Good Morning! Tuesday, May 4th 2021
May the 4th be with you (that’s a bad StarWars joke that gets worn out this time every year)
I hope that this amazing day finds you astounded with an absolutely amazing abundance of activity!
Yesterday was the first day of the road trip, and it went pretty well. I have only two commitments (time-wise) on this road trip. Last night at 7 pm, one of them was to attend the Olympic Manor community club board meeting (I’m the president, after all). And the other is to be down in San Fransisco this weekend.
What that affords me is the ability to take the attitude of no where to go and 4-6 weeks to get there). Which is liberating since it meant I was in no hurry to get out of the house yesterday. So in the morning, I spent some time working on my WordPress site, so I have a better way of sharing all of these things.
I finally left the house a little after 9 am, after having a leisurely morning with Catherine. I stopped for Fuel, and to zero out the odometer, and then hit the highway. My route went down 15 to Olympia and then the 101 over towards the coast. Along the way, I had the chance to test my attentiveness to the act of driving when a pair of deer decided to try and do a combination of walking and bolting across the freeway. Fortunately, they were far enough ahead of me that I could slow and prepare a plan for whatever way they decided to go and avoid them. 2 seconds later, and it might have been a short trip.
I went through the town of Raymond Washington. Catherine and I were down this way last year and stopped here as well then. Today I decided to drive down a side road, and I came across the Carriage Museum. So… I decided to stop and check it out (no rush after all ;). ). They were open, and the admittance was $8. That was a super impressive museum. It started with 21 restored horse-drawn carriages of all different styles that the museum’s founder meticulously restored to far better than new condition. And then they had expanded to triple that size and now have a little over 60 carriages. The more recently acquired carriages are “conserved” and not “restored,” meaning that they have original paint and parts for the most part, and the repairs used techniques that would have been available during the era of their use.
I knew this but didn’t comprehend, but it was expensive to own a carriage that the owner didn’t use to make their living. You had to maintain coachmen’s and a stable of horses. Having a carriage was way more extravagant than pretty much anything we do today.
After I left the carriage museum, I headed around the corner to the port museum, but they were closed, so I headed out of town. The woman at the Carriage museum had recommended the maritime museum in Astoria, so I headed over there. I was getting there around 3 in the afternoon, giving me 2 hours to explore it. It was another fascinating museum centered around the age of discovery and the discovery of the Columbia. The significance of crossing the Columbia river bar. And the history of life-saving in the area. (There have been a lot of ships and lives lost there. So many that it is known as the graveyard of the pacific)
I thought about staying in Astoria for the evening, but I’m looking to save a little bit of money, so I found a state park down the road a bit that I could stay at, so I headed that way. Along the way, I stopped and visited with my friend Alana Huck in seaside Oregon. They have a great little house about four blocks from the beach. It was good to catch up with her for the first time in a couple of years.
From there, I headed south. By this time, the rain had rolled in, as well as the fog. I stopped at Cannon beach to attend the OMCC board meeting via zoom. It is so amazing to think that I could participate in a meeting from my car, on the beach with seven other people, just as effectively as if I had been at home. Amazing.
From there headed down to Nehalem State Park, where I spent the night. I arrived at 8 pm, and by 8:30, had selected a campsite (there were lots to choose from) and had myself a sandwich. Since it was raining and wet, I decided to forgo setting up my tent and sleep in my car. That went okay. It was about as comfortable as I expected… If I pitch my tent this evening, I’ll be able to say which one is more comfortable.
Today, the only thing that I have on my agenda is to stop at Tillamook and check out the cheese factory and continue to drive south, turning in at whatever catches my eye along the way.
Dan W
Weaties RoadTrip 2021 