COAST TO COAST

It dawned on me that I haven't told you about our latest dispatch. From Salmon Arm, BC we were sent to Roseburg, OR and then to Fort Lauderdale, FL, for a trip totalling just a bit over 4,000 miles. Not too shabby, except that it will be an oversize load and we will have to deal with all the restrictions on driving that come with it. You remember right? No two States are the same with their regulations, and we've already begun the deciphering of the government talk on the permits. So far, we have been in agreement as to what exactly the wording means, but stay tuned, we still have 9 more States to travel through.

Our routing out of Roseburg took us on a couple of State highways we have not been on before. Hwy 58 out of Eugene is gorgeous. Even though it was only a two lane road, around every gentle curve we saw majestic pine trees and creeks with icy cold water cascading over rocks, making its journey to the many lakes in the area.

One of the surprises that came upon us as we came out of a turn was the Lowell Covered Bridge in Lane County, Oregon. What I didn't realize was that Oregon has the largest collection of covered bridges west of the Mississippi River.


Covered bridges were originally built to protect the decking of the bridge which were made of wood. Because of the large amounts of rainfall and the rate at which the wood rots, the bridges had to be protected. Of course, wood products were highly available which made it possible to build roofs over these bridges fairly easily and cheaply. In the 1920's, Oregon had more than 400 covered bridges. Now only 49 covered bridges remain. The largest number of these are located in Lane County, totaling 19 in all. Some day we will have to come back and travel the county checking out the other covered bridges.

As we made our way into Bend, Oregon and onto Highway 20, we started getting into some higher ground and snow. We have been keeping a close watch on the weather as it seems there is a storm system that just might follow us along our designated route. The snow was just starting to let up as we pulled into Hines, OR for the night.

Happy to awake and not see any fresh snow on the ground, and after the official sunrise time, we headed towards Idaho. The first 100 miles we encountered some icy and snowy conditions, but we made it over the two passes and safely into Idaho for our fuel stop.

Tonight finds us in Snowville, Utah. Craig and I laughed when we thought about staying in a place called Snowville, when snow was something we were trying to avoid. Time will tell if we made a good choice or not. Tomorrow we take on Wyoming. Wish us luck!