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2.27.03 Day Four
Today’s tour de jour is a choice of British Columbia, Canada…Surrey or Vancouver…or the Pacific Ocean on some little beach off Oregon, near Astoria.
We both chose the ocean. We heard that there have been problems of detainment at the order, mostly from the INS when people try to reenter the states. Dee was once thoroughly questioned at the Mexican border and is still shaken from the experience these 7 years later. Any way how could a traveler come 2000 miles across the U.S. and not see the ocean, the end of our world?
We leave the Traveler’s Inn just as the cleaning crew arrives. Swiss Miss hot chocolate for me, coffee, the real stuff for Dee. A lot of morning traffic on the 405.
Somehow Dee got all balled up on the 405 and ended up headed back to Seattle. We swung around three times. Finally we stopped at a gas station and Apu didn’t have a clue, so I asked a nervous Vin Diesel- guy if he could help me. Better than he said follow me and took us to the turnoff that we needed. See how nice the Seattleites are! But there was one weird thing…Vin took a loooong time starting up his truck at the gas station. Dee said he was checking his ropes. He thought you were alone. OMG! Don’t even say that!
Dee is my fake husband. He may be the crankiest man on this planet, but he is an over-the-chart Mensa dude and he is very funny without really trying to be. So I am keeping him. He tempers my off-the-planet sunniness. He has a deeply-etched Charles Bronson kind of face and men wonder why he is with a younger girl like me. That is my gift to him. I love his goofy face. And even though, on occasion, I might call him a turd, you can’t. And don’t go trying to hit him up. He’s mine. I don’t share.
It is Dee’s birthday! (Thank God that his son called. I have lost track of what day it is.)I stopped at a Wal-Mart and bought some garland and a little disco ball to decorate the truck.
Back on the 405 headed in a southerly direction I spotted a huge billboard near Challes (sp?). There is a picture of Uncle Sam and these words…THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IS A GREAT PLACE OR YOUR KIDS TO MEET… SEXUAL DIVIANTS
Wow! This might be Bible-Belt country; still I understand their point. If I had a child I would install heavy-duty parental controls on all of the computers in the house. Hell, there are things/images of things that I haven’t even ever though of on here and I’m very imaginative. I am going to be a really strict mother. My kids will hate me until they are like 30.
Dee and I won’t have children. He’s been spayed. He acts like a disgruntled virgin most of the time anyway.
This part of Washington is gorgeous, lush, green, and fertile. I always have an eye out for a cool tourist attraction. I want to go to every one and I beg and plead, but he says NO. So when I saw the signs for Mount St. Helens I played it up and begged like a dog. “Only five miles off the Interstate.” “When they say that it means about 35, at least.” But I guess he was hungry or tired of driving or something because whoooooooosh! We swung off and had a grab-and-go lunch right at the entrance to Mt St. Helen’s. How many opportunities does one have to see an actual blow-its-top-off volcano?????????????
We went to the exhibit and out to use the viewer to see the actual mountain. It lost nearly 200 feet when it erupted. Ash blackened the sky and it affected all of the U.S. That was in 1980. You can walk right up on the edge of the crater! You can view the crater, lava, the blast area and surrounding volcanic peaks. Although they do warn you that it is unstable, so be careful. Ha! I asked Ranger Jack about Mt. Rainier and he said I should have been able to see it from Seattle. I didn’t. Another Grand Canyon. Argh. How do you miss a mountain that rises over 14,000 feet? I thought it would be like when you are traveling north from Sacramento to Redding and you see Mt Shasta looming large in the distance. But no, it wasn’t like that.
I stopped at that little gift shop and bought some ash and other souvenirs for my nephew. I bought some Washington State Apple Lotion for me. It is amazing. Smells just like an apple right when you bite into it, and it is bright pink! I was talking to the shop lady; she has a brother in Traverse City, MI. (That’s upstate Michigan, much colder than Chicago). She was comparing the two and said that here they had snow, maybe an inch every five years or so, but it rains a lot and they have HUGE slugs that eat all of the ornamentals.
The rest of the Washington state drive was just delightful, especially when we turned off the Interstate at Kelso. We gassed up and headed towards the ocean. Yippee!
This was a gorgeous drive right along the Columbia River. First it was Wisconsiny, pastures and very green, then it went to sharp mountain bends with lots of falling rock that could sheer off at any moment and suffocate your vehicle. And although it was a big bright day, you enter deep dark forests that are brim-full of ferns and evergreens and a lush forest floor. All of it makes me want to go fishing. I imagine you could catch some big ones here. Make a campfire and yum!
We crossed the loooong bridge into Astoria, OR. What a town! I would love to live here. It is a port and you have the huge vessels and the houses are knit tight upon the hills. It looks turn-of-the-century, but there isn’t any nonsense about the town, no fake junk. An artist could be inspired here.
We take 101 out to the ocean and when I first see it. YOOOOOOOWWW! It is roaring, violent, scary, and alluring all at the same time. We can drive right out onto the beach! The edge of the world spread out before me. I took LOTS of pictures for the “Hills, Mountains, and One Big Ocean” album I want to make when I get home. I am mesmerized by the tide and I am picking up the sand dollars it spits out. I know not to take the ones that are alive, the ones that have hairs growing at the hole on the bottom. I am collecting when a big wave comes in and I try to outrun it. I have my good shoes on. Whap! It nailed me all of the way up to my knees. Dee is sitting in the truck laughing. I am now wet and cold and silty. We left and found a spot right on the sideroad where I could change. Dee is blocking for me and a bunch of cars, including an officer goes by. I think I ruined my shoes. But it was so worth it!
Oh and guess what? This is the exact spot where Lewis & Clark first saw the Pacific Ocean. How cool is that?
All of the way out to the ocean there are small subdivisions of houses and right at the entrance to each lane there is a line of mailboxes and a kiosk. The weathered kiosks are triangular, about 6’ tall and have three shelves. On the side is printed the word FLOWERS. The shelves are filled with soup and veggie cans filled with bright yellow daffodils! Imagine that! Daffodils are already blooming here. I stopped and stuffed some money in the honor jar and took a canful for our room tonight. How charming is that? They smell so sweet.
Onward. We went back through Astoria and up into the forests. We can see clear-cutting behind the row of evergreens that they leave by the roadside. I am confused since it says this is national forest land. When did we allow logging in national forests? Semis full of scalped trees are running the Interstate. This is definitely logger country. We had lunch at a place called The Logger Café. Flannels and a big ole beard is the fashion. And the women are “sturdy.”
It is nighttime when we reach Portland. I can’t wait to go to the lesbian bars, hear some music, and have a city evening. Portland is a maze of bridges. I don’t think I have even seen so many in one town. But they are very well marked and before we know it we are out of Portland and in the burbs. When we got off it was in a tough area filled with questionable characters and there were iron bars all around the newly-construction Best Western that said, WE ARE NOW OPEN. No thanks. I wouldn’t stay here even if the rooms were free.
We missed the outer ring of hotels/motels at Troutdale. Dee never turns around. We are in the Columbia Gorge. Colossal cliffs rise up on both sides of the river. They are magnificent. The road licks the side of the river. It is dark. We need a room. The city lights have all disappeared. We pulled off and looked at a place called “Motel.” No other name, just “Motel.” That seemed peculiar, like they forgot to name it. It looked like a version of a Bates motel, so we moved on. Finally we reached Hood River, 80 miles east of Portland. There is a marvelous hotel there called the Columbia Gorge Hotel. It is magnificent. I tell Dee “Let it be my treat. It’s your birthday.” But he doesn’t want it. Instead we find a charming hotel up in town. The owner has a heart-shaped perennial garden at the entrance and there is a pool and hot tub. I say yes.
I ask the motel owner for a restaurant recommendation, something with steaks and romantic. She suggests, Stonehenge, down the street a mile, on the left. We showered, dressed and left. We climbed a BIG hill full of potholes and when we got to the top their was a two-story house. A Mexican man was washing dishes, but the porch light wasn’t on and there were only two cars in the parking lot, which meant no customers. Instead we picked up dinner at one of those Wild West theme restaurants. Lucky we got there at 7:45. They closed at 8. The whole town closes at 8!
I went swimming. Great pool! Dee was watching HBO. And when I returned we switched to CNN. The world was still whole, but this was BIG surprise news from back home:
The three lakes, Huron, Superior, and Erie are part of the five Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario, which constitute the largest fresh water system in the world and represent 18 percent of global fresh water supply and 95 percent of the U.S. supply, according to the Great Lakes Information Web site INFO Lake Superior, the largest of the five, is more than 32,000 square miles — or almost the size of Austria.
Canadian Ice Service said satellite images showed that Superior and Huron froze over for the first time this year on Feb. 27, after record low temperatures, without a hint of the warming trend that is normal for this time of year.
Now that’s cold! I have never heard of any of the Great Lakes freezing over. I wonder what happens to the supplies that come in by ship?
That’s our day. Happy Birthday Dee! Our BEST day so far. Kiss.
Word for the Day: Bridges
End Destination: Hood River, OR
Total Miles: 397
