Navigation

I drove the first leg of the trip today, leaving the outskirts of Vancouver, WA at 0430. I had a bit of trouble finding the on-ramp to I5, and ended up doing a bit of a tour of downtown Vancouver. Nice town. Will have to come back and visit when things are open. Found the freeway, and bombed southbound, finding a little fog en route, to complement that inside the vehicle. Seemed to be a bunch of other folks up early in Portland, and we had plenty company on the way down I5 in the early morning darkness. The kids went back to sleep, so that gave me a nice chance to put on a lot of miles while not listening to any screaming or kiddie-music on CD.

I needed gas, and it was still dark when the low-tank indicator came on. I took a well-signed exit for gas, and pulled into the Arco station, where they don't accept credit cards. Ok, thanks. Luckily there was a Shell station down the road, so we pulled in there to tank up. Gas seems a little cheaper down here, as we got 65 litres of gas for $44 USD.

Back on the freeway, and somewhere between Albany and Eugene is this really long straight stretch of freeway. That became quite tiresome around 0600, and I developed a deep need for a coffee. Lance suggested that we take exit 174, which seemed to have plenty of signage for Lodging, Gas, and Food. This was the Cottage Grove exit, where we also saw signage for the National Historic Site that was near here. We drove past all the usual so-called "food" outlets, that shall remain nameless. No coffee shack, though. I was looking for a local espresso shop, but would have taken a Starbucks at this point, even though I am not a fan of their coffee. After passing thru the food strip, and then a strip mall on the edge of town, we were denied coffee. Also couldn't find an on-ramp back on to the freeway, so decided to cycle back through town looking for the on-ramp. Noticed that 2 or 3 cop cars were all circling town, so there was a bit of discussion around following them to the doughnut shop. That was a great idea, and I kept it in mind while I pulled up to the stop sign at Main Street. Turned right to head back towards I5, and then came upon the espresso outlet I had my eyeballs peeled for. The Espresso Barn, World Headquarters! I love these small little drive-up coffee shacks that they have down here, and this one did the trick. It was modeled in the shape of a red barn, with white trim. And with only 1 car in line, we were soon placing our order:

• 1 decaf latte, personal mug
• 1 half-decaf americano, personal mug
• 1 latte, personal mug
• 1 16 oz. latte, to go
• 1 Junior Steamer, with whipped cream

The Junior Steamer came topped with an animal cookie, so that was a nice value-add. Brilliant! $11 later and we are equipped with coffee, and back on the freeway. Cottage Grove, Espresso Barn....a stop off I5...