Sunday, August 31, 2008

Frisco Road Trip, Pt. 1: Getting There


Road trips are a journey of time and mind, where daily life is put on hold and all that's important is the journey. Months ago I heard that a major exhibition of the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was coming to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and, since I'm a huge fan of her work, it was not an event I was going to miss come hell or high water.

Rather than jumping on an airplane and 90 minutes later landing at our destination, shuttling to a hotel, going to the museum and heading back home the next day, we decided that we needed some time out to watch the countryside whiz by, stop to eat when we felt like it and maybe visit some friends (or make new ones). Plus this way we could stop at the shrine that is Jack's Grill in Redding, have lunch with a writer friend in Sacramento and take as long as we wanted in the city before heading home again.

The key was renting a car rather than hauling our old Volvo wagon down and back, so we went for a compact, high-mileage Toyota Corolla that would get over 30 miles per gallon and still allow Dave, at 6' 4", some head and leg room. Throwing our gear into this simple 4-passenger jet, we headed out mid-morning, stopping for lunch in downtown Roseburg at McMenamin's Roseburg Station, the renovated central train station. Nothing spectacular food-wise, of course, but my spinach salad and Dave's burger were decent and allowed us a quick break before climbing up through the mountains and down to Redding.

Read the other posts in this series: Paying Our Respects, Resting in Redding, Schmoozing in Sacto, Home Away from Home, Off on the Right Foot, Choosing Chinese, The Ferry and the Hog, The Point of It All, and The Last Meal.

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