Saturday, 28 May 2022
It was drizzling again this morning, and I hoped for better weather on the other side of the Cascades this afternoon.
I still had the firewood that nice couple at the Cascade Locks KOA donated to try to level my RV. After I'd changed sites again, I unearthed the firewood from the mud, thinking it might become firewood again when it dried, or it might at least be useful in leveling me again in another campground. I still had it stored in the basement compartment and knew I was unlikely to use it as firewood. And I worried about taking it into Washington, because so many states are insistent that campers use only local wood for fires. To stop the spread of some kind of pest, if I remember right. I haven't seen any such notices on the west coast, but just in case Washington did, I decided to give the wood to some needy-looking camper in Oregon.
When I was walking the dogs around the Albany campground this morning, I saw a young woman who was tent-camping and trying to get a fire going in the drizzle. I asked how much longer she planned to stay (if she was leaving that morning then I'd look for someone else), and she said they'd figured on being there all holiday weekend. So I took the wood to her and her young boyfriend, and they were very happy to have it. So that's a good deed passed on to the next person.
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| today's route |
Today's drive was almost exactly 300 miles. It felt like we were driving from one side of the state to the other, but Albany's a bit of a distance from the ocean, and Pendleton's not at all at the eastern edge of the state, so it wasn't. Still, a long drive for us.
I heard on the radio that Greater Idaho put measures on the Oregon ballot and had to go online to figure out how Idaho was able to meddle in the affairs of another state. It's because it isn't the state of Idaho but a group called Greater Idaho. They're aiming to get state legislatures in both Oregon and Idaho, followed by the US Congress, to agree to let a chunk of Republican-voting Oregon secede from Oregon and join Idaho instead. These folks are complaining that the Democratic-led legislature in Salem doesn't give them the respect they deserve (in essence).
It's sort of the same thing with that State of Jefferson idea. And with the idea in Illinois of kicking the city of Chicago out of the state. And with similar movements in other states. I haven't been in one place long enough to know the answers to these questions, but I've been wondering: are these aggrieved areas really being ignored or are they just not getting everything they ask for? has one side been willing to compromise but the other side is saying we won you lost so we get to decide? have either or both sides been taking extreme positions or is one side semi-sensible and the other not willing to budge? You know, like those.
The fact is, these are issues I'm hearing echoed across the country as a whole, where the US's rural areas feel, rightly or wrongly, overwhelmed by the dominance of the urban areas. And in the calls to remake the map of the US and either put all the Republican-voting folks into their own states and the Democratic-voting folks in other states, or to have one group secede entirely and form a new country. Of course, the problem with that is that people change their minds. Often. And an idea (or candidate) that looks good at one point is shown later to have unexpected consequences that look terrible.
Sure the country seems polarized now, but it's my belief that America has mood swings. That's one advantage of living a long time - you can see trends more easily. Just look at people's attitudes during the McCarthy era, and when the Bull Conner type reactions to the Civil Rights movement were shown on TV, and the difference in public attitudes toward soldiers being killed in the Korean War vs. those being killed in the Vietnam War (when they were shown on TV), and on and on. Only certified Polyannas thought the country was really changing when Barack Obama was elected - twice - for president. And sure enough, the pendulum swung all the way to the right afterwards. I know I'm an optimist at heart, but I have faith in the fundamental goodness of the vast majority of Americans, and I firmly believe we'll swing back again and get back on a firm footing for the future.
Anyway, I have a lot of time to think when I'm driving.
I saw an Oregon license plate that read: XXI XII. I'm sure it means something to the owner.
Salem, the state capital
I didn't want to pass Salem without swinging by to see the state capitol.
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| Oregon State Capitol see detail enlarged at right |
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The capitol was built in 1938 (Depression era) with Vermont marble. It was considered a landmark example of the Modernist Art Deco style. The figure on top is of gilded bronze and is called Oregon Pioneer. That large cylinder the statue stands on covers a dome inside over a central rotunda for the building. Very unusual.
As I was driving through town, I stumbled on the train station and thought it was worth looking up.
Pretty, isn't it? This is an internet photo (there was no blue sky when I was there) but it's what I saw. It was built in 1918 by the Southern Pacific railroad and, with refurbishment, is still in use.
I stopped for gasoline and, when I went inside to pay, was enveloped by cinnamon. A Cinnabon store was added to the convenience store, and they were baking. I had a hard time getting out without buying a bunch of delicious calories.
Back on the road
I saw a billboard for a turf company: We Keep Rolling A "Lawn." The quotation marks were in their display.
The small town of Wilsonville, pop. 25,779, had a Mercedes Benz dealership, so I couldn't help but wonder who lives there.
I detoured around Portland on I-205, hoping to avoid some of the city traffic. Near Gresham, I saw a whole lot of tents - some homemade and some commercial products - strung singly or in groups all along the side of the highway. I remember seeing an encampment near Gresham on I-84 when I was first heading east. So either Gresham is pretty tolerant of homeless encampments, or this is how far out of the city center the homeless have been shoved. There're a lot of them.
Back on I-84, I of course saw the same kinds of things I saw 3 weeks ago, such as the sign telling me I was "Entering Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area."
We had intermittent rain all morning, and at one point a pickup splashed so much water on my windshield I was temporarily blinded. That's scary when you're traveling on an interstate at highway speed.
I passed Cascade Locks, where I spent several days earlier in the month. The Hood River Antique Auto and Aero Museum sounds interesting but will have to be saved for another trip.
I saw a couple of billboards touting Maryhill Winery, saying it had been named Winery of the Year. I was curious who had given it that title and looked it up and found it was true. In 2015 it was named Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year, and in 2014 it was named Winery of the Year (with no geographic limit) at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Sounds worth trying.
I remember both The Dalles Dam and John Day Dam from 3 weeks ago. That latter one I could tell was coming up ahead, even before I could see it, because of the very visible spray from the released water.
My refrigerator took itself down into the 20s again. There's something wrong with it, but I don't have the time or money to have somebody check it out. It seems to have problems both when it's specifically set to electricity and when it's set on automatic (switches on its own to electric when I'm plugged in and to propane when I'm not), so I'll try it just on propane for a while and see if that makes a difference.
By the time I got to the small town of Arlington, I was noticing the vegetation in the area was looking more like desert - lots of grass and scrub bushes and plants. No more of that lush greenery on the other side of the Cascades.
I saw a sign that promised a rest area in x number of miles, and I was planning to stop there. But when we got there, the highway department apparently wanted to keep it a secret because there was no sign saying turn here. So I didn't turn there and realized as we passed it that it was too late. By then I was really tired and needed a break badly, but fortunately we found a 2nd rest area about 20 miles farther along the road and stopped there.
I was disappointed in again missing a view of Mt. Hood when we passed it, but today there were just too many clouds and occasional rain to let it show itself.
I saw an Oregon license plate that said: CLWN BB. BB the Clown?
And I saw an Idaho plate that said: WLD FLRZ.
This is completely treeless country. Crops and grazing lands, hills, power lines, grain silos - that's it. But the colors ranged from emerald green through dusty green, dusty yellow, camel-tan and beige. It was pretty in an agricultural sort of way.
I saw a very large circular bulbous thing up on a pole and wondered if it was for tornado warnings.
A sign warned me: "CAUTION - Possible Solar Glare." An odd sign until I saw the large solar field at the bottom of the hill I was driving down. And that was the Welcome to Pendleton sign amidst solar panels I'd seen when I came this way before.
I'll be really glad to get out of Oregon with its dumb requirement of having an attendant pump my gas for me. When I stopped for gas this morning, the attendant pulled the cord that attached the gas cap to the RV completely out, and then left it that way. That would have been a big nuisance for me the next time I filled up, except I noticed it and reattached it. And at a station this afternoon, the attendant (who walked away while it was pumping) came back after it had clicked off and started pumping again. I reminded him I didn't want it topped off, and he said well, it stopped pumping after only 25 gallons so he was filling it up. Idiot - he was so sure how many gallons I needed and that 25 weren't enough. If I hadn't been paying attention (again), he'd've run it till gas poured out onto the ground, and then made me pay for the extra. When I started the engine, I saw the needle point to completely full, so I knew I'd been right.
And most of the time they make me get out of the RV anyway to go inside to pay in cash, so this system is certainly no convenience or safety measure. When I've looked online (turns out I'm not the first person to wonder about this system), the answer seems to be because this is the way they've always done it. I thought maybe it was at least an employment program or something, but they don't even use that excuse. Dumb idea.
In Pendleton, I stopped at what I thought was part of a park - grass, trees, bushes. I saw the No Trespassing signs but thought they were for the adjacent railroad tracks. But after the dogs and I had walked a ways, I decided the signs were for the grass, too, and had a hard time hustling the dogs back into the RV. We all needed a real break.
While we were walking there, I saw 2 cars pass, and from the second car a guy was hanging out half his body yelling, "F___ you, N______, f___ you!" at the first car. Fortunately, the driver of that 2nd car turned down a different direction from where the first car had gone. But it was an ugly little scene.
And then on to the campground, where we'll be spending 2 nights.
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