So we packed the Winnie, and we drove her away for the last time from Tacoma. So excited to finally be living inside with my faux bois, the tiny bathroom and all the comforts of home. A teeny tiny home... we're gonna live full time in this Winnie, but still be Washington people until we decide where we will live (park) full time.
Veer right and head for Portlandia!!
One last look at stunning, cold, crazy Mt. Rainier. We shall be relying on the wisdom of government to tax y'all for the interstates, the National Parks, BLM land, and for State Parks too. Your tax dollars make interstate commerce efficient, and provide for mobility and the modern world.
Leaving Tacoma...... down the ugly and too familiar I-5. It's all Applebees, McDonalds, Walmart, Arco gas, Subway, Walmart, Jamba Juice, Chevron gas, Walmart, hatred for Obama, guns, Walmart, Adult Shop, Walmart.
I've traveled up and down the I-5 for the last 5 decades, and the small mom and pop gas stations, the small diners, and the little clothing stores and 5 and Dimes, have almost completely disappeared.
Roll On Columbia! Wahooooo......... here we go Pa....Orygun! the land where they pump your gas, (to preserve minimum wage jobs), and hate Libralls, while collecting unemployment checks, drive on government roads, buy viddles with Food Stamps, and believe we are doomed to hell and tarnation because a "darky" is in the White House. The White House, is for white people, men, that is. Oh Orygun. Once out of Portland it is pretty scary until Eugene.
We took the Hwy 101 turnoff in Portlandia. We chose Hwy 18 to get from I-5 to Hwy 101. You see a few short hours of rolling land, and farms, and cows, and a bit of the vineyard in the Yamhill, which makes for a nice little "country weekend escapes" for the Nike middle management crowd.... Of the view. ...you see a lot of farms and barns for about 3 hours. Bucolic. Idyllic. Some real America......Until it spits you out just above Lincoln City.
What you pass thru is a valley on your way to the ocean side of the Oregon Coastal Range of small mountains and hills.
The rise of the Coastal Range put a permanent end to the 3 or 4 times the Pacific Ocean covered the West coast of this continent. Oh about a 3/4 million years ago or so..... volcanic and plate tectonics created a barrier to keep the waters out in their basin, once the glaciers released them. The oceans ice up, melt down, ice up, melt down, & has happened maybe 5 times or so in the planet's history. We are in another melting phase and consequent rise of the oceans out of their basins and up on to the coasts.
We pulled into Devil's Lake State Campground...... sure are a lot of Devils in Oregon. There's the aforementioned Devil's Lake, Devil's Punchbowl, Seven Devils....... why so edgy and nervous Oregon?? The devil isn't real.
and then Newport.......
The second night we stayed at Bullard's Beach State Park. So lovely.
In the morning after coffee, and a righteous hot shower........thanks Taxpayers!
Look!! Go see the OCEAN VIEW. I love the painting on the street. THIS WAY TO THE OCEAN.
We stopped at Arizona Beach State Park Rec Area, to eat lunch in the Winnie. You circle around under a very low bridge...... 12.6 feet or so........... Yikes and park out near the beeeeech!
Then back on the road........... Look!
Roadside Attractions!!
We didn't stop, but you should. No real dinosaurs ever roamed Oregon, but some pretty sweet pre-whales, sea serpents and marine reptiles swam in the Pacific Ocean about 25 million years ago. The Pacific Ocean filled in and subsided, time and time again, and was finally lapping against the Cascade Range, a long chain of mountains from British Columbia thru Northern California. They pushed up in the Plioscene, about 7 million years ago, give or take a few mill....
Them's is Mt. Rainier, Mt. St Helens, Mt. Hood, The Sisters..... Crater Lake! and Mt. Shasta, Lassen Peak.... and so many more.
PREHISTORIC GARDENS !!!!
Self-guided tours wind through an ancient Oregon Rainforest and transport you back in time to see 23 life sized dinosaurs! Discover the prehistoric animals of the past nestled among 300 year old trees and gigantic plants of epic proportions. It’s almost as if Jurassic Park was inspired by this place!
Family owned and operated, the Prehistoric Gardens has been a famous roadside attraction since 1955!
Visit the World Famous Dinosaurs...... really you should.
Next, we'll head into the Promised Land.
Califor-ni-aaaaaaaaaa...........
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