Eagle eye Susan noticed that the route I was planning to travel had a section that was just closed due to the damage done by the forest fires that have been plaguing Oregon this summer.  We had a week of bad smoke from the fires north and south of us and the one south was 90 miles away!  The revised route will bypass OR 242 and miss the Dee Wright Observatory.

New Route: https://goo.gl/maps/hDFfNVyVJdR2

I don't want to over plan this trip but thought I better get the first day out of Eugene outlined.  You can see the plan at https://goo.gl/maps/uqZfwz2fj622 .   I'm not sure yet how many hours a day I'll feel comfortable driving or how much sightseeing will take place when I stop so I'll post day 2's plan after day one.

In the beginning....I can't remember quite when I had the thought but it was early in my childhood...I'd drive a jeep cross country.  It was a simple thought, and had no more detail to it other than a vision of countryside whizzing by the open jeep window but it stayed with me.  Susan and I recently decided to buy a second car for our Oregon house and the jeep was the target vehicle.  Flying to the east coast from North Bend is now a two day affair or involves a red eye flight so for the return trip we decided we would drive to Eugene and Susan could catch an early flight out to make the trip to PA in one day and I would leave from Eugene for the childhood cross country trip.

Ready to go...

I'll add a few pictures and comments about the trip as I go along.  We'll start on Oct 1...