From Washington, it was a long way back to Los Angeles. I had skipped the Oregon coast on the way northward, so it was time to hug the coast again and catch sight of the wonders on the way down. Glad I did. One of my first stops along a river near the Oregon-Washington border turned out to be very entertaining. You know how there are those pornos out there, where there's some forest ranger out in the middle of nowhere, who happens upon some guy and they end up getting it on? Well, this was just like that. I pulled off to stretch my legs a bit, and there, down by the river, is a lone ranger... very young, very cute. And very gay. We struck up a little chat about what river this was, what his job was (mostly checking the public toilets - how glamorous), and what he was going to college for. I guess this was his summer work. So (cue the music) we talked a bit, and then he went down to the river's edge and started to... do nothing. Just stare at the water. Whatever. So I continued on.
Oregon has some pretty amazing dunes just above the area called Coos Bay. Lots of people were out on dune buggies and quads tearing up the hills. They also seem to make giant hills of sawdust for some reason. I wasn't sure what that was all about... making particle board? Pet litter?
The beaches in southern Oregon really were worth the side trip. Black volcanic sand and huge boulders off in the waves. Lots of bleached driftwood looking like bones strewn across a seaside cemetery or something. And it was windy! I tried taking video of the sand being blown across itself... it turned out kind of neat, but noisy. Sadly, something else didn't quite work with the camera - at one point I was on a winding mountain road and found myself above the clouds as the sun was nearly setting. The clouds below were moving and undulating like boiling water in a pot. It was awesome. I had to pull off and take some pictures (that don't even BEGIN to show what I'm talking about) and even tried some video to see if you can see the undulation of which I spoke earlier (you can't - the contrast between the pale blue sky and the white clouds isn't great enough to notice what's happening).
And after 7 days of travel, I ended up stopping in Eureka, California, for the night. I drove through all of Washington and Oregon in one day - it was a bit of a long one. Now, it was just a night's sleep before I drove the relatively short drive to San Francisco to visit with Gus and Diane for Gus's birthday getaway. Good trip.
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