(no subject)
i'm in vancouver right now, here's the temporary and uneditted trip diary:
day 1
woke up around 7ish, not sure of when we would actually leave. danny had missed both flights to santa cruz the night before and ended up getting into san jose. after this he managed to get a ride down to santa cruz and stayed there for the night. his ride the next morning dropped him off at the san jose airport to get a bus or something but bart’s dad ended up picking him up and bringing him to my place.
we managed to get out of town around 11:30, an hour or so behind schedule but not still in the expected time frame. beau and ian ended up in my car. the ride was pretty uneventful, as a ride through the sacramento valley should, i suppose. we listened to bjork and deltron 3030 at some point. stopped somewhere random in the 530 area code to get some food and use the bathrooms and then powered on up the mountains.
drove on for another couple hoursthrough every turn you could see mt. shasta get larger and larger, very cool. once we got low on gas we stopped in weed, ca completely coincidentally at the perfect time of 4:20. the car had 296.6 miles before I clicked over the trip meter. after that quick stop we crossed into oregon and drove a hundred or so miles on up to medford where we got groceries.
the first thing that I noticed once we got off the freeway was how fucking slow everyone drives in this state. anyway, we went shopping at fred meyer. got some rice, pasta-roni, milk, soup, cereal, and ice. beau found some random useless toy at the checkstand and managed to ask just about everyone in the store what it actually did, to which all of them replied just a little too cheerily.
once we had all our food packed into our already overflowing cars, we drove up 5 a bit more to our campsite at rouge river. the sites were a little too close to the freeway but the camps were pretty empty and quite peaceful. everyone went about their respective duties of setting up tents, prepping dinner, paying for the site, and stealing firewood from other camps. soon after, the stars came out much clearer than we’re used to even in santa cruz.
dinner was served a little bit after nightfall. bart cooked up some pasta-roni that didn’t turn out quite right, topped off with some chips and orangeina. after this, it was about 8 so we sat around the fire and i cooked up some rice to satisfy those of us who were still hungry after the pasta. the usual ian conversation about post-modernism and neo-futurism were had, along with some fun laughs after random forrest gump quotes. danny seemed quite reserved throughout the day but that’s not too different from his usual self on top of his hectic times in the past 24 hours or so.
without electricity to coerce us to stay up longer, we all went to bed around 10ish. it was a very cold night, forecasted around freezing. everyone seemed to get a pretty unsettled sleep, but we made do.
day 2
it seemed that everyone rose around 9ish without anything in particular waking us. i spent a solid 15 minutes hunting down the coffee and attempted to make a pot in the camp coffee pot that bart brought. the coffee was quite a failure but we had shitty instant coffee as a backup. honey nut cheerios and oatmeal made quite a satisfying breakfast as we packed up our gear and left camp around 10.
driving was pretty uneventful as usual until we stopped in Eugene for lunch. we ate at some taqueria named burrito boy with a weird bathroom waaay down in the basement of the store. very good chile relleno burritos were had by all. once we finished there, we headed over to get gas for the first and only time in the state of oregon. just like any good californian, i hopped out of my car and attempted to fill up my tank only to be reminded by the attendant that it is illegal to pump your own gas in the entire state. geoff managed to pump and pay for his before the attendant came over. the guy was pretty chill about it though, so the cops didn’t have to come or anything.
once through eugene, we hit portland for a bathroom stop. we took some wrong turn and ended up right in the middle of downtown. maybe it was the buses in the middle of the street that tipped us off, or the drums in the distance, or the riot police all over but we found ourselves right in the center of a huge peace protest in portland of all places. bart handed me my camera and I spent half an hour or so running around to get pictures of everything. after getting our portland fix, we hopped back in the car and crossed into washington.
after an hour or so of driving and a wrong turn, we arrived at lewis & clark state park out in the middle of nowhere inbetween portland and olympia, wa. most of the park itself was closed for the season but a few camp sites were open somewhere, but we couldn’t really find where those for a while. the other car scoped out the sites and I went for a stroll in the abandoned park.
once we settled into our camp site we explored the area a bit and then set our tents and cooking setup. bart, danny, and i threw a disc around a bit while there was still light for some good downtime. i was glad that danny managed to come out of his shell a little bit around this point. ian mentioned his curiosity earlier as to why danny had been so quiet for a lot of the trip, but i explained a little that danny is a silent guy a lot of the time and that im sure that his rocky night on thursday probably didn't help.
for dinner we made up a boatload of clam chowder, four cans between the six of us. everyone was quiet satisfied and people broke up into smaller groups to go clean dished or prep the fire. geoff and beau stole firewood as usual, this time from a locked area near the camp building. i have a feeling that firewood theft will be a constant thing for this trip, even when we don't really need it.
we finished the last few bowls of ian's stash around the fire so we wouldn't have to worry about bringing it across the border and had a few ciggarettes a here and there while talking around the fire. around this point some really white trash-ey chavelle complete with a multi-tone primer finish drove into our campsite, its occupants staring at us for a minute, then drove off slowly. after this we decided it would probably be a decent idea to sleep with our woodcutting hatchet in the tent as well as the few obligatory Deliverance jokes that had to be said.
around the fire, ian managed to get danny to explain the origin of his wod "chief" and things eventually broke down into the ever present (and annoying) nor cal vs. so cal debate. soon after, conversation degraded and we all went off to our tents for sleep. the night wasn't nearly as cold as the previous in oregon and we all got a much better night's sleep than the previous.
day 3
the morning light illuminated the tent quite a bit this morning, making it near impossible to sleep past 9 or so. once we were all up, i attempted the coffee maker once more. yet again, i failed to make decent coffee, though this time i managed to keep all the grounds inside the ghetto filter i made out of ripped up paper.
once we had our usual breakfast of oatmeal, bart called his uncle mark to let him know that danny's license would arrive there on monday morning. when they got in contact with each other, mark offered to let us stay at his house about 20 minutes outside of seattle. we packed up our gear, got the cheap local gas, and headed off towards seattle.
getting to mark's place was one giant wrong turn. bart first got off the wrong exit so we had to wait for him in some parking lot. then he got us off onto route 900 instead of highway 90. after consulting the map, route 900 we kept going down 900 which met 90 at some point further down the road. once we got into issoquah bart then sent us down the wrong road and then down a one way street to get to the fred meyer parking lot where we met bart's uncle.
this neighborhood really reminds me of moraga and especially the area of pleasanton off of foothill. every house is unique and has at least 4 or 5 bedrooms... probably still a quarter million dollars cheaper than the bay area though. after we dumped our gear from our cars next to the lexus in the garage, we headed into seattle.
our target location was the experience music project, sort of a rock&roll museum. they had a fun exhibit on the beatlemania era of the beatles as well as their usual guitar exhibit and hendrix exhibits. the whole museum was a lot of fun. my only complaints were that nothing really seemed to go in depth enough and the whole museum was a little too seattle/northwest oriented. nothing too big to gripe about but its a little weird to see sleater-kinney's featured in the same sized space as the ventures and sir mix a lot.
after the emp, we went to a fun italian family restaurant. lots of pasta and pizza was eaten and mark shared plenty of life and college stories. bart's uncle mark reminds me a lot of my uncle mark, right down to his refusal to let us pay for any of the dinner bill.
after dinner, we settled down at mark's house. a few of the guys are downstairs watching a movie and i went upstairs to get a little chill out alone time and write this. its 9 right now and in a few minutes i'll be taking my first shower this whole trip.
day 1
woke up around 7ish, not sure of when we would actually leave. danny had missed both flights to santa cruz the night before and ended up getting into san jose. after this he managed to get a ride down to santa cruz and stayed there for the night. his ride the next morning dropped him off at the san jose airport to get a bus or something but bart’s dad ended up picking him up and bringing him to my place.
we managed to get out of town around 11:30, an hour or so behind schedule but not still in the expected time frame. beau and ian ended up in my car. the ride was pretty uneventful, as a ride through the sacramento valley should, i suppose. we listened to bjork and deltron 3030 at some point. stopped somewhere random in the 530 area code to get some food and use the bathrooms and then powered on up the mountains.
drove on for another couple hoursthrough every turn you could see mt. shasta get larger and larger, very cool. once we got low on gas we stopped in weed, ca completely coincidentally at the perfect time of 4:20. the car had 296.6 miles before I clicked over the trip meter. after that quick stop we crossed into oregon and drove a hundred or so miles on up to medford where we got groceries.
the first thing that I noticed once we got off the freeway was how fucking slow everyone drives in this state. anyway, we went shopping at fred meyer. got some rice, pasta-roni, milk, soup, cereal, and ice. beau found some random useless toy at the checkstand and managed to ask just about everyone in the store what it actually did, to which all of them replied just a little too cheerily.
once we had all our food packed into our already overflowing cars, we drove up 5 a bit more to our campsite at rouge river. the sites were a little too close to the freeway but the camps were pretty empty and quite peaceful. everyone went about their respective duties of setting up tents, prepping dinner, paying for the site, and stealing firewood from other camps. soon after, the stars came out much clearer than we’re used to even in santa cruz.
dinner was served a little bit after nightfall. bart cooked up some pasta-roni that didn’t turn out quite right, topped off with some chips and orangeina. after this, it was about 8 so we sat around the fire and i cooked up some rice to satisfy those of us who were still hungry after the pasta. the usual ian conversation about post-modernism and neo-futurism were had, along with some fun laughs after random forrest gump quotes. danny seemed quite reserved throughout the day but that’s not too different from his usual self on top of his hectic times in the past 24 hours or so.
without electricity to coerce us to stay up longer, we all went to bed around 10ish. it was a very cold night, forecasted around freezing. everyone seemed to get a pretty unsettled sleep, but we made do.
day 2
it seemed that everyone rose around 9ish without anything in particular waking us. i spent a solid 15 minutes hunting down the coffee and attempted to make a pot in the camp coffee pot that bart brought. the coffee was quite a failure but we had shitty instant coffee as a backup. honey nut cheerios and oatmeal made quite a satisfying breakfast as we packed up our gear and left camp around 10.
driving was pretty uneventful as usual until we stopped in Eugene for lunch. we ate at some taqueria named burrito boy with a weird bathroom waaay down in the basement of the store. very good chile relleno burritos were had by all. once we finished there, we headed over to get gas for the first and only time in the state of oregon. just like any good californian, i hopped out of my car and attempted to fill up my tank only to be reminded by the attendant that it is illegal to pump your own gas in the entire state. geoff managed to pump and pay for his before the attendant came over. the guy was pretty chill about it though, so the cops didn’t have to come or anything.
once through eugene, we hit portland for a bathroom stop. we took some wrong turn and ended up right in the middle of downtown. maybe it was the buses in the middle of the street that tipped us off, or the drums in the distance, or the riot police all over but we found ourselves right in the center of a huge peace protest in portland of all places. bart handed me my camera and I spent half an hour or so running around to get pictures of everything. after getting our portland fix, we hopped back in the car and crossed into washington.
after an hour or so of driving and a wrong turn, we arrived at lewis & clark state park out in the middle of nowhere inbetween portland and olympia, wa. most of the park itself was closed for the season but a few camp sites were open somewhere, but we couldn’t really find where those for a while. the other car scoped out the sites and I went for a stroll in the abandoned park.
once we settled into our camp site we explored the area a bit and then set our tents and cooking setup. bart, danny, and i threw a disc around a bit while there was still light for some good downtime. i was glad that danny managed to come out of his shell a little bit around this point. ian mentioned his curiosity earlier as to why danny had been so quiet for a lot of the trip, but i explained a little that danny is a silent guy a lot of the time and that im sure that his rocky night on thursday probably didn't help.
for dinner we made up a boatload of clam chowder, four cans between the six of us. everyone was quiet satisfied and people broke up into smaller groups to go clean dished or prep the fire. geoff and beau stole firewood as usual, this time from a locked area near the camp building. i have a feeling that firewood theft will be a constant thing for this trip, even when we don't really need it.
we finished the last few bowls of ian's stash around the fire so we wouldn't have to worry about bringing it across the border and had a few ciggarettes a here and there while talking around the fire. around this point some really white trash-ey chavelle complete with a multi-tone primer finish drove into our campsite, its occupants staring at us for a minute, then drove off slowly. after this we decided it would probably be a decent idea to sleep with our woodcutting hatchet in the tent as well as the few obligatory Deliverance jokes that had to be said.
around the fire, ian managed to get danny to explain the origin of his wod "chief" and things eventually broke down into the ever present (and annoying) nor cal vs. so cal debate. soon after, conversation degraded and we all went off to our tents for sleep. the night wasn't nearly as cold as the previous in oregon and we all got a much better night's sleep than the previous.
day 3
the morning light illuminated the tent quite a bit this morning, making it near impossible to sleep past 9 or so. once we were all up, i attempted the coffee maker once more. yet again, i failed to make decent coffee, though this time i managed to keep all the grounds inside the ghetto filter i made out of ripped up paper.
once we had our usual breakfast of oatmeal, bart called his uncle mark to let him know that danny's license would arrive there on monday morning. when they got in contact with each other, mark offered to let us stay at his house about 20 minutes outside of seattle. we packed up our gear, got the cheap local gas, and headed off towards seattle.
getting to mark's place was one giant wrong turn. bart first got off the wrong exit so we had to wait for him in some parking lot. then he got us off onto route 900 instead of highway 90. after consulting the map, route 900 we kept going down 900 which met 90 at some point further down the road. once we got into issoquah bart then sent us down the wrong road and then down a one way street to get to the fred meyer parking lot where we met bart's uncle.
this neighborhood really reminds me of moraga and especially the area of pleasanton off of foothill. every house is unique and has at least 4 or 5 bedrooms... probably still a quarter million dollars cheaper than the bay area though. after we dumped our gear from our cars next to the lexus in the garage, we headed into seattle.
our target location was the experience music project, sort of a rock&roll museum. they had a fun exhibit on the beatlemania era of the beatles as well as their usual guitar exhibit and hendrix exhibits. the whole museum was a lot of fun. my only complaints were that nothing really seemed to go in depth enough and the whole museum was a little too seattle/northwest oriented. nothing too big to gripe about but its a little weird to see sleater-kinney's featured in the same sized space as the ventures and sir mix a lot.
after the emp, we went to a fun italian family restaurant. lots of pasta and pizza was eaten and mark shared plenty of life and college stories. bart's uncle mark reminds me a lot of my uncle mark, right down to his refusal to let us pay for any of the dinner bill.
after dinner, we settled down at mark's house. a few of the guys are downstairs watching a movie and i went upstairs to get a little chill out alone time and write this. its 9 right now and in a few minutes i'll be taking my first shower this whole trip.