1 October 2007

Hello from Seaside Oregon,
The two hundred and fifty mile jaunt from Winchester Bay to Bend, Oregon was a beautiful drive. The trip up into the mountains on the North side of Mount Bachelor and through the tourist destination of Sisters, Oregon was a real pleasure. The previous evening the first snow fall of the season left a dusting of snow on the local peaks and along side the highway at the top of the pass. Oregon style fall colors were beginning to blossom at the higher altitudes with brilliant gold and reddish rose colored bushes gave one the feeling that it was almost like the Green Mountains of Vermont, sans the brilliant reds of the maples.
Sisters was full of day visitors, as always, seemingly anticipating the joy of the little village when snow is on the ground. The Solvang like crowds drifted from specialty shop to shop and then to cross the street at random in search of yet another shop full of the wonders of buyable handicrafts. I stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants available and then took my afternoon nap before moving on to Bend.
My new GPS took me into the Carroll’s neighborhood through several of the new subdivisions that have increased the population of Bend by nearly 500% over the past dozen years. Each of the new homes in this area is on a wonderfully large lot with lots of pine trees to keep the perspective of what Bend is all about.
I made it to Dick and Sally’s house before the UC Berkeley University of Oregon game was finished. I sat quietly enjoying Cal’s win as the Carroll’s anguished the loss right up to the last seconds of the game. Dick and Sally’s daughter earned her doctorate at UO and is a member of the school’s teaching staff (head of the department specializing in speech correction) and their granddaughter graduated UO last June. It makes sense that they were cheering for the locals and I felt badly that their team lost (kind of).
Sally served a marvelous meal, as usual, before we returned to the telly to watch USC almost get beaten by Washington State. I couldn’t help but cheer for Washington State and they almost pulled off the upset of the year. At least USC learned that they could be beaten.
Even though Dick and Sally were insistent that I use their guest room, I chose to sleep in my own bed in ‘lil Big Foot. The evening before the thermometer dropped to twenty-eight degrees and they feared for my future. As it turned out, I was snug and warm as it wasn’t nearly as cold as the preceding night. Prior to bedtime, the three of us enjoyed reminiscing about people that the Carroll’s knew in Pleasanton before they escaped to their paradise in Bend. Sally met the dawn of the new day with a marvelous breakfast that prepared me well for a day of driving to the coast.
The Carroll’s made an excellent suggestion for my drive to Seaside, directing me to HWY 26 that curves around Mount Hood and follows for a while the path the Deschutes River. The route took me across Oregon’s high desert through the agricultural town of Madras, the agricultural capital of Oregon. I was surprised to see an area that seemed to be about twenty miles square devoted to row crops; something one would expect to see around Salinas or the Coachella Valley. Then the road dropped off of the high desert plateau into the gorge carved by the Deschutes River. The road seemed to drop more than a thousand feet into the gorge and then just as quickly climbed back to a similar elevation. As the highway gained in elevation towards a pass of about 4500 feet, the fall colors began to reappear as on my previous day’s trip. It was quite beautiful.
It started raining intermittently as I left Bend with the strength of the rain increasing as I drove West. When I finally reached the Portland area, the rain was coming down by the buckets full. I was surprised by the extent of the traffic moving in both directions along Hwy 26 through the Portland area. I guessed that the thing to do when it rains in Portland is to go visit someone. As I moved further West, I found that my westbound traffic was thinning while the eastbound traffic remained very heavy. I surmised that everyone was coming home from where I was going.
When I arrived at Seaside, I quickly got the notion that my surmise was probably on the mark. This is a place that has everything going for it. Seaside’s earliest claim to fame lies in the fact that a group from the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Expedition, stationed at Fort Clatsop, set up a “salt camp“ at the site of the current Seaside to develop a salt supply for the groups return trip. They boiled sea water for several months to gain the needed salt. This activity gained Seaside the title as the “turn-around site for the expedition. Seaside attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its historic sites, numerous opportunities for family activities, well advertised restaurants and hotels and lots of shopping. If the usual specialty shops don’t meet
Your needs, a full blown array of “outlet shops” are available for bargain hunters. Throw in an arcade with bumper cars and the like and a locally famous aquarium with seals trained to perform in exchange for being fed by visitors. Now add seasonal classic car shows, the Miss Oregon pageant, classic beach volleyball competition and more. What can I tell you? Seaside has it all.
I checked out the Convention Center, where the Regional Duplicate Tournament is to be held beginning on Monday. I found that the first game won’t be until Monday evening so I found myself with my first “day off” maybe ever. I checked out the town, did a little grocery shopping, searched for an internet café and devoted the rest of the day to finishing another book that I brought along. One of my neighbors in the RV Park had to show me what he has done with his “$800” motor home. He found the unit with a for sale sign on it at the curb near where he lives. He bought it and spent a year restoring it to its original 1978 condition. He described how he hand rubbed and waxed the exterior making it look show room ready. Then he cleaned and polished the interior, over hauling the appliances to that too look like new. Since the rig only has 50,000 miles on the odometer, he figures he will be using it for the next ten years. We’ve all heard of guys who restore old cars. Now we have an example of what can be done with old Rvs. Pretty impressive !
I’ve developed a half a dozen ideas for what I want to do with ‘lil Big Foot to make it work for me. Give me a few months and I think I’ll be ready for some really serious fun.
Put Seaside on your list of places to go and things to do. You’ll like it!
Love to all,
Grandpa Dad