Day 16: Where life’s such a groove

Posted on 7 September 2008 by Jason

I barely slept through the night, as I’d cho­sen the Motel 6 that appeared to be host­ing a biker rally on the scale of Sturgis in the park­ing lot. Eager to get the hell out of Arcata as soon as pos­si­ble, I repacked all my bags, made myself clean and hit the road. My des­ti­na­tion for the evening was San Francisco, but along the way, I still wanted to drive the Avenue Of The Giants, the scenic route alter­na­tive to Highway 101, as well as drive down the coast for a while, through Fort Bragg and Mendocino, at least. Continue read­ing →

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Day 15: Westward Ho!

Posted on 5 September 2008 by Jason

I woke far too early for my late bed­time, but I wanted to get a start on the day, so I made my way out to the car and found a Dutch Brothers Coffee stand nearby and started my daily reg­i­men of caf­feine, caf­feine and more caf­feine. One thing I’ve noticed that’s lack­ing in the Midwest is the dozens upon dozens of drive-thru-only cof­fee stands staffed by beau­ti­ful twenty-somethings. Also, I was look­ing for­ward to get­ting out of Oregon so I could go back to pump­ing my own gas, thanky­ou­very­much. Continue read­ing →

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Day 14: I have tasted heaven

Posted on 5 September 2008 by Jason

I put­tered around Don & Deb’s in the morn­ing, mak­ing cof­fee, writ­ing, and get­ting ready to leave. Once packed, I started back toward Seattle, stop­ping for cof­fee at Locals, the best drive-thru espresso stand in Stanwood. Luckily, I was slow enough get­ting started that I missed the bulk of traf­fic on I-5 mov­ing south into Seattle proper, as the num­ber of cars grew the closer I got. I had only one des­ti­na­tion in mind: Salumi. Continue read­ing →

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Day 13: A little slice of heaven

Posted on 3 September 2008 by Jason

Spent the day doing mostly noth­ing at Don & Deb’s on Camano Island. I caught up on the site, did a cou­ple loads of laun­dry, worked on a free­lance project, helped make brunch (bis­cuits & gravy with home fries) and din­ner (chilled steamed crab, green beans with sesame oil, parme­san gar­lic bread), and watched part of the Republican National Convention.

It’s hard to tear myself away from this place where I have so many good mem­o­ries, where things move at a slower pace than I’m used to—but not too slow—but there’s more to see, more to do, more friends to meet, so I have to move on. But it’s nice to have been off the road for a cou­ple of days…

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Day 12: The bluest skies you’ve ever seen in Seattle

Posted on 2 September 2008 by Jason

I started the day with a pot of Stumptown Coffee’s Hair Bender (and it was). My agenda hadn’t taken shape much beyond know­ing I wasn’t going to spend another $40 to get into Bumbershoot, despite the allure of see­ing Superchunk and a live record­ing of one of my favorite pod­casts, The Sound Of Young America. I deliv­ered Don and Deb in Ballard and returned to Lisa and Jed’s house to shower before head­ing out to find lunch. Continue read­ing →

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Day 11: Bumbershoot

Posted on 2 September 2008 by Jason

I woke early again Sunday morn­ing in Portland, stum­bled down­stairs and made tracks to Peet’s for cof­fee, where I ran into a cou­ple of the par­ty­go­ers from the night before. Back at the Knaus house, Meshel made a break­fast of huck­le­berry pan­cakes (from scratch, because she’s awe­some) with can­taloupe and peaches on the side. It was a per­fect cap­per to a per­fect week­end. Continue read­ing →

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Days 9 and 10: Stumptown

Posted on 1 September 2008 by Jason

I made my way up to Portland from Medford in rel­a­tively lit­tle time. My first stop was to see my dear friend Sarah, who I’ve known since high school. We had an all-too-brief chat before I left to meet up with Chris and Meshel, friends I met through Twangfest. I arrived at their sag­ger­ingly cool house and deposited my belong­ings, after which Chris and I headed to Amnesia Brewing for a few pre-dinner pints. Their ESB and Copacetic India pale ale are among the best beers I’ve had on this trip, and that includes the 14-beer sam­pler from Sierra Nevada. Continue read­ing →

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Mountain drive

Posted on 1 September 2008 by Jason

I can’t recall exactly where I shot this—it was either between Redding, Calif., and Medford, Ore., or between Chico, Calif., and Redding. Either way, it was a beau­ti­ful day to drive; this video is about 15 min­utes of that drive com­pressed to two min­utes, so everything’s fly­ing by, but you can get an idea of what it looks like.


Mountain drive from Jason Baldwin on Vimeo.

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Sierra Nevada Brewery tour

Posted on 31 August 2008 by Jason

Here’s a quick unedited clip of the Sierra Nevada Brewery tour I took in Chico last week.


Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour from Jason Baldwin on Vimeo.

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Day 8: Mountain Cry

Posted on 29 August 2008 by Jason

I worked most of the morn­ing in my rather depress­ing room at the Motel 6, but as soon as I got to a good stop­ping point, I beat a path out of town, but not before an early lunch at In-N-Out Burger and a visit to Target to restock my water and caf­feine sup­plies, en route to Medford, Oregon. Continue read­ing →

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