hill top church slovenia
hill top church slovenia
  • Crater Lake
    • 05/11/2011
so yesterday, a beautiful sunny autumn day, i hired a car and drove up to Crater Lake. The rental place gave me a free upgrade to a Mustang again... which i was later to have cause to regret (not really)

Crater Lake is probably as you would imagine! a big old volcano crater which has filled in with a lake

no streams in or out, it just collects snow melt and rain. Probably mainly snow though, as it snows 35 feet a year there or something crazy like that. And as i approached the road up, there was already snow on the ground. I met a family who had turned back because the road was getting icy ahead, but i persevered.
And it was worth it! the steep bit of road was actually well gritted.

The temperature was minus 3 centigrade, so i buy tea. Yes, i bought tea. This was a valid circumstance!

Another solo traveler is up there, he says could i take a pic for him, he doesn't have any with him in! i say lol tell me about it!

Anyhow, it's due to snow anywhere from 1 to 10 inches depending on who you listen to, and dark clouds are gathering so i got the hell out of there before nightfall and headed for Klamath Falls.
Nice scnerey on the way, but no waterfalls are evident though so don't know where the name came from.
I settled down for the night in a park car park overlooking the town and lake, with a clear starry sky above
I woke up in the morning with cold feet and realised that it wasn't condensation obscuring the windows, but a blanket of snow, fortunately only an inch, but still, i didn't realise i was that high up. And minus 3 degrees is just silly.
Then i realise the car doesn't have heated seats like the previous one i rented, even though i admit i thought they were a pointless luxury back then in Canada, but it would have been nice this morning!

Then i start worrying about the 70 mile trip back to Medford to return the car. The Mustang is rear wheel drive (is it?) and i had a couple of little skids yesterday, never mind 70 miles of untreated roads...
Long story short i drove at about 30mph and it was fine, gritters had been out on the worst bits.

Anyway, now i'm in the airport at Medford stealing their WiFi and have just about planned the next few days...
  • Ashland
    • 04/11/2011
Fun day in Ashland, Oregon which i thought was going to be an empty backwater of a place but turned out to have a huge Shakespeare festival.

It's is a lovely little town centre with art galleries, theatres and restaurants, whilst it's neighbour medford (where the Greyhound stops) is a sprawl of car dealerships and megastore walmarts etc.

I popped into a local artists collective gallery, where a nice lady was busy making christmas trees decorations in the shape of christmas trees, sampled some beers at the local pub/brewery, and watched the African Shakespeare Company present Richard III - this wasn't exactly the play, but the true story of how in the 1800's a black theatre company put on perfomances and were harassed into closure and jail by the nearby pompous white establishment. It was a good show though!
I stayed in a hostel, sharing a room with a lad called Jack who was attending an intensive bicycle maintenance course before starting his dream apprenticeship designing mountain bike parts. Living the dream, can't say fairer than that.



Also chocolate cheesecake and stout is a great combo.



But i'm a bit worried about where i'm going to go next! Not worried, but just i have no clue what i'm doing.


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