have Corona here. I looked at the menu, but I couldn't see any other beer listed; only the beers they brew here. So, I told her to ask the waitress. When the waitress came over to take our drink order, Kathy asked her if they had Corona. She looked at Kathy and said, "This is a brewery! We only serve OUR beer here." I don't think she meant it to sound condescending, but, nevertheless.... Anyway, I thought it was funny, but Kathy didn't. We ordered their "Milano" pizza, which consisted of Mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, tomatoes and garlic. It was very good, but the tomatoes were sliced in eights, one slice per piece of pizza. Weird!

OK! That's it for today's journal. Maybe we'll have some pictures tomorrow. Check back then.