07-18-04
12:52 p.m. sitting in Flying J parking lot 17 miles outside of
Portland, Oregon on I 84. Will take 205 south and then route 5
for a
while. May or may not have internet access later, depending on
where we stop. Will update later. By the way, did you know
it's illegal in Oregon for you to pump gas into your vehicle at a gas
station? Ok, it's now 8:30 Sunday evening. We drove
around Portland and took route 5 south, then got onto route 20
west. That brought us into a town called, Newport, Or. We
stopped at a Wal Mart there and ate supper. No, not in the store,
we just used their parking lot to stop and eat in our coach. We
left there and headed south on route 101 which runs along the coastline
through Oregon and California. Noticed in the Wal Mart parking
lot that there were big signs saying "No Overnight Parking". That
is why we headed south. Pretty much so far along the coast,
almost everywhere we looked, it was the same. They don't want you
parking in parking lots, so we found a little campground that is
associated with the Good Sam Club, of which we are members. We
decided to actually pay for a place
to place to park tonight. Costs us $21.66. Actually, I
guess we can't complain. This is the 7th night we are sleeping in
the motor home, not including the time spent at Life on Wheels, so that
averages out so far to $3.09 a night to sleep. Can't complain too
much about that. Anyhow, we are sitting in this little campground
just outside of Florence, Or. According to the lady in the
campground office, we will probably have about 3 hours driving time
before we get to the California border, assuming we stay on route 101,
which we intend to. Some of the scenery today was
just gorgeous. There is a river which runs along route 84 which
has several dams. Very impressive with the water coming out of
the downstream side of the dam. Also saw several barges headed
upstream and one headed downstream. Coming down Interstate 5 was
typical interstate. One of the most amazing things to me is all
the irrigation that is done in the western US. Without that,
these people couldn't grow anything. With all the crops that are
grown, wheat seems to be the most common. In Iowa, Nebraska, and
Utah, most of the fields are so large, that when they harvest the
wheat, they shred the straw and blow it back on the ground. They
do not keep it and bale it for straw. I guess they have so much
ground to cover, that it's not worth their time. The other thing
in Idaho mainly, was that many of the mountain peaks were planted in
wheat. Some of the mountain sides were also. Some of the
sides of the mountains were steep enough, that I would have been
nervous trying to drive a tractor on them to plow and plant, but, they
did it. Even say a couple of combines harvesting on those
mountainsides. Oh well, whatever works. Oregon had
mountains, but not much in trees until we got toward the western
end. Then the treed mountainous areas showed up. Pretty
country. I have some pictures to post, but I don't think it will
be tonight. I'm not sure if I will post the pictures on Monday
night or Tuesday night. We plan to be at George O.'s on Tuesday,
so maybe I'll just wait until we get there to do the pictures.
Anyhow, I think finish for tonight.. Later....
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