Anatomy of the Drupalcon Roadtrip

I thought I would record some numbers about our trip... forgive me if this is boring. From home to the border it is a 30 minute drive, a 90 minute ferry ride, and another 30 minute drive; add in any wait time at the ferry plus at the border and you're looking at 3-4 hours, so the following times and distances are outside of those:

On the way down, we did the trip in three days:

Blaine, WA to Portland, OR: 285 miles.

Portland, OR to Redding, CA: 421 miles. (through mountain passes)

Redding, CA to San Francisco, (via Mountain View, CA): 284 miles.

Total: 990 miles

On the way back, we did it in two:

San Francisco to Grant's Pass, Oregon (via Eureka): 438 miles.

Grant's Pass to Blaine, WA: 528 miles.

Total: 966 miles

All told, we spent approximately 36 hours in the car -- of that, I drove for about 5 hours while Hubby did the rest (something for which I am very thankful).

We crossed the border with a half tank of gas and came back with 3/4 tank; along the way, we spent about $315 for about 103 gallons of gas. (If we'd bought the same amount of gas in Victoria it would have cost us about $420.)

Along the side of the highway, I saw hundreds of shards of tires, three huge piles of diapers (possibly used, eww) inside a one mile stretch, roadkill including one coyote, three cats, countless raccoons, and half a deer. Yes, just half -- the back half. Eww.

I also saw vineyards, olive groves, turf farms, cows, goats, alpacas, signs telling me that God Forgave Me and that Farm Tours were available weekly. We drove through places with populations below 2,000, towns that sprawled through valleys, and cities offering everything one could want inside the city limits. We passed National Guard armories, army bases, hospitals, universities, and headquarters of major corporations. We ate at small cafes and four star restaurants. We saw folk art and fine art.

We left here tired and returned just plain exhausted.