Road Trip v.2 (Part 2): Oregon, Thanks Yous and Apologies

Alright, so for those of you aching for a new post (all two of you), I'm really really sorry I got so utterly behind in updating my happenings on the trip. Same thing happened last road trip, so I should have anticipated it, especially with the added epic activity schedule of this one. You may have guessed after three weeks, the road trip is over. I will now proceed to try to recall everything that happened and recreate the stops for you.

First things first, I have to really really thank my friends I saw along the way (Ty, Clark, Mikey, Will, Myke, Krista, Troy, and Chris) for doing me a solid with good times, good food, good conversation, and often a place to crash. Kim also did me a huge solid by coming along and being great company on the road (and navigating me with her smart phone). Unfortunately, a family emergency pulled her away from the trip once we got to Phoenix. So until we get to that chapter, this was a team adventure. Road tripping is way better when you have great friends to go with or to meet up with. When I started out, I most looked forward to seeing and hanging out with friends. Now it's a close tie on whether seeing my friends was my favorite part of the trip or playing with a baby leopard (keep reading on that below). Sorry guys, but surely you can share the spot with a cute baby leopard.

We last left our road warrior tale after a Pine State Biscuit fail in Portland. We drove down to Eugene where we stayed the night and nursed our distended food bellies. Not much went down in Eugene after the Portland fun and fat-assery. We drove through their cute downtown in search of a noodle joint...yeah, more food.

The next day we woke up bright and early to head to the Oregon coast en route to Klamath Falls. The first time I'd been to the coast in Oregon it was a rainy, windy disaster. This time it was a great day for carnivorous plants, sea lions, and sand dunes. First stop was carnivorous plants we found on a roadside oddities website. The plants were basically a large patch of bulbous venus fly-trap-like stalks. They were cool to view. But I really wanted see a fly or spider get devoured. There was no plant noming to speak of. Onward to the Sea Lion caves, which we paid ten dollars to enter and see exactly zero sea lions. I take that back. We saw one in the far far distance through my telephoto lens, and thought our entry fee had paid off. Score! Three sea lions swimming in the distance! As we drove down the road to get closer to a nearby lighthouse, we heard odd noises from the waves. What's that cacophonous barking noise? Maybe a couple more sea lions to zoom in on. We pull off onto an overlook and gaze from a cliff at the sandy shore below. Oh great, a sea lion party...there were hundreds, which we could much closer than in the caves and for free. Later as we drove through California we saw another sea lion beach just off the road. I wanted to punch some throats at the Sea Lion Caves operation and get ten dollars and twenty minutes of my trip back.

We kept moving down the coast, and briefly considered stopping for a dune buggy ride on the sand dunes. We thought better of it, knowing we had to make it to the Oregon Vortex in Gold Hill before closing time. Instead, we just stopped at a few dune locations and ran around like five-year-olds. We are sand dunes' biggest fans now. I'd like more sand dunes in my life. We saw a few spots in California too, and I know Colorado and Texas have some. I'm a particular fan of the Oregon dunes because they are so uncharacteristic of the Northwest. Out of the pine trees and forest rises this arid rolling canvas of golden sand. Where the hell did all that sand come from? You're walking through a typical wet tree trail in the Pacific Northwest, and BOOM sand. Everywhere.  It was magical.

Speaking of magical, a few hours later we make it to Gold Hill near Medford, Oregon, just barely in time to make the last tour of the season at the Oregon Vortex. It was meant to be our freaky Halloween activity. We were literally the last people of the season and got our own personal tour (it's open from March until October 31st). I don't really know how to describe what the vortex is. My best summary is this: a location where the earth's magnetic feels do some freaky business to throw off your sense of balance, depth, and height perception. It's been an object of scientific study, but the tour guides couldn't tell us much more than that. I swear to you, it's not a gimmick. They demonstrated the levels of all the planes with standard Home Depot levelers. Still, depending on what side you were standing on, one person would grow in height when you switched. I can be pretty gullible. Still, I don't know how they would create the headache and dizziness you get standing perfectly still and straight on that land.

We left Gold Hill and drove a couple hours over the mountains into Klamath Falls to stay with my college friend Ty. Klamath Falls seemed like a pretty and idyllic town. And for the most part it is. Yet, as we were sitting there watching Psycho with Ty and his friends who all work for the local newspaper, we were regaled with stories of backwoods freaks, roving gangs of small town rapists, and gun-toting jerks who will shoot without warning. It was so very unintentionally Halloween. Those were all largely legends of the past, and the town has become far more normal. The next morning we went with Ty to a delicious and totally non-violent bakery. Then, we headed to Crater Lake. The trails at Crater Lake were covered in a couple feet of snow. Even to get to an overlook spot, we had to trudge through a some serious snow and ice. The lake was incredibly blue, still, and quiet. The perfect whiteness of the snow was only disrupted by a freshly laid turd someone had so kindly left right by the overlook spot. We stayed just long enough to take a couple pictures.

From there we headed to our only cheesy stops for the trip: Rogue Creamery to buy some cheese, and a visit to Pholia Farm, where Gianaclis kindly gave us a tour of her cheesemaking operation. The cheese we purchased here as well as the sausage from Taylor's sausage store in Cave Junction would serve for the best road trip car sandwiches in the history of man.

We drove an hour or so down to Cave Junction where we would be staying the night in a tree house. Really. It was lodge that had built cabins up in the trees so guests could have a very Swiss Family Robison-esque visit to the Northwest. We pledged to never pass up the opportunity to sleep in a tree house on this trip. On the way to the tree house we had planned to stop at the Great Cats World Park to ogle some sweet tigers. When we checked the website on the way we realized that the park was only open seasonally or by appointment. Dejected, we made a last ditch effort to leave them a voicemail and schedule a visit for the next morning. We got very lucky. Someone picked up on the second attempt and told us to head over. Kim squealed with delight on the phone before hanging up. Because we were the only people visiting, we got a very one-on-one visit with the folks who own the place and work there, and with the tigers, lions, panthers and other cats. It was so one-on-one, in fact, that they let us play with their new baby leopard, Dexter. A baby freaking leopard. We played with him, petted him, held him, let him jump on our leg and claw us through our jeans. They let us hang out with Dexter for an amazingly generous amount of time. The guy who runs the place (I wish I could remember his name), had worked with wild cats for 26 years. He was incredibly welcoming, despite initially coming off as a little gruff. I suppose you are instinctively a little distant from humans when your life's work makes you best friends with some of the coolest wild animals on the planet. In comparison, I'm sure humans seem like boring tools. He admitted to being a little crazy. You kind of have to be when you play kissy face with lions and sleep with full grown panthers in your house. That's the kind of crazy I'd like to be if I could choose.

This isn't the exact cabin we stayed in.
But this is one of the higher
tree house cabins. 

Sharing secrets with horses
in Cave Junction.

We finally pried ourselves away from Dexter and headed to Taylor's Sausage, the world's greatest meat store. Seriously. I love Cave Junction. We bought some sausage for dinner; checked into the Tree House;  played with their friendly dog, hung out with their horses in the horse stable; ate a delicious sausage and cheese sandwich; packed into our tree house for bedtime. Oregon rocks.

The next day we would wake up and drive into California.