As we say goodbye to beautiful, wet, green, somewhat strange at times Oregon, we are excited to see what we see and do what we do next. Washington is a state that we have yet to experience for any period of time. And time is what we have at the moment. So, experience we shall.
The locals have said that we did not pick the ‘best’ months Oregon had to offer weather-wise. That’s o.k. Perfectly beautiful weather every day would only skew our perception of Oregon’s reality. Besides, the last time we were on the coast of Oregon it was July and it was about thirty degrees. So, in effect, although it ‘could’ have been nice weather, it wasn’t much different than what we have been experiencing this past winter.
These last few days we’ve gradually made our way up the I-5 corridor. Since we had some citified stuff to do we stopped at each major city that would have us.
Oregon offered up more than its share of surprises as we moved on through. If you shop Wally World as we do (in this case in Eugene), bring your own bags or pay 5 cents per paper you use. While we admire their forward thinking, we were excited to move on to a store in another city that still embraces the good ole gray and white. Darlene was fresh out of plarn and we were looking to re-stock so that she could continue her creative endeavors.
And then there is the issue of congestion. We’re referring to the nasal variety (the traffic wasn’t really all that bad). If you plan to have any while visiting Oregon, come prepared. We tried to restock our Sudafed and were told that decongestion in Oregon was now an offense that required a doctor’s visit and prescription.
Although we are keeping our driving to less than 90 miles each leg, most of our time has been spent relaxing into the idea of not volunteering for a while. The other sixteen hours of each day have been spent on the quest to find Nicole a new stick.
Success in tax-free Oregon!
Our last night in Oregon we used one of our free State Park overnights that we receive for volunteering and visited the quaint campground of Ainsworth State Park. It’s located on the Columbia River Gorge which, by the way, you see much better from the Washington side. At least that’s how it was up until you reach the Bridge of the Gods which is as far as we went before leaving Oregon in the rear view mirror. What we didn’t see on the Washington side that Oregon had to offer in spades were spectacular waterfalls with essentially the only physical thing required to view being to roll down your window (if indeed yours is too dirty to view through without doing so). We viewed as we drove and planned to visit on our way out but then changed our ‘way out plans’ so no photos to present.
Here’s one of the Columbia River Gorge though (Washington side).
If you squint really really hard you might could see one of the waterfalls on the Oregon (right) side.
Or you could not even bother and instead just save your eyes and regular-look at this magnificent creature we spotted guarding a community garden in Eugene.
And that’s the spit for now from this end of the tube. Happy Trails.