Day 19 - Portland

Woke up and packed everything into the car for the last time, as today I will be moving to my hotel for the rest of my stay in the USA.

After having some breakfast I drove to the laundromat to wash my clothes. After this I will not have to do it again until I get home from the trip. Cost was 1 dollar for the detergent, 2 dollars for the washing machine and 75 cents for the dryer. So just under $5 in Aussie money. Took about 45 minutes to do the complete cycle and fold everything and then I drove around Portland for a while before pulling up at Base Camp Brewery.

It was a little before 12 noon and the place was not open so I had to wait a while to get in. I had gone to this brewery particularly because they have beer in aluminium bottles. (aluminum to the Americans) They had three bottles at the moment so I was able to get one of each and also some coasters.

The brewery looks real nice and offers many different styles of beer on tap.

Leaving there I went to visit the old factory site of the Continental Can Company. CCC used to be one of the two major can suppliers to the breweries in the USA to can their beers.

I have a collection of their inhouse promotional cans and other advertising and also have documented a list of over 250 different locations where they had plants in the USA.

The company went bad in the 1980s and sold off its different divisions to various companies. The plant here in Portland was taken over by the Crown Cork and Seal and is now disused factory. The faded sign for Crown Cork & Seal is still outside the front of the property.

I looked throught the windows of the offices but they were all stripped bare and then went to the side of the property and took some photos of the plant.

Whilst doing that I noticed a sign half hidden behind trees near the gates tied to a chain wire fence. The sign was about parking for the CCC employees. It was held onto the fence with some thin wire that was very rusted. The sign had possibly been there for at least 40 years.

I was able to break the wires on the sign and gained a very unusual addition to my collection.

From there I went to a Walmart store to get some food for the room for the next week and then went to the Red Lion Inn On the River at Jantzen Beach. It is a four storey hotel that is well spread out over a long area beside the Columbia River.

After getting everything into the room I went and took the rental car back to the rental company and got their shuttle bus to the airport. From there I rang the Red Lion and arranged for their shuttle bus to come pick me up and go back to the hotel.

Whlst waiting for it to arrive one of the other Australian collectors going to the show, Ray Everingham, arived at the shuttle area. We talked for a while waiting for the shuttle to arrive and in the end I went back inside and rang them to confirm that they were coming. It still took about another 20 minutes for it to come. The quickest way back to the hotel is to go across the river into Washington State and along the riverbank before coming back over another bridge and onto the hotel property.

Ray checked in at the reception and put his bags into his room and we went to the bar and ordered some dinner. While we were sitting thre another Aussie Bruce Tainton arrived and sat and we talked about our travels and journeys to get here.

By the time we finnished talking it was time for bed so I said goodnght to them and went back to my room and slept.

Day 18 - Walla Walla to Portland

Up early and working on the internet to book my acomodation for tonight.  I have decided to drive right through to Portland today. I will arrive back there a day early but it will allow me to do some laundry and to see some of the city before I have to hand back the rental car.

Dove out of town about 10am and headed west and the turned north to follow the Columbia River up towards Pasco. 

I was driving towards the last casino in Washington that I have to visit. It was to far south to drive there when I was heading east earlier but now is only two hours drive so I can tick it off my list.

                    

On the way there I saw again the snow covered mountain tops but this time from a different angle. It is so different to see this in the middle of summer.

I finaly arrived at the Yakama Legends Casino and visited the Players Club to get a card. They also gave you coupons for various activities. I used the $5.00 coupon on the blackjack table and also visited the buffet for lunch to use the $2 off voucher. This made the meal only $6.99. For a buffet lunch it was real good. There were more choices than most buffets I have had that were worth much more than this one.

Was able to pick up two more chips for the collection which brings it to a total of  77 chips from 34 casinos.

From there I started driving south towards Oregon. The road was only one lane each way and it was up and down hills and mountains again and with a couple of slow vehicles in front of me it was slow going for a while. There were a lot of wind farms along the way also.

I crossed back over the Columbia River at Biggs and then followed the Interstate along the side of the river down to Portland. It was very windy coming down the valley along the river.

I drove into Portland about 6pm and drove straight to the Ramada Airport hotel and booked in. The hotel is very dated and turns out only to be a hotel affiliated with the Ramada chain. It was interesting to see this sign behind the counter.

I had some dinner in the bar at the hotel and looked out a few places to visit tomorrow before having to take the car back at 5pm.

Day 17 – Boise to Walla Walla

Tried to load up the blog but the internet connection is not to good at the motel so I will need to do it later today. Packed the car and I was on my way. 

It was a short drive along the interstate to travel across back into Oregon and then I drove to a Walmart to pick up some more sunscreen. This is my third tube for then trip. The sun is very strong coming through the window of the car whilst I am driving and I have been adding more every couple of hours to make sure I do not get burnt.

Whilst there I looked at the men’s clothing section and bought two more pair of shorts as they were only $9 per pair. Also went into the Subway in the store and bought a small bottle of milk to go with my cereal. Drove across the street to Burger King to try to get Wi-Fi whilst parked outside their store but it would not work either. Sat there in the car and ate my cereal.

I had noticed signs advertising the Wildhorse Resort Casino in Oregon and saw that it was on my driving route so I will go there later to see if they have casino chips.

Continued driving west up and down mountain ranges and stopped for lunch at Baker City. Had  good feed of a Kransy sausage and cheese on a long roll and some water. Good to go to a cafe and get a roll without getting it loaded 2 inches thick with meat.

Continued driving for another hour and a half to get to Pendleton which is where the Wildhorses Casino is located and stopped at the gas station and filled up the car. Drove up o the casino and parked. Went inside and got the players card and found the blackjack tables. They have some commemorative chips from  2004 and 2006. I was able to get some of them but there are another six I did not get from the chip guide I have.

Whilst I was there they were doing a draw for a competition they had been running for a week. The draw was for $3000 and the name they drew out was a lady sitting at my table. She could not believe she had one the money.

Whilst I was there one of the lens in my glasses fell out. I did not even know that the screw was loose on the glasses. Of course I could not find the screw that fell out.

After I left the casino I put Walmart into the GPS and went there as they have an optical section and asked the optician to put the lens back in and he did not charge me for doing it.

From Pendleton I drove to Walla Walla where I had booked accommodation for the night. Along the way I passed from Oregon back into Washington.

I had booked it after reading the reviews from Hotels.com and it turned out to be an older style motel but is family owned and was quite comfortable for the night.  Asked the owner for a recommendation for somewhere to eat dinner and he directed me to a bar downtown. It was a good bar and I sat out at the counter and ate while watching some baseball.

After dinner I went back to the motel and eventually got some internet reception to put the blog up on the internet. I also watched live on TV the College NFL game that was being played in Sydney at the Olympic Stadium.

Day 16 - Idaho Falls to Boise

Up and packed the car by 8.30am. Got onto the Interstate and drove 30 minutes to the town of Blackfoot. I have a friend in the collecting club nicknamed Blackfoot and I wanted to get a few photos with the name in it.

Once there I hit the button for attractions on the GPS and the Idaho Potato Museum. Well you got to go and check that out don’t you?

Once inside as you would expect there is a history of potatoes. Some interesting items including a potato peeler and a potato masher collection.

Also some old horse drawn farm equipment.

And to my great excitement a small collection of old Pringles Chips Tubes. As most would know I collect Pringles tubes and of the ones on display I only have two of them. So it gives me an idea of what I need to keep looking for.

Also the worlds largest potato chip, of course made by Pringles factory workers.

Form Blackfoot I drove north towards the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. I was going to be a two plus hour drive.

Along the way I saw a sign for the town of Atomic City. Sounded interesting so I turned into the roadway to it and drove on in. It was a town created for the near by Atomic Energy power plant built in the world. On December 21, 1951 the power plant produced the first usable electricity using atomic energy.

The town now has 29 residents but was at one stage in the 1960’s had about 150 people living there.

It has a speedway that holds races during the summer. 

Leaving there  I traveled further north to the EBR-I Atomic Museum. It was here on December 21, 1951 that the power plant produced the first usable electricity using atomic energy. They lit up a string of 4 electric light bulbs.

Then from the next day until it closed in 1964 it produced enough energy to run the whole plant whenever the reactor was working.

A tour guide walked us around the building showing us all the different sections of the plant and explaining how the reactor worked.

Some funny things that happened included on the first day they produced power the staff all wrote their names in chalk high on a wall to commemorate the event. It is still there behind glass for everyone to see. Although there is one extra name, cause they left at the end of the day the night cleaner climbed up on the ladder and put his name there as well. It is still there with the other names.

Interesting is a plaque on the wall representing the visit of President Lyndon B Johnson to the plant when he dedicated the retired plant onto the National Historic Landmark register. This happened on 25th of August 1966, which is 50 years ago today!!

After leaving the plant I drove to the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.  Today is the 100th Birthday of the world’s first National Park being dedicated at Yellowstone National Park. That’s interesting that those two events happened 50 years apart on the same day.

The area was dedicated as a national monument in 1924 after federal geologists explored the area in 1901 and again in 1923. Earlier the first white men travelled through the area in the 1850s as the traditional western Oregon Trail routes were closed after conflicts between wagon trains and Indians. An explorer named Goodale established this route which was known as Goodale’s Cutoff.

The area was created by lava flows after volcanic eruptions, the most recent of these being only 2000 years ago. It was described as looking like the craters on the moon by geologist Harold T Stearns in 1923.

There is a loop road in the park to drive around and places to stop to walk amongst the lava fields. 

There are many walks to do including a walk called the Inferno Cone. It is a 400 yard walk up a steep incline up a sand type lava dust.

There is also a cave area created by the crust of the lava cooling and the hot lava lowering below this. These caves are homes to many species of bats. It is definitely a different landscape to anything I have seen before.

By the time I left the park it was 2.30pm and I set the GPS for Boise and followed the ladies voice there. I drove along Highway 20, through farmland and across mountain ranges until it hit Interstate 84 and followed it into Boise.

I had booked accommodation earlier in the day online so I went straight to it and unloaded before going to an Applebee’s restaurant for dinner and then back to the room to edit the many photos I took today.