Filling Spaces

"I am the grammarian about whom your mother warned you."

A Break in the Routine


Once again feeling cabin fever, I hit the road headed west. The day was gray and cloudy, though little rain for most of the trip.  Click pics to supersize them.

clouds in the hills

I took Highway 6 again, through the Tillamook Forest. The clouds were wending their way through the tops of the hills, which for some reason I just love. Hence the multitude of photos of them.

cloudy hills

I think I packed enough food to last a week, and a thermos of hot tea.

You can see the Tillamook Air Museum long before you get to it.

Tillmook Air Museum

Since I was on the way to meet Luna ( @_Luna1_ ) I didn’t stop on the way to take pictures, but you know how I love to snap photos from a speeding car. I think I’m getting pretty good at it.

I passed the ocean which was rough, surf was up with the storm coming in, but had too many cars behind me to try to photograph that.  Besides I’m better shooting out the driver’s side and the ocean was on my right. Next time.

But I did stop and get some nice shots on the way back at a couple of places. Also found some rest stops I never noticed before. The bathrooms were astoundingly clean, my thanks to the State and maintenance crews for such fine facilities.

I loved this place, pulled in on a whim but it’s really nice and much more to explore there. The Smith Homestead Day Use Area has a lot of facilities.

Smith Homestead sign

It also has the beautiful Wilson River

river

Smith Homestead park

green

River through the trees

spider seed

White water

fireweed

rocks

Even in the dead of winter it’s green here.

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7 Comments on “A Break in the Routine

  1. Eric Syrdal
    March 3, 2013

    Those are some amazing pictures, DD. Glad you and Luna got to visit too.

    I have no idea what that plant is..but it looks like something the Devil has been working on! Some sort of Thistle or something?
    I’m glad you got to “Get away” for a while, looks like you had a good time. :)

    • D. D. Syrdal
      March 3, 2013

      Thanks! I meant to put more up, I missed a couple that I wanted to post. Maybe I’ll do another short post with a couple extra photos.

      It is a thistle, I had to look it up :) Aren’t they cool looking? Spidery looking things in winter. I never see them at this stage in my yard because I always uproot them. The birds love them of course, but they’re messy looking, I expect it would upset my neighbors if I were to leave them to grow.

      It was great to meet Luna, and I met all the family: Gracie, Luna and Smoke, and of course her hubby ;) . It’s such a nice drive out there but if I stopped and took all the pictures I wanted, it would have taken the same amount of time it took the pioneers to get here by covered wagon. There were tons of little waterfalls along the highway from the snow melt, all the rivers and creeks were up, much higher than they were last year in February when I drove out after being laid off. It’s so refreshing to forget about everything for a little while.

  2. Margrét Helgadóttir
    March 3, 2013

    Great pictures. Love that you met Luna too :)

  3. D. D. Syrdal
    March 3, 2013

    Thanks! Yes, it was fun to meet one of my Twitter buddies :) Too bad more of you don’t live in driving distance!

  4. sounds like fun! I hope you told Luna I said hello!

  5. Susannah Bianchi
    March 4, 2013

    I love the pictures, thanks for putting them up, and good for you for getting away. I’d like to jump in a car and disappear for a spell. Very tempting.

    • D. D. Syrdal
      March 4, 2013

      The only problem with doing that is I have to play ‘catch-up’ the next day, and try to get all my weekend chores done in one day instead of two. I should have just kept driving, I could be in South America by now.

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