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Fly in to Portland, OR with my wife and daughter and pick up my new SRX. From the airport, stop and get some coffee and bacon donuts at Voodoo Donut in Portland and then drive through wine country in the Yamhill valley and head straight to the coast. We’d play on the beach and enjoy fresh seafood in Newport before heading south along the beach, with me enjoying the curves and AWD while wife and daughter enjoy the comfortable ride and great stereo.
Just south of Coos Bay, we head inland through the coastal rainforest and head SE towards Roseburg. We won’t have time for fishing on this trip, but we’ll do some sightseeing along the Umpqua river before getting dinner and turning in for the night – it’s going to be a long day tomorrow!
Next day, get up early and hit the road. Head east across the Cascade mountains into the Oregon desert. We’re going to Crater Lake National Park to see the deep blue water and have a brunch at the lodge there. After driving around the rim and taking lots of pictures, we’re back on the road headed east to Hwy 97.
We’ll head north on 97 through Bend, stopping for pictures in the desert along the way. It’s a huge contrast with yesterday’s beach and rainforest – it’s all high desert out here and they filmed several old western movies in this area. We’ll head northwest along Hwy 26 at Madras, headed for Mt. Hood.
At Mt. Hood, we’ll drive up and have dinner at Timberline Lodge, the place where they filmed The Shining. (well, the outside anyway) They have skiing year-round there, and there’s a very good chance we’ll be using the AWD in the SRX to get through the snow and ice. After dinner, we’ll throw a few snowballs and head back to Portland on hwy 26.
That’s where we’ll turn in our friendly SRX and thank the nice people at Gadling and Cadillac for the awesome road trip. In two short days, we’ve gone from major city to wine country to swimming in the ocean to driving through a rainforest to one of the natural wonders of our country, through the desert, up a snowy mountain, and then back to the city. That’s a lot of miles and lots to see, but it’ll be a breeze in the SRX.