Day 1/2 and Day 1: Visibility, what's that?

We spent the first day and a half playing a little game I like to call, "Where'd the road go?"

When Matt and I set out on our fantastic adventure, it was dumping rain in Seattle. It had taken a little longer than I expected to get on the road (I need to learn to pack less for a trip, my car is stuffed), and we didn't leave Seattle until almost 7pm. We stopped at the Claim Jumper in Southcenter before truly beginning our adventure. The rain didn't let up in the time we ate. It dumped on us all the way to Vancouver, Washington, where we stopped for the night. Hours and hours of rain. I was excited at the idea that it would clear up the next day and we'd have gorgeous views. Ha.

We started the next day by driving 15 or so miles in the wrong direction. I'd been through the Portland area a few times, so I had a vague understanding of where we should be to head to US 101. We reset the map, and sure enough, going the wrong way.

I wish I could say the driving got better, but frankly, it did not. We had SERIOUS visibility issues the whole day. Fog would descend upon us, forcing me to reduce our speed to a crawl. We had ZERO views.

It wasn't all that bad...until night fell. We finally crossed the border into California sometime in the early evening (after stopping at some agriculture checkpoint. The woman could see the cage in the car and asked what kind of pet I was carrying. She let Orpheus through. He told me if she'd said no, he would have bitten her and run to a pre-decided rendezvous spot. I'm sure the plan would have worked).

We drove through a few boring towns and then got onto the Redwood Highway. I will say this about that drive: It is dangerous and treacherous. It was dark. There was HEAVY fog. There were steep grades. I'd have my foot off the pedal, cruising down the hill and then all of a sudden, FOG! A SHARP TURN. Brakes slamming, turning, WHEE. Fuck.

Here's the other thing: There is NOTHING on the PCH. Nothing. It took forever to find a place to eat - both at lunch and dinner. Lunch ended up at a place I'd been to before, which was pretty good and thankfully did not make sick to my stomach. Dinner was HOURS AND HOURS later, because again, there was nowhere to eat that didn't look like it was infested with roaches and assorted diseases. We finally stopped at a place called the Lost Coast - a brewery. It was also pretty good - my turkey sandwich and fries didn't seem to want to kill me.

We decided to press on, assuming we'd be able to stop in an hour or so. We are funny people like that. Assuming there are decent places to stay along a well-traveled highway. Fuck that. We ended up driving another THREE hours before stopping in a place called Willits, California. More hours of dense fog, rain, and sharp curves. I have never been on a more nerve-wracking drive in my life. Fuck me.

Finally too exhausted to go on (or so we thought), we almost stopped in a place called Laytonville around 11:15, but when we went to pull into one of the "inns" we noticed it was a bit sketch, so I did a U-turn in the empty highway to go back to the other one. I ended up making a FULL DONUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY because there were some seriously skeevy people hanging out in front of the other "inn." We drove on.

We are both foolishly hoping that today is better. Travel guides, please smile upon us today.