Ashland trip

Cris and I took off to Ashland for the weekend. It's not difficult to get here, once you clear Bay Area traffic. As soon as you turn onto Interstate 505, the shortcut across pastures and through orchards that enables northbound travelers from the Bay Area to reach I-5 without going through Sacramento, the traffic vanishes and you go the speed limit all the way to Oregon.

The whole trip takes about six hours but because we stopped for a spell in a little town called Williams to stretch our legs, and again in Dunsmuir, it took eight. Williams is a little farm town with several nice medium-sized Victorian houses and a very long wooden warehouse next to the railroad track. I didn't take any pictures, though the word WAREHOUSES on the end of the building was quaintly lettered.

This morning I bought the Ashland paper. There are scads of apartments for rent at low prices, perhaps just vacated by students of the local university. You could rent a two-bedroom apartment for $600 a month just as a pied à terre. Of course, it takes a whole tank of gas to get here and a whole tank to get back -- almost a hundred dollars each time you come. Or perhaps you could take a bus, but that would take all day. Maybe it would be better to find a place in Williams.