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Driving south again

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23.08.2017
Kārlis writing:

We are at Portland Suites Airport East motel. Another day, another early morning. Jump out of bed. All right, you got me! It’s not a jump, it’s more like a fall out of bed for me. Have a quick shower. Run…, no, not for morning exercise, run out of milk. No problem, made some hot water in microwave or on our mini gas stove, sorry, don’t recall. Put some porridge in it, as usual 2 packages each (kids included, why do they make them so small, anyway), some of us took sweet ones, some unsweet corn based ones. All tasted good. We put some real coffee in our cups and waited for the best taste. As usual, we also got some fruits. We made some sandwiches for later and put all daily food in two bags, one for each car. The rest of food went in cooler bags. Dishes were cleaned and we had 4 minutes left to collect our staff from the room. Three minutes and we were done. Here we go. Not so fast! We still had to solve a daily puzzle of squeezing our never stop expanding luggage, pots and pans included, into our cars. Well, not as hard as it may sound, we were all very experienced already at the time. Now we’re done.

The next navigation target fixed to Crater Lake, Oragona located at distance of about 240 miles from us. About 350 miles were planned total for us for today (it’s about 550 km – that’s specially for you folks who still live in metric). Ole, we are on a road again.

The road to Crater Lake was easy, at least from point of view of navigation that I did. “Take LEFT after one and a half mile”, “Copy that”, “Left now!!!” — this was how our radio conversation sounded. Maybe such kind of conversation does not seem to be very interesting for a reader but I suppose it might have been very useful for us at a time.

Just after making the last turn on the Crater road (just right after that last “left now”) the traffic suddenly stopped. Forest around had been recently damaged from a fire. Tree trunks were black and missing needles seemed to be needless. Somewhat little bit surrealistic view. And no one here to feast us with carrot bites. And I forgot to mention the fire smoke that still was smelling in the air. Under such circumstances looking around the destructed forest we spent about endless 15 minutes in traffic jam. Then we started to move inside the National park reaching the North part of the Crater. Due to the slow traffic, the officer at the park entrance did not look at our National Park Entrance Card (if needed I will refer to it as NPEC from now on) instead he was waiving getting every car inside as fast as possible free of charge. Not that it is important, just to conclude it was completely useless for us to get the NPEC out of a car shelf (I knew this new introduced acronym is going to be useful one day).

Last few miles and we got close to the very top of the crater rim. The parking place turned out to be foolishly full. We decided that our drivers will find some place to park and the rest of our team jumped out of cars. At he beginning we climbed up a path getting at the very rim of the Crater and then we got a little disappointed from a view we saw or rather what we did not see. Everything was in a foggy smoke. The opposite side of the crater was just imaginable, the central island, called the Wizard island that is in fact volcano inside the volcano, was partly noticeable. Where are all the heavenly colors that we expected to see? Where is the blue sky and greenishly blue crystal clear water in the lake? Beside that outside temperature was quite low, now I understood, the lake is so clear because it gets its water from the melting snow that is visible on several places around the crater. Later we had a chance to get closer to such a snow pile. Yes, it is a real snow indeed no doubt about that. The lake surface is about 6200 ft above sea level, let’s say we are at 2000 m or higher at the crater rim.

Next to the road there was a fire truck. Far away in the Western part there was some large smoke clouds and fire still going on. This time the forest fire started a few days ago by lightning strike. It has been monitored since then but generally fireman do not fight any small (is this small?) forest fire letting it end naturally. There was an information board set up with actual forest fire information. Some roads have been closed because of that. Our roads were opened. We met other teams at the crater.

Rihards decided to join another team that was thinking about swimming in the lake. Although I’m not sure if anybody took a swim at all in the Crater Lake that day. Anyway, it seemed too cold for rest of us and we decided to go to the next vista point at the Eastern part of the Crater (in fact I am not sure if viewing point is called as vista point in Oragon. Isn’t it only in California? Never mind, you got the point and we got to the point.)

Crater looked a bit better from the next viewpoint. Possibly fog started to clear a little bit or we get used to it or Sunlight from this direction was showing more of the lake. We took another series of pictures. Juris and Kristaps decided to walk uphill reaching the Watchman peak. It took them about half an hour there and back.

We continued to the Visitor Center and had some time at this viewpoint. There we met Rihards, our team was complete again. So, we started our way to Medford making a few stops between. We drove through a very nice forest with large pine trees around the road and hills in front of us. Very nice view, especially after many desert crossings.

We arrived at our supposed motel in Midford after 6.00 pm. Almost at the same time the team two arrived. We all were tired and thought to have some nice rest this evening because for the next day there was even a larger way scheduled ahead us. For our unpleasant surprise, motel administration said “Sorry, we have some construction going on. No free places!”. I and Ilgonis, we tried to reach Agnese on phone several times about motel booking information but failed. She was out of mobile coverage. At this stage we got to know that at this moment only free nearby places for a reasonable price were left only at Motel 6, here in Medford and in Weed. The weed was place closer t Sanfrancisco were we were heading and it also has been considered as our potential staying place before.
Additionally we took into account chance that any place that we will not take may become occupied any moment and we do not want to spend a night on a street. Since Motel 6 at Medford seemed to be no better as Motel 6 at Weed, Ilgonis called and made reservation for all our teams in Weed. Besides Weed is about 100 km closer to Sanfrancisco, we thought. We were tired but we decided to moved to Weed.

Not to go into more details, at the end our teem number 3 appeared in Motel 6 in Weed but the teams number 1 and 2 stayed at Motel 6 in Medford that the initial motel had arranged instead of their overbooked rooms. Kristaps was ready to go back from Weed to Midford another 100 km, but rest of us were feeling too tiered. So, we all stayed in Weeeeeeed. Just after we arrived at the motel, three fireman tracks followed us. There was no fire there, it turned out that firemen were working somewhere out in forest and stayed overnight in the same motel.

A few minutes later we went out for a dinner in local Hi-Lo café in Weed. They even were selling souvenirs like “I love Weed”. Just to explain, the town in fact had gotten its name from its founder of the local mill Abner Weed. What did you think? Anyway, the moto of Weed is — “Weed like to welcome you!”. This day ended not quite as planned but we were happy that we decided to have a little bit more rest and to move on at about 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. We went to bed. End of day 25.

North Oregon

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22.08.2017
Gļebs writing:

Our day started at 7 am in the small motel which was located in North Oregon street in Pasco town, Washington state. Our departure time was planned for 9 am and we almost reached our schedule and drove away at 9:10 am. Our next stop was Oneonta Gorge on a creek flowing into Columbia river near Portland and it was approximately 320km away from our motel. Our drive took some time – a little bit less than 3 hours.

We parked our cars nearby and started preparing for our extreme walking route to the waterfall. It was in the canyon through the small river with some obstacles such as fallen trees, rocks and deep level of water. We successfully went through this route and some of our crew had time to observe another stunning waterfall (Multnomah falls) nearby. After that we were staying in a big traffic jam near the park’s exit.

First thing which we saw in the Portland was our friend and angel – Walmart and we made our usual shopping. After a long run and hard day we were literally shocked when we came in our hotel – it was luxurious and cosy. Evening was spent in the city centre where we were observing life in a real American city.

It was another good day and with positive thoughts of the next day and a little sadness of the soon departure back home we went asleep.

Hell’s Canyon in Idaho

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19.08.2017
Dace writing:

We woke up in little town Weiser Idaho at Colonial motel. We ate breakfast in Senior center for 6$. Here was a breakfast “party” in honor of Solar eclipse with live music. One old man played piano, others were singing. All this was very kind and lovely.

After we were in market in honor of eclipse. Our team played a local game against American guys who were working there. Our players Gļebs and Niks Jānis got a T shirt as a gift for good playing. Then all cars went to a little hot springs swimming pool in a campground. Here was a group meeting. Madara told her strong opinion about driving speed on the road. After that our course we went to Hell’s canyon.

A boat trip was great. We saw a young bear on cost area. This was a wonderful adventure in the wild nature. Snake river, as in other places as well, was diverse, beautiful and wild. The captain of the ship did his job great. He knows the river perfectly, reads the current and leads the ship through serious rapids. The canyon which the river flows through has high cliffs which highlights the natural flow of the river. During the trip we stopped on a small sandy beach where we were offered water or lemonade. Some of us went swimming. Gļebs built a mini dam which he lowered after. When getting back on the boat, we had to wash our feet in a bowl to not bring sand in the boat. This trip was very inspiring, exciting and fun.

In the evening we went to a campsite where we prepared supper and build tents. This was a nice day.

The Day of Grand Sceneries

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14.08.2017
Jānis writing:

On the 14th of August we woke up at the very reasonable hour of 6 o’clock. However, this time we were pleasantly surprised by being offered breakfast. In all honesty we knew that breakfast was hoped for, but it being edible was still a pleasant surprise. After eating, packing and washing we were ready to get going by 7:20.
This day we had a single stop planed – the Grand Canyon. I must say that the Grand Canyon is not a case of marketing or sarcasm. I can truly say that it is one of the most impressive, beautiful and unique natural objects that I have ever seen and the 6 hours that we spent there where nowhere near enough.

It is quite indescribable. Now, one can overhear a lot of interesting things if one keeps his or her ears open. Two quotes by a ranger comes to mind, as I am writing this. Number one: “a picture will never do it.” No matter where or how you may have seen replicas, pictures or movies containing the Great Canyon I can guarantee that they did not do it justice. Number two: “I came here when I was eight or nine and just never got over it.” The quote makes perfect sense after visiting the canyon.

It is exceptionally hard to put in words the steep, broken cliffs promising a slow and painless death to anyone who ventures to close to their edges. The shear history contained in its slopes, uncovered by millions of years of erosion, wherein a billion years of Earth’s history are laid bare. The rare views of a muddy river hiding in the depths of the canyon slowly, gradually continuing its age old duty.

Anyway, we did not have the time explore the whole canyon and had to satisfy ourselves with only a couple of viewing platforms and a, comparably, short walk to the shuttle bus by the edge of the canyon. Still, the walk offered several opportunities and angles from which to view the canyon, as well as several exhibits, for example several rocks where placed along the path displayed with their names and information about how long ago they were formed.

After exiting the canyon we visited two more points. The first was Grand view vista that provided an impressive view of the Grand Canyon, but nothing truly unique after the day we have just had.
The second was a place called “Desert view” which had a tower that, while not the tallest building, provided an excellent view of the canyon. Although, the experience was slightly ruined by the mass of people trying to get into, as well as take pictures from the same small room.

After visiting these viewing platforms it was time to head to our campsite in the stunning Monument valley. Before I finish, I feel it appropriate to mention that August 14th is the birthday of Inese, so we had ourselves a little celebration.

Our campsite had two major advantages. Number one – it was located on a slight slope facing the Monument valley with its rustic beauty and awe inspiring peaks. Number two – it is located ever so slightly in the middle of nowhere giving us a very clear sky. Despite the biting wind and the ever-present red sand we left the top of our tent off and slept under the clear sky.

Free day in Las Vegas

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12.08.2017
Laura writing:

This was the first free day of this trip, when we could do whatever we wanted all day long. Sleep, spend the morning swimming in the pool and a stroll through Las Vegas, without any hassle. We slept 30 minutes drive from Las Vegas, so we arrived in the city around 12:30 (other teams arrived at 10:00). Time in Las Vegas passes quickly. It was really hot outside with 44°C in the shade, so the sanctuaries are the impressive hotels. By the day the city does not look so spectacularly glamorous as in the evening. Musical fountains, American hill, artificial volcanic show, recreations of Venice and Paris, shark aquarium – a small part of the city. This is a town of fun and relaxation, in which it is important to stay with people “on the same wave”. Admittedly, it’s not possible to walk the main streets of Las Vegas within a day. Before going away, it was also necessary to play the machines that are on every corner and in all the colours of the rainbow. We put in $1 and while we did not know how to play, by the grace of pushing all the buttons in sight we won $41.59. Good luck and great fun. As we were already doing well, we decide to play again so we lost the next $2, but the satisfaction remained. We liked Las Vegas. Impressive and beautiful. We arrived at the motel after 1:00 at night. When we arrived at the hotel, we found out that our laundry, which we had left to be washed had been stolen. Our team now has a little lighter suitcases. We did not expect anything like this from the USA. Anyway, this will be a reason to replenish our suitcases in the next cities.

To the ocean!

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06.08.2017
Atis Edvards un Niks Jānis raksta:

It was morning of August 6. We got up shortly before 6 o’clock a.m. and heated a water for the morning porridge. Today it was planned to travel a great and long distance. At 6:45 a.m. there was our group meeting. It was said that it would be possible to take and use swimsuits. Once again, we filled up our cars with our stuff to the top and we went on a long journey.
On the sidewalk, we tasted some figs that just grove green and fresh in trees. I should admit that it was my first time eating green completely fresh sweet figs. Then I fell to a little sleep, as I woke up, we drove through a green beautiful forest, and the next time I opened my eyes we had reached the Pacific Ocean that loudly rocked and waved, finally we could really look at it. Let’s go further and see it from a different point of view. It was early morning, so people were not there yet, and the weather was mildly warm but ocean’s cold winds made it pleasant and cool.

When we found a nice-looking place, it turned out to be some kind of a cow beach. Wow, the private cow beach possibly is a place for a milk with fish aroma – was noticed by someone in our radio. A few moments later we drove off the main road to the beach, where some of us did swimming. Salvis was the first who run in the Pacific Ocean with his arms wide open. The water was quite cold and unpleasant, but the sensation of embarking and soaking legs was already an adventure. After the beach we ate some bananas and went further. We drove for a long time and tried to stay at least a couple of minutes from each other, we traveled through traffic jams, either lost or separated for a moment but we could hear each other on our walkie talkie channel 11.

We were separated because some stopped on another beach to cool down and I’m sure they were swimming. But we continued our journey and later stopped for a moment at the rest area. Somebody told that Kristaps had said that he had seen a rattlesnake, and that he was asking others if they have seen it. The rumors spread quickly and everyone remained obscure, some went to look. But in fact, Kristaps had only seen the sign, written about the rattlesnakes, and that they usually go out at night. We stopped by self-service machines, someone took a lemonade, someone – coffee, but we with brother found an ice cream machine for a dollar. We inserted one-dollar bill into machine and the refrigerator what was in the machine opened its lid and a robot hand miraculously swept our order from the freezer – it was lifted, moved a little towards the glass and dropped at our feet. You do not see anything like that every day (if you do not live next door by the ice-cream vending machine, of course). The ice-cream at this hot day was good and the price for such a pleasure for a dollar was excellent.

We went on and I was listening to music again, eventually we scanned throw radio stations. Some of the stations stumbled among the mountains, but it was ok. Suddenly one station had a program about the upcoming Solar eclipse, and all of us started listening very carefully right away.

We were still divided into two parts, and again we were looking for a place to dock. At this part of our road everything was full of trailers with American, Californian (just in case you don’t know, its main symbol is a grizzly bear) and pirate-type flags. The beach was nice and this time almost everyone went for a swim in the ocean, we made wonderful pictures, we wet pants and went to our previously booked motel. We had to do laundry and make a soup for dinner. The laundry room was hidden on the second floor, and there was no detergent there, but it turned out to be able to buy it from vending machine at the motel reception, the Tide was hidden between different chocolates and other snacks, very cleverly invented! Others cooked sausages, rice and more for dinner. We put a pile of ice in our cold bags with food supplies, since there was only one small refrigerator located at the reception, then we washed ourselves and went to bed.

The 2nd Day in San Francisco

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02.08.2017
Vita writing:

We woke up at 6:30am. For breakfast we had an infinitely sweet muffins that we had obtained in warehouse store the previous day (is everything really so sweet in America or is it just us… brrrrr), we had a cup of fresh yesterday’s coffee, we collected all our countless stuff left them under the supervision of Gleb. We took a subway ride to the Civic center, then took the bus Number 30 North. It turned out that you need to register the Clipper cards twice – on entry and on exit for this ride. I probably did not do it right and some additional money was pulled away. It’s good that kids were clever, they made it all right for their Clipper cards.

We went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was foggy, thick fog all around the bridge. We were trying to see it and take pictures of the foggy bridge. We took a trail uphill. The fog did not vanish, but we were happy about the view. For a short moment even the bridge’s contours could be seen following by cheerios sounds. We went down the hill and over the mighty bridge. Wind blew in the ears and it was strong. Overall views all around were fabulous.

We started to go back to the center of San Francisco by foot. We were tired and happy. We stopped by the Dome — the beautiful art temple, built in the 20th century. We sat drained into deep philosophical reflections of life. Philosophically clever turtles swam in the pond.

Let’s go to the Super Duper burgers. And we did have real burgers. I usually do not eat such things in Latvia. Then Daumants introduced everyone with his drink of Root Beer. That got all four of our family.

Drivers went to get the cars, but we’re still wandering along ways of San Francisco. We took the trolleybus number 22 to get closer to the subway. In our way we enjoyed beautiful neighbourhoods with beautiful private houses. Wonderful flowers, roses at home gardens etc. Architecture, unusual facades and beautiful windows. Fabulous … Huge lavender shrubs that when touched by hand were smearing some sort of fabulous oil. For some time after that I still smelled my hand to enjoy the nice scent. We went to the City Hall, Opera and many other interesting places.

When we arrived at the motel, we were waiting for drivers for quite a long time. We sat on the cold floor to chill out somehow and we continued to wait for our drivers. Finally, the cars were there and we started to fill them up and we are on our way.
At first we can not find were the shopping center is located, it was dark already. After a huge shopping at the Walmart, people finally start using our walkie talkies. Now it is so much easier. Karlis ahead of the team 3 is well oriented and we are happy to get to the motel. But oh, there are cockroaches in a room. Good night. The feet are heated, the nose is burning from sun and the tiredness is huge.

Jānis, Laura, Agnese comment:
The little adventure named car rental was as exciting as tiring and long. Everything started with a long ride (but in comparison – not so long) by metro (BART) during which we had several discussions about some american choices of accessories – that is Laura does not like rings that some choose to put in their noses. After the metro trip a short distance from from the station an employee from the car rental company Enterprise picked us up and drove us to the car rental. During this trip we received a free story about the Babel tower.

The choice in the car rental was very vast and impressive. For example, there was a car available with completely used tyres, with which even the smallest rain would create a feeling of being in an aquapark. One of the cars available could not be locked, which, of course, dismisses all worries about the things inside. However, at the end, we received cars without features mentioned above and a couple of the cars where even better than what we paid for, although I must admit that the reason for it could be that the car rental company ran out of cars. Daumants received an grey Hyundai Sonata, Imants received an white Jeep, Juris got a black Nissan Altima, Kristaps a red Hyundai Elantra, Ilgonis received a dark gray Chrysler and Salvis received a beautiful, dark Dodge Charger. After all six teams received their cars we where ready to go.

It turned out that each car could only have two drivers, which displeased us, because two drivers where going to join us in Los Angeles. After we explained to the employee of the car rental company that this was a pretty big problem, we where allowed to choose three drivers for a couple of cars. At this point we heavily felt the absence of Austra and Loreta, because several teams had to be reorganized.