Northward bound!

I have successfully left San Jose. I went through Sacramento and Redding into Oregon where I passed through Ashland, Crater Lake, Eugene, and Portland (where I currently sit).

Sacramento is a cool little city, and I didn't really spend any time in Redding to get a feel for the place.

San Jose is hot. It was around 85-90 degrees when I was riding out, and I was eager to be heading North, because North = colder, right? Wrong. Inland North California is hot as hell. I left San Jose at around 8pm because I was told it's typically 10 degrees warmer up in Sacramento.

I met my host at their workplace, an Irish Pub called deVere's. It's a cool bar with a good atmosphere and a good selection of beverages. Check it out if you're in town and looking for a decent bar to go to.

It was pleasantly cool at night, but when the sun came up it was that drain-the-life-out-of-a-man kind of hot. It's a good thing I left at night because that day it had been over 100 degrees up there. I hung around Sacto for a day (despite the heat) and walked around taking some pictures.

Of painted rods outside of what used to be a paint shop:


Of a park:


Of seven vehicles parked in a single parking spot:


And of a U.F.O/Airstream RV:


I left at 5pm. Well after the hottest part of the day but it was still rather warm. Shot this photo at sunset somewhere between Sacto and Redding:



I was glad to be heading North because I know that eventually, North does = colder. Just not quite yet.

I got to Redding and hung out with my hosts there for a bit, and left the next day for Oregon.



I was told to stop in Ashland, Oregon because in the nearby town of Phoenix, just a few miles past Ashland, is Debbie's Diner. I was told by a biscuits and gravy connoisseur that the best biscuits and gravy in the country (and that likely means in the world because I'm pretty sure they don't do biscuits and gravy anywhere else) is in Debbie's Diner. After trying them myself, I wouldn't doubt it. If you're going to order biscuits and gravy at Debbie's Diner though, be forewarned that 1 biscuit is about the same size as 3 pancakes. You do NOT need to order anything else. Expecting a biscuit to be a small fist sized item, I ordered a couple of eggs and a couple of pieces of toast and ate until I could not manage another mouthfull, and still ended up having to leave food on my plate.

Ashland, Oregon itself is a cool little town. I happened to be there for the Juneteenth celebration organized by the people behind the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There was a cool little music/poetry show followed by a whole lot of home cooked BBQ.



I then went for a walk in the park which was quite pleasant. Ashland is a cool little town.



The first night I stayed in Ashland, my host's daughter and son were in and we all had dinner together. When it was heard that I was about to roll through Oregon and not see Crater Lake, plans were quickly made to rectify this. Seeing as that's where they both worked, I planned a detour to Crater Lake before moving on. Crater Lake is up high enough that there is still snow on the ground up there.



And while some of the roads were still blocked, you could get up to the rim. I am glad I got to see this because it really is beautiful up there.





I spent a day in Eugene, Oregon but that was just a stopover on my way to Portland. Ah, Portland.





Portland is a very cool city. Of course, I like any town with a famous book store that takes up an entire city block.



I met up with some good friends of mine from Japan (they're from Portland, we were neighbors in Japan), and they took me around to some of the various Portland sights. Like Voodoo Doughnuts:



(Worth a trip if you're in Portland.)

The world's smallest park:



And this thing:



I'm not really sure what it is.



I'm still not sure what it is.

We also went to Ground Control, a retro arcade/bar. Which is possibly the greatest idea for a bar ever.



They had the old Tron game I used to love. It was still hard as hell. They had an original Mario Bros. cabinet:



And quite the selection of pinball machines:



I like Portland.

The next day my host took me to the Saturday Market where you can get anything under the sun.



I had my first "Elephant Ear"



which is basically a piece of fried bread topped with something. I believe Cinnamon and Maple Syrup is the "traditional" way to go, but never being one to adhere to tradition, (and on the advice of my host) I got half with peanut butter, and half with strawberry cream cheese. The Strawberry cream cheese is definitely the way to go.

The rest of Saturday was spent playing Arkham Horror, a Lovecraft themed board game with friends old and new.

Sunday found me at the Portland CouchSurfing Annual Picnic. Portland, you see, has a huge couchsurfing community, and they do things like this.



It is a very cool crowd. When people ask me to describe couchsurfing, I tell them it's like a secret club for all the coolest people in the world, because that's pretty much what it's amounted to in my experience.

Someone did Van Gogh's "Starry Night" in cupcake frosting.



If that isn't the coolest pan of cupcakes you've ever seen, I have to start hanging around your bakery.

Ah, Portland.



I left Portland this "morning" for Castle Rock, Washington, where my host took me to see Mount Saint Helens and Coldwater Lake.





Now if the tone and pacing of this blog seemed a little disjointed and distracted, it was because I let too much time slip between the experience and the writing. I will try to write my blogs more frequently, so things are definitely going to speed up around here.