November 23 & 24 -- Ashland

I drove south from McMinnville, through Eugene, into the Rogue Valley. The driving was easy through towns like Wilbur, Azalea and Hugo. It looked like there were some beautiful vistas along the road, but it was too dark to see them. North of Eugene, there was a beautiful fiery sunset to my right, silhouetting the mountains; to the right, the mountains were dark blue and the sky above slightly less dark blue, reminding me of the cover art on the novel Cold Mountain.

I pulled off the highway for gas, got out of the car to pump it, and was informed by another motorist that, if I did, I’d be fined $5000 and the gas station would get a $1000 penalty! State law. This left me doubly delighted, in the chill of evening, to allow the guy at the station to fill it up. I almost wanted to ask him to put in “hi-test!” I made it to Ashland, OR, for the night.



Ashland was a surprise! It’s a quaint and attractive little place. According to Wikipedia, it hosts the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from February to October, incorporating Shakespeare and non-Shakespearean plays in repertory at three theaters. OSF sells more tickets to more performances of more plays than any other theater in the country. In fact, in a typical year, OSF sells more than 350,000 tickets and attracts about 100,000 tourists.

I arrived in town right after the festival of lights kick-off ceremony, when the town fires up all the Christmas decorations. One of the tourists waling past me commented that the place reminded her of Europe. I don’t know about that, but I thought it felt a little like Northampton, MA.

Before leaving the next morning, I checked out Ashland during the day, and even saw my first Santa Claus of the year outside the city chamber of commerce. He’d just come out, so most of the children had run away by the time I got a pic. Some of the views in Ashland remind me a bit of British scenery – rolling green hills, etc.