While we were in Wilsonville visiting our son and daughter-in-law, we ordered a few things for Birdie and had the packages shipped to a Walgreen’s store in a small town south of Medford Oregon which is our next stop.
We drove down I-5 and through several beautiful passes and the Rogue Valley. Between Grants Pass and Medford are the Upper and Lower Table Rocks which are buttes with flat tops that can be seen from the highway. You can hike to the top of both rocks and in the Spring admire over 75 different species of wildflowers. One Specie, the dwarf wooly meadowfoam, only grows on the top of the rocks and nowhere else on the Earth! The trails don’t allow dogs to help protect the animals and plants so we’ll hike this area another time.
Birdie did well on the passes…she’s a Transit 250 and with the added weight we weren’t sure how she would do. She slowed a bit on the steep elevation climbs but we stayed in the right lane and took it slow and steady.
Oregon has great rest areas along the highway and they allow you stay for 12 hours so essentially you can spend the night. Our plan in Medford was to stay overnight at a rest stop near Phoenix (Oregon, not Arizona!) so we could pick up our packages the next day and be on our way. But the rest stop was closed. The nearest alternative rest stop was in Grants Pass and after a day of driving we didn’t want to back track. So we stayed in the Cracker Barrell parking lot. There were 4 or 5 other campers and vans in the parking lot and we felt fairly safe staying there. We did see a couple of trash bags in the parking lot which is unfortunate. Cracker Barrell is nice enough to allow travelers to stop in overnight and I think one of the best ways to show appreciation is to clean up after yourself. Pack it in, pack it out.
Our packages weren’t being delivered until later in the afternoon, so we found a beautiful park in Medford to eat breakfast and walk Ninja. We also looked on-line and found a campground in Ashland that had available spots and hot showers, so we booked two nights. I’ll pause here for a brief bunny trail. We have no reservations for campgrounds, hotels, etc. We have a loosely planned travel route with no more than 4 hours of driving per day. But we have no reservations and are going to ‘wing it’. I’m not a ‘wing it’ kind of person – when we go on vacation, I have every day planned. I even plan down days so we can fill those with things we bump into unexpectedly that we might want to do. This not planning thing is a big stretch for me. Bunny trail complete.
Since we had a couple hours before our packages arrived, we decided to drive west of Medford 5 miles and visit the quaint National Historic Landmark town of Jacksonville. On the way there, we read (and sang “We’re going to Jackson” by Johnny Cash) that Jacksonville is one of the oldest towns in Oregon and due to the discovery of gold in 1851 was an immigration, farming and economic hot spot and the county seat of southern Oregon. The first Chinatown was established there by immigrants from San Francisco. The railroad system bypassed Jacksonville in the 1880’s which ultimately impacted the economy, and the county seat was moved to Medford in 1927. The silver lining for us is that many of the buildings are original architecture because the lack of economy didn’t prompt them to be upgraded. We drove through town and really enjoyed the brick buildings, historical architecture and all the shops, pubs, wineries and cafés on main street.
After visiting Jacksonville, we went to Phoenix, grabbed our packages and headed to our campsite in Ashland!
