Tour, Days 30-31 (No 2) – Drive-Thru Coffee

One of my favorite things about being in Oregon and Washington are the drive-thru coffee shops. They are excellent and they are everywhere! Ever since I lived in Bologna, I have been a fiend for coffee, consuming 2-4 (or more) shots per day of espresso. My typical drink is a doppio macchiato: two shots of espresso topped with a spoonful or two of foam (macchiato means “tinged” in Italian; those fancy caramel macchiato things they have at Starbucks have nothing to do with the real macchiato). (FYI, it’s one of the cheapest things at Starbucks next to drip coffee, good caffeine to dollar ratio.)

These drive-thrus are everywhere: big towns, small towns, out in the country…Zippy Java, Fast Lane Coffee, Human Bean, Dutch Brothers, Scooter’s, Bouncin’ Betty’s, Lighthouse Coffee, Mojo Coffee, Yellow Dog Espresso, Grabajava Espresso, Cuppa Joe, Lovely Lady Lattes…just to name a few that I saw…and I couldn’t help but stop every time I saw one. See my mini-gallery below – which does not come close to doing them justice.

In addition to their ubiquity, these drive-thrus tend to be very cheap compared to the coffee shops I’m familiar with in Chicago. I usually ordered the double espresso with a little foam I described above and got out of there at $1 sometimes and never more than $2. I tried to ask people why these places were so common, but the best answer I received was hypothesizing about the long winter and the need to stay awake. Is that it? Why is extreme coffee drinking so prevalent out here?

Bouncin’ Betty’s

As I rolled in to Bouncin’ Betty’s, in Roseburg, Oregon, for my 7th coffee of the day, I noticed a sign that said “bikini crossing” at the start of the drive-thru lane. There was what looked like an older gentleman ahead of me in a large pick-up truck taking forever with his order. Naive me saw why when I rolled up to have my order taken by a early-20s-ish, very busty woman in a hot pink triangle bikini. (I wanted to post a picture, but photography was severely prohibited…although I did find the great video below on YouTube.) This stop happened to result in one of my $1 drinks. I’m not sure she charged me correctly, though she didn’t seem too worried. After Betty’s, I noticed that these places are everywhere, though none of the others were quite as exciting as my first time.

Unique Effort to Fight Alcohol Addiction

One final coffee-related item: I was up at the crack of dawn the night after I camped out in the state park in Central Washington. After driving for a few minutes, I saw an official highway sign pointing to a rest area with free coffee. I pulled over to check it out. It was not yet 7am and a local AA chapter was at the rest area giving out coffee, cookies and muffins to drivers to raise donations to help fight alcohol addiction. I thought this was an extremely admirable initiative at a very well-chosen venue.