Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Eugene

So this is the start of my travel blog for FRANCE. I was just too excited to wait to start it until I leave in January. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm going to France on either January 9th or 10th to study abroad in Poitiers, a small medieval town in the province of Poitou-Charentes, which is on the western coast of France, only an hour and a half train ride to/from Paris (omg!). I really don't know much yet as for the ...

As anyone that has had the unfortunate task of traveling with me can imagine.....in order to get to our 8am flight at Regan Airport in DC, we got up at 4am and were at the airport by 6am. So the early start made for a long day, but with Florence struggling with a cold (no fever, so it's not Swine Flu), and a sore shoulder, we were ready to get home. <br><br>The flights were right on time, and we even caught the shuttle to our car with perfect ...

Dre.. transform and roll out..<br><br>Drove up to Eugene this weekend to stoop it with Benja and his lady Rachel. ****in refreshing.. <br>I met Benj in Kathmandu almost two years ago and he's pretty much my life. So being with him was incredible. I could go into details about my amazing weekend but it's just not going to scratch the surface or begin to explain his importance in my life. <br ...

After passing through Coos Bay, Oregon and seeing Steve Prefontaines High School track, we decided to keep on trucking up to Eugene. We thought that the trail dedicated to him was in Coos Bay, but it's actually in Eugene. Once we got to Eugene, the first thing we saw was Hayward Field. Now I can understand why they call it Track town USA. This place is so well groomed and well kept, it kind ...

I went back up to Eugene, picked up Katie and we drove back to Idaho. On the way there we camped in the Cascades at the Metoleous River. The photos don't really show how incredible this is, at the mouth of the Metoleous the water comes out of the side of the mountain. Turn around and it's a full river.<br><br>We drove through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, also an incredible area.<br>

We left the ranch and came to Eugene OR a city I lived in back in 1988-90. I came here to participate in a few workshops and visit with good friends. This was the beginning of what I have called my ping-pong ball travels where I went between Eugene and Firth several times. This back and forth could be one of the reasons I was less motivated to ...

... so I dropped that inside to see how how it was getting. After about 20 minutes of running with the lid off, the temp had stabilized to about 180 degrees I think. But if I put the lid on, and dropped the probe in through the whole in the middle, the temp shot right up past 400 degrees (that's where my termometer maxes out) in a matter of minutes. If I took the lid off, the temp would slowly fall to some stabilized temp much lower. I also noticed when the lid was on, the outside of the ...

... and the water. This parking lot has more to offer than some of the campgrounds we have stayed at over the past 7 months. Residents walked and bicycled past us and when we returned to the RV we noticed a security guy in his jeep patrolling the parking lot area. To our delight, he just cruised by our RV and looked around to see that everything was cool. June 16th. Woke to birds singing and sun shining. After coffee we went for another walk along ...

... the second day due to constant head-winds. The countryside was lovely with many sheep. We were fascinated to see a number of Bald Eagles among the sheep. We were told later by a farmer we met by his house that this was lambing season and the eagles were in the fields making meals of the placentas. We were delighted to see many other birds, including a Western Meadowlark, which we heard was in decline in the Northwest. Another farmer told us that this part of the Willamette River ...

... hills speckled with sparse vegetation. Around this area you lose KOPB (Portland's major public radio station), but can still get some Portland radio. Soon thereafter you reach the Eugene exit. My Mapquest directions did not get me to campus as they were supposed to. I ended up downtown and wandered for quite a while. I got a decent gardenburger and a ****** salad at ...