Northen Oregon

As we had planned, Saturday was spent playing tourist at the Tillamook County Cheese plant:

We got an overview of their importance in the community and had lots of samples of their cheeses and their ice cream.  We took the time to chat with the owner of the RV park, who suggested a couple of local churches for us, and talked with her maintenance man, Charlie, who suggested a number of restaurants and scenic areas.

On Sunday we skipped breakfast in order to have a brunch after an early church service.  By chance, Charlie happened to come into the same café shortly after us, so we had him sit with us.  He has a ton of information on the local scene as he’s lived in the area his whole life.  Here  is the entrance to the bay

Monday was our chance to take a motorcycle ride through the twisty roads of the Coastal Range.  State Highway 22 was a pleasant roller coaster of a road through the trees.  We went to McMinnville where Howard Hughes’ wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, is on display.  We found the display area, but were too cheap to justify the admission charge and it was too late in the day, so we came back the same way.  It was a nice day for a ride in the woods.  Then it was back to the cheese plant for purchases:

Tuesday was a travel day; a little over 200 miles from the Pacific coast, over the Coastal Range, across the broad Willamette River valley, over the Cascade Mountains to the high desert area of central Oregon.  The Presidential Range (Mounts Washington and Jefferson) were much less spectacular than snow-covered Mt. Hood.  We came through the touristy town of Sisters, to a small state park near Tumalo.  After setting up our campsite we had birthday dinner (guess who) in Bend at Applebee’s.

We had visitors from eastern Oregon today.  Carl and Ronda came from about 3 hours away to spend the afternoon with us.  We have known Carl since the late 60’s when he was a new customer engineer for Control Data, and Bob was still in college.  We had a lot of catching up to do since they last stopped in to see us about 15 years ago.  We introduced them to geocaching this afternoon when we found 2 caches hidden nearby:

They had to return to their home this evening in order to meet with some kids in a Head Start program in the morning.  They are on the local fire department in their city, John Day, and will be educating the 4 year olds in fire safety.