Vacation

Nieces Playing Football

Nieces Maddie (9) and Susan (7) suit up to play tackle football this fall. These are their practice jerseys and I wouldn’t exactly call tossing the football around the backyard with uncles practice.

Travel Day 2

Finished the second half of our trip to Granite Falls trip. It involved a quick stop at our favorite Oregon beach and 2 ferry crossings, one of which we have never been on before.

We got out of the car and walked along Cannon Beach for all of a hundred yards or so before turning right around to get back in the car. It was in the low sixties, 12 mph west winds and sprinkling lightly.

Instead of crossing the Columbia River at Astoria as we typically do, or driving practically to I-5, we opted to try a river ferry halfway between. There is a small ferry1 that runs from Westport, OR to Cathlamet, WA. We pulled into the ferry waiting line and thought, “Hey, wait a minute, we’ve been here before.” We think we were going to ride the ferry, but we just missed it and didn’t want to wait another hour, so we just got back on the road and kept driving.

The other ferry was one we have ridden several times before, and in both directions. This time we traveled east from Kingston to Edmonds. We have a newer Garmin car GPS and are finally getting used to how to search for things. To find our way to the ferry terminal, I started typing and when I finished the word Kingston in the search box, it offered the suggestions of KINGSTON, JAM and KINGSTON, WA. Why on earth would it even offer directions to Jamaica? Can’t drive there … or is there a secret tunnel under the Caribbean Sea.

Travel Day

Today we left behind Klamath Falls on our way to Granite Falls (not to be confused with Frostbite Falls) and we are about halfway there. Tonight we are in Tillamook, home of Big Cheese and even bigger blimp hangers. Even though about a 1/3 of our route was along the coast, most of it was a bit inland, so that there are no Pacific ocean photos. As a matter of fact I didn’t take a single scenic shot all day.

This photo, taken a week ago, is of our transportation appliance for this trip, a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu in refrigerator white. I’m not sure which model it is, might be the top of the line as it has key-less entry and the dual pane sunroof. The seats aren’t that great, but all in all it not too bad a ride. It had a mere 8400 miles on it when we picked it up at the Portland airport and so far we have added around 1300 more miles on it and we’ll probably tack on another thousand before we are through.

Klamath Kruise Konclusion

From 6:30pm to 9:00pm on Saturday night the city closes a loop on Main Street and Klamath Avenue between 4th and 12th downtown. Any car that was in the show (and I think a few locals sneak in) is free to come and run circles and rev their engines like it was 1962. Hard to say who has the best time at this event, the owners of the classic cars getting to showcase their ride as they cruise downtown or the spectators who get to see them in action!

Klamath Kinetic Challenge

OK, if the Kruise of Klamath, the Great Race and the Gambler 500 happening on the same weekend wasn’t enough for you, how about we throw the Klamath Kinetic Challenge in there too. What is the Klamath Kinetic Challenge you ask, well it is a combination of art, engineering and endurance come together in human powered vehicles able to traverse off-road, sand, mud and water courses, usually over a couple of days.

Donna and I went down to the start area in downtown to witness this spectacle. We at first were going to watch the “LeMans” style start, then drive to the finish in Moore Park, but then thought it would be more fun to skip the start and head out to the start of the gravel trail that will take them to the park, this way we could watch the participants struggle up the very, very steep road up to the trail and we would walk that same trail over to Moore Park to see the car show.

When we finally got home I re-traced all our walking. Between the downtown walk to breakfast, the walk to the Kinetic Race start, the walk back to our car, the walk halfway down the hill to see the race, the trail walk to the park, wandering the car show and the walk back across the trail I figured went eight miles!

Below are the photos, in no particular order, of all nine contestants in the 14th annual Klamath Kinetic Challenge. They all have names, but I really couldn’t tell you what they are…