Fire Tour 2020: Oregon (Act 2)

 Welcome to Oregon!

We continued our adventure into Oregon, a state I have never been to as an adult. I don’t even remember when I was there as a kid. Once again our trip was impacted by wildfires. The original plan was to visit family in the Eugene/Salem area. But, the highway to Grants Pass had been closed and that also meant we weren’t going to be able to visit the Oregon Vortex or the Enchanted Forest. Boooo!

But, the weather was great on the coast. The rain was refreshing. And the bridges were my most favorite thing and one thing I didn't really get great pictures of. Each one was so much more elaborate than my usual SoCal overpass. The drive was absolutely gorgeous and exactly what we were looking for as an alternative to the fast and boring ride of the interstate.

Yes, That's a Big AF Bridge (Astoria)

Lots of Bridge Construction 

If we didn't stay on the coast, we would have never found this little gem: The Prehistoric Gardens. It may look campy, and, oh, it is. I imagined Pee Wee Herman was with us in spirit on a few of the stops. Loved it. The dinosaurs are great, but just the idea that we were walking through prehistoric plants was pretty mind boggling. 

 

After following the map (Spawn calls maps "check lists"), saying hasta to the dinos, and a new dino slime egg from the gift shop, we continued.

Everyone was saying turn around and the air quality isn’t livable, yadda yadda yadda. We decided to stick to it and stick to the coast. Lucky us, we were following rain almost the entire time. It kept the air cool and clean, but also meant my shoes, socks and feet were constantly wet. Ugh… Since we didn’t have any plans, we found a KOA that was somewhere in between Eureka, CA and Astoria, OR. Hello, Coos Bay and the Oregon Dunes. The morning of our arrival, I received a call that the dunes were closed due to fire. I asked if the fire was close and was told that it wasn’t, but the air quality wasn’t ideal. 
“How bad is it?”
“Best it’s been all week.”
"See you tomorrow, then."
So, we continued.

Our distant family had the same idea, sticking to the coast. We were able to meet for brunch and catch up a bit. We were also going to check out the Oregon Coast Historical Railway Museum, but they were COVID closed. Nuts! But, I got a cool picture.

Off to Astoria! Goonies never say die! That’s the only reason we went. The Goonies. There are three major filming locations in the area from The Goonies. Cannon Beach with Haystack Rock, the Jail House (now Oregon Film Museum) and the Goondocks. We caught Cannon Beach on the way in, but didn’t have the time to stop and run in the footprints of all Goonies before us. We did get a chance to check out the Goondocks. I guess there used to be foot access to the homes (Data and Mikey’s movie homes), but that has since been closed off and you have to try and get a picture from the street below. Oh, well. The closest to The Goonies we were able to get was the Oregon Film Museum. Many films have been made in the great state of Oregon, but The Goonies is definitely the star of this museum. Yay! It was pretty cool. No Fratelli Jeep out front, but we did get the opportunity to place ourselves digitally into many films, including The Shining. Still disappointed they didn't sell Goonies flags, but I got a shirt and some stickers, so it's cool.

The Goondocks 

 

This One's For You, Willy

To wrap up our trip North, we crashed in the driveway of a friend for a week in Washington. Rested, restocked and recouped, we began to plan our trip South. Heading South meant we went back through Oregon, so we arranged to meet up with fam and friends that we missed on the way up and checked out a few other things. Unfortunately, we still missed the Enchanted Forest (now closed for the season). Just couldn't win with the amusement parks... Disneyland didn't open for our return either, so it is what it is.

We stayed in Albany a couple nights, mid-point for Salem and Eugene. Didn't get into Salem. I heard it's a witchy town and would've like to to experience that, but we did tool around Albany for a few hours and found an indoor carousel with elaborate hand carved animals. Just in time, because it started pouring. The docent at the front door was a very sweet older gentlemen that seemed to love telling visitors about the history of the ride. So cute. The merhorse was my favorite. The unicorn found a fast place in Spawn's heart too. A trip to the basement was well worth it. There were old and new and soon to be horses and animals. The amount of craftsmanship that goes into these is outstanding.

 

The Detail Is AMAZING!

I would like to explain something about our schedule. When I say that we were "only there for a couple of nights" that means that we had approximately 3-4 hours to check out the entire area. We run on "Spawn Time." She awakens between 10-10:30am, which means the Rental Units (i.e. Mom and Dad) get to sleep in and don't dare awaken the Spawn. Then she, like her mother, takes about 45min to actually become human. That puts us in the truck and ready to go around noon. Then, naptime starts around 4pm, lasting for about 2-3 hours. If we aren't back at the trailer in time, she'll take a power nap in the truck and will be a holy tired terror, with a second wind for the rest of the night. For our sanity, and the sanity of the public, we choose to keep to the longer nap schedule. This is why we have a short window to check out all kinds of things when we are unhitched. Ok, back to the trip...

Uh, who would go through Eugene, OR, without going to the actual SPRINGFIELD from The Simpsons?!? Not us! We made the stop on our way to Crater Lake.

  

Someone with feet smaller than mine!

Okay... To be fair, we didn't make it to Crater Lake. That's what happens on trips with a kid and a trailer. You decide not to take a detour that may require you to unhitch. Or take 4 hours the next morning to get there from your campground and back again before checkout. Not to mention, Klamath Falls was not the vibe we were looking for. So... Sorry, Crater Lake. We'll catch you next time. We have other Volcanic shit to see!

Back to California! Fire Tour 2020 (Act 3)