Day 14: Oregon Caves, Corvalis,Home
Ok I'm ready for something differant today. I like the ocean
but two days of stopping at every place will make for a change. Going to the
Oregon Caves sounds like funand then Iwill drive up I5 and stop at many little
town on my way back home. I woke up at 7:00 and started out on my 20 mile drive
to the Caves. they warned me that it was windy but it took me 45 minutes to
get there and that is with no traffic. the scenary was nice as you drive thur
country areas for about twenty miles and then start driving thru forest areas.
I check in at 8:30 and told that the next tour will leave at nine. 
I go into the old ast the Chateau which looks like it's well kept upand was
built in 1934. I get a cup of coffeewaiting for the tour. The temperatur in
teh caves will be 44 degrees and will last 990 minutes. They also recommend
that you pay $1 to use a plastic hat during the tour and I'm glad aI did. We
leave at nine with agbout eight people in th4e group on this Monday morning.
the rtour guide informs us that this is a very small group as it is usually
between 15-20. As we go inside they start telling us about the hitory as it
was discovered in 1874. They tell other interesting stories of exploring deeper
into the caves i the early 1900's and one person evev got married in the caves.
The toutr is safe and well woerth the $7 to understand the history and geology
of these caves. It is well lighted and ggod trails, just make sure you duck
when there is a low ceiling. Make sure you pick up one of their pamphlets to
look at one you leave as it has good historu and geology as to how it was formed.
I leave the caves and drive back along the windy road toowards Cave Junction. I saw a sign for Foris Winery and decided to check it out as I was curoious what type of grapes were havessted down here. They had a nice place to taste wines and a picni table and it was off the main road and not a busy toutist area, at least while I was there. The women serving the wine had actually live in my hometown of Kent, Washington. She had moved here 5-10 years ago and was glad to be down here and out of the city life. I ended up buying a bottle of Early Muscat and Pinot Gris and will probably stop by again when I'm down here as it still tasted good when I got home. You never know if the wine will takes as good at home and so I'll ususlly only buy one bottle at first. I left the winery and then turn north at the junctions to go to Grants Pass. This is a good place to stop at night as it as enough accomodations and restaurents to chooose from. Grants Pass is also a good hub destination if you want to visti east to St Helens, west to the ocean or North to gold minng country. Everythins can be done in a day. There is also fishingandrafting down the Rogue River. I spend some time here next time.
I decided to get of of I-5 again and took state highway 138
. I had been listening to the radio that mostly played country stations today
but now decided to listen to Tom Petty. 
I
guess I was getting closer to urban area so Petty sounded appropiate. Highway
138 is a nice scenic backroad as it begins by going thru farm land. I follow
the Umpqua Rivere drove right past Steamboat and Little Falls without stopping
becase I wasn't looking at the map. The road starts climbing into Umpqua Nationa
Forestas it is beautiful country and I reach the top right looking at at an
awsome sunset. I meet one guy at top of the road with his convertable and we
both enjoy the peace and quiet. He said that most people don't even take this
back road and mentioned that he lived on the road. He used to live in Texas
and currently works in the builidng industry. We started talking about Eugene
and he warned me that it is a mess right now with construction. He said that
people keep moving in to the city but they don't want to expand and are not
planning growth apporpiatley. He compared Eugent to what Austin, Texas went
thru about a decade ago.
After about 15 minutes we went our own way as I drove northwest going past Dorena Lake. This is a large long lake as there were many people who werer binging their boat in this evening. I continued on and drove into the town of Cottag Grove, I don't remember much about the town as it was getting late and I wanted to get to Eugene. I finally got into Eugene around 9:00 and drove into the University of Oregon as it was right in the middle of town. It was hard to get around as they had roads going all different wasy and one way streets. I saw a couple with a van that had the alternator go out and had no power. The guy ws going to push the van two blocks down the road with the girl steering. I offered to help because I remember what it's like in Alaslka being in thier situation. So we pushed the van two blocks down a main street in Eugene. It tooks us a about five ,minutes as we had to stop at a light and a police officer drove right by us without any questions. The guy and girl didn't know how to thank me but I know how they felt and I was just glad to help someone in return.
We drove next past Salem and would turn off at the Albany exit to go to Corvalis. We arrived in Corvalis at 7:00pm and we went to Book Bin and Grass Roots book stores first before they closed. We bought a couple more travel books including one paperback on Southern Oregon for $4, There didn't seem to be many eat/drink places in town. There were either bars or restaurants but not both. We finally stopped at Kell's Irish Pub & Bar for dinner. The food was expensive but the beer was cheap. We had Irish stew, cream of tomatoe-basil soup, bangers and fries, and a Caesar salad with blackened chicken. I always expect Irish food to have more flavor and then I am disappointed when it is basic meat and gravy with salt and pepper for flavoring. We got a room at the Townhouse Motor Inn around 10:00, layed down on the bed and fell asleep. We had planned on getting backup to go to a bar but we were both tired. I woke up at 2:00am just to shut off the lights.
Heading
toward Silver Falls State Park we went west on Highway 20 and north on Highway
22 . Detroit Lake was probably the most memorable part of the trip. It was a
large lake with an island in the middle, a harbor and several campgrounds in
area and a dam at one end. From here the highway followed the North Satiam River
and went through several small towns. Gates had several small businesses, some
which appeared to be shut down. Dale claimed to see one real live human being.
We turned north on the Cascade Highway a mile or two and then east on the Silver
Falls Highway. Another 14 miles or so we came to the Silver Falls State Park.
This is Oregon's largest state park. While the road to the park goes through
lots of rolling green hills and Christmas tree farms, the actual park is located
in a very wooded area. There are a lot of falls in this park, most of which
you can't see without hiking in several miles. Some of the falls you can actually
walk behind. We finally saw some falls from the parking lot at North Falls.
On our way back to the highway we got lost, eventually coming out at the small
town of Silverton. There were lots of murals in the business district. We took
Highway 213 toward Oregon City, driving thru lots of small towns. Marqua had
a church, a winery and gingseng growing on at least one farm. We turned west
on 211 at the town of Mallala. Driving through Woodburn, which was a pretty
good size town we finally got on I-5 North and would then continure on into
Portland and then home.
Drove another 350 miles today