8-22-97
| When I got to Portland, Oregon, there was a HOG (Harley Owners Group) motorcycle rally going on. I decided to go on north to Vancouver, Washington to spend the night and I met some other bikers staying at the same motel. Grant Styles and Betty Hayden were passing through on their way back to Kelowna, British Columbia. They were riding Harley's but weren't gong to the rally. About 5,000 other Harley riders were. |
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I headed west on Highway 26 to get back to the coast and I found a logging museum at a restaurant called Camp 18. The equipment was from the steam engine days of logging. The 'Steam Donkey' was used to haul logs from where they were cut to the rail for transport. The big logs the steam engine is attached to are over 6' thick. Sometimes the logs were dragged through the forest at 60 miles per hour. When they were near the rail line, they were picked up by the boom and placed on rail cars for transport to the mill. |
| Right on the coast at the mouth of the Columbia River is Fort Clatsop.
In 1805-6 Merriwether Lewis and William Clark wintered at Fort Clatsop
after their journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
Lewis and Clark were under orders from President Thomas Jefferson to explore
the Missouri River to its source and establish the most direct land route
to the Pacific. On December 8, 1805 the expedition members began
to build the fort in which they would spend three months that winter.
They named the fort for the Clatsop Indians, a local tribe. The recreation
of the fort is very authentic and the guides dress in period clothes.
There are demonstrations in many of the crafts of the day including candle
making. One demonstration was about the games the explorers played
to pass the time.
The indians taught them canoe building and other survival skills and to prepare for their trip home, they boiled salt water to make much needed salt. They produced about 3 quarts a day. |
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I was lucky enough to be passing by Long Beach, Washington while the International Kite Festival was going on. There was fierce competition at the beach and there were kites everywhere in every size, shape and color. Some were the size of houses and some were such fantastic shapes that they defy description. There are kite fights and a lighted kite display at night. Anything that could be moved by the wind was on display. |
