Post Offices – Life of Brian

It’s Sunday So…

Sunday, November 17, 2024 Leave a Comment

…its post office hunting day.

Instead of my usual go west into the heart of the big city I turned my eyes east to go a bit rural. And it was worth it. After the first 6 or so miles the roads turned very rural, all twisty, narrow and traffic free with plenty of elevation changes. Perfect Miata roads, almost. Today was a rainy day, so while I enjoyed driving them I didn’t push the car too much because I’m still getting used to the new cars handling and grip.

: Boring – They have a sense of humor about their name because the city’s motto is “The most exciting place to live!” and they have two sister cities: Dull, Scotland and Bland, Australia. (11/17/24)

: Sandy – The town is named for the Sandy River that flows nearby. Which is also the case of the road that I live on, Sandy Boulevard. (11/17/24)

: Eagle Creek – Going from Sandy to Eagle Creek was a blast. Narrow twisty 2-lane roads that at times reminded me of northwest South Carolina and at others it felt very Pacific Northwest. (11/17/24)

: Beavercreek – This was today’s lowest number zip code. Otherwise it is just another rural post office. (11/17/24)

: Oregon City – The signage tells me this was a early 2000s Post Office, but the building looks nothing like a Post Office of any era. Maybe the building was for an entirely different company that went bankrupt so Uncle Sam repurposed it. (11/17/24)

: Clackamas – On the USPS website it lists this as the Clackamas Post Office. But there are two town names and zip codes on it. I’m speculating here, but maybe the Happy Valley post office stopped getting enough business to warrant a separate building. (11/17/24)

: Clackamas DCU – This is the first Detached Carrier Unit I have run into in Oregon. They were a lot more prevalent in South Carolina. (11/17/24)

Another Post Office Picture Drive(s)

Sunday, November 10, 2024 Leave a Comment

After today I am 1/4 of the way through getting pictures of every Post Office in the state of Oregon. Of the 22 post offices labeled Portland I only have 5 left. Trouble is, of those five there are 3 that I tried to get already, but for some reason couldn’t find them. I’ll try to find those at least one more time. The first picture in the top row was taken yesterday when I took a drive to way southeast Portland to CravenSpeed to buy their Clear Acrylic Wind Deflector. The other five were taken this morning.

: Tigard – While visiting CravenSpeed, purveyors of fine automotive accessories in Tigard I made a stop at the Post Office there to add it to this gallery. (1108/24)

: Piedmont Branch – This is right across the street from a food truck village. Good thing I wasn’t hungry because they were all closed on an early Sunday morning. (11/10/24)

: Holladay Park – This Portland Post Office is on the east side of the Willamette River near the Moda Center where the NBA Trailblazers play. (11/10/24)

: Sellwood Branch – I drove in the opposite direction and did a U-turn so I could pull right up front. (11/10/24)

: Milwaukie Branch – Milwaukie is still a city, but the United States Postal Service calls it Portland. (11/10/24)

: Oak Grove Branch – I was going to walk out to the street so I could get a shot that included the nice brick monument that had the name om it, but you couldn’t see the car and not much of the post office itself. (11/10/24)

The Long Way Home

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Not really long, it was only 239 miles compared to the straight trip of 221, but time wise it went from 3-1/2 hours to 6. If driven without stopping, those extra miles increased the time by about 30 minutes. Where did the extra 2 hours come from? There was a 20-minute gas stop, a half an hour was burned at a coffee shop having a latte and a muffin and another half an hour eating lunch. The 40 minutes was finding and setting up a photo of four Post Offices along US30 northeast of Portland.

: Rainier – This Post Office is identical looking to the one in Troutdale, only it is a nice shade of blue unlike Troutdale’s wood tones. (11/03/24)

: Columbia City – A cute little Post Office in a building that probably started life as a single family home. (11/03/24)

: Saint Helens – This town was founded in 1845, as “Plymouth”. The name was changed to St. Helens in the latter part of 1850 for its view of Mount St. Helens, roughly 39 miles away in Washington (11/03/24)

: Scappoose – This Post Office was located on a very busy US30 so this angle was my only option to get a photo. (11/03/24)

Somewhere between Saint Helens and Scappoose the Mini advanced past 47,000 miles.

Another Sunday, Another Post Office Safari

Sunday, October 20, 2024

I set out with a planned route that would net 7 more Portland Post Offices. It didn’t take long for the plan to fall apart.

Not A Post Office Anymore

My first stop was at the Portland Airport. I had tried for this post office once before by following signs that said post office with an arrow and it put me somewhere where I had to back out. This time I used Google Maps in satellite mode and saw where I went astray the last time, then dropped the little man to make sure that image matched what was on the map page. And when I got to where the post office was, that is exactly what it was, was. The building is still there and you can see the address numbers up on the wall. And just to the right of that is the ghost outline of the official Postal Service metal signage.

Not A Public Post Office

I plugged in the address of my next target and headed off. Not long after driving along the route I spotted a nice big piece of granite with the words “United States Postal Service” engraved on it, so I pulled in. The parking lot out front was huge, but the only way in said “Employees Only.” I turned around and started driving to the other side, but was not an entrance there either. The building was twice the size of the parking lot. This must be the sorting facility for all the mail that gets flown in, not where I could go and buy a stamp.

The next two post offices were right where Google Maps said they would be. My loop was now taking me back into the heart of the big city. Turns out my next stop was smack in the middle of a very young hip happening place. I had to loop the block 3 times before I just gave up und headed for the next Post Office on the list. Back home I figured out what happened here, when you type in the address, Google shows you the map and on the left there is a static street view shot of that address. It showed the building I was looking at, but that building is not there anymore. That street view image is from 2019 and if you drop the little man and you will see what he and I saw, a new building where that PO was.

The next Post Office was the main post office for the big city and big it was. The photo I took of it shows a little more than half the building size. Then I missed the next two post offices altogether. I circled the block twice in each instance, but what I was seeing was not what I was expecting to see. I wonder those are the other place and those buildings have changed. I’ll give it one more try before I just shrug and move on.

: Kenton Station – In a nice little neighborhood of North Portland. (10/20/24)

: Saint Johns – This post office looks a little old because the shopping center around it is full on new stores. (10/20/24)

: Portland- This is called Portland because it is the main post office for the big city and big it was. This photo shows a little more than half the building size. (10/20/24)

41,000km² of Oregon’s Outback

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

This is a post about a road, OR31, something the Oregon Department of Transportation and its counterpart the Department of Tourism have designated as a scenic byway. This 150 mile stretch of road runs between La Pine and Lakeview and travels through some very rugged and beautiful high desert.

We really weren’t drawn to this road because of its destination, but because we could take a 350 mile 2-day road trip and take photos of 8 more Oregon Post offices. Sunday we headed east towards our first stop, Bly and then through Lakeview, the biggest town we’d see all trip, with about 2,500 people and onto the town of Adel whose population is defined as sparse. Then back to Lakeview where we had some lunch at Burger Queen, so named because, I guess, Burger King was already taken. Three post offices down we finally got on OR31 and headed north and west. The fourth and last post office of the day was in the town of Paisley home of the annual Mosquito Festival that raises funds for vector control.

Our stopover for the night was the Lodge at Summer Lake in the “town” of the aptly name of Summer Lake, population 80. The lake itself is nothing but a wildlife refuge with some sporadic marshy areas. I think the small pond behind the Lodge has more water in it than what’s in the refuge. Because it too has a post office we were going to get a photo, but the light was wrong, so we aimed to get it in the morning on our way north.

Monday, after a very good breakfast at the Lodge, we snapped that Summer Lake post office before heading to Christmas Valley. Christmas Valley is the largest town in this part of Oregon and was named after another dried up lake. The biggest attraction in Christmas Valley are their sand dunes east of town. We were going to drive over and look at them, but following our Delorme atlas, the road that was supposed to be paved turned out to be not, so we turned around we headed for our next post office in Fort Rock. After quickly visiting the state park day use area, by looking at what is left of a extinct volcano that was in a prehistoric lake which is no longer there. Our last post office of the trip was off OR31 in the town of Silver Lake that is once again named for a lake that no longer exists. Done with the photo taking we headed home from there on a meandering 50-mile road over to US97 where we turned south to get to Klamath Falls.

Somewhere in the town of Lakeview while driving around pondering our dining options, Mini #2 surpassed the 41,000 mile mark.

: Bly – An unincorporated community of about 200 that is about 50 miles east of Klamath Falls. (9/17/2023)

: Lakeview – This is the biggest post office in the biggest town, 2,500 souls, we’d see on this weekend trip. (9/17/2023)

: Adel – This post office was a 60 mile out and back because the road it is on leads into northern Nevada. (9/17/2023)

: Paisley – Home of the annual Mosquito Festival that raises funds for Vector Control which is a method to limit or eradicate the insects which transmit diseases. (9/17/23)

: Summer Lake – The lake itself is nothing but a wildlife refuge with some sporadic marshy areas. I think the small pond behind the Lodge has more water in it than what’s in the refuge. (9/18/2023)

: Christmas Valley – This is the largest town in this part of Oregon and was named after another dried up lake. (9/18/2023)

: Fort Rock – Took this after quickly visiting the state park day use area to look at what is left of an extinct volcano that was in a prehistoric lake that is extinct as the volcano. (9/18/2023)

: Silver Lake – Once again named for a lake that no longer exists like a lot of these towns in the “Oregon Outback.” (9/18/23)

Hunting Post Offices

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Taking Post Office pictures on our way to Washington state for the 4th of July.

1) Chemult – 97731 2) La Pine – 97739 3) Antelope – 97001
4) Shaniko – 97057 5) Kent – 97033 6) Grass Valley – 97029
7) Moro – 97039 8) Wasco – 97065 9) Rufus – 97050

: We have passed this way a couple dozen times since we have lived in Oregon and I have no idea why we haven’t popped in to take a picture of this PO until now. (0701/23)

: A year ago when we did this same 4th of July trip we tried to take a picture of this Post Office but it was so crowded we couldn’t even get into the parking lot. (07/01/23)

: This near ghost town of less than 50 people has a post office fitting of such a place, a trailer… (07/01/23)

: Less than 10 miles north of Antelope, this is for intents and for all purposes a ghost town too. (07/01/23)

: Another near ghost town along US97 in northern Oregon. (07/01/23)

: In 1870 the town’s founder named such because of the tall rye grass growing there. “Grass so tall that it stood over a man’s head,” one early settler said, “even when he was on a horse!” (07/01/23)

: The town of Moro is the county seat of Sherman County and is the smallest county seat in the state. Its total land area is less than half of a square mile and has a population of around 300. (07/01/23)

: This town is also in Sherman County and has more residents than the county seat, Moro. The door on the right of the photo goes into the town’s small supermarket where bought a snack. (07/01/23)

: This small town of a couple hundred along the Columbia River was for 6 months in 1945 almost 2.500 strong with Army soldiers that were testing pontoon bridges for use in Germany. (07/01/23)

Aaah…

Sunday, July 24, 2022

…I had a few ideas for posts this last week but I never got around to actually writing them here.

Because I haven’t written anything and the Miata has been driven a few times this week I lumped them all together below. As you can see the CTBNL went significant miles for the first time since last year and over two thirds of that number happened yesterday.

Took a nice drive early, to beat the heat, and did a quick backroad loop to a couple of small Oregon towns to take pictures of their post offices, Sprague River and Beatty.

: No one really passes through Sprague River, you kind of have to want to get there. Today we did. It is about 40 miles away from home and the drive is beautiful. (07/23/22)

: Everyone traveling between Klamath Falls and Lakeside passes through here. There is a quick stop and the Post Office. Beatty should almost be called Bitty it is so small. (0723/22)

171.2 miles on 5 drives since last Monday.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 52