This route is beautiful, but also slow and taxing. In a well-tuned sports car, which can go around the turns faster than the average car, it is a certainty that one will, e.g., only pass a slow pickup truck to almost immediately get stuck behind a camper. Between the continuous curves overlooking high cliffs, and the campers, it is a strenouous drive.

After a long long day, Ree and I got into Oregon much later than we had expected to. Because our funds were limited (nil?) we did not have the option of stopping at a motel, and so kept driving later and later into the night looking for a suitable campground. Finally, after I noticed that I had fallen asleep, momemtarily, at the wheel several times, and saw Ree swerve off the road, I honked for him to stop. We were exhausted, and agreed that it was just too dangerous for us to go on. It was quite late at night by this time. A cold fog had drifted over the dark forest we were in and settled on the roadway. Everything was quiet, save for an occasional passing vehicle on the highway. We drove down the sloping shoulder into the long, wet, grass, next to the forest of fir trees. There was no thought of trying to rig up our convertible tops, and so we left our bodies exposed to the fog. Ree immediately began snoring, with his head leaning on the top of his door. I walked back to my car and fell asleep almost instantly myself, in the drivers seat, just as Ree had.

Some time later I woke up. I was extremely uncomfortable, and felt as though I were encased in molasis. Even opening my eyes was a struggle. I realized that I was very cold, because the night had grown increasingly chilly, but I just went back to sleep. A little later I barely woke again, but this time I thought -- if I do not get up, I am never going to get up again. Frost was everywhere. I seemed not to be able to feel my hands or feet. In agony I dragged my body out of the car. Everything was "asleep," and a painful tingling and aching started in my hands, my legs. I managed to stumble over to Ree's car thinking he would help.

Ree, however, was still sound asleep. I shook him, and he complained bitterly. We got in a very strange argument. I know what was on my mind was that we were getting hypothermia, and that we needed to get warm, but we ended up arguing about things from Richard's dreams, and from my own semi-conscious dream state. In my passion to get Ree to wake up and take action we ended up arguing about a bag of sugar. I remember to this day that it was a bitter argument about the color of a (mythical) five-pound bag of sugar.

Finally, I won the argument (it was yellow!), and roused Ree. We unrolled our sleeping bags, just managed to crawl into them, and both fell fast asleep until the sun was well up over the horizon the next morning.

I am not so familiar with hypothermia, but I was perilously close to losing that argument about the bag of sugar, and almost resigned to go back to my car to reconsider. If I had, I wonder if there would have been a sunrise for either of us.