It’s Official: Season One Has Begun

“I’m planning on doing something stupidly absurd and ridiculous.”

Is what the email said that my buddy sent me.

And sure enough he’s right.

Maybe it’s ’cause I know the participants personally but it’s definitely something that I’d like to see.

Here’s the plug:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/40595891/view-from-a-sidecar-the-documentary

Washington: the State, the Freeway Signs

We went through Washington and stayed in Seattle.

A cool thing about Washington state is the freeways numbers on the signs are in George Washington heads. (Later in Canada we’ll find them all in maple leafs.)

We saw the Space Needle. But driving through Seattle was a challenge. The way the blocks are cut diagonally by thoroughfares resulted in us having to make an inordinate number of hairpin turns to get where the GPS wanted us to go.

Something else I noticed that appears to be a trend of most motels now is a windowed shower curtain. It’s been fifty years since Psycho and we finally  have one last line of defense before getting stabbed in the shower.

Moving Day on Vancouver’s North Shore

Got a kick out this sight from our hotel room

Portland: Our Favorite

Our favorite stop of the trip was probably Portland. For one thing we stayed at a real hotel

(although unloading the car in front of a crowd was a bit of a nightmare). But the staff were really great there. And I saw Bill Walton and Charles Barkley in the lobby. They were there for the Brian Grant Foundation Golf Tournament which can explain why the place was so busy.

While in Portland everyone said to go here. 

They had a crazy long line so while my mom and I headed back to the hotel, Beth went in for reconnaissance.

She returned with a vegan dozen which we tested like a box of chocolates (a bite here, a bite there).

The novel designs were very impressive.

But jelly is still my favorite.

On the Way to Portland

We saw a lot of random signs that said “ELK” or “ROCKS”

And discovered that there is a town called “Drain.”

En route to Coos Bay

We came upon this bridge with Golden Bear Statues full of people looking over the edge. Later we learned that we were crossing over the Klamuth River and they were all checking out the whale.

The coolest part about the motel room at Coos Bay

was the bottle opener on the wallthat could be reached from the toilet.

Or the tub. Making it our most “resort-like” stay of the trip.

Prehistoric Gardens

When we passed these dinosaurs on the side of the road I had to radio Beth to turn around so we could stop. 

We didn’t go in. I kinda regret that. But we had the luggage on top of the car and the babies to worry about.

So we settled for pictures of the two dinosaurs could see for free from the parking lot.

Redwoods Do Impress

So part of the drive to Canada included passing through the Redwood Forest.

We saw all of the novelty trees.

The Drive-thru Tree. (But we had too much stuff on top of the car to drive through it.)

The Tree House (literally).

and The Grandfather Tree.

But nothing was as awe-inspiring as driving through the forest itself. I recommend the trip if you can ever take it.

The First Leg

We went pretty hard the first day of driving. We drove from the San Fernando Valley to the Sonoma Valley. We stayed in a motel that offers a free continental breakfast. We weren’t sure where the dining room was until we came across this this GINORMOUS plate.