Eulogy to Highways and Car Trips

Road Trip ~ To Bend and Beyond

Highways and byways.  Back roads and country roads.  Paved roads and dirt roads.  I love them all!  Nothing against airplanes, they take me to wonderful destinations, but roads make the journey THE destination.  Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved car trips.  My parents used to pile us up in the station wagon with bags and camping gear, and we'd head out on the open roads.  They were focused on our final destination, but I was completely absorbed and mesmerized by the view along the way.


And oh, the things I would see!  My favorite car to travel in was the one that had a rear-facing back seat.  My parents loved it, too, because they would pile the gear in the middle of the car between us and them.  My two brothers and I felt like we had our own little secret hide-away,  while I'm sure my parents were enjoying their quiet paradise in the front seats.  We would scream with laughter when the trucks honked at our wave or when we made faces at the passing cars.

I still get giddy when I'm on a road trip.  My husband and I are on a two-week, don't-really-know-where-we're-headed, no reservations adventure.  Our loose goals are Bend, Oregon, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  But we plan to be side-tracked many times along the way as we leave the main highways to explore the land and people along the way.


I just love turning northeast at the town of Weed off Hgwy 5 in Northern California just past the glorious, snow-covered, 14,000 ft volcanic Mt. Shasta.  Every time we drive through Weed we speculate how it got its name.  I say it's the namesake of marijuana.  My husband is more pragmatic and says it probably looked like a mangy field before it became somewhat tamed by town folk.  I suppose we could Google it, but it's more fun making up our own stories.  We do that a lot on our road trips ~ combine our imaginations and true history.  After all, it's our trip.


Highway 97 takes us through California's northern most agricultural areas.  I fall in love with the land every time we drive by.  It's a combination of high desert flora, the intense green of tendered fields and the rusted metal of the railroads that opened up these lands to outsiders.

 Of course, all roads need mending from time to time, and that's where we get to watch men play with their grown-up toys.  Reminds me of my brothers' Tonka trucks.  Reminds me of the Tonka trucks I used to buy at a garage sales when my son was little and I had no money to speak of.  I would be thrilled when I came across one.  I could see the beauty under its rusted and beat-up facade, and I would take those trucks home, and lovingly sand and repaint them for my son.  My, how he loved those trucks, just as my brother did.  Road trips are great not just for new adventures but for nostalgic trips back in time.

 My very favorite town in this stretch of the highway is Dorris.  Good 'ole Dorris is basically a handful of buildings scattered along two jig-jags in the road.  But they fly their colors proud and most likely eek out a living in lumber.  Some day we're going to stop in Dorris, but it goes by so fast (even thought the speed limit is 25) that it's gone before I get a chance to say, "Stop here."

 

Within a few short miles of Dorris, we leave the north and enter the south ~ south central Oregon, Klamath Falls, a bird sanctuary and a direct line to Bend.