Two weeks in. Two weeks left. From Forks to San Francisco.

Seattle vanished from Donato's rear view mirror as we headed over to visit Olympic National Park and then south towards Portland Oregon. Rain. A lot of rain. We traveled north and then wrapped around the outskirts of the National Park to the main entrance about 50 miles north east of Forks WA. So into the rainforest we went. We put on our rain coats and packed our bags for a short 1 mile hike. Its raining but we figure that it wont be as bad in the forest, I mean the canopy catches about 65% of rainwater right? Wrong. We got soaked. Really soaked. About 10 minutes into the walk I realized that I couldn't get much wetter. Wrong again, you can always get wetter and I did. Downpour aside the forest was as expected, beautiful. Our search for a unicorn came up short but we found waterfalls and gnarly trees and prehistoric growth that you would expect in a place that gets more than 10 FEET of rainfall per year. Bright green moss covers everything and anything organic seems to glisten with a moisture that is almost surreal. The smell of the rich water soaked earth made each breath a ritual as I tried to inhale deeper every breath. The forest itself was dark in a way that Tolkien may have described in a novel. Alive with sound, the rain sounded like an applause on the plump leaves of the undergrowth. Overwhelming.

We got back to van and stood there wondering how we could all strip off our drenched clothes and get into the van without making everything inside wet and muddy. A hard task. With four people in a small van its hard to be modest, I rode out of the forest in my underwear, heat blasting, feet on the dashboard. Life is great.


We arrived in Forks and quickly learned that the rumors where true. The town had been the filming ground of the vampire movie "Twilight". If you for some reason didn't know (I envy you) then you would soon be made aware as you drove by over a dozen stores, cafes, pizza shops, rest stops, and laundry mats clinging on to the twilight cash machine. Its hard to be critical however. Economically depressed, I am happy to see the positive effect a movie can have on a real working class town. The mom and pops shops have all benefited from the vampire movie but it is sad to see how quickly pop culture can suck the identity out of a typical American town that is wonderful in its own right. Pizza was good in Forks. Coffee, well, not so good. We went into a cafe that smelled like toilet bowl cleaner. Dead animals heads lined the walls and hunters sat in the far corner in their forest camo rain suits. We could only laugh as we tried to be good customers but couldn't bring ourselves to order anything in the giant toilet bowl. I ran out to the van, the girls left a dollar on the table because the waitress brought us water and we sped out of the lot with the windows down.

Portland OR.
Portland was interesting. We tried sleeping in a parking lot of a 24 hour restaurant. We have had no problems sleeping anyplace. That trend was about to change. Around 3:30 a.m. we heard a knock on the rear door of the van. I thought I was dreaming, then again, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! I speedily got dressed and crawled out of the van. A man was calling in my plate number over the radio while shinning a light in my face. He questioned me. "Where you from?". "Where you going?" Up until now I thought he was a cop. He asked for my ID and I caught a glimpse of his badge and asked, "Are you a cop?". "No", he said. My reply came swiftly, "NO YOU CAN'T SEE MY ID". I walked around to the drivers seat and pulled out as he made his way back to his rent-a-cop ford focus. OK, maybe not the best first impression.
Later we explored Hawthorn St. This trendy strip in SE Portland was full of bars, coffee, and shops. We lounged in a cafe to escape the rain. With no rain relief in sight and behind schedule, we left town with overall good feelings of the place. I will need to explore it again soon minus the security guard.

Into California, the redwoods where great. The rain let up enough for us camp a night in a bear active lagoon. We ate grilled pizza and toasted marshmallows! The morning greeted us with camp showers and then we went out to explore the tall tall trees. Our hike that day was dryer, the sky scraping trees acted as umbrellas and we could walk around, in and out of a prairie to see elk herds and a tree that was estimated to be over 1700 years old.
Through Eureka CA, South bound on Rt 1. The night made the twists and turns nauseating and a certain anticipation filled the van. 25 miles later we emerged and Fort Bragg greeted us with a Denny's and a rest stop to sleep in. The following morning we walked the tiny streets of Mendocino. A great little town with charm out the ears. Wine country came next on our approach to San Fran. Over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, my expectations of this cultural mecca came up short as we drove blindly around the city for hours. I guess we need a guide to appreciate it but I am city sick and ready for the desert again and rest in Reno.

-jason