Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

June 2002

July and August 2002

Oregon

After a short stay in Winnemucca, Nevada (I love the name but there's not much to see there), we finally made it to Oregon. We came up to central Oregon on U.S. highways (the "back roads" to us), which was a beautiful and relaxing drive over rolling hills dotted with rocky peaks. Then we started heading toward the coast, first stopping in La Pine (a small town near Bend).

This area is "volcano alley" -- most of the mountains here are extinct (hopefully) volcanoes or were created by volcanic action. We visited Newberry Calderra, which is a volcano that now has a couple lakes in it, as well as a really interesting obsidian flow.

Obsidian is essentially natural glass that used to be a lava flow and dried quickly, and is usually black, dark grey or brown. You may be familiar with obsidian in the form of Apache Teardrops (small rounded obsidian stones), or perhaps you've seen arrowheads and other tools made from it. It's so sharp when chipped that even modern doctors use it for delicate surgery, such as eye surgery -- it's much sharper and smoother than even the finest steel blade.

The same lava that makes obsidian also makes pumice, which is basically a "foamy" obsidian. It all depends on how much air is in it when it hardens. In this lava flow, which is about a mile long and has a walking trail through it, you can see everything from the finest obsidian (with no air bubbles) to the foamiest pumice (which is as light as a sponge and looks similar).

OK, enough geology lesson... here you can see the edge of the lava flow and get an idea of its size.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Here's a nice example of pumice, and a large hunk of obsidian:

We also got a nice view of the Cascade Mountains, many of which must have snow on them year-round.

The Oregon Coast

It was still hot in central Oregon, so we headed for the coast where it's usually in the 60's or 70's. We stayed in Florence for a month, and ate fresh salmon or other seafood nearly every day -- the seafood prices are very low here. Here's Connie eyeing a fresh Dungeness Crab catch.

This area of the coast is known for its miles and miles of sand dunes and beaches, so dune-buggy riding and other sand-sports are popular here.

The sand dunes are so vast that it's easy to imagine "scorching desert" scenes in movies being filmed here, and then realize that the actors were probably rather chilly!

The bridges along the coastal highway (101) are often old drawbridges designed to let ships up-river, and the "parapet" designs are interesting. I think most were built in the 30's, and have an art deco look. This isn't a great example, but it's the only one I thought to take a picture of (actually it's the Coke truck that caught my eye ;-)

We went to the beach one day and were lucky enough to hit a pretty low tide -- judging by the mussels and barnacles on the rocks it must have been down by 4 feet or more. There were a variety of starfish, anemones, and other sea critters in the nooks and crannies of a rocky jetty.

Much of the Oregon coast is rocky, making for some interesting scenery. A few examples from our drive along the coast:

The Sea Lion Cave is a popular attraction along the coast. Sea lions can be seen in a lot of places along the coast, but here you can see them in a natural cave where they come to nest. An elevator takes you down inside the cave, where you can view them from a safe distance.

Tillamook

We took a day trip to Tillamook to see some sights. We started at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for their tour, which I expected to be a small place with a few people wandering in and out. Well, cheese must be a big deal around here! The place was packed, and the huge parking lot was nearly full. It was busier than the Hershey factory tour in Pennsylvania!

After a few educational exhibits, you go to a viewing gallery to overlook part of the factory -- some large vats of cheese and an assembly line where large blocks of cheese get cut into smaller blocks, and then wrapped. I'm a sucker for factory machinery, so it was interesting to study the conveyors and machinery involved in moving the little blocks of cheese around (and watching the workers try to keep up with the blocks getting jammed or rejected -- it reminded me of the "I Love Lucy" episode with the candy factory!).

We also got free cheese samples at the end, so it was pretty good for a free tour.

After a great lunch at a little pancake diner downtown (where I had a Tillamook cheese omlette, of course), we went to the Tillamook Air Museum. This museum is housed in one of the few blimp hangers left from the first world war. As one of the largest free-standing wooden buildings ever built, with no central supports at all, it's an amazing structure. You'll have to take my word for it, since there was no way to get a good photo of a dark-wood ceiling that high, but you can see bits of it in the photos below.

Unfortunately there are no original blimps inside (just lots of photos and models of them), but there are several other aircraft of all types. Here are a couple odd-looking seaplanes:

Here's a model of one of the blimps. If you look closely you can see a small plane at the bottom, near an opening. They actually carried a few planes that could be "launched" to defend the blimp.

They also have a few examples of "personal helicopters" (I forget the official name), and outside they have a guppy.

Oh yes, they did have one blimp...

And my favorite exhibit of all, the U.S. Army Military Patrol bicycle!

The rest of August we spent back in the valley near Salem, but we didn't do any sight-seeing. We just enjoyed the great weather and got some work done. Now we're heading up to Washington, and then we'll head back east.

That's all for now!

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex 98: a Windows 95/98 dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.