Blogs from Portland, Oregon, United States, North America - page 40

17th August to 1st September 2006 Two States and two similar experiences. Oregon and Washington both offered me many options on completing my US tour of duty in style. Different routes with different destinations and much to see and do along the way. Ahh, decisions, decisions, my favorite! Both States started with me having to decide what road to ride up. In Oregon it was either continue along the coast and visit the Dunes National recreation area (50 miles of seaside sand on a massive scale) or cut in land and head for Portland via Crater Lake (which, I’m told, is the deepest in North America and has crystal clear waters). Once in Washington, it was a split between riding to Mount Ranier (the highest in the Cascades Range) or stay beside the Pacific and visit ... read more

From Newport on the coast, we traveled to McMinnville, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Home to over 100 wineries, fruit and nut orchards, this is the largest hops growing area (think beer) in the US. Oregon is also the only place in the US that grows hazelnuts commercially. The huge Monrovia facility is just down the road—over 1,000 acres of nursery plants shipped to garden centers all over the country. Located about 35 miles southwest of Portland, downtown McMinnville evokes “Stuckyville,” an old-fashioned all-American town, where a downtown street is cordoned off for the weekly farmers market and huge flower baskets adorn every light pole. One day when the temperature threatened to hit 96 degrees, we made a side trip to Cannon Beach—it was 58 degrees on the coast. What a difference 40 miles makes! We had ... read more

Well, here I go again... on my own... traveling down the only road I've ever known... oops, that is a song... never mind! A very special woman told me about this site to make my "journal" as I travel around the United States and Canada as a Truck Driver. Here I am trying this thing out. Of course, I am new to this stuff, so any sugestion will be appreciated.... read more

Six nights spent in this great city in Oregon. Apparently it is often in the top few of best cities to live in the USA. Its easy to see why, there are loads of avenues , parks and the city is surrounded by forests with Mount Hood visible to the South. The huge Willamette River runs though the centre the city which is littered with restaurants and unusual shops (amongst the usual ones), there is also the USA's biggest used and new bookstore (its the size of one city block). In addition, all the public transport is free in the downtown area so getting around is easy. To top all of this off, they even show Premiership matches in the local bar so we were able to see Man Utd beat Charlton and see Chelski get ... read more

The family and I are in sunny Portland, Oregon, to attend the LPGA Safeway Classic. We got stuck in wretched construction traffic late last night on I-5 and finally made it to our hotel, and bed, around 2 AM. So much for getting a good night's sleep and hitting the course early. :/ We arrived at the Columbia-Edgewater Country Club around 10 AM and, after running the gauntlet at the Free Safeway Stuff tent, hit the course on the hunt for Ashley Prange, winner of the Golf Channel's "Big Break V". We got lucky and she was still playing after her 7:30 AM start (on the back 9). Of course we took the long way around and ended up walking nearly the entire course before we caught up with her on #7. (Hint: start at the ... read more