We drove from Portland down to a little town called Ashland in southern Oregon. We stopped at this diner where I had a hot roast beef sandwich for lunch. While we were eating, the topic of Easy Cheese came up, and it occurred to me to search for the long sought after Bacon 'N' Cheedar flavor. I'd always seen it advertised on other flavors of Easy Cheese, and Pete had found a can somewhere in Michigan previously. While Sean was searching for a Dairy Queen in Ashland, I noticed a grocery store and made Sean stop. Lo and behold, they had it. I bought four cans. Sean got his DQ and then we got back on the road.
We entered California shortly thereafter to some of the most spectacular scenery we'd seen so far. It's really tought to take pictures of the landscape due to being in a moving car and not having a wide angle lens, so the pictures don't do it justice. We descended from around 3,000 feet to a few hundred feet and it was fairly flat from there to the Bay Area. We hit some traffic on I-880 just as we entered Oakland from Berkeley, but it was only about 15 miles until the exit for our hotel.
We checked in, ordered 24 hours of high-speed internet for $9.95, and then chilled for a few hours. Sean had this plan of walking 14 miles through unknown parts of Oakland to get to Berkeley, where he would hang out until 3 or 4 in the morning. I insisted on driving him and picking him when he calls later, so I'm currently waiting for his call. My only hope is that he isn't hurt or killed. Becky has threatened to kill me if I don't get Warren back to Austin in time for his flight, and a dead or injured Sean would definitely cause a delay.
Tomorrow we're planning on going over to San Francisco and spending most of the day there (after an extended sleep). Tomorrow night, Sean and I will be attending some random show at 924 Gilman. Our high-speed internet runs out at around 11 PM PDT tomorrow, so any updates after that will be via dial-up.
We drove across the rest of Montana and Idaho, both of which became very hilly. We crossed the continental divide at almost 6,400 feet, and it was all downhill from there (especially Idaho). We stopped at a Wendy's in Spokane, WA, where Warren took over driving for me.
Warren drove nearly all the way to Seattle until Sean took over. Our plan was to drive into downtown, visit a record store that Sean wanted to see, and get some photos of the skyline, especially the Space Needle. Unfortunately, it was rush hour when we got there, and even traffic going into the city was bumper-to-bumper. After sitting in traffic for about half an hour, we got off on Mercer Island. We drove to the far northeast corner in an attempt to see the Space Needle from afar, but either trees or other buildings were in the way.
We drove from there to Olympia, where we stopped to checkout a record store that Sean wanted to see. We were in there for about half an hour and then we headed back to the car. I left a message for Megan's sister Sinead, letting her know that we would be there in about two hours, and then we headed out.
Two uneventful hours later, we were in Portland at Sinead and Jef's house. Unfortunately, they weren't home and we weren't sure we were in the right place. We drove farther down the highway to a random Wendy's and debated what to do. I called Dave to verify I was in the right neighborhood, while Warren called a friend of his who went to school in Portland to see if she knew of anyplace we could stay. Just as we were about to leave, Sinead called us back. We had told her we would be there around 11, but we made good time and didn't go to Trixie's in Ovanda, MT, so we were there around 9. Also, she thought we were coming the day after we actually were, so all this combined to create confusion. Luckily it wasn't a big deal, so we drove back to the house.
We hung out for a little bit while we and they settled in (they'd just gotten home). After that, we watched a movie called Secretary. Warren and I were on the couch, and in the middle of the movie, their dog, Smokey, climbed on the couch between us. He tried to spread out and laid his head on Warren's lap. Warren eventually moved to the floor and Smokey spread out and stayed there for the rest of the movie.
I was pretty exhausted and kept nodding off during the latter half of the movie, so after it was over we all went to bed. Jef had gone to bed earlier since he had to work at 6:30. We all woke up at 8, including Sinead, who also had to work. We showered, Sinead left for work, and then we left for Oakland.
While driving on US-212 towards Billings, Sean got pulled over for doing 79 in a 70. The cop asked for all of our IDs, but when he came back he only gave Sean a warning. This was pretty much the only interesting part of the drive. The view was pretty awesome, but got somewhat boring after awhile.
We called Becky's dad from a gas station in Hardin, MT. He was surprised that we had made such good time and told us we'd probably get to the house before he and his wife would. We drove another 45 minutes or so and proved him right.
The first thing we did was set the tent up in the backyard, since due to frost and condensation it was pretty soaked. Next, we went inside and Sean and I showered (separately). I came upstairs and Becky's parents were home, so we hung around and talked while Warren showered.
We moved a water softener from the basement to outside the house, and then Becky's parents started preparing dinner. Her dad barbecued steaks while her mom deep-fat-fried onion rings and tater tots. Warren had to take a phone call, so everyone else was done dinner by the time he came up. The tent dried amazingly quickly, so we packed it up while it was barely light outside. We talked some more and then Becky's parents went to bed.
Sean went to bed right after that, while Warren and I shared a dial-up connection. I slept in a water bed for the first time, which was very interesting. I was so tired that I couldn't tell if it was actually comfortable, since I immediately fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning at 6. We loaded the car, said goodbye and thank you to Becky's parents, and were on the road by 6:20.