Left about 5:30 am and stopped at the Country Cousin in Centralia for breakfast. We got caught in a terrible traffic jam all through Portland which set us back on our average speed. But we soon broke free.

Cool looking house in Red Bluff.

Southwest Oregon was very beautiful, and it wasn’t long before we hit snow on the climb through the mountains towards the California border.

(Funny city namecheck for Oregon: Umpqua, OR. Drain, OR.)

One of the first impressive roadside views we saw was Mt. Shasta. It was so blatant on the skyline it almost looked fake.

As we slowly trekked towards civilization we got to a rather quaint city, named Red Bluff. We stopped at Red Bluff to fuel up and grab some food. Red Bluff California was where we saw our first palm tree of the trip.

Our first palm tree.

A train goes by during lunch.

Our goal was Bakersfield for tonight, but the traffic jam in Portland set us back a little bit. We ended up stopping about an hour short in Fresno for the night.

Tomorrow (Day 2): Bakersfield, Tehachapi Loop, and Yuma, AZ.

Road Trip Links:

• Road Trip: Washington Arrival
• Road Trip Day 1: Shelton to Fresno (You are here)
• Road Trip Day 2: Fresno to Yuma via Tehachapi
• Road Trip Day 3: Yuma, AZ to El Paso, Texas
• Road Trip Day 4: El Paso to Jacksonville, Texas
• Road Trip Day 5: Jacksonville, Texas to Nacogdoches, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee
• Road Trip Day 6 (Part1): Graceland
• Road Trip Day 6 (Part2): Nashville, Tennessee
• Road Trip Day 7: The Road Home