I am slowly making my way through the thousands of photos I took during my recent three week road trip through the Western states. My mom and I are well practiced together on road trips, and this time we had merely an anxious dog with us (Norman) rather than an anxious AND carsick dog (miss you Faithy!).

Day one took us from Seattle to Crescent City, California.

All our previous road trips have seen us staying in Motel 6s for their prevalence, dog- and budget-friendliness. While not glamorous, most are at least adequately clean and chill for our purposes. Well, this first night in Crescent City, (and a near miss the next night, which I will share later) has cured us of our love for Motel 6s. The room smelled like literal shit - I actually searched the whole thing to find what was causing it, unsuccessfully. Bare floors, no decor to speak of, patched walls, and most excitingly, our lovely next door neighbors had an all night bender complete with yelling, swearing, and door slamming.

Oh, and while mom was doing her nightly meditation we had the pleasure of overhearing an employee boasting about his previous work at a mortuary, scooping brains, plucking eyeballs and generally experiencing close contact with other amazing body parts. So much for that meditation.

But the beach was pretty!