Today went pretty smoothly; only one of the post offices was not where Google said they’d be. Richland had a Main Street address, but for some reason Maps had me turn left before getting there and was showing a back way into a parking lot. But there was no alley, and when I circled back to Main Street, there it was, and there were zero routes to get behind it. Sigh.
The morning was damp, wet, or rainy, but the afternoon was dry and sunny. If I let Ms. Google pick my route, there would have been about 15 miles of I-84, and it would have saved me a whole 6 minutes, but I chose all backroads. I ended up traversing two different mile and a half sections of gravel road that way. It was some of the best-maintained gravel I’ve ever driven on; 45 MPH was easily doable. The only real downside was the car came out covered in light brown dirt.
On my way into town tonight, about five miles out, I passed an Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, I almost stopped. Seeing as tomorrow is a real short day, I think maybe I’ll backtrack to it to kill some time.
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- Summerville – I didn’t go in, I just took the USPS.com’s word for it. (9/17/26)
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- Imbler – I actually drove through this town yesterday on the way to get to my hotel and thought, “That name sounds familiar.” It was to be my second stop on today’s hunt. (9/17/26)
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- Cove – I just missed out on the spot out front where the white CRV is. They were right in front of me coming into town… (9/17/26)
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- Union – An impressive Masonic Lodge that has the post office inside. (9/17/26)
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- Richland – Google for some reason decided to pretend there was an alley behind this post office where there wasn’t one. (9/17/26)
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- Halfway – During the dot-com bubble, Halfway agreed to rename itself Half.com for a year as a publicity stunt for the e-commerce company of the same name. (9/17/26)
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- Oxbow – This town is similar to yesterday’s Imnaha in that it is the last post office on the end a twisty road before you run out of Oregon. (9/17/26)
