Heading for Oregon

[SimpleSimon]

I will be leaving for Oregon by road tomorrow morning. Will travel via Amarillo, Raton, Colorado Springs, Leadville, Grand Junction, Green River, Provo, and points west from there.

I expect to be in Oregon by Monday next, and will stay there till the end of October, then will return here by road the first week of November. I hope to have lots of pictures on my return.

I will be taking my old computer with me to Oregon, to set up for my Mom and sister in their homew which they recently moved into together. If I can get online there once it is set up, great. Otherwise, see you guys in a month.

[Barbie]

Safe journey, lots of love.
Hi to mom and sis (tell you sister to get back here) :)

[jess]

Have a great trip.

[Escape Artist]

Be good, drag along some of that Simon and Garfunkel to jam to, and if ya run into probs setting it up - feel free to gimme a call.

[SimpleSimon]

Here is a summary of my return trip from Oregon. Saw a lot of beautiful country.


I pulled out of Mom's place about 7am on the first, and went thru Estacada and Sandy to US 26 thru Gov't Camp and Warm Springs to Madras. I took the Prineville road from Madras thru the Prineville Valley (a place I have always loved, especially at the eastern end past the reservoir where you start up into the Ochocos) to Mitchell, where I stopped for lunch.

Got to talking to a little old lady in the diner who knew the Kammerers when they lived there, which was quite surprising.

From Mitchell I continued east thru the John Day canyon to Dayville, where I pulled over and took about a 90 minute nap in the shade of some huge cottonwood trees. Leaving Dayville I proceeded to my Aunt Jeanne's home in Prairie City,.

I took the opportunity to go back to John Day that evening to visit with my cousin Dave for a couple hours - he has been knocking on death's door with pancreatic failure and severe diabetes for more than 2 years now. It is unlikely I'll ever see him again.

Thursday the 2nd I left Prairie City and drove east thru the mountains to Ontario, where I got on I-84 thru Boise toward Salt Lake. About noon I had to pull off the freeway into a little town and take another mid-day nap, then drove to Snow Village for a late lunch.

From there I went to South Ogden to Cruise Director's home, where I spent the night If he ever leaves Home Depot he can make a good living as an interior decorator. I have stayed in two of his homes now, he lives alone, and both were beautifully decorated.

Friday morning I went south on I-15 to Spanish Fork, then took a two lane south east thru Helper to Greenville, where I went east a few miles on I-40 to the highway south toward Moab. Just north of Moab is Arches National Park, which I spent about 2 hrs touring thru, taking pics.

From Moab I went on southeast to Monticello, UT, then turned east to Cortez, Colorado, for the night. That is a beautiful area of high sage and grassland interspersed with pinon pine forests.

Saturday morning I hit the road east thru the southwest corner of Colorado thru Durango to Pagosa Springs. There I went south to Tierra Amarilla, on the Jicarillo Apache reservation, and turned east on US 64 over the Piedras Mtns - a truly spectacular drive on an amazingly crooked, narrow, steep two lane road that climbs very precipitously, then drops equally steeply over three damned high mountain ridges until you come out on an arid plain in north central NM. US 64 takes you directly into Taos, at the base of the mountains in the northeast corner of the plain. I stopped there for lunch, had an interesting conversation with two young guys looking for investment property in the area.

Leaving Taos I went up the Taos River canyon over what has to be one of the most insanely crooked two lane roads in North America to the prettiest large alpine valley I have ever seen, called Angel Fire. There is a fair sized lake at the north end of the valley, and the highway loops around the north end thru the town of Eagle Nest, then again climbing quickly and very crookedly over a mountain ridge and dropping into a narrow valley to the town of Ute Park. From there the highway runs along the base of the mountains to Cimarron, where I turned onto NM 56 to I-25. South on I-25 to Springer, then east and a bit north to Clayton, NM on US 412.

From Clayton I went southeast on US 87 thru Texline into Dalhart. It was dark by that time, and coming into Dalhart US 87 turns a bit south. It is a 4 lane highway there, and at that turn the Ford 4x4 beside me in the outside lane didn't turn with the highway, forcing me up and over the center concrete divider. Destroyed my left front tire and wheel.

I made a U-turn on the flat tire, and proceeded south on US 87 approximately one half block to an EconoLodge Motel. After checking in I called AAA, and they sent a wrecker to assist me in changing the tire. West Texas towns roll up the sidewalks and shut the door’s at 5 p.m., and the only businesses open on Sundays are churches, gas stations and convenience stores, almost exclusively.

It was about 7 p.m. on Saturday evening once I got the tire changed, and there was no slightest hope of finding an open tire shop or wrecking yard in that town. The wrecker operator (who turned out to be a fifth cousin of mine) told me that he would look around in his wrecking yard in the morning and see if he could find a wheel which would fit my car.

Sunday morning he called me at the motel, told me he had found a wheel which he believed would fit, and that he would meet me at the motel in about 15 minutes, which he did. I followed him to his shop, where he mounted a used tire of the appropriate size and attempted to balance the wheel. Unfortunately, the center of the wheel was badly bent, although that was not apparent to the eye, and on the balancer it was quite apparent that the wheel would wobble much more badly than was acceptable.

I drove to Dumas, Texas, on the doughnut spare, only to find that Dumas, like Dalhart, had virtually nothing open on Sundays. The only parts store in town which was open was an AutoZone store, where I was informed that there might be an open tire shop in Amarillo. The store manager suggested that I try at a discount tire store on Interstate 40 in West Amarillo.

So, I limped Into Amarillo, only to find that there was no open tire shop in the entire city on Sundays. So, I checked into a cheap motel, and spent Sunday afternoon and night dozing in front a babbling boob tube. Finally, at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, I was able to purchase a new wheel and tire at Discount tires, and head east again.

I stopped about 35 miles south east of Wichita Falls for gasoline and something to eat for lunch. From there, I proceeded south and east to Grapevine, Texas, then across the north side of Dallas to Interstate 20.

Proceeding east on Interstate 20 and reached Shreveport, and our apartment, at approximately 6 p.m. on Monday.

Monday was the longest single day of the trip in terms of mileage, covering a little over 600 miles in about 9 1/2 hours of driving.

On this whole trip the cheapest gasoline that I saw was $1.78 per gallon in Quanah, Texas, and $1.92 a gallon on the Umatilla Indian Reservation just east of Pendleton, Oregon. In both cases the tribes involved do not collect state taxes on the gasoline. Oregon is one of two states which still require gasoline station service attendants, and the only places in that state which you can buy gasoline without an attendant are stations owned and operated by the tribes.

[Cruise Director]

It was great to have you by Pat. You are welcome in my home ANY time.