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.
1) Coming north from California and on the way through Klamath Falls, I took a photo of the GTI in front of my favorite mural. This is the GTI’s second photo in front of the Kingsley Field mural, taken when I stopped here on the way to Vegas last November, back when the car was black.
2) It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, so it was time for a dinner of corned beef and cabbage. I stopped at Heidi’s of Gresham, and I was willing to bet that they had that as a special today, and they did. I finished everything except for 3/4 of the carrots; they are going in a chicken noodle soup I’m going to make.
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.
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
