While returning home from the Redwoods trip, near Tillamook, Oregon, we saw a huge hangar with the words “AIR MUSEUM” painted on the side. The thing was huge so we just had to stop.

And aside from some cool old trains, we saw a bunch of old military aircraft. Very worth it.

My dad is really into planes and I wish he were there with us because he would have loved it.

I took a bunch of photos, so check them out by clicking here!

The short song is over. This day was spent driving up Oregon’s coast (on 101) and generally seeing some beautiful beaches. There were a few surprises along the way, including sea lions, trains and a great Air Museum (which will be left for another post).

As usual, I took some photos and the story is really there rather than here.

So go check out the pics!

After a good night sleep, we were up and ready for some big trees. Most of the day was spent on US 101 (and some old alignments thereof). This was the same corridor that Nikki, Ashley and I took in 2004.

Even though I was over this same ground six years ago, I remember amazingly little of it. Much of the road has changed – being rerouted and widened almost the whole way. Towns have grown, shops have opened and closed and things are just very, very different now.

It was neat to go through all of the same places and still feel like the trip was to a completely new place. This made the day quite a bit of fun.

We found some old bridges, dirt roads, big trees and even some trains. All in all, a great day.

You can check out the photos here.

Since we were without an internet connection for a few days, I’ll be posting the pics/commentary for this little four day jaunt over the next few days, even though we’re home safe and sound.

On day two, we leave Oregon pretty early and head through Fandango Pass, over the Warner Mountains and into Surprise Valley. We sort of backtrack (because I wanted to go over Fandango Pass – it was a bit out of the way) and take Cedar Pass back over the Warners.

We then took US 395 and some other fine roads over the Lassen Lava Beds, finally getting to I-5, which we took south to the town of Williams, exiting with CA Route 20. Route 20 was amazingly twistie – possibly the most twisted road I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving (especially the segment from Willits to Fort Bragg).

California Route One greeted us next and we took it north along the coast all the way to its northern terminus near the big tree that you can drive through. And we did.

But don’t take my word for it, check out all of the pics here.

No Redwoods so far. Only Oregon desert. I took a bunch of photos and there’s some explanation there too.

Click here for a bunch of photos.

There will be little, if any, internet contact from here until Sunday.

Edit:

Was woken up last night by what seemed to be (and probably was) hundreds of coyotes serenading me all around the tent. They howled for about a half hour and then stopped. It was one of the coolest things I ever heard.

Herc: “Hey smartz, wake up. Do you hear the coyotes?”
…
Smartz: “Yeah. I heard it but I just thought I was whistling through my nose.”

I’m not really a baseball fan. I think it’s generally boring and the professional players are paid too much. Ryan, however, loves it. I’ve always wanted to like it – yet another fun thing to do with Ryan is always great. So when I heard about such a thing as Civil War era Base Ball (yes, it was two words then), I wasn’t sure what to make of it. On one hand, I’m a huge Civil War buff, but on the other, I really don’t care for baseball. But if you combine the two, making it Base Ball instead of Baseball, perhaps I could at least sit through it.

And wow was I wrong. Apparently, I love Base Ball!

This vintage game is played twice a year on the Fort Vancouver grounds in Vancouver, Washington. It pits the Fort Vancouver Shermans against the Vancouver Occidentals – both teams existed in the 1860s.

The 1860 rules are a bit different than modern rules. First of all – no gloves. The teams had uniforms, of course, but those uniforms did not include gloves. Those came in the 1870s and 1880s.

Now, the rules… a striker (that’s batter) can be called “out” if the ball is caught, even on the first bounce. If there are runners on base and the ball is caught on the fly (before it bounces), no runners may advance, but if it’s caught on a bounce, they may advance one base.

Other fun rules are – no balls. Ever. The pitcher can throw what we’d call “balls” all day – there’s no walking (the 1864 rules changed that, allowing the umpire to decide if the pitcher is being a jerk). If a ball is struck, hits the ground in play and then rolls or bounces into the foul area, it is still a fair ball. There’s no catching the ball with your hat, either. Oh, and a striker can only “strike” if it’s a swing and a miss. If the pitcher throws good balls, the strikes does not have to swing at them (the ump can choose to override this, but has to warn the striker first).

There are other rules and you can read them here.

That brings me to my next point. There is a Vintage Base Ball Association. There are two such organizations, actually. Mostly east coast. In fact, on the same day as this game, there was a tournament in Gettysburg featuring six teams (one of the teams was actually called The Somerset Frosty Sons of Thunder!).

So anyway, with this game, I wasn’t sure who to root for. The Shermans had players with great names like “Tiny” (who was huge) and “The Coffin Maker.” The Occidentals, however, had great uniforms. Clearly, I was going to have to wait to see who would become the underdog.

After just two innings of play (just like today, there are nine), The Shermans were up 8 to 1. I guess it was time to root for the Occidentals. Good thing too.

Over the next few innings, the Occidentals got their crap together, stopping The Shermans from scoring so much and even scoring a bit themselves. By the 5th inning (I believe) the score was 9 to 5. Then, in the 7th, The Occidentals poured it on, scoring run after run with two outs on the board. Bully for them!

During the game, sometimes the crowd got a little rowdy, hurling a jib/jab at the players. A member of the Occidentals, being the recipient of such a remark, called out to the heckler’s wife, “Ma’am, may I ask where did you get your talking mule?” The mule spoke again and the player loudly remarked, “Now ma’am, I’ve seen a talking mule before, but never one quite so ugly!” Fun!

The score at the bottom of the 8th was Occidentals 12, Shermans 10. And with the Shermans at bat at the top of the 9th, striking three balls, all of which were caught on the first bounce, that’s how the game ended! (I could be a bit off on the scores.)

So there we go, my first Vintage Base Ball game. I was won over and excited! I’ve been to tons of Civil War reenactment and have never saw anyone play a game of base ball. Why not? What a great way to pass an afternoon.

There is another game this year, same teams, same field. It’s in August and I’m most definitely going.

You folks on the east coast, however, have it lucky. There are vintage teams all over the place. You can check that out here. Not surprisingly, it seems to be big in the Chicago area. New York also has some teams (hear that, Ryan?). Ohio too! There is (was?) a Pacific Northwest Vintage Base Ball organization, but the website seems to not have been updated in years. Such a shame! I admit, I have dreams of Ryan returning to Seattle, he and I putting on some floppy uniforms and playing some ball.

Well, either way, though I can’t enjoy it as often as those in the mid west and east coast, I’ll have to settle for enjoying it just as much, but only twice a year.

I took some photos of the game – you can see them here.

We’ve been to Mount St. Helens twice – both times to the more popular Johnston’s Ridge area. There are two other sides that aren’t as easy to get to, but (from what I’ve heard and experienced yesterday) very very worth it.

You can skip right to my pictures here and/or read on.

Our destination was Windy Ridge, on the north eastern side of the mountain. It’s actually only five or six miles from Johnston’s ridge – you can see the visitor center if you squint – but it takes much longer to reach it. That and (as we often do) we decided to take the scenic route.

This scenic route took us clear around the “other” side of Mt. Rainier, through dense forests and by rushing streams. This was a good reminder of what Mount St. Helens used to look like. Mt. Rainier National Park is wonderful and eventually we’ll get around to exploring it.

For now, however, I’m sticking with Mount St. Helens, so we continue south.

South doesn’t mean warmer. Although when we’d leave the car, we’d start to sweat – it was really sunny and very hot (for 3000 feet up), there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. I even played in it a bit.

The “back road” into Mount St. Helens starts in Randle, WA on US 12. This had been closed for a long time due to a land slide. It’s the same land slide that I talked about here. This past weekend, the road had been reopened and access could now be had to Windy Ridge (our destination). It was still accessible from the south, but we were coming in from the north. Actually, here’s a map…

Hope that worked. You might have to zoom out a bit…

Anyway… This road, Forest Road 25, was beautiful. Like the road around Rainier, it was thick with vegetation, green and sprawling. When reaching the park property via Road 99, you stop at overlooks and interpretive points that tell you what happened here.

Bear Creek was the first and after driving through replanted douglas furs which were nearing maturity, the view of a devastated, gray and skeletal landscape took your break away. Bear Creek was is about 13 miles away from the mountain. You can see it very plainly from this spot, which is why a photographer picked it to take the only series of photos of the landslide and eruption in 1980. He barely escaped with his life, somehow outwitting the hot ash traveling at 300mph.

I won’t explain each stop we made – there were many. But the closer we got to Windy Ridge, the more complete the devastation. On the outer areas, like Bear Creek, many of the trees remained standing. Closer, however, they were uprooted or simply blown off their roots.

Few things could grown here – some flowers, some small scrub brush and the occasional pine tree. As we wound closer, we got a view of Spirit Lake with thousands of logs still floating in it from the blast 30 years ago. The landscape was baron, like a desert, by the time we reached the end of the road. Looking out over the “pumice plain” was like looking out over the Mojave.

The blast had sheered what was once an old growth forest, uprooting trees, rocks, soil, everything in its path – leaving nothing but bedrock covered with ash and humongous chunks of the mountain. Several miles away from the point of eruption, little hills dot the landscape. Some are as large as 200 meters high. These are actually chunks of the old Mount St. Helens, launched by the explosion. Some chucks are 100 feet in diameter.

Anyway, this is a crazy place that very clearly shows the power of nature. 30 years past, it’s regrowing at a very slow rate. At first they figured that by now, we’d have a small forest in the pumice plain. But still, nothing is growing there but for some lupine and scrub brush.

Before leaving, I needed to see if I could get a photo of four volcanoes in one shot – Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier. I was seeing Adams and hood pretty clearly for most of the drive in and had just noticed that Rainier was poking it peak at me, so we climbed a huge set of stairs (360ish) to the top of a little mountain. I got some photos, a huge panarama. Lucky day for me!

I think I’ve fallen in love with this place. We’re even going to start hiking some of the easier trails (at first). There’s some much to see here.

On the way home I even got a bit of a surprise!

Amazing day. Very very amazing!

Click here to see the pics!