September US adventure, Pt 1: Oregon bound

So Bry and I are back from our adventure down the Pacific coast of the United States, with our batteries recharged and our wine collections a little fuller. For those that don’t know, we had been planning this trip for a while. Moving from one co-op position to another, Bry only had a one-week window to vacation in and with our limited budget we decided to do a road-trip down to California wine country, taking in the Oregon coast along the way. It was a whirlwind tour, with over 40 hours of driving during the 9 days, but tons of fun and lots of good memories. So much happened, but I’ll try not to make this too long and leave it a ‘brief overview’.

With over 10 hours of driving ahead of us on our first day, our master plan was to head out at 7am in hopes of beating the lines at the border crossing, and make it to our campground before sunset. After grabbing our Supersized coffees from Starbucks and a car wash to make our mode-of-transportation presentable, we began down the No. 1 highway by about 8am. Around 8:20, as we were passing through Burnaby, the caffeine took hold of my brain, I shook off the cobwebs of sleep deprivation and realized I had taken us the wrong way. No, we were not headed South at all, but rather across our country on the trans-Canada. With more cursing than I care to go into, a quick turnaround and spin back into Vancouver, we reached the Peace Arch border-crossing just before 9AM. Where we proceeded to wait in line for nearly 2 hours … good times!

The rest of the journey through Washington went without incident. Until Vancouver, WA that is. Here, only half way to our destination on the first day of vacation, we were in a car accident. And by “car accident”, I mean I was parked in a stall at an AM/PM and a pickup truck drove sideways into me.

Karma? Come on, Karma, what did I do? Why are you out to get me?

Okay, I’m still in the process of working things out with the insurance companies, but I was 100% not-at-fault (as is the case with the other 3 accidents I was in last year, but I’ll save those stories for another time) so hopefully everything will be fine in the end. So I shan’t whine too much. Yet.

The sun accompanied us all the way to the Oregon coast, where a heavy fog greeted us, in spite of the forecast’s declaration of clear skies. It loomed over us to some degree for our entire stay over the next 3 days. After dinner at McD’s (where we learned the Canadian ‘Super-size’ is the equivalent of the US ‘regular’), we spotted a funky car which was sporting a hair cut (yes, it had hair) and stopped for a photo-op. So did another couple of tourists, who kindly offered to take a picture of us. I happily agreed, but she snatched my camera before I could fully remove the strap from my wrist and it dropped straight to the ground. My new, $500 baby bounced once, then rolled along the sidewalk while I tried to maintain a smile and not strangle this apologetic stranger.

Karma? Are you listening? What did I ever do to you?? What is your problem??? If I ever catch you lingering around, I’m going to kick your sorry ass. Watch yourself!

Thankfully, the camera worked fine afterwards. For the time being. It has since gotten sand blown into its guts, during our adventures on the dunes, and grumbles every time I retract the lens.

We finally arrived in our campsite (thank God I reserved!) at about 9pm that night. I have to hand it to Oregon, their State campgrounds are pretty kick-ass. Every one we’ve been to seemed well-cared for, all of the amenities you'd expect (free hot showers!), cheaper than Canada and have great locations. At this site, we found ourselves situated right off the beach! Our site was separated from the sand by a one-lane road and a row of bushes that was a stone’s throw away! After setting up camp we went exploring the pitch black, foggy shore, then fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing in.

Okay, I think I’ll leave that as Part 1. I know it’s only the first day of the trip, but I’ll tell you all about Oregon in the next installment…