Shakedown cruise

The inaugural voyage of the tugboat “I Quit” out of the port of Cupertino, California is going quite well so far. We departed on Thursday morning and made our way up California, via 101.

Somewhere outside Crescent City we made camp, started a fire, and started a pot of tea on the stove. Stove and sink worked just fine, no problems.

A side note: one of my chores of the Spring has been to empty out the garage. As part of that, I found personal financial records that I have saved dating back to 1986. Gahh! A quick search of the internet (my GoogleFu is strong) reveals that only the past three tax years really should be saved. So, I have several years of records to destroy. Mmm, kindling.

With the fire going, I cracked open the oldest box of financial records, and glanced through them as I slowly fed them to the fire. Oooh, look, there’s the W2 form when I was an Apple student rep in college. Here are copies of forms where I was applying for financial aid. Look, it’s the rental agreement for my first apartment in college. Poof, it’s all ash now.

On Friday, we made our way along Highway 199, taking a brief detour to see the Oregon Caves, which was wonderful.

Then we got back on 199 and moved over to I-5 heading up Oregon. Wherever possible, we hoped onto 99 for some variation, just to see the small towns in Oregon. Along the way we saw a small dam on the Umpqua river, and looked at a “fish ladder” that had nice viewing ports to let you see how the fish scaled the dam.

The campground we had selected for Friday evening either didn’t exist, or wasn’t open yet, or only had picnic grounds and no camping. Either way, at 9 o’dark we settled for pulling off the side of a road in east bumfuck, right next to a raging river. We parked, started a pot of tea (what a civilized camping ritual!) and listened to the river rushing by. Aside from some minor anxiety about the possibility of being rousted by “the man”, it was a fantastic site.

Saturday we continued the leisurely route along 99, finally making our way to Gresham to see our dear friends Dan, Melody and Owen. Hanging out, Sunday brunch, enjoying what I am told is unseasonably nice weather. Good times, good times.