Thursday, August 21, 2014

Back from the Pacific Northwest


Ten hours up on Tuesday, then ten hours back on Wednesday.  Back to work this afternoon. 

The yute in his microscopicly small and spartan dorm room.


Unloading the yute's worldly possessions at the dorm.


On the way down, the town of Weed.  Hated by gardeners, adored by smokers.  On the way up, I saw a couple who had actually stopped to take a picture of the sign, the female posing with one knee bent and hand on hip, as in a million billion facebook photos, where that image was certainly intended to go.


Weird things about Oregon

It is illegal to pump your own gas.  I haven't done anything else for three decades, so it was odd in the extreme for someone to come to your window, and to tell them, "Fill it up with regular."  When I got out to stretch my legs, they looked at me with trepidation, as if they were afraid another crazy Californian was about to snatch the gas nozzle out of their hands and gas their own car.  In Ashland, just north of the border, all the stations have big signs informing the southerners of this local rule, so fist fights don't break out at the pump, I guess.

They allow triples on the freeway.  As if two trailers weren't enough on a big rig, in Oregon three are allowed, which makes for quite a road train.

Coming from California, I'm used to a vast diversity of humanity.  In Oregon, if you see someone who isn't caucasian, that in itself is remarkable.  Asians seem relatively common in Portland, but there are few blacks and hispanics, at least where I was.  What is this, the sixties?

There must be some law in Oregon against tall signs advertising gas stations and restaurants.   In California, you can tell what is available from miles away as you approach freeway interchanges because super tall signs that jet into the sky let you know that there is a Shell station, or a Burger King near the off ramp.  I saw very few of those in Oregon.  Instead, before each off ramp there are three official state highway signs which describe the lodging, gas, and food available if one were to exit.  Perhaps that's a better way.

10 comments:

  1. Yes, there are ordinances, for sign and billboard height. There are also local ordinances in some cities for limiting light pollution at night by signs/billboards.

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    1. I think that might be the better way. Once I got used to looking for the signs, that worked just fine.

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  2. In Joisey we never have pumped our own gas. It's against the law. Kinda like it when we get bad weather!

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    1. Wow. So strange after pumping my own for so long.

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  3. I've told Oregonians that the yellow paint on my Scout is custom and if they spill, stain or chip it I'll own the station, or words to that effect. That very often works.

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    1. Not that it's a bad thing to have someone pump the gas. It was even about five or ten cents cheaper per gallon than here in the People's Republic.

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  4. I don't mind having someone pump my gas, I just resent being told I have to...

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  5. We're just rebels - so why are we living in the belly of the beast, as it were.

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  6. Great that your fledgling is going to be in Portlandia, just across the river from Awesome Vancouver, WA. Next time you are there take in Papa Haydn's for desert, and Silk for martinis, both in the Pearl district...
    You drove right threw Red Bluff without even a wave...!

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    1. Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely check out those places. Sooner rather than later, I'm going to go up and spend more than 24 hours in the Portland area. I would have waved, but there was a Highway Patrol on my tail, and I had to speed up to get away.

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