Our Time Inland near Portland, OR

Really, I guess it's time for me to update the blog. We moved inland from the coast last Thursday and settled down at Portland-Dayton RV Park in Dayton, Oregon.

While I have not taken any pictures of this park, I'll tell you a little about it. Paved road's, level concrete pads, pull-throughs and some back-ins, 50 amp and full hookups. The rates are not to bad - we paid $135 for the week w/senior discount. They are not a Passport American park. There is an older couple who seem to be running the park along with another man who does maintenance. They are very nice and seem ready to help with any problems. The park is quite large, around 200 sites, and therefore there are quite a few "permanent rv's" around the perimeter - the back in sites. Most are kept well and not trashy, but there are a few that could use a little clean-up. I would recommend this park if you don't want to be right off the interstate and like a country setting. It is about 40 min to Portland, 10 to McMinnville and there are other small communities nearby. There are also around 200 vineyards in the surrounding area with lots of wineries open with tasting rooms. Great if you are into wine!

One of the many vineyards.......



On Saturday we drove to Taulatin where Chris, our grandson, was helping his church with a car wash. We figured it was a good time to get the truck clean again! After the car wash was over we went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville with Chris and his wife, Darby. The main purpose for visiting this museum was to see the Spruce Goose. This museum is not a large facility by comparison to the one at Pensacola NAS or at Wright-Patterson AFB. Also in my opinion, their entrance fees were quite high. But, we wanted to see the Spruce Goose so we paid the piper and in we went. I wish I could say that it was worth the price but I guess it depends on just how bad you want to look at an airplane. Of course there were many other airplanes on display but after visiting the Navy and Air Force museums, this paled in comparison. I think that I've visited my last aviation museum for a long time.

One of the wings and looking forward from the tail section of the Spruce Goose - there are actually four engines on each wing!



Looking back to the tail section...



The cockpit of the Spruce Goose.....



Some facts of the Spruce Goose or H-4 Flying Boat: weight is approx 400,000 lbs, length is 218 ft 8 in., wing span is 319' 11", height of the tail is 79' 4", it flew one time on Nov 2, 1947 and went a little over a mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one min. The cost - $25 million!

Chris and Darby at the museum...

Driving the back roads in this part of Oregon is absolutely beautiful. There are farms of every kind and it seems like every house has flowers around it. And rose bushes, wow - I've never seen rose bushes so full of blooms - stunning. We even saw a field of lavender. I wanted to stop for a picture but there was no place to pull off the narrow two lane road and of course there was traffic just when we wanted to stop! I did get this picture of a Christmas Tree farm - now I know where Christmas Tree's come from.

Here is the link to other pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/SchultzTravelPhotos/June05DaytonMcMinnvilleOregon

See ya down the road......