Sacramento to Olympia, a Capital Drive

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

The Car

If we recall our families’ stories from the Great Depression, see our present economy tanking, notice the price of gas now rising fast and know we’re confronting a drive of about 3000 miles, then going again with a hybrid makes sense. We wanted to challenge the Toyota Prius before the third generation comes out with probably a lower miles per gallon. We averaged 45 mpg on this trip. Thank you Toyota.

The Drive

We’re not sure where we’ll stay in Olympia, the capital of the state of Washington, but it can’t be anything like where we over-nighted in the capital of California. The paddle-steamer, the Delta King, is now a riverboat hotel (www.deltaking.com), berthed permanently in Old Sacramento. Commissioned in 1927, it was turned into a hospital ship after Pearl Harbor. It bears the patina of age and has no elevators but it's a fun hotel and, of course, it's got a great location. The California Capitol is 10 blocks away and most of the city's museums are an easy walk.

It’s a long drive to the Pacific Northwest and the first part, as many a child has told a parent is b-o-r-i-n-g, a drag up Interstate 5 that only starts to charm when you blow past Redding, approach Shasta Lake and get Mt. Shasta in your face. We’ve been seeing it for the last 35 miles as it peeped over McCloud summit. The soil has turned red in some places reminiscent of Prince Edward Island but we know we are in Northern California because of the signs: “Puzzled? God has Answers.1.800 HIS WORD.” “Taco Shop. Shasta Lake.” “Install Chains R Shoulder Only.” “6 % grade 1 mile.”

You can almost smell how clean the air is, despite the trucks all heading north.

We see sleek brown cattle standing knee deep in grass, green despite a California summer. Children riding tractors. Solar panels on road signs. Cultivated sunflowers marching for hundreds of yards along the freeway. Barns with tin roofs, one with “God Bless You” painted on it and another nestled under shade trees identifying itself as being in “The State of Jefferson.”

And there’s a fake cow. A fake cow! It made us smile as much as the sign had done at Mary’s Pizza shack at Anderson Outlets. It had said “Time flies when you are eating spaghetti.” We topped Anderson Summit and up comes a sign: “Welcome to Oregon. Snow Zone. Chains required beyond this point when lights flashing. Speed limit 55.”

Our dense green surroundings change; huge live oaks climb up the rows of hills. They have replaced the conifers.

Contented Oregonians putter along at a legal speed in front of us, daydreaming and oblivious to the fact that, if they are alongside cars proceeding at the same vigilante speed, no traffic can get past. Would someone shoot them if they did that in Los Angeles? Up comes Ashland and Medford and our Motel 6, a motel chain that really was ideal for our stops along the way. We ate at a family haunt, Munchies, wandered around but it wasn’t a Shakespeare season night.

Sun comes up and we’re gone. The green changes to a lighter color implying proper hydration and new growth. The green is greener than Vermont’s. We’re heading for Grant’s Pass. The map shows history: Gold Hill, Wolf Creek, Merlin, Sunny Valley, Stage Road Pass, Silver Butte. And way over to the west the land runs over the Siskiyou Mountains and National Forest, the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and beyond, Gold Beach.

We pass two youths thumbing a ride beside a sign that says Oregon Applebutter. We wonder if their mothers know they’re hitchhiking. We go over Canyon Creek Pass at 2020 feet elevation, disappointed at the numbers; the climb had felt much more. We pass the vast Seven Feathers Casino, as out of place as an oil tanker would be in the prairie and as charming in the green countryside as a beached whale.

We pass a herd of about100 cattle all facing north except one – a true maverick.

Traffic thins out at Roseburg, with a lot of RVs swinging off on Rt 138 to Crater Lake and some off to the west on Highway 48 to Coos Bay. The rolling land now slopes more gently until we get a sign suddenly with another 6% grade and again convoys of trucks, sometimes in both lanes of this two-lane interstate. We are in the country. At Roseburg we pass tractor shops and lumber mills and, at Rice Hill, a Chevron station, a truck driving school, an RV Park and an Adult Video Arcade, the homogenization of America. In between the views stretch to infinity. A sign says “10.4 acres zoned for lease.” For the wagon train pioneers that would truly have been Heaven.

We’re getting close to Eugene. But we’re still in Country America. The signs announce this: Meyer Tomatoes, Kelly Trailer Repair, Denny’s Real Serious Breakfast, World Famous RV Service, Shooting Range, Doyle’s Harley Davidson and, of course, University of Oregon, Home of the Ducks.

It was a straight run up I 5 from Eugene through Salem, the capital of Oregon, and into the green city of Portland, a city that would later become one of our American favorites. They were detouring traffic that was heading for the Morrison Bridge for some reason (does the public ever get a stated reason) but we finally crossed the Willamette and dropped off the interstate for our destination the capital of Washington State, Olympia.

Olympia is a cool city. Kiplinger’s magazine named it “A Top City in America” in July 2009. Writer Marc Wojno described it as “a cultural diamond in the rough of the Pacific Northwest,” and thought “the performing arts infuse the city with life.” Valid insights. Two universities and two colleges have their campus in Olympia and students really bring zest to any city they study and live in. There’s a lot to see in the adjacent Lacey and Tumwater, too.

Olympia is a relaxing end point for a drive. It’s a very tranquil, almost undiscovered by the mobs, place. It’s a city of murals, old fashioned buildings like the YMCA, a politically important Capitol – and of course a great place to stay for the comfortable beds of the Phoenix Inn Suites. Complimentary WiFi, coffee makers in room, cookies in the afternoon and breakfast included in the morning – and a location with lots of free parking, a simple walk to restaurants, the Farmers’ Market and, of course, the Capitol itself.