The Pacific North West PT. 1: Northward bound to Eugene
6/15-6/17
TREESSSS!!!!!!! I’ve lived my entire life in Southern California. If you don’t know the area, it’s basically a desert on the pacific coast. Their are trees throughout this suburban wasteland, but the majority have been placed there by man rather then living in their natural habitat. So, anytime I get to an area filled with actual native flora I find myself in a state of bliss.
This leg of the Journey began with a phone call with my buddy Jason. Jason is one of my best friends and the only other single person within our college friend group. Because of this we have spent a lot of time together in the last couple of years. Jason is currently on a cross country road trip as well, but he is taking longer to do it. Since he will be geographically behind me I knew that I wanted to meet up with him as much as possible before I left the west coast. We had planned on meeting in Eugene, but we actually had a run in sooner than expected in Dunsmuir California.
Dunsmuir was an interesting little town nestled in the hills surrounding Mount Shasta. As I drove through the verdant wonder that is northern California I caught my first glimpse of the snow covered Mount Shasta and audibly stated “It’s June, Why do you have snow?”. I’ve not spent much time in snow, but the idea of it existing anywhere in California in the middle of June seemed wild to me. Jason showed me around Dunsmuir a bit, pointing out the interesting little stores and the bar at which he learned a new dice game from the locals. We got a little bit of caffeine, shared the stories of our journeys so far and proceeded to Oregon..
I’ve flown to the Pacific Northwest before, but I’ve never driven across the northern border of California. I loved the peaceful drive through the forest despite having already been on the road for 5 hours and with many more to go. I was so pleased to see such well maintained roads and gorgeous backdrops. I also realized that I needed to figure out what I was going to do about lodging in Eugene. When I decided to take this trip, I made the conscience choice to not book anything until I had to. Up till Oregon I had places to stay, but I was now at the point to make find a place to stay. I pulled over to a rest stop with, limited signal and started searching the interwebs. I came upon an AirBnB that I couldn’t resist. It was about reasonably priced for a day of booking, 2 miles from the one that Jason had booked and it was called “Musical Oasis”. As a Musician I had to take it.
The Musical Oasis was perfect for me. Located right next to the University of Oregon, this cozy little one bedroom, one bath hideaway filled with just the right amount of eclectic ornamentation the fit me like a glove. It had a private entrance, full kitchen, comfortable living room with streaming tv and a shaded private back patio. The bedroom was large and included two queen beds that faced each other just in case you need a Walton’s style good night ceremony before bed. It was the perfect place to land after 10 hours on the road. I unloaded my bags, took a shower and headed off to meet up with Jason for Lunch. It was amazing how much energy I still had following this first long leg of driving. I was sure that my driving stamina was in good shape as I had spent the last 2 years driving a 26’ box truck throughout the country, but it had been over a year since I had taken such a trek and I was proud that I was still alert and raring to go upon arrival.
Jason and I ate at a delicious BBQ spot called Bill & Tim’s and relaxed with some local brews. Next we headed off to the downtown area. It was cool block of bars and restaurants many of which we explored over the next 2 nights. This part of the trip was really relaxing as it was the first time since hitting the road that I stayed in one place form more than 24 hours. I liked Eugene, but I didn’t really explore it enough to see if I could possibly live there. Their was definitely a chill vibe, but I think staying so close to a University doesn’t really give the full impression of any city. I would describe Eugene as a mixture of laid back collegiate attitude with a dash of hippie and smidge of trailer park mentality. I don’t me that in any derogatory sense, but I was informed by a few people that there was a “white trash” element for sure. Added to this mixture was a surprisingly large homeless population.
Coming from San Diego I am no stranger to the homeless epidemic in this country, but the people of Eugene were clearly unhappy with the boom that had taken place. As one worker in the nearby coffee shop put it “I’ve been here 15 years and love the Eugene, but the homeless have become a problem”. Having traveled through major cities on my way up I had seen and discussed with people the increase of homeless populations, but you could really feel the influx in Eugene which had become inundated with tent cities next to the freeway off ramps. I even saw someone who had posted up on the grass next to my Airbnb. It definitely felt out of place in this quite little city devoid of sky scrappers.
Next on the list was some outdoorsy time…
