Only 23 post offices left. Looks like a 3-day trip out in the state’s northeast ought to do it. Then comes the hard part, making a book of the 388 photos…
Inside that red circle is the marker of the supposed geographical center of Oregon. Quoting Jerry King a “Google local guide”: Although the locals think this USGS brass disc is the center of Oregon, it actually isn’t. The disc was set along a leveling network over 100 years ago without any consideration of where the center of Oregon was. There are at least 6 recognized technical ways to determine the center of any irregular shape (like a state); all the methods fall within about 10-12 miles of Post, Oregon. So go to Post, buy a cold soda, and say, “I’ve been to the center of Oregon!” I bought a Twix ice cream and two Post postcards.
I’m staying in the very small town of Seneca, Oregon, tonight. For the first time since the middle of March, when I cleaned up the coast, I’m photographing post offices. I visited five today, and I have 4 more for tomorrow’s return trip. All the post offices I have left are now in eastern Oregon and are a long way from Fairview. Today’s mileage is a few over 375, and tomorrow’s trip back will be about 325.
Nine post offices in one trip sounds kind of light, and it is, but those 9 are 28% of the post offices I had left to do.
But first, California. Another lighthouse, a Klamath with no Falls post office, some big-ass trees, and a Roadside America stop. Tomorrow, northward bound.
Today’s eight post offices brings my total to 356 of the state’s “total” of 388, or I’m now 92% finished. In the two weeks of March I have made three separate trips: a one-night outing, a day trip, and this 4-day event, capturing 44 post offices. All the rest are in the far northeast of the state. Those will have to wait until April; I need a break.
It wasn’t all business; I stopped at two lighthouses, Coquille River and Cape Blanco, and walked along the shore at low tide in a couple of places. I also received a compliment, I think, on the back window of the GTI.
Last Monday I contemplated doing a 4-day road trip to get to the last 21 post offices along the southern coast. Tonight I’m in Coos Bay. I broke it down into 9 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. Once again Google Maps led me astray, and I could only find eight of the nine; the Allegany post office was nowhere near where they said it would be. I couldn’t research where it might be because I was deep into the forest away from US-101, so I had zero service.
After finding those eight, it was only 1:00 pm, so it was way too early for the hotel check-in. I decided to head down the coast some more and shrink Sunday’s quota of twelve. The next town south on US-101 was Bandon, about 30 miles away. That round trip would only kill an hour, so once in Bandon, I headed inland on OR-42 to grab four more post offices that were deep into the woods like Allegany. Thankfully, all four were where Google Maps said they should be.
At the hotel I researched the Allegany post office further. I tried searching for the address given for the place on Apple Maps, and it pinpointed the town’s community center, a couple miles further down the road from where Google said it was. So tomorrow that’ll be the first place I head.
Of the last 8 I need to find, 7 are in towns right on US-101. The seventh town, Agness, is a ways inland along the Rogue River, and the road to get there is on the south side of the river, and Agness is on the north side. I have to drive 3-1/2 miles past it to get to a bridge and go back those 3-1/2 miles, take a picture, and then reverse the route.
Knocked off another 10 post offices yesterday. Now there are just 21 more to capture along the coast, and I’m thinking that it is time for a 4-day trip to get all that are left out there. I either do it this weekend or wait until the first weekend in April to avoid Oregon school’s spring breaks. But if I wait until April, the rates for staying on the coast will probably cost a bunch more because it’ll be the beginning of their season. I’ll make that a game-time decision on, say, Thursday morning.
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 towns I sorted through.