Precious Memories: Surviving Boring CA Interstate-5

Road Trip to Seattle 2016

Los Angeles to Williams, California -- May 30, 2016

Time to visit family members up in Seattle again! We came upon a repositioning cruise that offered a great deal going from LA to Vancouver which we were about to book. After serious consideration, we gave up on that idea and decided to take another road trip to Seattle instead. Everybody knows that we love cruises, but we also enjoy road trips where we can stop and visit places of interest along the way. After much planning, we decided that we will drive up the Oregon coast one more time, spending four nights in between to see the things that we missed on our last trip in 2013 and revisiting those places which we remember well.

Renting a car for the trip was the idea in the first place, but after searching for a few weeks on the internet on rental cars, the rates were high enough that we thought we would have to forget about that and just use our own car. About two days before leaving home, we checked again and found an excellent deal for a mid-size SUV with a rate significantly lower than previous days. We took advantage of the last minute deal and got ourselves a Jeep Compass for the two weeks on the road. After picking up the car at Ontario Airport the day before, we were ready to go!

The Jeep Compass is smaller than the Jeep Cherokee that we rented in 2013 but still worked for the three of us.

Monday -- May 31, 2016

As always, we had last minute delays that caused us to hit the road later than planned. We managed to get on the 210 a little before 10:00 and fortunately, since it was Memorial Day, traffic was quite decent that morning. We did hit some heavy traffic as we got on I-5 from the 210 interchange but at least traffic was moving, slowly. After that hurdle, it was smoothly sailing all the way.

I-5

Climbing up the hills towards Gorman along I-5.

Interstate 5 is such a boring highway with nothing much interesting to see. Other than speeding up on the straight and bare highway, we only stopped for gas at the exit near the little town of Buttonwillow on the way north. We usually stop here for lunch but on this particular day we had something else in mind.

Harris Ranch, Coalinga

We have seen the sign of Harris Ranch from I-5 and the smell of cattle near that area is something that cannot be avoided. Having a lunch of steaks and prime ribs had never crossed our mind when we traveled through this area but after our friends told us of their great dining experience there, we thought we just have to make a stop here.

I was really surprised at how busy this place was. Other than the restaurants and shops, they also have a hotel on site. Obviously, this is a popular place. We waited with a beeper in hand for about 15 minutes at the restaurant section of the establishment before we were lead to our table. They also have a bar section serving the same menu, except no kids are allowed in that area.

Restaurants and shop at Harris Ranch.

Entrance to the restaurant.

Waiting area of the restaurant looking down at the bar on the right.

Our table was right outside of the busy kitchen. It was kind of fun watching the servers in action.

Our meals came with soup or salad. Here is the steak soup.

MOR's 14 oz Jack's Cut prime rib, $37.95. This was a little more cooked than expected as MOR ordered medium rare but it was still good.

ChC's 20 oz. T-Bone, $38.95.

I enjoyed my 14 oz. rib-eye, $38.95.

These warm cheese rolls were outstanding!

This meal at Harris Ranch was definitely not cheap but for a not-everyday-event, it was fine to spurge a little. The atmosphere was nice and service was super as we enjoyed this wonderful meal. I think we have decided that we would come back for more whenever we travel through I-5 from now on to break the boredom of this long drive.

After the huge lunch, we continued our drive up through Sacramento and Woodlands. Then we got off at this exit which turned into a quiet country road to our destination for the day--Williams. The reason we stopped here was to take the scenic route Hwy 20 to cross over to Hwy 101 the next day, which we have never taken before.

Country road to Williams.

A small town for sure.

There!

Traveller's Inn, Williams, California

As I was looking for a place to stay for the night near Hwy 20, Traveller's Inn came first on the list of hotels for Williams on Tripadvisor. With the low nightly rate and excellent reviews, I booked without hesitation and looked forward to our stay there.

This is actually a tiny motel, with only a few rooms on the premises. If it was not updated and remodeled, it could very well be just an old style motel in a small town. The owners really did a great job taking care of this property. All the rooms were nicely updated with all the amenities needed for the night, including microwave, fridge, flat screen TV, and coffee maker in the room. I was surprised that they even have the electronic 'card waving' locks installed on the doors. Yes, the room was definitely small, tight for the three of us, but for just one night it was fine.

When we checked in with the friendly owner, he instructed us on the tricks to keep the bugs from the rice fields out of the room if we intend to leave the room in the evening. Fortunately, we did not have to leave the room that evening so we did not have bugs problem.