Another day for the record book. We left the Oregon coast at 50 degrees and when we rolled into Medford, OR, it was 104.
Oregon must have the most terse signage of any state I've been in. I see signs that say "rocks". I must assume that that means the same thing as the "watch out for fallen rocks" in the other states. I also see signs reading "slides". Guess that means, "the side of the mountain adjacent to you may detach itself and spill over the road, so watch out". Guess that's too much to put on one sign however. Another one is "slow". Sometimes there is another sign suggesting why, but sometimes they are all alone. Such fun!
We departed the coast and went inland via a local road, caught I-5 and went south and picked up another local road up to Crater Lake. Quite a view. The temps were a pleasant 78 degrees at 8000 feet.
Sue and I are both a bit afraid of heights, but on the rim road she really freaked out. As you ride around the lake in the counter clock wise direction, just a couple of feet to your right is a drop off of from a few tens of feet to what seems like thousands of feet. There is NO shoulder and NO guard rail. From the side of the road to air is a few inches. I hugged the center line as best I could with oncoming traffic. Sue whimpered often and held on quite tightly. She kept trying to get me to slow down, but if I'd gone too much slower, we'd have just toppled over the edge!
Returning to Medford on 62 was a treat. They had a bunch of that road torn up with one way traffic for miles and miles. Fortunately we only had to wait for about 10 minutes for the "follow me" pilot car to arrive.
We stayed at a pleasant little Comfort Inn with a heated pool. Just what I wanted after a hot ride, but after swimming, we retired to the outside lounge area and the breeze in the shade kept us reasonable comfortable. We ate at a buffet down the way from the hotel. Ate too much, but it was good food.
The pictures from now on will be on http://cruisinglife.org/summer2005/
Jim.