Up and Down and This and That

Day 27 (ish)

          Travel Days can be relaxing if we don’t have a particular timeline or destination. Yes, we are on this sojourn and eventually we will arrive in New Jersey, but in the interim, we only have a few reservations at campgrounds that we make usually only a few days in advance.

          Travel Days can be harrowing if the highway that we are traveling upon winds its way through the Cascade Range of volcanic mountains that run up the middle of  our States in the Northwest.

          The long upgrades that sap our speed are a challenge. We fight for road-position with all of the trucks. In some cases, we are able to out pull them as we climb the grade. Other times, we get caught behind a slower one and we lack the acceleration that would allow us to get out and pass them. It’s all a game of leapfrog that the truckers know oh so well. We are the neophytes.

          The story flips (hopefully not us) on the decline of the grade. Here, the big rigs, with their eighteen wheels to contact the road with, and their exponentially higher experience rating, zoom past us until the next uphill jousting match.

          Downhill is the worst. Careening may be a better word to use here. Downhills are never straight. They plummet just as a curve comes into the road usually with a precipitous drop-off on the other side which would hurl us through space until we shattered into tiny pieces on the canyon floor miles below.

          Or so it feels like.

          Thank goodness for our Exhaust Brake. This marvelous invention uses the power of the exhaust to slow the motor down, having much the same effect as the noisy Jake-Brakes that we hear as big trucks go down hills or come to a stop.

          With this nifty apparatus engaged, it allows us to take our foot off of the brakes (so we don’t burn them up) and just tap them every so often to keep further control of our speed. That, along with our trusty Allison six-speed automatic transmission that downshifts at precisely the correct time, allows us to maintain some semblance of control on these dizzying death-defying descents.

          But the scenery is awesome, so it all balances out!

          So, there is this town in California named Weed.

          I know, you just can’t make this stuff up!

          Those of you who know me better know that I have never even held a marijuana cigarette much less done anything else with it!

          But I couldn’t help laughing at this seemingly deliberately placed town in the first state to legalize marijuana (for medical purposes) and eventually recreational use. As we approached the town, which is right off of Interstate Route 5, I saw a sign that read,

                                      WEED, Next Three Exits

          And I imagined that stoner-guy leap with joy at the prospect of getting off of the highway at any of the next three exits and procuring his cannabis stash. We were not quick enough to grab a photo of that sign, but we were able to get a quick, fuzzy shot of the exit sign as proof!

          FYI, the town was named for Edgar Weed who back in the late 1800’s founded a sawmill here which became the largest sawmill in the world.

          I knew that there had to be a reasonable explanation!