5Savages

More on that title later. The Tillamook area seems almost out of place. The smell of cow manure hangs in the air...not enough for it to be a problem, but enough to make you think you're in Iowa. Given that Tillamook's claim to fame is their cheese, and you need milk to make cheese, and you need cows to make milk, and one of the byproducts of cows is manure, it all makes sense. We at breakfast in the room. We brought cereal and milk for those mornings where we werent' staying in a place that had complimentary breakfast. After that we headed to the nearby Tillamook Cheese Factory. If our kids could live on one food, it would be cheese, so there was no way we'd skip this place. The visitor center was really nice. ... read more

Today we reached the beach! My sister and her kids went with us and we headed north out of Portland, then west to Astoria. There we crossed a 4.1-mile bridge over the Columbia River, with a main span of 1232 feet, making it the longest continuous truss in the world. I told the kids that but they were less than impressed. They did like crossing the bridge though. Construction of the bridge started in 1962 and finished in 1966. The approach ramp on the Oregon side curves through a full 360 degrees. Again, the kids didn't seem to care. After crossing the bridge into Washington, we headed for the Long Beach Lighthouse, the first of many we would see on this trip. The view from there was awesome. It would be the first of many awesome ... read more

PAT: Ok, it's clear to me that we won't be keeping this as up to date as I once thought. I had hope to compose entries that were witty, poignant, and informative, but that takes too long. For now, you get the Reader's Digest condensed versions so I can get some pix posted. July 4th - Waterfalls & Fireworks. Today we traveled with my sister and her family along the Columbia River gorge. Unwittingly, we also became part of a 4th of July parade. I forget the names of the towns, but after our first route to see many of the waterfalls along the Columbia River was blocked, we went a different way. Soon there was a big backup. Eventually we figured out that a parade had just gone through and we were right behind it. ... read more

July 3 We headed out of Missoula with Cheryl driving. We soon were in the mountains as we crossed into Idaho & Washington. Again, this would be a great place for a destination on a future trip. We hit a geocache in Idaho, then crossed into Washington. I couldn’t believe how barren & desolate eastern Washington is. When I think of Washington, I think of Seattle, Olympic National Park, San Juan Island, Mt. Rainer & the coast. I don’t think of miles & miles of pasture, wheat fields, and wastelands. Still, it was very picturesque and I enjoyed the scenery. I think I was alone in this appreciation however. One very interesting stop was in Mesa, WA, where we made a potty break. This was step back in time. The city seemed to be mainly hispanics. ... read more

CHERYL: Jul 1 - We got off to a good start. Only 1 ½ later than our target leave time. This is good for us, since normally we run 2 hours behind. Of course there was the lake traffic to contend with getting out of Minneapolis that neither one of us had thought about....Ultimately we got to Fargo around 8:30 ish. We had snacked along the way, so prior to stopping for dinner, we drove around Pat’s alma mater. The kids interest waned very quickly though. At one point, Pat was getting frustrated, and said, “I don’t care if you guys aren’t interested. You are going to pay attention anyway!......Now, over here is the dorm I stayed in my first year”, to which Thomas replied, “....yup........” Around 9PM we stopped at Paradiso’s, a mexican place that ... read more