The Drive to Portland, That Almost Wasn’t

Before I post anything else, I should back up a little….

Due to some relatively last minute change of plans (me moving up to Portland with Kara), I decided to rent a Uhaul trailer to bring some of our things with us.  The idea was that I’d pull it behind my Nissan Pathfinder… after all, I did this when I moved back to ABQ from Portland in ’02 and it wasn’t too bad.   We had Kara’s Civic shipped.

Well, apparently, I didn’t load the trailer correctly because when we hit the high speed of ~ 65mph about 10 miles west of ABQ, things got really dicey and we nearly turned back (once I regained control of the swaying rig).   We stopped for the night in Flagstaff, AZ, after driving ~ 55mph all the way there- a drive that usually takes about 4.5 hrs which took closer to 7hrs at this rate, while, I kid you not, getting passed by ever other vehicle on the interstate, including a school bus.  Well, that’s not completely true… I did pass one other car- a minivan, pulling, you guessed it- a U-haul trailer! 

Things improved when, during our lunch break the 2nd day, in Barstow, CA, I spent about 25 minutes to rearrange some boxes and that was enough to get more weight on the front of the trailer-which then allowed me to drive safetly at 70mph.  The irony of the situation was that California’s speed limit for vehicles pulling trailers was only 55mph, unlike the 70mph that I could have driven legally in NM & AZ.  Oh well.  I’m happy to say that I was able to make some better time through CA & OR once I resolved the situation with the trailer- and without any traffic citations telling me to slow down.

Since Kara had never been up to northern Cali to see the huge redwoods, and neither of us had made it to Crater Lake, we decided to head in direction, rather than the direct route of Moab, Salt Lake, & then through Boise which we did in ’02.   Driving through the redwoods just makes you feel small.  The huge trees are incredible.   Crater Lake was definitely worth the drive as well.  We actually got to drive around the west rim, though it was going to close for the season within a week of our visit.   They already had a decent amount of snow which isn’t bad for late September, but I’m sure it wasn’t much when you realize they get 533 inches on average each year!  Nonetheless, we learned that Bailey likes to play in snow which was the first time we’ve been in snow since we got him.

And finaly, we had a good laugh near Eugene, OR (2 hrs south of Portland), when we actually spotted Kara’s civic on the back of the car carrier as we were heading up I5 towards Portland.