“The States are the perfect country for a good old road trip.”
First there was Vancouver, Orcas Islands and Seattle, an already amazing adventure. But lucky me, I was only halfway down my trip. Many more places to go and people to meet. Let me fill you in on what happened after Seattle.
Or actually to start with: how I left Seattle. Two friends from Holland met up with me in Seattle to start a road trip through Oregon and California. I invited them two when I was planning my trip. I thought it would be fun to 'share the travel joy'. I was fortunate enough they said yes and could manage to come. They too combined this trip with a few other destinations: Iceland and New York to be exact. A piece of advice: multi-city flight tickets are often cheaper than simple return tickets. It's worth checking out. This one time, I flew from Amsterdam to Rio, to Houston, back to Amsterdam. That was the cheapest intercontinental ticket I ever bought and it covered three continents. I'm just saying!
Road trippin
I have always been a fan of road trips, it is just a casual way of going about. It doesn't take a lot of effort to have funny encounters, running gags that keep on being hilarious or to learn a thing or two from the mates you're travelling with. And the littlest things can be so much fun. For example, the road trip started with a free upgrade at the airport when we were picking up our rental. We were offered one of the biggest cars out there: a Chevrolet Suburban. True American style. The two 'lady' people who would have to drive it, were both not taller than 1.60m / 5.3ft but saying yes wasn’t difficult. I mean, wouldn’t you?
Portland
Our trip started with a couch stay close to Portland. Our hosts were super friendly and had every intention making our stay lovely. It was a special stay, because for my friends it was an introduction to Couchsurfing. They loved it. I won’t be surprised if they start hosting people soon too.
When we entered Portland, we wanted to explore the city, have fun and get a little crazy. Portland is a beautiful city. The surroundings are amazing. Mountains everywhere you look. It being our first stop, we still had the urge to follow an itinerary. You know: having a list of sights and deciding what to see first, second and third. Basically, planning the day in advance. We learned pretty quickly that that wasn’t exactly our style.
Now in general, I am not a big fan of TripAdvisor. I think it takes away all elements of surprise when exploring an area. Not to mention when looking for a place to eat. Why look at all the food pictures before you go? What’s the fun in that? The TripAdvisor recommended bagel shop when we were looking for a breakfast place, turned out to be a place burned down to ashes, years ago from the looks of it. You should have seen the faces of my two fellow travellers, when we turned the corner. There was nothing to see but a site with ‘do not enter’ signs all around. We started laughing. Best I leave TripAdvisor to the pros.
Anyway, long story short, the rest of the trip we embraced the ‘go with the flow’ approach and that approach did not let us down. Not one little bit.
And then there was Oregon
Of all the things we’ve seen, I think Oregon baffled the most. The diversity and purity of the landscape is truly magnificent. It’s one of those things where I keep thinking of more adjectives to describe how beautiful it was. None of the words seem to cover the countless moments of pure perplexity during our drive through. It was so special that I’m not sure I can convey this in a conversation or in a photo album. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t yet started working on the photo album.
If you want to be amazed, please go there. You won't regret it. It really has everything. Rivers, mountains, canyons, snow, desserts, beaches, orchards, wineries: it’s incredible divers. One minute you are crossing a mountain pass, the next you are driving through the dessert, hitting beautiful views and running into wild horses. Having a driving license is extra rewarding here. We enjoyed ourselves just by driving around. Taking in all that Oregon has to offer.
Engineering significance
Impressive long and high bridges everywhere you go, popping up out of nowhere, connecting land over canyons so steep, that looking over the edge makes you physically nauseous. There are actual warning signs not to take dogs to the tourist site, in fear they will jump over the edge and die. That kind of height. The landscape, in which the bridges are displayed, enforces the magnitude. I know very little about engineering, but the structure and style of the bridges are truly breath taking and takes you back to the 19th century: back when American Indians fought cowboys and thousands of pioneers travelled to the fortunate West with their horse and wagons. You can just picture it.
Lucky Luke
I think the most spontaneous, random trip encounter was when we arrived in a somewhat meaningless, little town in the middle of the Oregon dessert. We stopped there to get a drink. Driving through gorgeous scenery all day, being amazed all the time, really takes it out of you. We sat down at the bar at 6PM, it was pretty much empty. We just missed the crowd of Happy Hour. Two other people were playing pool. The following hours can only be described as a film set.
It started with a chat with the owner of the bar, a frank conversation about life, American life. About hopes and dreams and what life turns out to be for a lot of people in the country. The flip side of the (cultural) coin. I (still) don’t have the answers, but after having chats with several people, in various parts of the country about the American Dream, let me just say that poverty comes in many shapes and sizes.
People know that I can get into a conversation with a random person quite quickly. I believe there is mutual ground to be found with anyone. After our second round of drinks, I was talking to a local entrepreneur. We talked about our travel so far, we talked about his day, his life and his business achievements. In the bar, there was a back room with a few slot machines. Before we knew it, we were learning how to play the slots. I didn’t know this, but there apparently is a method to be successful. And we were at some point. Addicting stuff. That’s the thing. You have to keep using your head, don’t get emotional.
That evening we were clearly the talk of the town. It was a local place, we stood out just by being there. Everybody in the bar knew about us, that we were travelling and randomly ended up there. Every conversation – no exceptions - when introducing ourselves, started with: “How in earth did you end up in a place like this? Why would you come here? There is nothing here!!” But we knew the opposite was true. We wanted to get the local feel. Well, it doesn’t get more local than this. It was exactly what we were looking for and it just happened. Without any plan. By the time it was 1AM, we still had no idea where we would sleep. No hotel was booked. None of us was worried, we just didn’t get around to that yet. Talk about go with the flow… This random bar visit resulted in a great night out. Fond memories of a place called Madras.
In Oregon, it took us four days to cover 70 miles. I am not making it up, it was unbelievable. When we were trying to get to a certain town, we got ‘stuck’ driving through cool scenery or having a good time with locals. So many kind locals that are truly proud of their state. As they should. We met such locals on another night out. This social meet-up resulted in a champagne breakfast at someone’s home the very next morning that later turned into a brunch. Talk about spontaneous. I love it! Spending almost half a day at the house, it was time to leave Bend and Oregon. California was waiting for us.
California
A new state, a new vibe, but California too was baffling. The diversity of the landscape remained a constant. The animal life up close and personal. From deer in the wild from afar, in people’s gardens or just two meters away jumping around the car, to chipmunks in bulk. And just like in Oregon we bumped into another string of wild horses, travelling in threes this time. We missed the salmon season by two weeks, that too would have been something.
San Francisco
The reason to take on the West Coast originated from the idea to visit San Francisco, a city on the list ever since the TV shows The Streets of San Francisco, Full House (1st run in the 90s) and the movie classic Mrs. Doubtfire. At least, that's what the memory serves me. Funny enough, I barely spent one day in this city. Oregon and North California ended up being too nice to rush through. If it wasn’t for my connecting flight, I probably skipped it all together. Go with the flow!
Anyhow, it was a San Francisco crash course. We had to be efficient and skip things in the itinerary. The most famous of bridges we never saw during day light, as we went across the Golden Gate Bridge during night time on arrival. There was time to visit the famous Pier Market the next day, drop our buddy off at a local pub to see Liverpool play the CL half finals and check out the rest of the city by car. Everybody knows about the hills in San Francisco, but there were parts in the city I was happy I wasn't the one driving that day. I could totally see myself driving backwards on a steep hill, just before a crossing. My fellow traveller, the other driver, didn't care. She is as tough and brave as they come.
As the evening drew to a close, we walked through the city back to our car, reminiscing about the past few days. Not sure if we wanted to go back to the hotel or have one last drink somewhere. And there it was, this strange, funky, colourful bus, parked in the middle of the park. A few hippies stood outside, one guy with a big cowboy hat and a big moustache. We had no idea what was going on, but music came out of the bus, so it did grab our attention. The hippies asked us to hop in and enjoy this karaoke bus ride through town. There was no reason to say no we figured, so off we went. It was amazing. I mean, random to say the least, but a wonderful last evening pastime. You can’t plan this, nobody can, but it happened to us. Pretty cool.
Composure
Packing for that super-duper morning flight was a challenge, I had myself and my shopping splurge that afternoon to blame (I had a wedding to go to, I ‘needed’ it…). With a bit of help, grateful having my travel buddies around, the backpack was packed. It was an experiment, this travel party, but I say it worked. AND THEM SOME. Throughout the week, we had the same pace and enjoyed similar things. A party in sync, ready to take on another trip, just tell us where to go. It should come to no surprise that I had to compose myself when the shuttle bus took me away to the airport. Good people I was leaving behind. Besides packing, there is another thing I don't like about travelling: with every hello there is a goodbye. Comes with the territory, I know, but I will never get used to it.
That said, this trip wasn’t over yet. It was time for my last chapter.
Texas
As if it wasn’t divers enough, I would conclude the trip with a wedding (not my wedding, in case you think you missed that memo). On the first night, I picked up a great new phrase: “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much.” I have nothing to add here.
But in all seriousness, it was lovely seeing my friend tie the knot. That’s what you want your friends to be: happy. The wedding was also just a lot of fun. Days on end. There was this great reunion with my friends who now live scattered around the globe; all the families coming together (big families and LOUD families lol); the fact that there was more than enough social to keep this F.O.M.O. going with one social activity after another. And I was always in great company. Exactly how a wedding should be. The last two days were spent at the house with the newlyweds and a few lost friends. A bit of quality time, just hanging out, making it a smooth transition to fly home.
Travel pointers
With all this in the books, I feel like passing on a few words of wisdom. A few last words, before I set foot home. The States are the perfect country for a good old road trip. Motels outside city areas are not very expensive, people are friendly, food places plenty enough to come by and the scenery as beautiful as it is divers and surprising. Just don’t order a cappuccino in local food establishments. I should have learned my lesson the first time it happened, in that breakfast place when the waitress kindly articulated: “I’m sorry ma’am, but we are a regular coffee kinda place.” I bumped my head a few more times I have to admit: ”No ma’am, we only serve americano.” I like my cappuccino, worth a shot.
Oh, be sure to dress up accordingly, when you want to have dinner someplace nice. In San Francisco, me and my friends had found just the place for a fancy meal, with panoramic view over the city. So, we thought. It was done ever so politely, but when we arrived to confirm our reservation we got kicked out, basically. The jeans shorts, knee boots and the bandana were not considered business casual restaurant attire. It brought a big smile to our faces. Not the place for us. They were right.
Home sweet home
Coming home wasn’t bad at all. Scotland decided to wait for my return. Spring kicked in, just after I got back. Right on time. First in Vancouver and Texas and now in Edinburgh: I got to see the cherry trees blossom three times this year. Sweet! I also had a few eventful weeks in the diary. Not only did I move to a new flat, I also got myself a new car. I don’t know a lot of people that would trade a fancy BMW Sports Coupe for a Peugeot 107 ‘Shopping Cart’, but I am one of them. I don’t mind that. It’s okay to be different 😊