Today was a the last of three days of travel and we drove in three different states. We started in Utah, traveled a bit of Colorado and into New Mexico so we have passed through and by about thirty five thousand casinos, reservations and pueblos.
Just before we got into Nageezi, New Mexico our Mitsubishi Outlander Sport clicked over 35,000 miles.
Started the day in Elko, Nevada and ended up in Moab, Utah. The quickest way that Google says to go should be 461 miles and take nearly 7 hours. We covered over 480 and it took us 10-1/2 hours.
The extra miles were from noodling around the NV/UT border on I-80 looking for a Utah state map (unsuccessful), to take a photo of the rental car near Bonneville Salt Flats sign (also unsuccessful) and to eat at a Chick-Fil-A outside of Salt Lake City (again unsuccessful.)
The extra time was partially because the switch to Mountain Time at the Utah border, partially those frivolous miles at the Utah border and the Garmin GPS leading us to a place called Pita Bakery near Salt Lake City that turned out to be an actual large scale bakery and not a place to eat. We then found a Chick-Fil-A, but after seeing the length of the drive-up line and the lack of nearby parking for possibly walking in we opted for a small Japanese spot for lunch in the same shopping center.
The highlights of the day were breakfast in Elko at the Coffee Mug, and a doughnut and coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Wells, NV. The Coffee Mug was researched ahead of time and was always going to be breakfast in Elko. But we lucked into the Dunkin’. We had gotten off I-80 in Wells looking for a place for a leg stretch/nature break where we saw a big casino/truck stop. As we pulled and saw the Dunkin’ sign we knew we hit the jackpot.
On a side note, this is the only Dunkin’ Donuts, of the 33 in Nevada, that is not near Vegas or Reno and we have been here before on our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip to a niece’s wedding in Tahoe. Can’t remember if it was sought out then or another serendipitous find like today.
As you can see we are about to enter the state of Nevada where gambling is not only legal, but encouraged. The folks who live here want you to gamble so much there is a slot machine everywhere you turn. We have been in this state for a little over 250 miles and in 4 hours have passed about thirty-four thousand casinos.
Somewhere not too far into the state of Nevada the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport clicked past the 34,000 mile mark.
For our 101101th1 Anniversary we decided to throw caution to the wind and take a little 3-day mini trip to the Oregon Coast. We had a free night at a Holiday Inn so the first leg (80 miles) of the journey was just over the mountains to Medford where we spent Sunday Night. The second leg (215 miles) was to our next overnight stay in Gold Beach. The last leg (226 miles) was coming straight home. To make the drive a bit more interesting we opted to hunt out some Oregon Post Offices along the way.
Sunday instead of going straight to Medford we went an alternate route so we could start in Ashland and work our way north the short distance to Medford with stops in Talent, Phoenix, Jacksonville & Central Point.
Monday we headed north and west to get to the coast. The shortest way to our destination would have been to go south to Crescent City in California, but we were saving that for our return trip. I added all the Post Office addresses for the rest of our loop to the car GPS and because we abhor Interstate travel we selected “avoid highways” in the settings.
This worked out well for the first few Post Offices because they were close to OR99 which parallels I-5, but once we got to Merlin the GPS could not find a route to Wolf Creek, turns out from here the next 40 miles OR99 combines with I-5 because of the mountains. Donna looked at the map and realized there was a loop of 35 miles, instead of the direct 15 miles, that would get us to Wolf Creek with out using the Interstate.
Not being in a hurry, we headed west along a two lane road that ran along the Rogue River. It was very scenic and we passed several little county parks for the first 20 miles. Everything was fine until we crossed a bridge over the river to head east to our our next Post Office. The road got a little narrower, almost 1-1/2 lanes instead of two and clung to the side of a mountain on the left and a steep drop on the right with no guardrail. Our forward progress slowed considerably, hoping that some large truck wouldn’t be coming our way around the next corner.
A mile or so in, rounding a corner, we came upon another Miata coming our way. I don’t know who was more surprised, us or them, but we squeezed on by with a wave and kept on going.
A couple of miles later our 1-1/2 lanes dropped to a solid one lane. Now it was getting scary, but even when the road did widen back to a lane and a half there was still no way to turn around and go back. For the next 10 miles the width of the road varied back and forth and fortunately the only other car we came upon coming at us it was on one of those wider spots. What would taken maybe 20 minutes on I-5 turn into over an hour of white knuckle driving. After arriving in Wolf Creek we took off the “avoid highways” setting and we vowed to not do that again. We’d stay on back roads when they stayed close to civilization.
As we were getting closer to the coast and having already photographed 15 Post Offices, by mutual agreement, we opted to not do the last few on the way to the hotel and not any along the coast at all. This would be saved for a weeks vacation either next spring or fall where we’d get all the Post Offices along the entire Oregon coast.
Because I had the odometer to trip so I could see tenths of a mile as Donna called out mileage to my next turn, I didn’t notice that the CTBNL had gone past the 80,0002 mile mark.
About fifteen miles from the actual coast the cooler misty weather made us put the top back up and when we did get on US101 the fog/mist/clouds made actually seeing the beach impossible.
Tuesday morning in spite of the off and on light rain, we did walk down to the beach and take a fairly short out and back walk because, after all, we drove all this way to see the ocean.
On the trip home we did stop and get the remaining four Post Offices on US199 from the border back up to Grants pass. Bringing our total for the weekend of two dozen or about 6% of the total of around 375 Post Offices in the state of Oregon. All in all , even with the white knuckle side trip and cool misty weather, we had a pretty good time.
This morning we got up early in Longview, WA to finish our run to Granite Falls to visit family. It was dark and raining which in itself doesn’t make for a fun drive, but add in a very busy highway with trucks on I-5 and it was miserable. The spray coming off all the 18-wheelers felt like about 16,000 gallons.
An hour or so into the drive, even though it was getting light, we decided to get off the interstate and loop around Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle on two-lane roads even if it meant it took us a couple hours longer.
Just outside Yelm, Washington the Note passed through the 16,000 mile mark.
Our rental vehicle for the week is a 2019 Nissan Versa Note. It has a little over a hundred horsepower and it is mated to a CVT which makes it seem even slower than that. Yikes. The interior is noisy and, at least on this particular car, there is some real prevalent wind noise and air intrusion on the drivers side. They claim it has great gas mileage, but I’ll let you know.
There is a lot of space in this thing, compared to the Mini, it has a ton of rear leg room and two more doors to get you into the back seats. I suppose that if you wanted an inexpensive, yet new, car this would fit the bill. I just hope you don’t want the hatchback version, because for 2020 they have stopped making them.