Day 27 - Redding to leave California Already! -or- Oregonna Start Playing Already!?

California doesn’t mean a thing to us now. It was time to move on. We rolled out fast and blasted up I-5 as fast as we could. Before long we hit the California border. Blythe was so happy to be in Oregon that she fell asleep as quickly as possible.

We were rolling toward Roseburg when the Cascade Mountains peeked over the horizon, and soon surrounded us with warm green hills, and snow-streaked rocky peaks. The van plowed through these mountains, eating I-5 with nervous energy. Piney forests raced by as new peaks rose and fell. All the while a mist crawled in over the ridge, and slowly enveloped us, erasing the beautiful view.

We rolled right into Roseburg OR with no trouble. Soon we were in front of My Coffee and The Wine Experience, our venue for the evening. We were first greeted by Dixie, who bears a striking resemblance to Kari from “MythBusters”. After some computer work, we met Deb and Shasta. Deb runs the coffeehouse. Shasta runs music for several spots in the Roseburg area via Shasta Ray Productions, including My Coffee.

After some set up, we played to a pretty full audience who were appreciative and complimentary. With a few glasses of wine, we found it easy to play for a few hours. It was a pretty easy show.

Afterward, Shasta was kind enough to fix us up with Shirley, who gave us a great place to sleep. Shirley took us through town, and back to her neat house. She bustled around to fix up some food while telling us about a drive in theater she owns in central California. She brought out industry magazines and posters dating back to the 50’s.

Shirley cooked us a nice late night dinner of poached eggs, purple potatoes hash browns, fresh pineapple and bagels with cream cheese. We stayed up late talking about where she came from in California, the oddly busy music scene in Roseburg, and travel all over the world.

Everyone called it quits for the night, and Blythe and I curled up in clean sheets, reading Craig Ferguson’s book, and “Forbidden Knowledge”, a book about useless ways to do things nobody should ever do.

Thanks to Deb at My Coffee, and Shasta at Shasta Ray Productions for booking us, and Shirley for putting us up.

Tomorrow, a day off on the coastal highway, a casino, and a beautiful seaside hotel room.