Day 15: Eureka to Portland, OR - 422 Miles
Heading home the fastest possible route, but we're not done yet. First off, gotta get mugged at the gas station for the largest gas bill of my life. Thanks, Joe. Guess this seems cheap now, less than a month later.
Not many chances for pictures. A rest area is nestled in among the redwoods.
Hwy 101 is very scenic along the coast. Several Elk herds are passed, the forests are lush and green. A few miles before Crecent City you come upon Trees of Mystery. It's a great family owned (since 1946) labor of love roadside attraction full of giant Redwoods and unusual tree formations. A must stop.
At Crescent City we turn inland on Hwy 199 - the Redwood Highway. Another marvelous 50 mile stretch of road with elk, forests and rivers. Traffic is heavy, so the foot isn't. Rats.
We reach I-5 at Grants Pass, OR and now its just 260 miles home of freeway driving. The good news is that the first 150 miles are quite varied and scenic before
you reach Eugene. You'll have to take my word for it - alas, no pictures.
Home about 6 PM after picking up the dog in Salem. Then got most of the bugs off the car - it's going in for summer tires tomorrow at 9AM. Gots to be clean.
10 AM the next day - SUMMERS ON!!! Now I can see what this car can really do with a decent, low profile, road tire. I just know it will handle a lot better.
Edit: It does.
Reflections
Another great BMW road trip in the books. The next trip might come in at only 10 pictures, however, 'cuz the wifey, patient as she is, is catching on to me. We'll see.
Two potential late summer trips are either back to Colorado or up to Banff, Jasper in the Canadian Rockies and then all the way over to Prince Rupert on the Pacific to take the ferry back down to Vancouver Island, then over to Whistler. Both would be a blast.
While I was very sad to let my M5C go (it's sorely missed when you want to get rowdy on curvey 2 lane roads) I have to admit that I am really enjoying the M850. Sure, it's not a complete brute, but it can totally get the job done. If I had to describe it in only one word, I would choose Smooth. Now that I have the summers back on, even if they are the Pirelli runflats, I'm having a blast tooling around town. Just quiet and fun. Now, about those Alpina B8s.................
My only negative is that I was getting ready to store the winters and noticed that each tire had the inside inch of rubber worn way down. Identical treadwear on all four. Sure sounds like a camber problem. Brand new car and BMW won't pay for it because it has to be brought in by the first 2,000 miles. Really? I was kinda busy that week. And, the next.
Thanks for following along and we'll see ya out there.