After a run down I-5 we turned towards the coast at Grant’s Pass OR, and started down route 99. The haze from the California wildfires began to be more and more obvious, and the countryside keeps getting prettier.Soon, towering redwoods lined the road on either side of us and we saw a major milestone ahead on the road.California, here we are!After a lovely encounter with a young family at the state line, we took each other’s groups photos.Spider sez: We ain’t giving em back neither.
Shockingly we got out of our hotel with 20 min to spare and headed out to make our trip to Eugene.Our first stop was a fantastic roadside attraction outside Brinnon WA, called Hixsonville’s Oddities & Collectibles (hixsonville.com) home of the world’s largest pile of Clams.Spider adds: I am not sure if this is the world’s largest PILE of clams, or the world’s largest pile of CLAMS.Producer A found himself a pile of comic books, and I nearly dropped entirely too much money on a genuine mermaid mummy (but alas, I resisted- now I regret my forebearance)Spider picked up refills for our zippo gear and we got back on the road.
Dawn is breaking over the OIympic mountains with a golden kiss of morning sunlight. We arose with songbirds and forest creatures bringing us coffee on rough hewn wooden trays.Just kidding.I awoke at 6, looked over at the other bed where a towering literary giant of the science fiction field is sleeping.Why 6 A.M.? Well, one of the things they don’t warn you about in the SF Author Maintenance Handbook, is the snoring.Fortunately a well aimed pillow from across the room solves the problem and we are ready for the next leg of adventure, excitement and really wild things (™ Douglas Adams, R.I.P.)First order of business. Coffee.
Near Eugene we stopped at a rest site so producer A could ‘shake the dew from his lily’ (he’s fancy. I just pee.).Turns out this rest stop is the home of the ‘trees from all 50 states garden’ where they take non-native species from around the continental US and plant them in one spot.I will presume the Oregon authorities made sure they weren’t messing too bad with the local ecosystem. But who knows.The positive upshot of all this was a lovely little walk around a gem of a tree garden. If you are heading down I-5 near Salem OR, worth the stop.
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