So, Who's Jumbo Now?

Sunday morning, February 23, Larry went over to the Air Museum to do his tour, while Duchess and I stayed behind in Jumbo to catch up on some computer work. Before he left, he took this photo of Jumbo beside the "Mini-Guppy". Jumbo now  looks far from Jumbo...

The Mini Guppy is a large wide body cargo aircraft with a swing tail and a 18 ft. wide and 91.5 ft. long cargo bay, capable of carrying 4 1/2 Jumbos!

 The North American T-6 Texan was used as a trainer for pilots during the Korean and Viet Nam wars. Larry's boss and friend, Pat trained pilots during Viet Nam in this aircraft. When Larry was attempting to get his pilot's license in 1976, he and Pat rented an AT-6 for the day at Dallas Love Field. Pat took off flying east of Dallas across the plains and at an elevation of approximately 5000 ft. said to Larry, "Here's how we did recon missions in Viet Nam." He then threw the stick forward and dove towards the ground. Larry, who was flying front seat, decided that this was his last day on earth. Just above the tree tops, Pat leveled off and flew for about a mile before climbing back to about 5000 ft. They then landed at a small field east of Dallas, taxied to a halt, and Pat told Larry he could take off. At the end of the runway there were power lines. As Larry began to accelerate, Pat said, "You better pull back hard on the stick to clear those lines."  After successfully getting airborne, they headed back to Love Field. On their approach they discovered they had no outbound radio. After receiving incoming calls from air traffic control, they were told to wag their wings if they could not transmit. Upon doing so, air traffic control cleared them for landing and Pat took over to land. All in all it was an exciting day, and Larry will never forget this aircraft, which is one of the main ones he wanted to see at the Tillamook Air Museum.

WWII pilots were allowed to choose the nose art for their planes. Many chose designs such as this to bolster their spirits and carry them through the missions.

Shortly after Larry returned from the Museum, we got ready to head on to our next destination. But first, we stopped again at the cheese factory where I had a yummy grilled cheese sandwich for the road!

We had a few more beaches to hit. Tolovana Beach State State Park is situated at the south end of Cannon Beach...

We left Tolovana and went down the road a bit to Cannon Beach. It was cold, rainy and windy, but that didn't stop us or the many other people who were at the park from enjoying the day.

Haystack Rock towers 235 feet above the beach.

We were hoping to find a sand dollar, but only found quarters or half dollars!

We had decided to spend the night at Fort Stevens State Park. We found a campsite, which wasn't difficult. The place was almost deserted.

We then drove down to the beach. Larry wanted to see the site of the wreck of the Peter Iredale,  a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens about four miles south of the Columbia River channel. Wreckage is still visible, making it a popular tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Pacific.

all that's left...

We got a good night's sleep, got up early the next morning and headed towards Washington.

 Larry didn't want to drive over the Astoria-Megler bridge. I thought to myself, "how bad can it be?" But when we got to Astoria and there it was in front of us, I totally understood his hesitation. It was definitely scary! It is a steel cantilever through truss bridge that spans the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington. Located 14 miles from the mouth of the river, the bridge is 4.1 miles long^[3] and was the last completed segment of U.S. Route 101 between Olympia, Washington, and Los Angeles, California.^[4] It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America and is 200 feet above the river - equivalent to a 20-story office building!

As we were approaching the bridge, we came upon a traffic circle. From our vantage point, it appeared that we had no choice but to enter the roadway to the bridge. I was nervous enough in my car following Jumbo, and I noticed Larry almost coming to a complete stop in the middle of the traffic circle! What to do? As we continued on a ways, Larry realized that the right lane of the traffic circle merged with Highway 30 eastward along the river and into Astoria. Whew!!!! We had to stop at a McDonald's to settle ourselves and go online to verify the route to Longview that we had chosen to avoid this dreadful bridge!

This is the view from the McDonald's parking lot.

We were soon back on the road, driving through the drizzly day, the eighty or so miles to Rainier, Oregon, where we would finally have to cross the Columbia into Washington.When we arrived there, we discovered that the Lewis & Clark Bridge was almost as bad as the one in Astoria! When Larry saw it, he called me and said, "I can't do this. I might have to drive to Portland!" I said, "There's only going to be a bridge there, too. You can do it!" "Okay," he said. "I can do it, but stay with me!" I thought, "I'm there for you. Besides, where else am I going to go?"

The bridge is 8,288 ft  long with 210 ft  of vertical clearance. The main span is 1,200 ft  long and the top of the bridge is 340 ft  above the river. It was designed by Joseph Strauss, engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

We made it to Washington!

In Larry's defense, his bridge phobia is the result of a recurring childhood nightmare in which, while crossing a bridge with his parents, each of them disappeared, one after the other, leaving him standing on a single board, unable to move forward or backward. Strange, isn't it, how some things never leave our psyche?

We realized that Seattle wasn't all that far away, so we decided to stop for lunch and head on down the road rather than stopping somewhere between here and there.

We stopped at the Country Cousin Restaurant in Centralia. When I saw Shrimp Louie on the menu, I knew I was in the right place!

Filled up and ready for more driving, we carried on through the pouring rain, town after town, until we hit Seattle. I thought the traffic was pretty good, but Larry thought it was the worst he's seen in his entire life. When we were almost to Northgate, he wanted to pull over and use Jumbo's bathroom, so we did, and when we were ready to head back towards the freeway, Jumbo wouldn't start! Larry jumped him with my car, and we headed on, but as Larry turned towards the freeway entrance, the light changed and I had to wait a long time for my turn. As a result, he was quite a ways in front of me. I figured that since I didn't see him anywhere alongside the road, Jumbo must be performing all right. I finally called him and he told me that we had left the inverter plugged in after charging up my camera battery, and what with the windshield wipers and lights being on as well, the battery wasn't charging up adequately. Once he unplugged the charger, all was well. We had made it all the way home without any mechanical mishaps!

We were planning on spending a few nights at the Angel of the Winds Casino near Arlington, and were thrilled when we pulled into the parking lot around 4:30.

The first thing I did was call my Mom to let her know we had arrived safely. It was a little late to drive into Everett, so we planned on that for Tuesday morning. I then called Matt & Nora, and decided that we would go to their house a couple of nights later in the week. A few minutes later, Matt called and said that they wanted to come over that night to visit. That was great news! Larry and I hurried over to the casino to have some dinner, and then spent an enjoyable evening with Matt, Nora and the boys. It's so wonderful to be home!

We Crossed These Bridges When We Came To Them...

We left the Carl G. Washburne State Park early Saturday morning, February 22 -

Jumbo, ready to hit the road once again...

Our planned stop for the night was the Tillamook Air Museum, and we had a few things to see along the way.
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Passing over the Ten Mile Creek Bridge near Yachats, Oregon. 

 I had to get gas in Waldport, and while I filled up, or rather, while the gas attendant filled up for me, Larry went over to the Alsea Bridge Interpretive Center. He is not a big lover of bridges, and was not especially looking forward to driving over this one in Jumbo. It was very pretty, though.

It was a piece of cake!

Larry passed the entrance to the Seal Rock Recreation Site, so pulled over to the side of the road in front of this Sushi Restaurant. Duchess was riding with me, and began barking insanely at the large cut-out of the Asian man in front!

 

We turned around and drove into the Seal Rock parking lot. Larry didn't notice until it was too late that there was a sign saying "No Trailer Turn-Around." He parked Jumbo, thinking that he wouldn't have any trouble getting back out later, since the parking lot was pretty empty. We walked down the trail from the parking lot to the beach, and didn't see any seals, but found lots of interesting creatures to look at in the tide pools.

 

When we made our way back to the parking lot, we discovered that it was no longer nearly empty, and Larry was concerned about turning around enough to maneuver his way out. And to make matters worse, a school bus pulled up, letting a load of middle school kids out. The driver had the same problem, and when she saw that Larry was trying to get Jumbo out, backed up to give him some room, and took his vacated parking space. All was good!

On to the Yaquina Bay Bridge, one of the many beautiful bridges designed by 1930s bridge-designer Conde McCullough. The lady at the Alsea Bay Bridge Interpretive Center told me that this bridge that spans Newport's harbor is even more intimidating than the one at Alsea Bay, but Larry and Jumbo did fine!

We drove down to the Yaquina Bay Recreation Site to view the lighthouse.

It is the last wooden lighthouse on the Oregon coast and also the oldest building in Newport. It was in service for only three years, from 1871 to 1874, before the brighter Yaquina Head Lighthouse replaced it.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking through the living quarters of the lighthouse keeper and his family, complete with period furnishings...

 

Larry walked up the winding stairs that led to the light itself, but was disappointed to find that they were blocked off.

I loved this little window on the stairway wall...

I can't imagine anything more wonderful than getting up in the morning before an exhilarating day of lighthouse-keeping, and be greeted by this amazing view!

 

We drove on about three miles north to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Now, this was my idea of a lighthouse, jutting as it does out into the sea! Its 93-foot-high tower soars upward, the tallest on the Oregon coast. It was first illuminated in 1873. 

 The views from the lighthouse grounds were spectacular!

We left the sea for awhile and headed towards Tillamook. We passed through a very pastoral region, full of dairy farms. It reminded me of Snohomish, both in appearance, with a river running alongside the road much of the way, but also in fragrance! I guess you can't have good milk without pungent cow manure!

We wondered if we would have any trouble locating the Tillamook Air Museum - it was no problem. The hangar in which it is located is HUGE and visible from just about any place in town!

We parked Jumbo in the parking lot and went inside just to verify that it was OK to park overnight, as I had read on their website. Larry told the guy at the counter that he had been wanting to visit the museum for years, but since it was already 4:30 and they were only open until 5, he thought it best to wait until the next morning, because it would likely take him hours! The guy said that staying overnight was no problem, so we headed for the Tillamook Cheese Factory, which was open until 6.

I have to admit, I was more excited about visiting the cheese factory than the air museum. My plan was to stay inside Jumbo and hook up to their free wi-fi the next morning while Larry did his exploring.

It was fascinating to watch the big blocks of cheese being cut and wrapped, moving on down the conveyor belts...

Back to the Air Museum, where we spent a pretty peaceful night, after some drag racers finished going up and down the street in front of us. Oh well, it was a free night's lodging, so we couldn't complain!