After leaving Eugene (the town), Stephanie, REI and the Yummm Bowl, I headed straight south for Medford.
Fall is in full swing in southern Oregon and the leaves are bright orange on many of the trees along the highway. This particularly stretch of I-5 is mountain range after mountain range. I believe it peaks at Grants Pass at just under 1,000 feet. It’s all downhill into Medford from there.
I couchsurfed with Teresa and her rambunctious (but sweet) dog and her sweet (but slightly schizophrenic) kitty. I only had a brief amount of time to get to know Teresa but she was very cool. She’s an administrative judge with an additional side job of being a leader (I could tell she was an excellent cheerleader) at weight watchers. She’s participated in an Ironman in France and more than a dozen marathons. She’s obviously in great shape.
In the evening I spoke at Hansen’s Motorcycles. “What?” you say? “A motorcycle dealership?” Yes, perhaps you don’t know that about ten years ago I rode a motorcycle from Seattle to Panama. Craig Hansen was instrumental in helping me get a loaner bike from BMW, an F650 to be exact, that I named Esperanza (“hope” in Spanish).
Craig and his wife, Connie, pulled together a great group of people to whom I presented a slide show about that journey. There were all sorts of levels of riders including a woman who just got her license a couple of months ago and was obviously excited about all of her future possible rides.
I lingered in the morning to have a tire replaced on Jon’s car and snacked my way through Costco for lunch before continuing south down to Northern California.
(By the way, it was fully my intention to ride my motorcycle on this trip but the weather has been terrible in Seattle and I opted for a car for safety reasons. And, the night before I left, Jon offered up his VW Jetta since it’s better on gas and a more comfortable ride than my Jeep — though it needed a tire replaced.)
One quick note about my searching for accommodations in Mt. Shasta, my next stop. Unfortunately, not all areas of the world have couchsurfing hosts and Mt. Shasta’s one of them. There were only two hosts listed on GlobalFreeloaders – one never responded to my query and the other only had space for a tent and I wasn’t interested in camping in October. There are no hostels in the Mt. Shasta area either.
I did, however, find a website that lists a number of women who rent out beds in their homes for a reasonable price (compared to hotels). I phoned the morning that I was leaving Medford and found a place to crash, Natasha’s. Her home is described as being on the top of a mountain with views of Mt. Shasta and the valley below. While I had wanted to be closer to the town of Mt. Shasta than the 20 minutes out of town where she is, her place has wifi, availability and a view of the mountain.
Happy Travels!
Aeon says
On our way to Shasta now. thank you.
wendy says
what was the website of women renting rooms for resonable prices? I need help for a trip this september!