Post Offices – Page 4 – Life of Brian

Boise, ID – Day 1: Oregon Trail In Reverse

Friday, April 18, 2025

The above image of the World’s Largest Map of the Oregon Trail is from Baker City and is the first of many (I hope) Roadside America pictures from this trip. I’ll try and find one on each day I’m travelling. We’ll see how that works out.

I got a 7:30 start and ended up at the hotel in Boise 5:30, but that is Mountain Time, so it was 4:30 on my internal clock. Google says I should have taken 6-1/2 hours to do it, but all my wandering and break taking made it a 9 hour trip. First off I managed to shoehorn in 4 Post Office pictures, a leisurely lunch in Le Grand of pizza slices and salad, a gas stop and literal walk in the park in Baker City. I also didn’t help that I tried to dodge Friday rush hour in Boise by taking some surface streets that really just delayed the inevitable loss of time.

: Bridal Veil – This was the first Post Office east on I-84 and I paid the price for stopping for it, there was no east bound ramp back onto the Interstate, so I had to drive 5 miles back towards home before there was an exit that did head back east. (4/18/25)

: Cascade Locks – This one like everyone of today’s Post Offices was on the opposite side of the road from the way I was travelling so a U-turn was required. (4/18/25)

: Hood River – I got there just as the PO opened and there several people getting out of cars to go inside. (4/18/25)

: Mosier – This is my favorite Post Office so far of the 209 I’ve visited. (4/18/25)

Half Dozen More

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Today was Sunday, so that means Post Offices. My first stop was to get the Hillsboro DCU, because for some reason 3 weeks ago when I got the regular Hillsboro PO photo, I didn’t take this one. I think I remember circling the block looking for it and giving up.

From there my thoughts were to get the two Newberg POs and maybe Dundee, just a little south of Newberg, to make it an even four. But when I got to Dundee I realized I could two more, Dayton and McMinnville, for a little over 20 extra miles. On my way into McMinnville, I saw a 747 on the right side of the road with the words EVERGREEN in green on the side and just past it was a building that had a 747 on its roof. My curiosity was satisfied a second later when I saw sign that read, “Aviation Museum Next Right.” I pulled in.

The place seemed deserted, so I pulled over by a static MIG-29 and looked up their web page. The museum was about to open up in a few minutes and now there was a steady trickle of cars coming in the driveway. I decided, that I’d come back another day and spend a few hours here. When I arrived home, I looked a little more closely at their website and found out that the museum is the home of Howard Hughes’ folly, the Spruce Goose. If you look in the glass walled hanger behind the Miata in the photo above, it was right there!

As I was mulling about the Spruce Goose while heading home, I’d swear I’ve had a conversation with someone recently about that plane being in my neck of the woods. It thought it might have been Santa Fe Sally, but during our evening chat today, she swore it wasn’t her. So, who?

And as further proof of my diminishing recall, on my way back towards I-5, I passed right by a Post Office I didn’t see on my to-do list. So I circled the block and got out and took a photo. It wasn’t until I got back home that I realized I did have a photo of it already, it was taken on that same photo trip 3 weeks ago.

: Hillsboro DCU – After I photographed the regular Hillsboro post office I wonder why it took me 3 weeks to get back to snap the DCU? (4/13/25)

: Dundee – William Reid, a Scottish immigrant, arrived in 1874 and played a key role in developing the Oregonian Railway here. The town was named after Dundee, Scotland, Reid’s birthplace. (4/13/25)

: Dayton – Recognized as the first city in Oregon to earn national historic designation, Dayton’s charming downtown invites walkable exploration, offering a glimpse into the region’s storied past. (4/13/25)

: McMinnville – The post office was just another post office, but I do thank the town for letting me discover that the Spruce Goose had its own museum in McMinnville. (4/13/25)

: Newburg – Now this is a building worth of a Post Office. The historic post office was constructed in 1935-6 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork inside, is still in operation. (4/13/25)

: Newburg DCU – Like the downtown Newberg post office exemplifies what a post office building should look like, so too does this Detached Carrier Unit look its part too. (4/13/25)

Back To K-Falls

Sunday, April 6, 2025

I am back again for the second time in the span of a week for one thing, a Breakfast Smoothie Bowl from Brevada Brewhouse tomorrow morning. That is the reason why I came last weekend too, but Brevada is closed Sunday, so I was going get it on Monday morning, but the impending snow in the mountains made me leave early. I feel like this smoothie bowl has became a Quixotic Quest.

Because when Donna and I left Klamath Falls for Fairview, I sold the CBTNL to David, the co-owner of Brevada, he had promised me a free smoothie bowl whenever the next time I got to Klamath Falls. So, by my reckoning, this free treat will have set me back approximately $460. Three hotel rooms at $100, only 2 of which I will have used, and 4 full tanks of gas at around $40 each.

But it isn’t really about the money because I would have had to cross the Eastern Cascades a few times anyway for taking the post office photos I’ve taken while coming here twice. There were 6 last weekend and I picked up 8 on the way over today. With a chance at 5 more on the way back.

: Lyons – First stop on the way to Klamath Falls for the second weekend in a row. (4/6/25)

: Mill City – This is a fairly young city in that it was incorporated in 1941 and it was named such because of the two large lumber mills here. (4/6/25)

: Detroit – I tried to out wait the the person in the black SUV, but after about 5 minutes I took the picture. (4/6/25)

: Idanha – When I got back after this trip and updated my spreadsheet as to which POs I’d photographed I mistakenly highlighted this as the Imnaha – 97842 even though the picture clearly shows Idanha – 97350. (4/6/25)

: Sisters – This is a new post office building made to look like it is a hundred and 50 years old, similar to the historic buildings downtown. The illusion is totally wasted because every other building in a 2-mile radius is brand spanking new. Also this Post Office picture is the one that got me over the mid-point of the 391 post offices in the state. (4/6/25)

: Downtown – This was a busy section of town and when arrived I was on the wrong side of the road and there were no empty spots at all except for these two handicapped spots. I did a quick u-turn, hopped out of the car, snapped a photo, back in the car and gone in 20 secs. (4/6/25)

: Bend DCU – If you look to the extreme right side of the photo you’ll notice a deer grazing away. This one and his 4 friends just pretty much ignored me the whole time. (4/6/25)

: Sunriver – This is another of the trying to wait out a customer to get a clean photo. In the end I modified my phot taking location to hide them. There is a car hidden behind the pine tree on the left. (4/6/25)

P.S. The Sisters Post Office (lower left) officially put me over the halfway point of the other Quixotic Quest I’m on, taking a picture of every Post Office in Oregon.

Solo Post Office Sunday

Sunday, March 30, 2025

I got up early and went downstairs at the Shilo Inn for breakfast and boy what a disappointment. The only thing I got was small pre-packaged container of Honey Nut Cheerios and an 8oz container of 2% milk. I went back to the room and ate. I wanted to get this hanging Post Office in New Pine Creek (see above photo) so I drove the 112 miles one way to get it. I stopped in Lakeview on the way back to get something really worth eating.

When I arrived back to the hotel around noon, it was just in time to watch the Red Sox lose their game against the Texas Rangers. Boston won the first game of the series last Thursday, but promptly lost the next three to Texas, so their 2025 W/L record so far is 1-3.

Also, when I got back to the hotel, I wasn’t hungry for lunch because of the homemade biscuit with egg, sausage & cheese I had at The Bottom of the Barrel Bakery was twice the size of a normal Carl’s Jr biscuit. I figured I’d get back on track with a good dinner. Never happened.

When I checked the weather for the day in Klamath Falls it mentioned that there might be some snow in the early morning hours of Monday. Hmmm, there wasn’t any mention of snow earlier in the week. Around three this afternoon I looked again, now they were saying an inch or more of accumulation at lower altitudes, but there might be several inches above 5,000 feet. That would be a problem, any route I would take from Klamath Falls to home would include at least one pass that was higher than five thousand. I was willing to stay another day, but changed my mind when snow was forecast for the next 3 days.

I stuffed all my things back into their respective bags, checked out of the hotel, threw the bags in the trunk and headed north. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. At about 5:30 I would normally be thinking about getting din-din, but by then I was long past civilization. I kept thinking I’d see something I wanted in those small towns on this side of the Cascades, but didn’t. I got on I-5 just south of Eugene and really didn’t want to get right back off, so I was going to wait until I got north of town. Then with all the traffic I missed the only exit that had food listed on the sign. I had to stop and gas in Salem and by that time it quarter after seven and too late to eat a meal. I ate the second bag of a half apple I had brought along for afternoon snack.

I figure between the Lakeview round trip and the dash home I drove over 500 miles for the day. With Saturday’s 300-ish mile drive down to K-Falls it was certainly good practice for my upcoming Jumbo Road Trip.

Sunday In The Rain

Sunday, March 23, 2025

If I go for a drive tomorrow I can get nine more in about a 125 miles, or less than a half a tank of gas… And if I do, I’ll take Bucky

I did go for a drive in Bucky and did photograph nine more post offices in spite of the rain, occasionally heavy. Trouble is I only took eight of the ones I thought I would, but by luck got one more. I can’t trust a saved Google Map that has multiple stops in it. The Google to Samsung transfer hiccups and you end up with just the Start and End points. Which is really wonderful if the start and end were the same place. Also, you can’t start driving before you hit drive button on the map, because it will keep shouting at you to do a U-turn to go back to the starting point first and sometimes with this it’ll drop all the stops too.

Because I made all the Oregon post offices as a Saved Place, they show as dots on the map and I can hop from dot to dot on a loop. The problem of my missing one on the loop today was because in Hillsboro, the regular post office and the DCU¹ were about a 1/4 mile apart and their dots kind of overlapped. I didn’t notice the miss until I was home and removing the photographed post offices from my saved places list.

Lucky, number nine was because there was one post office on the way home that would made an out of the way detour next time I came this way. It was in the small town of St. Paul, between OR99W and I-5. Below are today’s outtakes, AKA non post office photos.

: 10k Miata

: Waiting On A Train In Hillsboro

: Forest Grove Mural

Saturday At The Coast

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Well, I did drive over to the Oregon coast today, but more time was spent getting there and back than on the coast. I drove a total of 285 miles and only about 30 of it was along US101. I did pretty much used a whole tank of gas on the day. There were a few walks in state parks, the Indian Beach Trail in Ecola State Park, to the beach at Sunset Beach State Recreation Site and climbing around defensive batteries at Fort Stevens State Park. I set out to clean up all the unvisited Post Offices in the upper left part of the state and it took pictures of a dozen of them to do it. Here are the non post office photos, those you’ll get tomorrow, maybe.

If I go for a drive tomorrow I can get nine more in about a 125 miles, or less than a half a tank of gas… And if I do, I’ll take Bucky. When I got home today the new beige seatbelts were at my doorstep instead of the expected Monday arrival. So after a 10 hour trip, I spent 2 hours in the driveway installing them.

: Halfway to the Coast

: Ecola Point Viewpoint

: Parked at Ecola State Park

: Battery 245 at Fort Stevens

: Battery Walker at Fort Stevens

: Trail to Sunset Beach

: Misters Bubble in Astoria

: Halfway Home

The Fifth Car

Sunday, March 9, 2025

It is Sunday and its sunny, what should I do? You know full well what I did, don’t you? That’s right, I took some Oregon Post Office pictures. Today Bucky became the fifth car to have its picture taken with a Post Office in the background and the third different Miata. The first 31 photos were with the CTBNL and the next 11 were with the Ladybug, our previous red Mini Cooper. The CTBNL had 3 more photos with Post Offices before turning over the duties to our second Mini known simply as Mini Two for the next 15 post office photos. The fourth car to join the Post Office Picture Team was the brand new 2024 Aero Gray Miata GT which appeared in the next 15 pictures.

On the way back after a trip to visit family in Granite Falls using Mini Two, I snagged 4 quick post offices before the New Miata took back over for the next 14. The same car also did the next 48 in a row, but it was no longer gray, but a bright blue. There was one photo outlier of Mini Two followed by 7 with the New (blue) Miata. While getting some service done on the Mini Two last week it had its photo taken with 2 nearby Post Offices and quite likely its last ones.

Today the fifth car, New Old Miata, AKA Bucky, joined the ranks of Oregon Post Office posers:

: Scotts Mills – The city takes its name from the sawmill and flour mill on Butte Creek that were owned by Robert Scott and Thomas Scott. (3/9/25)

: Silverton – This is the first shakedown trip in the new to me Miata and what better way to show what it is for. (3/9/25)

: Mount Angel – This was stop #1 on a quick trip to south of Portland and east of Salem to clean up the Post Offices there. (3/9/25)

: Saint Benedict – I didn’t have any cell coverage here, so Google couldn’t direct me right to this building so I drove around in circles for a while until I spotted it. (3/9/25)

And actually, I considered taking a photo of the second of the above Post Offices Friday morning with a Silver Nissan Sentra I had rented to drive down to Eugene to pick up the fifth car, but opted not.