Cold and wet here in Medford, Oregon - quite a treat as the people back home keep sweating through the never ending summer.

Left Woodland around 10:00am and headed north on the I5. Got to Redding around noon and spent the afternoon there looking around. Nice enough place. Around 4pm we continued heading north and the countryside changed from farming community to snow capped mountains. Mount Shasta was quite a sight as the 14,000 ft peak disappeared into the clouds. Just an awesome drive. 

At some stage we drifted into Oregon, beautiful state and here we are in Medford around 400K's south of Portland where we aim to get to tomorrow. 

Went to Black Bear Diner for dinner. Staying at Rodeway Inn - room 114.

We did go through a town called Weed today! Could have bought some interesting T Shirts.

As the headline suggests, we didn't make it to Portland but are in Eugene about 150 K's short.

Problem was that we couldn't drag ourselves away from Medford and it was 3pm before we finally headed north. Medford, like Oregon, is a beautiful place with much history. We looked a round and checked out the historic towns of Jacksonville and Ashland. Great little towns, so much character and interest.

Rayls managed to squeeze in two quilt shops during the day and generally we had a great day. It was 260 K's from Medford to Eugene and now hear we are. Perhaps we will make Portland tomorrow - who cares!

Here we are in Clackamas, a suburb of Portland in northern Oregon.

We started the day in Eugene, Nice hotel there - the Broadway Inn, room 32 - very nice. We are using Trip Advisor to pick up cheap but well reviewed hotels. Going well so far.

We stopped in Salem for a bit and then headed on to Portland. Had a look around and ended up at a Quilt Shop next to a Day's Inn and as it was 5pm I wandered over and booked a room at the senior rate. People keep asking me if I qualify for the senior rate - yes I do!  Save money so why not.

Recently we have been through towns with some strange names - Weed, Talent, Boring and now Clackamas. Imagine living in Boring - pretty dull. I stopped in talent for a bit hoping it might improve my batting, we will wait and see. I asked the dude at a store here how to pronounce Clackamas and he told me that 4 years ago they changed the name to Happy Valley! All the signs still say Clackamas and it sounds fun.

It's been a cold and wet day, even some hail in Salem. I heard it rained a bit back home - cool!

Tomorrow we are planning a visit to a 600 foot waterfall just outside Portland and hope to make it to Seattle by the end the day.

All going well - having fun. First Applebees for dinner tonight - yum.