20250401 Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Tillamook to Medford, OR

20250401 Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Tillamook to Medford, OR

Voorhees Mansion, Eden Valley Winery

 Medford OR

We were able to get on the road at 8 a.m. from the Blue Heron Cheese Company.  It was quiet enough in the parking lot, although there was a security light in the parking lot that required us to put up the front window covers to shut out the light.

The drive from Tillamook to Salem was quite scenic, mostly following winding streams and meadows until we got into some mountainous areas where the road continued to wind and twist.  It was fortunate that there wasn’t much traffic going our direction.  Ben only had to pull over twice to let other traffic pass on the 2-lane highways.  We did start out with sunny skies with broken cloud cover, but heavy clouds eventually pushed in and it then began raining pretty heavily.  Our batteries were able to recharge to 98% on solar while we were driving.  

We made a refueling stop at a Shell station in Salem.  A Coca-Cola delivery truck blocked our exit for a while, but this gave Ben time to use the bathroom, make a cup of coffee, and do a Duolingo lesson.  

The RV certainly got a workout pulling the Bronco uphill in the mountainous terrain and passes.  We were able to easily keep up with most semis on the road, but did end up slowing down to 45 mph on the steepest and longest grades in the mountain passes where the fully loaded semis were on the shoulders driving at 25 mph.  On the steepest and longest climbs, the trip computer showed 6.6 mpg fuel consumption.  But on the downhill legs, it shows 99 mpg.  There were no issues with braking or stability, but it was raining really hard at times so we sometimes drove a little below the speed limit, although for the most part, we were able to comfortably maintain the speed limit.

We got email notifications that some of our Dairy Queen points were going to expire soon, so we pulled off I-5 in Cottage Grove to find the Dairy Queen that the Freeway sign had indicated.  It turns out it was clear at the south end of town, but we got a tour of Cottage Grove’s old Hwy 99 historic area.  The Dairy Queen was really old, but looked like it had a large parking lot.  However, after pulling in, it turned out not to be a single parking lot but two parking lots connected by the drive-through, so we were stuck.  We had to unhitch the Bronco so we could turn the rig around and then rehitch the Bronco.  That was a bit of a hassle for a free Blizzard treat.  We did also have some chicken tender meals while we were at it.

We made a second refueling stop in Medford at the Central Point Costco, but didn’t go into the warehouse.  We arrived at the Eden Valley Winery Harvest Host site at 4:30 and checked in at the wine tasting room.  Janet tried a few reds before settling on a glass of their pear sparkling wine, while Ben did a flight of their own red wines.  Their 2016 Pinot Noir was his favorite, although their 2013 Claret was also quite tasty.  There were several wines produced during years when there were significant wildfires with ash fall and smoke.  This did impact the wines, most notably in their notes. 

We met another Harvest Host couple at the Wine Tasting room from Bend, Oregon, John and Margot, who had arrived in a 1-ton Dodge dually with a nice Arctic Fox truck camper.  They were towing an empty vehicle trailer.  It turns out they have a Suzuki Samurai that is getting modified nearby, changing out its differentials so it can run on giant 33” wheels.  They use it to do 2-track touring and have been around Moab and plenty of places in eastern Oregon.  Ben was quite interested in those adventures.  John also has an original Toyota FJ in his vehicle stable.  It turns out both Ben and John enjoy watching some of the same YouTube channels on off-road adventures and misadventures.  Margot is a nurse and was actually working at the Seattle VA in the Spinal Cord Injury Unit during the late 1980s, so there’s a good chance Ben might have crossed paths with her doing SCI consults during his several residency rotations there, although neither of us had any recollections of such.  During the pandemic, Margo was stationed as a school nurse on the Aviano Naval Air Station in Italy.  

We had egg noodles with canned chicken breast, cream of mushroom, and green bean casserole for dinner.