Apologies for missing a few weeks - I’ve been traveling.
I’m at my sister’s in Colorado, up around 9,000 feet where the heat wave cooking the West can’t reach me. On the temperature map I’m in a small blip of green in a sea of dark red. I am not a hot weather person, so I may just stay up here until the temperature at lower elevations drops. Rachel likes to tease me about my claim of being Greek when the DNA test says only 15% of me is related to anyone from Greece. While I think the DNA tests have a lot of problems, the way I melt in the heat makes me rethink how Greek I really am. There’s got to be other Cold Weather Greeks.
I started this trip over two weeks ago. Rachel and I drove up to Portland from Los Angeles because with my little Prius C’s gas mileage, summer airfares, and the fee to add a dog to your flight, it was cheaper to drive up for her college reunion and my family reunion.
On the way up we made some stops to break up the 16 hour drive. A usual stop for us is Preservation Coffee and Tea in Modesto, where Rachel is from. The coffee is good, they have beans from Kuma and Onyx, and the spot seems to be where the young and hip who haven’t left Modesto work. They have a stand for local artists to sell their stickers and prints with a QR code to pay the artist directly. The shop is downtown on J Street.
Modesto has a strange downtown because no one lives there. There are no apartment buildings, so, outside of work hours, it’s dead. It isn’t the only downtown in America like this, but it’s still a shock everytime I walk around. Modesto is the kind of place people like to shit on, it often makes Most Miserable Cities lists, but there’s great stuff going on here if you know where to look. A lot of young people leave never to come back, but there are some sticking around, making their home town with a low cost of living an interesting place to live. Jason Lytle from the band Grandaddy, moved back to return to his roots and focus on getting his band back together.
Another great Modesto institution is Brighter Side. It’s in an old gas station made of beat up wood, but they make the best sandwiches and fruit salads. The same people have been running it for years and it’s only open during the weekdays during lunch.
One last shoutout for Modesto is Mr. T’s Delicate Donut Shop. Often rated as the best donuts in California, the line is long but moves fast. The donuts really are delicate - perfectly fried and fresh. These are my favorite standard, no-frills donuts. Nothing special - just perfection.
Next we stopped for a meal in Dunsmuir, near Mt. Shasta in Northern California. We ate at The Wheelhouse, a cafe down by the train tracks with water running underneath. You can see the water through a glass window in the floor, and the sound fills the cafe from a grate near the entrance. The Wheelhouse not only has great food and beer, but they have a library of over 300 games for rent. I’m quickly becoming obsessed with board game cafes across the country. I wish when I was younger there were hubs for nerds like me to play board games at all day. I had my friends’ basements, but it’s nice to be somewhere you can meet other game enthusiasts. You can tell the owners are passionate, often opening up the cafes seemingly just as a place to house their extensive collections. They embrace their nerdy passions in the decor and make spaces that they want to spend time in playing games. They’re one of my favorite 3rd places. To find one out in the mountains tells me they’re having a moment.
We stayed the night in Ashland, home of one of the top Shakespeare Festivals in the US, and Southern Oregon University. Speed limits are slow and it’s built for cyclists and pedestrians. The downtown has cafes and pubs along the river and around plazas, many with Shakespearean names. All around the small town is beautiful nature. The dog park on the edge of town runs along a river, the perfect place for a dog to get some exercise before getting back on the road.
This was the start of our travels. I’ll write more soon. I’m also working on a guide to driving along the i5, since I do it so much and am always looking for places to stop. If you have any recommendations for stops on the i5, leave them in the comments!