I-5 to Medford


The sun woke us up today. I had planned it that way, by leaving the curtains open. River slept the whole night in his crate, and only crawled into bed in the morning when we saw the sun. Then I closed the curtains and slept for another couple of hours.

Two nights ago, in San Francisco, he also seemed to be gravitating toward sleeping in his crate. Typically, he’d always get in bed as soon as the light was out, but in SF, he was already in his crate when I turn out the lights for bed and he stayed in there for maybe half an hour in the darkness before climbing into the bed. He didn’t stay, either. After just a few minutes, he hopped down and got back into his crate. I have to admit, I felt a bit jilted, lol, even though it makes me happy that he’s feeling comfortable and confident enough to sleep in his cage in a strange room.

This morning, before leaving the room in Willows, I put all the foods I had cooked last night into tupperware, arranging them in meals with a couple of vegetables and a protein in each one. Some had cheese, some had pumpkin seeds, some had eggs, some chicken, some beef, etc. I ended up with eight meals. I spent less than $50 at the store yesterday, so that’s pretty good for eight healthy meals. I also like the fun of reaching into the cooler and pulling out a meal without knowing exactly what I'm going to get.


Before we left Willows, I drove us to a park that was around the corner called Central Park. We played vigorously on the grass for a good half an hour, and then relaxed in the shade for another half hour before we actually hit the road.River was nice and exhausted for the drive and slept most of the way.

All of the trip was on I-5 today. I was surprised how long it took just to get to Redding. Because Redding was my original stopping point scheduled for yesterday. I changed it at the last minute to Willows when I learned that this Studio 6 had kitchens. (Which was why I was so upset when they wouldn’t give me pots and pans.) And as we pulled into Willows, I guess partly due to the stressful start to that drive, I felt like I was quite done with the whole driving thing for the day. So, in retrospect, going all the way to Redding would have seemed like a miserably long haul.

The scenery was pretty much flat and similar to what I was calling ‘hay country’ from yesterday’s drive. Until, that is, we got through Redding. Going north, it started getting really good. Mount Shasta and Shastina, which is a nice sight to see; twin volcanoes, frosted with snow. And then, going through the Shasta National Forest was fun.
Lake Shasta (or what's left of it) as seen through the window of my car on the VFW Memorial Bridge
Also, in Oregon all of the trees were very colorful due to the season.
Also, in Oregon all of the trees were very colorful due to the season.

I pulled into Medford around 4:20 pm. I chose to stay again at Medford mainly because of an experience I had had at a local restaurant the last time I was through. This incredible Cajun/Creole/Soul Food place called Marco’s Chili Pepper. It gets great reviews on Yelp, and one of them was mine! I was looking forward to it all day. The first time I had gotten the jambalaya and some bread pudding, and it could be the best I’ve ever had. I wanted to get something different this time to see if Marco would again blow me away.

I got online as soon as we were in the motel room to look up the address, and found, much to my horror that it was closed! A Yelp review dates two weeks ago mentioned that she met the owner, Marco, as he was sweeping up and told her that they were closing.

Well, I guess now there’s no reason for me to ever come back to Medford.
Hopes dashed. Good thing I have my cooler stocked with food.




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