if you plan the trip right, you can chop it up with some pretty decent little stays along the way -- Mendocino County, coastal towns up along 101, then there's Eugene, OR on the 5, too, before Portland.

if you just drive and pick a spot, though, yeah -- you'll draw stares in the gas stations and shit and you have to be careful not to end up in the methed out crime hotels.

scenery is nice the whole way, it's really just some of the people that give you pause lol