Eugene, Oregon

It’s a long drive through what appears to be endless forests.  This is woodcutter territory and you see many logging trucks.  I pass the Collier Logging Museum which I remember visiting while we stayed at a nearby campground.  I make a stop for gas and fresh cherries in the rustic town of Chemult.  There were many RV’s on the road and most were also stopping for fuel.  Oregon is the other state besides New Jersey where the stations have attendants to pump the gas.  I don’t understand why, it just slows down the process of getting gas ?  It’s not like they check your oil and wash the windshield like in the “old days”.

Lots of RV's on the road

Lots of logging trucks too

Had to stop for a bag of cherries

I stop around noon at a roadside viewpoint for lunch next to pristine Odell Lake with a scenic view of Diamond Peak far away.

Beautiful Odell Lake with view of Diamond Peak in distance 

Route 58 is very scenic with much national forest land and campsites.  Also many great fishing rivers and lakes in this area.  I make a short side trip to Salt Creek Falls which is a federal park that was originally built by the CCC.  I was not expecting anything great, but a fair number of tourists were there and it turned out to be a great waterfall.

Salt Creek Falls is great !

On route 58 I am following the middle fork of the Willamette River which is a twisting, turning road through the forest.  Eventually you come to the town of Lowell near the Dexter Dam and the resulting Dexter Reservoir.  Near this area I stop at a covered bridge interpretive site where an original bridge has been restored and there are signs explains the pioneer exodus here to the Willamette Valley area.   It was a real challenging and a dangerous ordeal to cross the mountains to get here, many did not make it.

Driving into my destination of Eugene, Oregon is also tricky with many one way streets and traffic congestion to overcome.  I usually put some central downtown attraction in my GPS to get me to a town center, then find a parking space and get out and walk.  The only way to truly see a place is to walk it.  Eugene is a university town with a counter culture attitude, dreadlocks and vagabond spirits are in abundance.  Also there is a sizable homeless population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene,_Oregon

This area around Willamette and East Broadway streets is
where everyone hangs out, this was taken in early morning

The McDonald Theater is nearby

Eugene doesn't have many limits

I then ride to the Skinner Butte Park area adjacent to the Willamette River.  It is a huge park area with many hiking trails, playgrounds, flower gardens and even a grassy plains area for the bees. I see a few cars and vans parked there which appear to be live-in vehicles and decide to try it.  I do it for two nights with no problems along with many others.

A very nice park

The Willamette River adjacent to the park

I had seen a sign downtown for a music club called Old Nicks which has live music about six night s a week.  It has an Irish jam session from 6-9 PM so I head over to see.  It turns out to be a nice club and tastefully decorated with interesting stuff.  There are two women at the bar near me talking to the bartender about animal related issues like an abundance of rats and other wild creatures in Eugene, it was a weird conversation, interesting but distracting.  The bartender was raised on a ranch in New Mexico, I am wondering how or why he came here. 

I stop for a coffee in the AM at Farmers Union Coffee Roasters which would be a favorite if I lived here.  A few blocks away is the Eugene Depot with several nice looking cafes and restaurants surrounding it.

Eugene Depot still has Amtrak service

I also go to the modern downtown Eugene library.  A very modern transit bus transportation center is about a block away.  Eugene appears to be a prosperous community, City Hall is also a new looking modern building.

The modern Transit Center

The bus fleet looks very new, i felt like taking a ride

There are several murals in Eugene done in conjunction with a city funded mural arts project.  I also see many free lance ones as well.  This is something that is gaining in popularity all around the country.  I can't say I like them all, some towns murals are a little too quaint or goofy, I prefer the historic or very artistic ones.

I like the way this one wraps around the corner

This one is a little hypnotic

Huge mural with intricate details

Zooming in on one small area

Love the colors

If a post office is from the 1930-50's era I try to look inside as they often have these
incredible murals done by CCC or WPA artists.  This one was done by Carl Morris in 1945

I go to the Lane County Museum at the county fairgrounds in afternoon which has a most interesting exhibit on this hippie era renaissance festival started in Eugene in the late 1960’s that became a crazy carnival / music event.  They also have a great collection of Oregon Trail era historic wagons and artifacts.

They have a wagon with accompanying story of life on the Oregon Trail

A impressive display

Back in the good old days before cell phones

When times were changing

This devise was really cool. You rotated the wheel and read
one of the revolutionary arcades in the window

A close up of the window 

City of Radiation seems a strange way to make the the point 

   

I next cross the Willamette River to the town of Springfield and do my usual park and walk thing.  There is a mural project here which I explore as much as practical on foot.  I browse around an antique store and buy a few old postcards, which are less expensive in this area of the country and I don't understand why.   Springfield seems to be more of a blue collar, working class town than Eugene, but it does have a couple of blocks that are very nice.  This is the hometown of noted author and weird 1960’s character Ken Kesey who grew up here and lived close by.  A huge mural of him is painted on a downtown building, wouldn’t he be surprised to see that, not sure he would like it ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Oregon

A beautiful mural

But it's all in the detail

Love these wrap around murals

Best use of the space available

Has a quilt like texture to it

This one is sort of famous as Springfield, Oregon hosted the premiere
of the Simpsons Movie

A mural with a stimulating message

Springfield home town boy Ken Kesey  

Nicest area of Springfield

My last activity in Eugene was going to the coin laundry.  As usual I did an internet search and this place sounded good and when I walked in I saw immediately that this was not the usual nasty laundromat.  Everything was new looking and clean.  Then a friendly young woman dashed over to explain how everything worked, which was needed in this case.  All the machines were top quality, spotlessly clean, they supply a special soap for you to use, of course the downside of all this is it's more expensive.  They also supply special clothes dryer softener balls and since it was my first visit a free dryer session.  A raised platform has tables and chairs to sit at and free working Wifi.  Also a nice spotlessly clean rest room.  Never thought I would get so excited about a laundromat ?

Next stop is the Capital city of Salem, Oregon