Post Offices – Life of Brian

Tax And Accounting Day

Wednesday, March 4, 2026 Leave a Comment

I used to file income taxes as soon as possible, like the first week of February, and in the early days, middle of January. I’m slipping, as it is early March and I’m just now filing for 2025. Looking back at last year, I was even later; it was the middle of this month. The way I have the taxes taken out, I can usually keep my refund in the two-figure range, but this year it is a huge $110. 🙂

I also did a little accounting. I have separate maps (by having separate Gmail addresses), and the post offices I have to find are associated with brian.the.red and the ones found are linked to mr.miata. After this past weekend’s 13 finds, I am down to needing just 63 post offices. That figure is coming from the Excel spreadsheet I have to keep track of my progress. The trouble came when I updated the Google Maps for each category; they were saying I needed to find 62, and I had already found 326. So I was one short in finds and one too many in founds. Should be easy.

The web will tell you that you can download your Google Maps Lists, but I couldn’t get that feature to work. I ended up opening the list and copy-and-pasting the list into a text editor. I picked the need-to-find list first because it was the smallest. I opened the modified .txt file in Excel and compared it to my master spreadsheet. I was missing the town of Ophir. I then attacked the much larger need-to-find list. First I looked to see if Ophir was on there; it wasn’t, darn. Fortunately, I found the extra item within the first couple dozen town I sorted through.

The Gordon House

Monday, March 2, 2026 Leave a Comment

The Gordon House

I knew of this house as I had seen signs mentioning it on my previous passes through this part of the Willamette Valley looking for post offices. And I’ve always been interested in Frank Lloyd Wright, as I kind of wanted to be an architect in high school. When one of the Moss Motoring Challenge points was a famous piece of architecture, I wanted to go to Fallingwater in Pennsylvania to get that. And we did; I took several from the parking lot, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get the car, flyer, and house in the same shot.

And today, after seeing the second sign for the Frank Lloyd Wright House, I decided to follow them to its conclusion. Cool house, and had I wanted to, I could have toured the inside of the home for twenty bucks if I had only been there on a weekend afternoon and had made a reservation a long time ago. Basically the same scenario as Fallingwater back in 2015.

Before I got to Silverton to see the Gordon House I did grab these two small post offices along OR-34

: Tidewater – I’m not sure who the customers are for this post office. It seemed to have been plopped down in the middle of nowhere. Yet after taking the photo of the place while sitting in the GTI checking if I had a usable image, a car pulled in next to me and went inside to mail a letter. (3/2/26)

: Alsea – Unlike like the earlier in the morning Tidewater post office, this one made more sense as it was in an actual community. (3/2/26)

Eleven Equals Thirteen

Sunday, March 1, 2026 Leave a Comment

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

I took eleven post office photos today, and eliminated two more because there were two post offices that have been shuttered since I made the jumbo spreadsheet back in 2019. They were the one called South Beach that is just south of Newport and the one further down US101 for Seal Rock that have been decommissioned. Thus the total number of post offices for the state now stands at 388 instead of 390. This is not to say that once I have finished the rest of them, there might be 2 new ones added that I don’t know about. Once I get the two tomorrow on the way home, I will be down to just 63 left.

: Hebo – My first stop of the day along US-101 and the skies were a pretty blue. Later post offices were photographed under cloudy or foggy or misty conditions. (3/1/26)

: Cloverdale – While most post offices are rather drab in color, the blue here in Cloverdale rivaled the green of the GTI for saturation. (3/1/26)

: Pacific City – This town was a few miles closer to the Pacific Ocean than US-101, so it had a nice quiet feel to it. (3/1/26)

: Otis – Is that front plate on straight? (3/1/26)

: Neotsu – The community of Neostu is on the 45th parallel north, which is halfway from the North Pole to the equator. (3/1/26)

: Lincoln City – The name “Lincoln City” was chosen from contest entries submitted by local schoolchildren. The contest was held when it was determined that using one of the five communities’ names that made up the city would be too controversial. (3/1/26)

: Gleneden Beach – See those two blue doors above the roof of the GTI? That is the entrance to the post office and there is a sign saying so but it is in the shadow. (3/1/26)

: Depoe Bay – Somehow I expected Depoe Bay to have a grander post office building. (3/1/26)

: Yachats – Even though it was Sunday, this post office’s parking lot was very full. Apparently the restaurant to the right was a popular after-church dining spot. (3/1/26)

: Waldport – Even though this was right on my route home for Monday morning, I stopped and grabbed it while I was passing through on the way to Yachats. (3/1/26)

: Newport – This was the town I was overnighting in, but before I snapped this photo I continued down the coast another 25 miles to get a couple more post office photos first. (3/1/26)

At The Car Wash

Sunday, September 21, 2025

I just can’t help myself; if I see some kids doing a car wash to raise money for something and I’m not in a hurry, I’ll stop. Mostly to help the kids out, but also there is a small part of watching them do something they might not have ever done before.

Today, when one girl was rinsing the driver’s side of the car off, she was apologetic about getting water on the seat. I told her, “No worries, that window does leak some.” When I got in, the seat was dry. What she was seeing were the shadows of the water drops on the window…

After today’s four post offices, I now have under a hundred left to do. This also wraps up the southwest part of the state, except for those along the coast on US101.

: Glide – This is one of two post offices I took a picture of on an early morning run into the Cascades from Roseburg. (9/21/25)

: Idleyld Park – This is one of two post offices I took a picture of on an early morning run into the Cascades from Roseburg. (9/21/25)

: Murphy – It was over a month ago when I took this photo, and I can remember absolutely nothing aboutit. (9/21/25)

: Williams – Offstage left is a local in a pickup who stopped to ask me if I wanted him to take my picture with my car. I said no thanks and told him what I was doing, and he thought it sounded like a fun adventure. (9/21/25)

Going Back To Post Office Hunting

Saturday, September 20, 2025

And going back to Klamath Falls. I wanted to go get another Mixed Berry Smoothie Bowl, and while I was at it, I wanted to clean up the post offices between Eugene and Roseburg adjacent to I-5. Today’s catch was seven post offices; tomorrow on the way to K-Falls, I’ll grab 4 more. Two are just east of Roseburg, and the other two are south of Grants Pass.

: Creswell – Home of Mark Few, the head coach for the Gonzaga Bulldogs men’s basketball team, which Jimmy Kimmel swears is a made-up college that doesn’t exist. (9/21/25)

: Lorane – A very cool small A-frame. I wonder if the postmaster lives upstairs. (920/25)

: Dorena – The town was named by combining the first names of Dora Burnette and Lorena Martin, according to Wikipedia, with no further information. (9/21/25)

: Yoncalla – Settlers first came to the area that would become Yoncalla in a covered wagon in the fall of 1848. Jesse Applegate arrived in 1849 and named the area after the Yoncalla-speaking Native Americans of the region. (9/21/25)

: Winchester – Winchester is an unincorporated community that is large enough for a post office but small enough that its census is not taken separately from the much larger Roseburg 5 miles south. (9/21/25)

: Wilber – I always like it when the post office is painted in the same manner as the rest of the building. (9/21/25)

: Umpqua – See that dirt road in the background? Google Maps was telling me the post office was 1/2 mile further along on it to the right. I took the photo but drove down that way just to see. No post office. (9/21/25)

The fourth post office in the top row is Yoncalla. When I checked it off on Google Maps, I noticed in the street view image a woman waving at the Google Maps car. Curious, I moved around in street view, and it turns out she was not alone, and I don’t think it was a woman; it was a high school-aged girl and seven of her friends. Hit this link and you’ll see trouble. The date of the photo is August 2012; that would put these ladies in their late twenties. I wonder where they are and what they are doing now?

So, Option #3 It Is

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Inside Dale

I figured 8 hours on mostly empty backroads beats 3 hours on I-84, so Option #3 was chosen for the trip home. I went to the Dale post office first. I spent a few minutes chatting with the proprietor. He told me that he serves between 20 and 25 folks. The building he is in was erected in 1929 to replace the original one across the street that was there since 1892.

From there, I continued south to US-26, where I could capture 3 more bonus post offices, and it would take me pretty much straight home. I thought it might take 8 hours to get back, but it turned out to be an hour less, and that included a couple of snack breaks and a lunch with a fill-up in Madras. With discretion being the better part of valor, I opted to fill the tank even though the Miata said I could go 120 miles and Google Maps was telling me it was a mere 108 miles to home. 🙂

: Dale The post office website says this unit’s address is in Ukiah, and Google Maps says its address is in Long Creek. I’m going with Dale. (9/2/25)

: Mount Vernon There was no good spot to park the car to get it directly into the photo, but if you look to the left of the “blue box,” you’ll see its reflection. I did this once before for Midland over 5 years and 275 post offices ago. (9/2/25)

: Dayville The town was named for the John Day River, but what really caught my eye on the Wikipedia page was that the mayor was listed as Peter Bogardus… (9/2/25)

: Mitchell There was no parking out front, and this lot held 4 slots, but it is narrower than this photo makes it look. Even in the Miata I had to back up, move forward a bit, and back up again so I could get out. (9/2/25)

Damn, Dale

Monday, September 1, 2025

Instead of just sitting around doing nothing on Labor Day, I planned to labor hard behind the wheel of a Miata. I’m in the same hotel in the same town I was in just 2 weeks ago, Pendleton, Oregon. Unlike last time, when I had mapped out 8 post offices and almost missed one, this drive east I mapped out 8 post offices and did miss one. Damn, Dale.

Again, Google’s fault: the post office has an address of 48388 US-395, and when I got there, not only wasn’t there a post office, there wasn’t anything there. I had buzzed right through a wide spot in the road with 4 or 5 buildings several miles back, but I didn’t see anything that might have been a government building. Turns out, using street view of Dale in the hotel, there certainly is a post office there.

So instead of a quick 3-hour trip on I-84 back home, it will now turn into a 6-hour drive. So I can go 60 miles south back to Dale, which has a Ukiah address, and come back up to I-84, or option 2, come back only 40 miles and angle over to I-84 in Arlington using OR-74. I’m leaning towards this one, as I remember OR-74 as being a genuine blast of a Miata road. Option 3 is a long shot. I get to the Dale post office and keep going south for 120 miles, taking me all the way down to US-26, and take that back home. The positive to this is I get 3 more post offices along that way, but the negative is it’ll take probably 8 hours to get home. Option 4 is probably the best one; just go home. I’ll be out here in the east for many other post offices, and I can get it then.

: Condon This was my first post office for the day, and now 9 hours later I don’t remember anything about the town. (9/1/25)

: Fossil The Fossil post office was established on February 28, 1876, on Thomas Benton Hoover’s ranch along Hoover Creek. He named the place Fossil after finding fossils in a clay-like rock formation on his ranch. (9/1/25)

: Spray I think I need to take a few weeks off on this post office journey, all these towns are starting to run together… (9/1/25)

: Kimberly This building looks like it belongs in the Wild West. The town itself is just this spot, the corner of No and Where. (9/1/25)

: Monument The largest building in this town of 120 people is the Monument School which around 1999 had nearly that many students. (9/1/25)

: Long Creek The city is named after John Long, a prominent miner who came to Grant County in 1862 during the Canyon City gold rush of that same year. (9/1/25)

: Ukiah The Camas Land Company platted Ukiah in August 1890. E. B. Gambee, who moved from Ukiah, California, to Oregon in 1881, suggested the name. (9/1/25)