Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

It's rarely a good idea to schedule the final leg of a long road trip to be the longest one, but thanks to us shortening yesterday's trip, that's exactly what happened to us today. We had 450 miles to go to get home. Now I know people for whom that is nothing, but we don't travel that well, and we don't drive above the speed limit that much.

( Last Day on the Road )

At Klamath Falls, we made the last stop of the Tax Free Tour of Oregon, buying all of the boxes of Breathe-Right strips they had at the Bi-Mart there. We considered stopping for lunch at the Sizzler across the parking lot from the Holiday Inn Express where we often stay, but Lisa was rightly concerned about how late we were running, so we instead grabbed some stuff from the nearby Fred Meyer grocery, and then pressed on.

( Oregon-California-Nevada )

I considered trying to take another day off from work tomorrow and bailing at Alturas; however, I'm committed to covering for a co-worker who is himself taking Thursday off, so I couldn't do it. We even considered spending two nights at Alturas so I could work all day Thursday and part of Friday before going home, but that didn't seem like a great idea. Another plan was to stop at Alturas and fall into bed as early as we could (perhaps 6 PM), then get up again at 2 AM, leave the hotel, and hopefully get home in time for me to be at work for 6 AM Thursday. Fortunately, Lisa felt well enough to do most of the driving aside from a short spell I did from Canby to Alturas.

( Last Leg )

At Hallelujah Junction, we made our final stop in California, that being the last chance to buy Mega Millions lottery tickets for the half-billion-dollar draw coming up. (The big multi-state lotteries are one of the few forms of gambling not available in Nevada.) A few minutes later, we were in Reno.

An earlier version of our travel plans had us stopping in Reno to pick up groceries before heading home; however, that was when we planned to start in K-Falls rather than Bend. Also, we'd bought so much along the way on top of all of our tech gear and personal luggage that there really wasn't much room for groceries, so we simply pressed home, stopping at the Pilot Travel Center for a container of milk before arriving home just before 10 PM. That's 450 miles in twelve hours, which isn't a very good average speed, but is not too bad when you consider the obstacles in our way. Our Westercon Road Trip is now over.

We can go this far in a day. We just do not want to do so.

Today we took a route I've never traveled north of Alturas. Instead of taking CA-299 west to CA-139 toward Klamath Falls, we continued north on US-395 to Lakeview. Lisa did nearly all of the driving, and therefore I took lots of photos. Click through any of these photos to see more on Flickr.

As we were leaving Alturas, I saw a deer by the side of the paralleling railroad; however, I did not get a picture of it. It wasn't the last deer I'd see today, either.

( Oregon End of the NCO )

I took a fair number of snaps of the view from the minivan, as the scenery changed from twisting canyons to mountain meadows.

( Mountains and Valleys )

We stopped in Bend to check out the military surplus store there from which Lisa has obtained numerous useful things in the past. (Unfortunately, it appears that most of what they now sell is Made in China.) We continued on to Redmond and had at late lunch/early dinner at the Black Bear Diner, picking up another stamp in my Black Bear "passport." (You get one stamp for each new Black Bear you visit. After the 4th and 6th visits you get a prize, and then every 10th visit thereafter. Redmond was my 16th BBD as I work my way toward completing Level 3 in their program.)

( To the Crooked River )

Because we left Alturas three hours earlier than our originally generous schedule called for, we had lots of time to stop and look at things. Consequently, we arrived at our hotel in Madras (the EconoLodge; we could probably have done better, but it's relatively cheap) at almost the exact time of our original schedule.

Tomorrow looks to be a pretty easy drive to Portland.

With only 220 miles to drive today, we slept in slightly and took things relatively easy, dawdling over breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express Albany and otherwise not rushing. We had only one errand today, which was to stop at an RV salvage/supply place in Eugene to check for certain parts for the travel trailer and the Rolling Stone. We had limited success with this, but did pick up some routine items while we were there anyway simply to skip the sales tax.

( On to Oakridge and the Cascade Crossing )

The only time we stopped the minivan's motor after our lunch stop in Oakridge was when we refueled at the Pilot station in Klamath Falls. The van restarted with only a minimal complaint there and within ten minutes we were at the Holiday Inn Express.

We have an errand to try and do tomorrow morning before leaving K-Falls: wash the van. The minivan is covered with sea salt spray, which can't be good for it. We tried to use a coin-op wash in Oakridge, but the silly people's bill changer was out of order and the wash bays only take quarters. We'll do it when we get home to Fernley if we have to do so, but I had really meant to do so the further north and west we were, because there's more water up this way.

Although we briefly popped in at Sea-Pac on Sunday morning to collect the things we'd left on hold with one of the vendors, we pretty much blew off the final day of the conference in order to go ride an excursion train.

( Ride 'Em While You Can )

As we approached Garibaldi, we passed a lumber mill, and I saw a deer run between the stacks of logs, but I wasn't able to get a shot off in time.

( OCSR Shops )

I took more photos (and one short video) than what I've shown here. See my Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad album on Flickr for the full set.

We're really glad we got to make this trip. Every year we've been at Seaside when the excursion trains have been running, we've told ourselves we should make the time to ride them. This time we actually made it. We have to keep reminding ourselves that there might not be a next time, or even if there is, the train may not be there.

The excursion train's route follows that of US-101 between the two towns, so you'll see similar scenery driving; however, it's more fun from the train. There are other excursions offered less often, including runs up onto other trackage the railroad operates. Whether or not we'll ever get out here for one of those rare-mileage trips is hard to say, though.

One reason I'm still getting up fairly early while on "vacation" is so that I can accomplish enough on my Day Jobbe to be able to have the late afternoon to myself. Yesterday, Lisa and I strolled down to the Seaside Aquarium, which we've seen for years on our past visits but never found the the time to visit.

( Feeding the Seals at Seaside )

We would have stayed a bit longer, but my phone beeped to remind me of a late-afternoon conference call about which I'd forgotten. Fortunately, it gave me enough notice that we had time to swing by Zinger's Ice Cream (open Thursday-Sunday only) and walk back to the condo with plenty of time for me to set up for the call, which turned out to have been canceled anyway.

The Aquarium was entertaining, and worth between one and two hours of your time, I think, if you're inclined toward such fishy exhibits. I found the seal-feeding to be fun, too. Try to come on an off-peak day as we did to avoid crowds.

Last night we went to dinner at the Camp 18 Restaurant and Logging Museum. The icon on this post is a sign posted on one of the buildings at Camp 18.

( Off to the Lodge )

Lisa and I had the same thing we had the last time we were here: the porterhouse steak with sauteed mushrooms. It was as delicious as I remembered. Lisa was a little disappointed because the nature of the steak makes it hard to get it done as well as she wants near the bone, so she'll need to remember to order it well done next time just to make sure there's not much pink in it; however, it was still good.

( Kuma Bear Likes it Too )

After a bit more of a wander around the grounds after dinner, we headed "home" to the condo in Seaside. For some reason it seemed to take less time to get back to the condo than it took to get to the restaurant, but that probably was because we were hungry going out but not back. It was very nice to get to bed relatively early and to not fret about moving out tomorrow morning.

Because we were up so early to match Scott's work schedule for breakfast, we left Portland over an hour ahead of our originally projected schedule. It turns out that we needed that head start.

( Oregon to Oregon via Washington )

It's a good thing we left Portland early, because otherwise that delay at the ferry could have caused us a lot of trouble getting to our vacation condo in Seaside.

We made it to Pendleton, Oregon today, after leaving the hotel at about 8 AM but not getting out of Winnemucca until more like 9:15 AM on account of several errands we needed to run. I had left my jacket at home and had to buy a new one at Big R, as I'll need something when we get to Seaside. I also left my toiletries kit hanging on its hook in the bathroom at home, and we needed to go by Raley's to buy replacements. Fortunately, I did remember the bag with my medications, or else we would have had to double back to Fernley, a minimum five hour round trip, I think.

Our route was north on US-95, then west on I-84, and we got to the hotel in Pendleton just before 7 PM. The minivan ran pretty well when it ran, and started mostly first time, except when it had run for a long time. However, due to our concerns about it, at many intermediate stops, particularly those in relatively isolated places, we simply didn't stop the van but let it idle while we took our restroom breaks in turn.

( Photos Along the Way )

During our drive into Oregon, we made an ill-advised dogleg into Caldwell, Idaho that probably cost us an hour of driving. Taking advantage of the last chance to pump our own gas, we stopped at the last exit in Idaho, refueled the minivan, and stopped for lunch. This was the only time on today's trip where the minivan was reluctant to restart, although it did eventually cough back to life after lunch without having to resort to the starting fluid.

Just back over the Oregon border is Ontario, Oregon. Based on when we got here, we determined that we should be able to drive here straight from Fernley later this year if we want to make the drive to Worldcon with only one overnight stop instead of two.

( On to Pendleton )

After more than ten hours on the road, all we wanted to do was rest. Lisa took a bath and I ordered us a pizza and turned on the SF Giants game. (The hotel's wired internet access has decent speed; much better than Winnemucca's wi-fi.) I caught up on as much e-mail and messages as I could manage. But Friday we still have a fair bit to go, and we've not selected the fastest route from here to Spokane, in our attempt to minimize duplication of routes. Fortunately, the parts of the Spokane Worldcon meeting on Friday early are not the ones in which we have a personal interest. We'll see some of you Friday evening at the hospitality suite. Assuming the minivan holds together, of course.

Among other reasons was days like this...

Lisa gave me a call from the hotel last night. She and travelswithkuma and scott_sanford went to the video show in Portland yesterday. She says she was a little disappointed. The show was not as well organized as it had been in past years, and there were fewer (as in no) television stations or other bigger professional groups at the show. Still, she's glad she made the trip. Today she's heading back toward Fernley, and she may go to Mehama on the way and collect her utility trailer and some of the things like the spare propane bottles that we were unable to carry on our two previous moving trips. She also expects to take the opportunity to shop at some of the stores that have things (like the variety of Dave's Killer Bread they don't sell in Reno) she can't easily get in Fernley. (She says she can get some of the Dave's Bread frozen, so she can take several loaves with her and they'll keep for a while.) Also, a few medium-ticket purchases without sales tax are on the to-do list.

Lisa isn't sorry to have moved to Fernley, but there are times when we wish there was a Roth's supermarket and a Bi-Mart store in the area.