Post Offices – Page 2 – Life of Brian

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)

Hi, I’m Brian and I’m A Postalphotoholic.

Monday, August 25, 2025

Klamath Machine & Locomotive Works

Yesterday evening I swore to myself that after my Mixed Berry Smoothie Bowl I was going to drive straight home. I shouldn’t swear. Oooh, look, there are three very rural post offices that I could get on my way over to I-5. Then because I really do have a problem, I decided to duck off the Interstate a few more times and snag 4 more. Today seven, total for the 3 days, eighteen.

: Butte Falls – Now, Google Maps has led me slightly awry before, but this one was a biggie. To avoid a road closure, it had me go way past the road and told me to get on a different Forest Service Road. Trouble was where I was supposed to turn, there was nothing but a wide spot on that side of the road. Undaunted I drove probably 60-70 miles to go the long way to this PO. (8/25/25)

: Tiller – Truth be told I didn’t see much other than 3 or 4 ranches along this road, how it warrants a Post Office I’ll never know. (8/25/25)

: Days Creek – Small town Oregon, you just leave the door to your truck open as you go in to get your mail. (8/25/25)

: Sutherlin – It was a Monday so I expected a few cars or people in some shots, but I was going to let this woman get in her car and then retake the shot. Unfortunately, right then, a big ol’ pickup up truck with a camper shell parked right next to me. You could hardly so the building anymore. (8/25/25)

: Oakland – Oakland was the first city to be placed on the state’s historic register, in May 1968. The city’s two-block business district consists of the original brick buildings built in the 1880s and 1890s. Stearns Hardware has been in operation since 1887, and has occupied its building since it was built in 1891 (8/25/25)

: Drain – The town gets its name from the its founder and politician Charles J. Drain, who donated 60 acres of nearby land to the Oregon and California Railroad in 1871. (8/25/25)

: Cottage Grove – This Post Office was the second of the day where one shot was all I got at it. Moments later a large yellow Nissan pickup with matching camper shell parked right next to me. (8/25/25)

On OR-227 between Trail and Tiller, I’m barreling along this wonderfully nice twisty road in the middle of nowhere. As I round a sharp curve at speed, there suddenly is a flock of wild turkeys walking across the road. Almost all of them got across before I got to them. The last one tried in vain to fly away, but I caught it right above the front driver-side headlight. It then bounced on the windshield right in front of me and exploded into feathers as it sailed over my head and hit the road behind me. No damage to the car, just a couple of feathers caught between the headlight and hood, but the local buzzards will be having turkey a few months early.

Sdrawkcab Og Ew

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Buckey at Brevada

We’ll start with the last one I took. I ostensibly came to Klamath Falls for that Smoothie Bowl from Brevada tomorrow morning, but I also wanted my route to take me through Crater Lake National Park so I could take a picture of their post office. That is the next one in reverse order.

Crater Lake – I was lucky to get this close to the building that houses the park’s post office. The National Park was hopping on a summer Sunday. (8/24/25)

While I was in the park, I stopped at a couple of overlooks and a couple of visitor centers. I bought a couple of postcards and a sticker for Buckey’s trunk lid. At my last stop the morning mist and smoke that had obscured the lake was starting to burn off, but for the first couple of photos you had to imagine that deep blue the lake is famous for.

: The Lake Is Starting To Look Good

: Starting To See Some Blue

: A Misty Wizard Island

: Imagine Under That Is The Bluest Lake

Before I left to head south, I captured the last post office in Eugene. Then I had breakfast right next door to the last of the three post offices left hanging out there on OR-126 on a ninety-mile out and back.

: Blue River – Note the naked trees on the peak behind the post office, this whole section of OR-126 along the McKenzie River looks like that. Must have been one big raging fire. (8/24/25)

: Vida – Vida was originally named “Gate Creek”, but this caused confusion with a community of “Gates Creek” in nearby Washington County, so the name of the postmaster’s daughter was selected instead. (8/24/25)

: Walterville – And people complain about nepotism in Hollywood, the Walterville post office was established in 1875 and named by the first postmaster, George Millican, for his son Walter. (8/24/25)

: Eugene – Somehow I missed this Eugene post office back in February. (8/24/25)

Sdrawkcab Og Ew is We Go Backwards backwards.

Sunday Fun Day

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Yesterday was a longer day, 300 miles and 8 post offices compared to today’s 240 miles and 6 post offices. But it sort of evened out because Saturday eastbound on I-84 was nicer than today’s westerly trip home. Although, if I could have swapped the order of I-84 and OR-74 which would have made the day finish up with some nearly zero traffic twisting and bobbing roads, today would have been a great drive.

: Pendleton -It’s population was 17,107 at the time of the 2020 census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. (8/17/25)

: Pilot Rock – A nice small town just a dozen miles south of Pendleton on US395. (8/17/25)

: Heppner – The 40 miles from the beginning of OR-74 to this town I saw not one other car and there were a total of three ranches. (8/17/25)

: Lexington – This one was fun. I followed Google maps to a house on a corner with a 6-foot tall chain-link fence and an onery dog. The address was listed as 320 W Main, but the house had 102 on it. So I continues cruising the street until I found this place. The only indication it was a post office was the blue drop box and a 4″x4″ sticker on the right door. (8/17/25)

: Ione – I wonder how the citizens pronounce the name? Eye-one or eye-own or something else. (8/17/25)

: Arlington – This weekend’s last stop before getting back on the dreaded Interstate 84 heading west. (8/17/25)

This weekend’s haul took my post office tally to 252 out of the 390 total or about 65% done. There are around 90 or so left that are densely packed along the coast and the southern portion of I-5. The remaining 40-ish out east are widely scattered and will need several more long drives with more than just one overnight stay for each trip.