You’ve Reached Your Destination, Baby!
GPS is an amazing thing. We borrowed a friend’s GPS system this past weekend when we were in Oregon. Even though it got us a bit lost in Portland (it took us on a complete circle one time, allowing us to see the same homeless man counting his dimes twice in about 10 minutes), the GPS was nice to have on a road trip. And one of the fun parts was that the GPS had a variety of different celebrity voices to choose from to guide you on your way. We chose Austin Powers. Very groovy, Baby.
We drove from Portland to Vancouver, WA. Then we drove from Vancouver to Salem. Then we went from Salem to Bend. What a drive! Most of the trip was incredibly beautiful–with the exception of NE Salem. Everyone who had warned us about that area was absolutely right. Blech! However, the rest of our trip was breathtaking. Even though the road was windy, the highway going from Salem to Bend was amazing with crystal clear lakes, enormous trees and ferns lining the sides of the roads, and clear blue skies. Totally worth car sickness.
As we approached Bend, we realized that we didn’t have the address of where we were going: my cousin Derek’s tattoo and art studio named Oxygen Studios in downtown. We were also very decidedly sick of Austin Powers. He was annoying–and sometimes not so accurate. However, not knowing what else to do, I decided to take a leap of faith and select a random restaurant from the list off of the GPS. Yoko’s sounded like a good enough place. I programmed it in, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. About 10 minutes later, Austin had led us right into downtown Bend. He exclaimed, “You’ve Reached Your Destination, Baby! Yeah!” Right then, I looked out the passenger window and saw Derek standing in front of his shop. Unfucking believable!!! Thank you, Austin Powers.
