Found in the grass about 20 feet from the stand is, apparently, the owner.
Also found on the way to Tillamook (This is beginning to sound like a trip to St. Ives) was this interesting sign. I really couldn't stop laughing and had to backup and turn around to get this picture as proof that the place actually exists. For you old boy scouts and other happy skit performers ... apparently things really are as clean as "Three Rivers can get them.
Arriving in Tillamook we went directly to the cheese factory. Around 1000 other visitors were there and parking was hard to find. We finally parked out in the north 40 and hiked in ... looking forward to the big cheese-making tour. The tour was a bust ... don't waste your time. It was self-guided and nothing was happening. We stood and stared at a bunch of machines doing .... absolutely nothing. The big attraction was the cheese store (you're better off at Walmart). Tillamook really reeled us into the boat with this one .... We bought a few obligatory pounds of cheese, spit out the hook, and left disappointed. The big box factory didn't deserve a picture so we didn't take one.
However, we did stop at the Tillamook air museum on the way out. The museum is housed in an old WWII dirigible hanger ... huge! With a lot of planes to look at and a movie to watch. If you are in Tillamook skip the cheese and go for the air museum ... a much better value.
For those who are really disappointed with the lack of cheesy pics, here's one of an old fashioned cheese factory:
One last favorite. Either the Oregonians are fixated with neatness or it rains so much here they are obliged to shrink wrap their hay ... very strange on either account.
The following day it was off to Newport (about 20 miles to the south). Newport is known for its fishing fleet and quaint harbor area. Had lunch at a locals place recommended by a lady at the local coffee kiosk: Local Ocean Seafood (catchy name, don't you think!). It was 2:30 p.m. and there was still a 1/2 hour wait for a seat. I had a crab bisque that was fabulous and Lynda tried the Italian fish sandwich (strange sounding but wonderful!) I recommend another local beer to go with lunch: The Blonde Bombshell -- (smooth and light with skirt flipping finish).
Enjoy the pics ... It was another great day!
Oh, one last thing ... on the way home we heard that the Eugene, Oregon city council had voted not to say the pledge of allegiance before their scheduled meetings because they believe it to be divisive. At about that moment this sign appeared at the side of the road ...
I thought it was very thoughtful of the state of Oregon to ask for my viewpoint, so I pulled over at a rather beautiful scenic spot and gave it to them. The idea of political correctness is one of the most subversive and un-American ideas to be foisted upon the American people .... sometimes you have to call a Tory and Tory and let the chips fall where they may. The idea of inclusiveness is not new ... but our forefathers went about it a bit differently ... back then there was a melting pot ... not a salad bowl ... if you liked the US constitution and what it both said and stood for, then you melted into the pot ... that is ... you assimilated into the culture ... that culture changed a bit with the assimilation, but those who previously fought for flag and country were not pushed aside for those who were newly arrived, they were respected and given their due (yes, liberals we were proudly ethnocentric ... with the ethnicity being American).
So let me just say this to the Eugene City Council... When my grandfather died they laid a flag on his grave ... the same when my father passed ... why? because they fought for the principles that the flag stood for ... unifying principles that are outlined in the constitution (have you read the Federalist papers lately? ... ever?) ... the flag represents those principles ... If it is now divisive ... it is so only because we as a people have strayed so far from the unifying principles that brought together people from all over the world in the common cause of freedom ... too bad the city council does not understand that the cost of that freedom has been paid again and again by the blood of Americans who believed in the unifying principles of the constitution ... and who bravely fought in the shadow of the flag that represents those principles. Lincoln understood this clearly ... remember this little 2 minute speech?
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
OK That's my "View Point" ... thanks for the opportunity, Oregon.
I laughed, I cried, what a great post. The dog looks like the dog named Yellow Dog in the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm. As I read further I think maybe the dogs name is Three Rivers.
ReplyDeleteMost people remember and can quote the first line of the Gettysburg Address but I think the most poignant words in the speech are, "...for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-"