Tag: Vacation

Findings on the road. Road collage

I love this space-age sink at one of the rest stops on I-84.
 
Stopping in Bend, I see that a historic building was once owned by the Woodmen of the World.
 
I first learned about them last year when Matt and I were on vacation and found one of their distinctive tree-stump gravestones in a cemetery.
 
Random photos from the road.  No looking because I was driving. I just pointed and clicked.  I can’t get enough of the high desert.  It’s so beautiful.
 

Packing

I’ll make it fit!  The kitties are observing my packing from a calm position, having no idea I will soon trap them in their carriers and drag them over to my Aunt’s house.
 
On the way home from dropping off the cats, I stopped by my mom’s and got an important item for the drive to Boise:  Kenny Roger’s 20 Greatest Hits.  That was the tape (it was a tape then) that my mother played every single time we made the drive. And 20 songs last a very long time on the road.

Note from the future.  I played it and I can report that the word “greatest” is perhaps a bit overstated.  Maybe they should have stopped at 10 greatest hits.  The “Scarlett Fever” song was particularly hideous.  But I did get to sing along to “Lucile,” “The Gambler,” “Ruben James,” and “The Coward of the County.” So who cares if I skipped the last three songs on the disk?

Perfect Drive.

So before I saw Magic Mike, I had a perfect day.  I had a scheduled all-day training for work in McMinnville, so I reserved a Zipcar for the day.  The day before the training, I realized the training was not relevant to my position, but a call to the powers that be confirmed I had to go.  I did secure assurance that I could attend the training until the lunch break and that would be sufficient.  Excellent.

The training itself was okay.  Like I said, it didn’t apply to me, but it included an Excel spreadsheet that was pretty amazing. During the copious amounts of work time, I played around with the spreadsheet, got the gist and then occupied myself reading things online.  This was harder than one would think, as the training was at a high school that blocked access to a lot of things.  For instance, I couldn’t access my gmail, nor could I read the New York Times.  However, Roger Ebert’s website was not blocked and I read a great essay about his wife.  Now, I would argue that maybe I would have benefited from reading the New York Times online, but if the district wants me to spend time reading movie reviews and essays, I will.

We broke early for lunch (yipee!) and off I went in my Zipcar.  Zipcar gives you 180 miles per day and I aimed to drive most of them getting myself back home.  First stop:  Newberg Dairy Queen.  I needed a Blizzard as it was summer and I was out for a drive.  As I ate, I sat in the parking lot and planned my route using my big Oregon map with all the back roads.  After I planned, (it turns out I’m not a huge fan of cookie dough blizzards anymore.  The quality of the ingredients isn’t very high.) I noticed the retro Dairy Queen sign, tucked away in the corner of the lot.
 

This is the Dairy Queen sign we all know today and it was right by the road.  I suspect the road was re-jiggered at some point and the new sign was built and the old one just sat there, instead of being removed.
 
Blizzard done, I headed out to Yamhill, via 240.

 

Once I got to 47 and Yamhill, I stayed on 47.


 Pictures taken while driving:
 

Don’t worry, I didn’t take my eyes off the road, just grabbed and pointed the camera out the window and pressed the button.
 
I next encountered Forest Grove.  I took “Old 47” which took me through town and I had trouble finding “New 47 again”  I burned some miles here, but eventually discovered I had to go travel on Highway 8 for a bit before it hooked up with 47.

More pictures from the car:
 


Finding 47 again, I headed toward Banks, which Matt and I rode on our bikes to from Stub State Park.
 
I followed the Sunset Highway (A.K.A. Highway 26) for a bit before turning off at Buxton.

 

Here the landscape changes as we begin to climb into the hills.
 
There were several places to access the trails at Stub State Park.  I used the bathroom at one of them.
 
And here I was!  Vernonia!  This is the other end of the Banks Vernonia Rail Trail.  I got there by car, not bike, but I finally set eyes on Vernonia.

Outside of Vernonia was some road construction.

Leaving Vernonia, I traveled for a bit longer on 47 before the turnoff to the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway.

An important decision.  Scappoose or St. Helens? I chose Scappoose.  My miles were dwindling.
 

There was much more traffic on this stretch of highway.  I followed this truck for a good number of miles.

Scappoose threw me back on the familiar territory of Highway 30 as I headed toward home.

The familiar spires of the St. John’s Bridge.
 

And back along Lombard toward home.

Unpacking the car at home I realized the super awesome “choose your own configuration” cup holder.  Good job, car engineers.

Also, the radio stations were fabulous.  I cycled between six stations and never had to listen to one commercial.  I did get to hear one song twice:  Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side.  Also, I discovered that what one radio station is calling “the new classic rock” is what I was listening to in high school.

So thanks Zipcar, for getting me to my important training and thanks again for a delightful drive home.

Mini Time Machine Museum

This museum in Tuscon was a great find. It’s chock full of doll houses, shadow boxes and other miniatures that transport you to different times. (Hence the “time-machine” in the title)  I was delighted to wander through.

This man who built this house was killed in a carriage accident.  Supposedly, the devil riding the bicycle (you can see the enlargement of the figurine in the information to the left of the house) was placed there to commemorate the craftsman’s untimely death.  The horseless carriage (lower right corner) was also put there for the same reasons.

An example of the “time machine” quality:
An 18th century German Kitchen
And a late 19th century German Kitchen.
The details on the houses were amazing.

I bought a calendar in the gift shop and it came with a tiny mini-calendar which causes most who see it to break out into various versions of “oh my goodness it’s so cute!!!” Myself included.

Biosphere 2

Upon discovering that Biosphere 2 was in the same general area of Arizona where my dad lives, my interest was reawakened.  Biosphere 2, for those of you not similarly aware, was an experiment in the early 1990s where eight people sealed themselves in a habitat for two years to see if they could live in a closed system.  This means they “grew” their oxygen and food and recycled their wastes.  I found the project fascinating, though by the time it was over, it had fallen out of favor with the scientific community.  In preparation for my visit, I read the book Dreaming the Biosphere by Rebecca Reider which provided a great context for the project.

My first in-person view of Biosphere 2.

The geodesic dome was a big part of construction.  I believe this used to be the animal habitat.  The library is in the tower and the living quarters (human habitat) are in the second story of this building.
The door to the outside world.  This was sealed shut for two years during the initial mission.
Lemon tree in the orchard.
More of the orchard.  The pathways were installed after the first two missions so tourists could experience the Biosphere from inside.
First look at the ocean.
A view of the rain forest habitat.
After the missions were over, Columbia University took over the operation of Biosphere 2.  Their scientists did many experiments, but to better control their variables, they installed plastic curtains to separate the habitats.  The original Biospherians could look from the rain forest, over the ocean and all the way to the desert habitat.
How the rain forest is so lush.
Another view of the ocean habitat and I believe those are mangroves.
Peeking at the ocean habitat from the Savannah.  The “rocks” were all sculpted from concrete, which became the source of an unforeseen problem during the first mission.
Columbia University, after building ten million dollars worth of student dorms, abandoned Biosphere 2.  Today the University of Arizona runs it.  They say it’s “where science lives” and we saw a lot of experiments, all of which, our tour guide informed us, can be read about on the web site.
More Savannah.
Some of the Arizona sun shining on the Biosphere.  The first mission experienced a below-average amount of sun due to El Nino.  This caused problems with the crops.
A frankincense tree.
More science.  This had to do with bugs and pools of water, I believe.
Peeking out through the windows, you can see the power station for Biosphere 2.
More science.
Looking back at what was the agricultural habitat during the missions and is now the Landscape Evolution Observatory.
Entering the desert habitat.
Overlooking the desert habitat.  This is a coastal desert, like those found in Baja, California.
After touring our way through the habitats, we climbed down stairs to the innards of Biosphere 2.  Here, giant blowers whooshed air around us as we all giggled.  Our tour guide remarked that every group she has delights in air moving over them.
What keeps the ocean habitat running.
After spending time in the habitats, all this machinery seemed strange.
My favorite part was visiting the west lung. Biosphere 2 has two “lungs” which served as places for the air to move to so the structure didn’t either explode or implode as the air expanded in the heat and contracted at night.
Now, because Biosphere 2 isn’t sealed, the lungs aren’t a vital part of the structure. But they are sill fascinating.  Black rubber is attached to a heavy metal disk.  The disk would sink and push the air back into the Biosphere at night when things cooled off.  During the day it would rise as expanding air rushed into the lung.
Geodesic domes protect both lungs, as seen through this window.
Exiting the Biosphere.  More rushing air.
Looking at the desert habitat.
A front view of the former agricultural habitats.
Walking by the power station.
One of the fish in the ocean habitat.
The ocean was murky.  I read that cleaning the algae out of the system was a tedious job during the missions and  I think that the University of Arizona may have given up on that tedious job.
The kitchen in the human habitat.  It had all the modern conveniences.  Each of the crew had their own small apartment with a loft bed, a desk and a couch.  Also in the human habitat were laboratories for experimentation and a library for research.  The library was in the tower and had a 360 degree view.  I was most sorry we couldn’t experience it.

I’m glad I got to see Biosphere 2 in person.  The science being done now is not as interesting to me as the original intent of the structure, but I’m happy someone is paying to maintain it.

Titan Missile Museum

Our next stop was the Titan Missile Museum.  I was moderately interested upon entering and completely fascinated while there.  This is a great museum.

A poster that gave insight into why we “needed” to have enough weapons to completely destroy the USSR fifty times over.

Some good artifacts.
Hint to person from the past:  I don’t know if that outfit would help very much.
Alas, not the proper orientation.  But here’s what you need to do to launch the missile.
These safes were where the instructions were kept.  Each shift changed out the locks.
I found the deactivation part quite interesting, especially the part about leaving the silos exposed.
We saw a video of the missiles being launched before heading out to the site.  The launches were test launches and all 42 hit their mark.  I’m wondering if at twelve million 1960 dollars apiece, we couldn’t have just called it good at say, ten missiles tested.
Our tour guide was Hans (on the left.)  Hans opened by telling us he did have an accent and it was a German accent.  He further informed us that he could give us a tour without an accent, but he would have to talk in German.  I greatly enjoyed Hans.
Pointing out various parts of the missile.
First look at the missile.
The hole was cut in the top as part of the treaty.  This is the only missile and silo remaining, so there needed to be a way to show it was  not operational.  When they cut the hole, they had to leave it above ground for a month so the Russian satellites could see it.
A different kind of “duck and cover.” This duck and cover was to see the missile through the glass.
Silo door information.
To the right you can see the concrete blocks that keep the cover from opening completely.  This is part of the treaty.  A cover that does not open all the way is unable to launch the missile.
Hans and the concrete blocks.
Going into the silo.
Inside the silo. Notice the thick walls, ready to withstand bombardment.
In the control room.
Everything in the silo is suspended on springs to help it survive a missile bombardment.  The control room itself is a giant birdcage with massive springs suspending it.
The file cabinet with the codes along with launching equipment.
Clock showing Greenwich Mean Time.
This clock is your local time.
Walking through the hallways.
Looking at the Silo.
“No Lone Zone” meant that at least two people had to be in this area together.  This was standard throughout the silo.
The eyewash in this station expired in March of 1984
Another great example of the springs.
Should you need to decontaminate…
Some protective gear.
To enter the silo, you had to read a code to the current crew.  Upon entering, you had to burn the code and drop the ashes into this red can.
All the missile sites around Tuscon.
The “protection through power” motto was all over the missiles.  I find the “protection through power” motto quite amusing. And convenient, for defense contractors.
The museum’s official title.
One of five radio towers.

The Arid Garden

For the first few days of spring break I took a quick trip to visit my dad and his wife Barb in Green Valley, Arizona.  We began my visit with breakfast at the Arizona Family Restaurant.  After that, it was off to see the Green Valley Arid Garden.  

The Arid Garden is on one acre in one of the many housing developments in Green Valley.

I enjoyed the selection of plants and the very clear tags for each plant.
Some desert color.
A very apt name.
Good texture.
I loved these.  They looked like they had leaves,
and gave the overall appearance of feathery flight,
But they actually were quite spiky.
It was spring, so we saw some color.  I was told that once the rains come, there is more.
These dry beds are all over, ready to channel the water where it should go.
Old, dead, saguaro cactus.
From the back, you can see that it is quite rickety.
On closer inspection, wires are holding the entire structure together.
This big cactus doesn’t look spiky, but I managed to prick my finger on it and it was a bloody experience.
Easter was upon us.
Watch out for Javelinas.