On The Road Again

Cam and I flew to Seattle to take care of the stuff related to my dad's death, but we road tripped it back to Las Vegas in Cam's "new" Suburban (formerly my dad's vehicle). Cam did ALL of the driving which gave me an opportunity to take a few photos along the way.

This was our return trip in photos!

This is the old Rainier Beer Brewery in Seattle. It has been converted into work lofts, live work lofts, storage space, warehouse space, and commercial space.

I'm not sure where this bridge was (this will be a recurring theme throughout this post), but I love bridges and took photos of all of the awesome ones. I didn't realize that I miss bridges (the closest thing we have in Las Vegas are overpasses) until we crossed so many of them on our way home.

Same bridge ... different view ...

The day we left Seattle was the day of the Amtrak derailment in the Seattle/Tacoma area. The derailment closed I-5 - the major north/south route through Washington. We had to find an alternate route (there are very few) which had us driving on roads like this for hours. It was during this time that I was first made aware of Cam's complete lack of patience. His lack of patience was also a recurring theme throughout the trip.

TRAIN!!! Because TRAIN!!!! I've also missed trains since moving to Las Vegas.

This is the bridge over the Columbia River that takes you into Oregon.

PROOF!

Another Oregon bridge - not sure where we were at the time, but I do know we were still on day 1 of the trip. I also know that our weather looked like this all through day 1.

Same bridge ... different view ...

We stopped for the night in Medford Oregon. When we checked in, we were informed that there was a winter storm warning in effect for the following day. Most of our trip was spent trying to outrun one thing or another. 

We did see some snow on day 2, but not much and never on the road.

Day 2 was also the day of many mountain passes.

This one took us out of Oregon ... 

and into California!

Mt. Shasta was snow covered.

This was the bridge over Lake Shasta.

Since moving to Las Vegas and visiting Hoover Dam, Cam has developed a fascination with dams. When he saw an exit for Shasta Dam he decided he wanted to take a side trip. This is Shasta Dam!

We stopped for the night in Coalinga California. It was a strange little town that smelled like all of the farms had just spread pig manure as fertilizer (my old stomping grounds of Podunk had that same smell). We stayed in the WORST Motel 6 I have ever been in. Don't stay HERE. Although their rooms were recently renovated, the bathroom was not, and was so bad I didn't take a shower. Then there was the issue of no hairdryer, nor shampoo/conditioner in the room. I was never so happy to leave a motel.

Day 3 took us through California's Olive Capital. There were miles and 

miles of olive trees. Now, I am very familiar with the saying "offering an olive branch," but for some reason I didn't associate that with olives actually 

growing on trees. I had in my head that olives were like grapes and 

grew on vines. Yeah ... I know ...

Not far out of the Olive Capital, the temperature actually hit 60 degrees!  This was also about the time that I realized that Cam and I should not take road trips together that last longer than 2 days.

We drove by the Mojave Wind Farm. Although Illinois had several wind farms, I have never seen one this large.

And then it started to look a lot more like Las Vegas.

And the interstate got really straight.

And the mountains welcomed us home!