Kind of like “not the sharpest crayon in the box.” The route I picked home wasn’t the technically fastest route from Cannon Beach back to Berkeley, but it certainly way scenic and occasionally quite challenging. Let me start with a couple of simple facts. 1) since a previous service update (our VW is a 2016) with software “improvements” neither George nor I can use our phones to display maps/routing/GPS on the screen. This leaves us with the options of occasionally glancing down at a phone screen or attempting to navigate simply by listening. 2) the signage along some of the Oregon roads wasn’t always completely clear or helpful. 3) there was no way that I wanted to get anywhere near Portland and deal with that level of unplanned heavy traffic and general auto chaos. For those of you outside the US – there are no highway restricts on large trucks (lorry) driving on Sundays.
Anyway – the upshot is that we left Cannon Beach end of the morning and headed south on HWY 101, aka the California Pacific Coast Highway. In many locations to be any further west would imply that you fell off the cliff into the Pacific Ocean which would not be good for either you or your vehicle. In most cases it is a long way down.
Anyway – shortly after heading south from Cannon Beach we lost phone connection so there went the GPS. End result is that we stayed on 101 till Tillamook whose name to fame has to do with an extremely large creamery. So think dairy products and ice cream (aka frozen desserts…) If you happen to be in that area – the visitor center is open 7 days a week.
We didn’t stop but continued a bit further south (Hugo) then picked up 22 to 18 to I5 at Salem and started moving south at a much more rapid speed. We made three fuel stops, one of which was a complete bust. George was going to pump gas which I hit the restroom first. But, as I was headed in the main door this woman came out and called to her husband that the restrooms were “broken” and the doors were locked. Since we hadn’t started pumping gas, we headed over to the other gas station. Fuel, food, wonderfully clean restrooms.
Our second actual refueling stop didn’t occur until we were well within California. My choices was to get home on a completely empty take and deal with it in the morning or just go ahead while I still had a bit of daylight. Common sense hit, we stopped and I still had plenty of gas in the car when we got home. Round trip over 1400 miles.
The car is unpacked, the dirty clothes dropped into the laundry hamper. Heading off to sleep in my own bed….
