Revisiting the American road trip: You can (almost) get there from here

First of two parts

By now we're all familiar with the gas story: Prices hovering around $4 a gallon. Travel plans scaled back and aborted (who has the vacation time anyway?). Memorial Day traffic down around the country, 3 percent less than last year in Washington, according to the state's transportation department. Hundred-dollar-a-barrel oil is beginning to sound like a downright bargain when forecasts are for $150 a barrel by July 4.

Then there's the slap on the wrist from our betters across the pond: Europeans scoff at our sticker shock and gas-guzzler habit. They pay $6, $7, close to $10 a gallon! Of course some of their cars approach a fuel efficiency of 60 miles a gallon, and everyone from Swedes to Spaniards enjoy tighter urban development patterns, a high-functioning public transit infrastructure, and subsidized health care (oops, different story).

But the gas-burning question stateside imperils a favorite American pastime: Are we looking at the imminent demise of the road trip, our freewheeling, open-ended, go-where-I-want, when-I-want credo? "Let's hit the road, honey; I think we have enough cash to make it to the end of the block."

Or could we just be looking at a revision of a classic?

An idea takes hold

From classic cars to magic bus? Or buses, to be precise: Round-trip from Port Townsend, Wash., to Boonville, Calif., just inland from Mendocino, I took 11 public transit systems and 48 buses, with a little Amtrak thrown in, a Washington State Ferry, and one private bus line (not Greyhound, which abandoned most Washington and Oregon rural routes back in 2005). And no, I'm no purist — I did catch a couple rides in cars.

Enough of complaining that we don't have a web of high-speed rail connections, buses that run everywhere every few minutes. What do we have? What would Jesus, I mean, an Australian backpacker, do? Or an American sightseer, for that matter?

A few months back, on the bus from Port Townsend to Seattle (having sold my car to save money), I heard a fellow rider talking loudly, as folks sometimes do on the bus.

"You say this bus goes to Poulsbo?" I recall him asking the driver. "That other one to Brinnon? Maybe I'll take a ride to see Hood Canal." And then: "I bet you could get halfway across the state on local buses."

Light bulb.

Jackie Smith recently reported in The Seattle Times on a local romp from Kirkland to Golden Gardens on Metro Transit, and others have detailed mini bus vacations in the Northwest over the years — around the San Juan Islands, to Port Orchard and Poulsbo. Could these short jaunts be expanded? How far could I get? Where would I end up along the way? What would I see? Could I take an honest-to-God-and-apple pie road trip by local bus?

The quest began.

"That'll take forever"

"Is that even possible?" "Why don't you just rent a car?" "What about the train?" "Oooo, ick, Greyhound" — all were frequent comments, in addition to the most common skeptical remark: "God, that'll take forever."

But this was meant to be a road trip. The longer and more roundabout, the better. Would other people want to repeat the trip? Hardly. I'm on my own, no kids. I can't picture a family of four complete with diaper bags and DVDs getting on and off three buses a day just for an adventure. "Are we there yet?" Please. Where's the aspirin?

Thanks to the Internet and some old-fashioned paper maps, I quickly discovered that a trip to visit my sister in northern California wouldn't take forever. Just a week and a half (though I extended that by backpacking through the redwoods).

It took all of a few minutes' research to see that I wouldn't get stranded, say, in Shelton, Wash. A half day more of Googling county names and "transit" resulted in a route complete with bus schedules all the way to California.

Even better, the buses followed the coast! Goodbye eye-glazing I-5, hello ocean vistas. Buses linked Washington and Oregon across the four-mile bridge at the mouth of the Columbia River. There were smooth connections from Coos Bay in southern Oregon to Arcata, Calif.

I was on my way.

(A brief note: Recently launched Google Transit promises even more ease in trip planning, as soon as more service areas are included — only one of the 11 bus systems I took is currently on board.)

Mind the gap!

I was on my way, that is, and then stuck — in Pacific City, Ore., about an hour south of Tillamook. There turned out to be two significant gaps in Oregon: There are no buses from Pacific City to Lincoln City, about 22 road miles to the south. Ditto from Yachats to Florence, about 25 road miles — nada, zip, no options. Not even Greyhound. At least the 100-mile gap in California is covered by Greyhound.