Deutsche Zusammenfassung ist unten.
So, sitting in the Royal View Motel in Grant Pass, Oregon, I will quickly review today's events. Being efficiently chased out of bed by Marian at 8 am, we started our breakfast in the lovely motel. Afterwards, we continued our roadtrip, today not aiming at gaining too much northness, but rather taking a side trip to the beautiful but often forgotten National Monument Lava Caves. In principle, those caves have been formed where Lava has not been after a volcano eruptions. The Mount Shasta it the 2nd biggest volcano (oh, already the 2nd "2nd biggest something" on our trip) of the US and still active. But gaining altitude, we suddenly got stopped by a snow chain requirement. By the way, it snowed quite a while and the lowest temperature we have seen on our fancy digital car thermosensor was 18 F, being -8 °C for my friends in the old Europe. So we turned back into the valley, bought chains for 40 bucks and came back up the hill. We put them on our front wheels and after 5 miles we took them off again because there has been no real need anymore, since the shiny sun has melted away the snow while we bought snow chains. But I am pretty sure that we will need them again because everybody we meet is telling us that northern Oregon is about to be hit by an icestorm.
So, sitting in the Royal View Motel in Grant Pass, Oregon, I will quickly review today's events. Being efficiently chased out of bed by Marian at 8 am, we started our breakfast in the lovely motel. Afterwards, we continued our roadtrip, today not aiming at gaining too much northness, but rather taking a side trip to the beautiful but often forgotten National Monument Lava Caves. In principle, those caves have been formed where Lava has not been after a volcano eruptions. The Mount Shasta it the 2nd biggest volcano (oh, already the 2nd "2nd biggest something" on our trip) of the US and still active. But gaining altitude, we suddenly got stopped by a snow chain requirement. By the way, it snowed quite a while and the lowest temperature we have seen on our fancy digital car thermosensor was 18 F, being -8 °C for my friends in the old Europe. So we turned back into the valley, bought chains for 40 bucks and came back up the hill. We put them on our front wheels and after 5 miles we took them off again because there has been no real need anymore, since the shiny sun has melted away the snow while we bought snow chains. But I am pretty sure that we will need them again because everybody we meet is telling us that northern Oregon is about to be hit by an icestorm.
A little appetizer for what lies before us has been the 50 miles drive from Klamath Falls to Ashland through winterwonderland where possibly Santa Claus resides. The thing going along with a winderwonderland is snow on the road. So today, Marian and me got trained in driving on snow. Luckily our car has traction control (called ESP in Germany) as well as ABS and the tires are quite okay. Furthermore, we got good training by our dads and of course we always drive carefully and responsibly.
The caves were quite impressive (see pictures) and the whole scenery to be enjoyed while driving is just (be)awesome!
Anything else? Ah ja, we drove through potato country. The whole northern Californian area around the Lava goes is goddamn provincial. Few peoples, agriculture, not much more. So no real need to go to Iowa to experience American solitude. According to the lady at the overpriced gas station, the potates grown in this area are mostly sold to Campbell and Pringles. Yeah America!
Anything else? Ah ja, we drove through potato country. The whole northern Californian area around the Lava goes is goddamn provincial. Few peoples, agriculture, not much more. So no real need to go to Iowa to experience American solitude. According to the lady at the overpriced gas station, the potates grown in this area are mostly sold to Campbell and Pringles. Yeah America!
And, when we finally arrived at the Lava caves visitor center at 2.30 pm we have been the first two people who came there today. And I am pretty sure that we stayed the only ones. So this is just to illustrate, how abandonned the area is and how off-season we travel.
Liebe Eltern,
Entschuldigung für die lange englische Version und der geringe Mut zur kompletten Übersetzung. Gutes Online-Wörterbuch ist http://dict.leo.org/. Google und so machen auch gute Übersetzungen.
Aber es bleiben ja immer noch die Bilder, die die Geschichte gut wiedergeben: Motel ist gut gewesen, Schnee liegt viel, kalt ist es (zum Glück habe ich ein paar Wintersachen, obwohl ja eher nicht drauf vorbereitet gewesen), Auto ist sicher (Ganzjahresreifen, ESP und ABS) und wir vorsichtig. Was wir heute angeschaut haben, sind Vulkanhöhlen in der Einöde. Recht verlassen die ganze Gegend, aber landschaftlich wunderschön.
Now the pictures:
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| Lava Caves |
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