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Steve, Mary P., Mary H., and Molly check out one of the posters explaining what we were seeing along the coast. At this stop, there were about a thousand seals on the rocks right off shore, all talking at once. I think they were complaining about the price of coastal real estate.

    We caravanned with the Ickes up to Salem Sunday afternoon--Ben with me in the RV, Steve in their RV, and the two Marys and Molly in our car. This gave us a chance to try out our two-way radios between the three vehicles, and they worked slick. Steve acted as tour guide, pointing out the sights along the way (and there were lots); I supplied the bad jokes. The only bad moment was when the radio suddenly came to life and Steve said, "I know there's a tunnel up ahead, but I just can't remember how tall it is." Way to make a bus driver nervous; it turned out to be no problem.

    On the way, we passed through Coos Bay (in Oregon, it's Cooz, as in Bob Cousy's nickname; in New Hampshire, it's Cu-oz, as in nothing else I can think of), Charleston, and Florence--all towns which bear a haunting resemblance to towns along the northeast coast of Maine. With once-thriving economies based upon lumber and fishing, they now struggle to survive; the great mills mostly silent and the boats few.

    Tourism provides some relief, but it's seasonal, and the promise of high tech plays itself out in the more urban areas. It's hard to see the future of these towns, but I can't help but believe that it's somehow wrapped up with the sea--as the ultimate amenity which will eventually attract the people whose presence will bring the jobs.

    This is already happening in the mid-Maine coast; I wish it would hurry up in Coos Bay and Eastport.

Once in Salem, we spent a day in Silver Falls State Park-- a spectacular place about 45 minutes out of town. There are about dozen falls in the park, all along a beautiful set of well-maintained trails.

It was almost like a rain forest--including trees completely covered by moss. It was really a neat place--Molly and I even saw a snake and a giant slug (I'll spare you the pictures, but I have them. Molly insisted).

Nice shot by Mary Ickes; Ben was already half way up the trail, as usual. I've mentioned the National Parks before, but we've also found great state parks along the way, as well. Some of them--like this one and Dead Horse Point in Utah--were really outstanding and are generally much less crowded than the better known Nationals. They are also usually good places to camp--often on the water, economical, and almost always clean and well maintained.

People have asked about the beard; the thing to know is that I didn't intend to grow one. I just decided not to shave. A subtle difference, I realize, but important nonetheless.

How's this for for a perfect waterfall?

And here's Molly on the trail underneath it.

Salem has the most wonderful carousel--not an antique, but brand new, with horses hand carved by local artists. It was a true community project and the day we were there, it was getting a good work-out by kids of all ages. In case you're wondering, yes, I was on a horse to get this shot. It was fun.

Mary Ickes is a fabulous cook and here, Molly gets a valuable lesson in pie crust-making. The result was great.

Another stop in Oregon was Nike in Beaverton. All of the buildings in the amazing Nike complex (about 6,000 people work there) are named for famous athletes like Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan, and, of course, Maine's own Joan Benoit Samuelson. Here, Mary and Molly pose with Mary Seabright who works at Nike and (you guessed it) is married to Mary's cousin Mark. That's Joanie with the flag.

And this was a big (and hard) day; we put the RV on the market in anticipation of returning home in mid-June. This is the shot I put up on RVSearch.com. We'd love to keep it, but can't figure out when we'd use it. The kids have to get back into school which only leaves summers to travel and who wants to leave Maine in the summer? Anybody who wants a great deal on a wonderful home on wheels, check out the site and let me know.

Ain't she beautiful? And you should hear the SurroundSound.

And finally, on our way north to Washington, we took the stunning drive up the Columbia River Gorge and looped around Mt. Hood. As you can see, spring hasn't exactly overwhelmed the area; what a spectacular spot.

And almost as spectacular is the Timberline Lodge. Built in the mid-thirties as a WPA project, this is an extraordinary place. The workers were mostly local people who needed work during the depression and they achieved an amazing blend of utilitarian architecture (it's a very comfortable ski lodge) and home-grown Art. We want to come back.

See what I mean about Art? The place is full of these wonderful carvings, many done by people who were carpenters or laborers with no special training (except on the job). One of the premises of the leaders of the project was that everyone has the capacity for art in them, if given an opportunity to express it. They sure proved it here.

And so we say good-bye to Oregon and the Wal-Mart parking lot where we spent the last night. Wal-Mart, as you may know, has a policy of letting RVers park overnight in their lots, which comes in real handy when you can't find a campground or it's too late to do all the setting-up. Naturally, we did some shopping (they have a great selection of RV supplies) as well; these guys didn't get to be the biggest store in the world by being stupid.

Now it's on to Washington and the third and final Right Turn. We even stopped at Mt. St. Helen's; what a blast. Sorry.