Back from the Pacific Northwest

Ten hours up on Tuesday, then ten hours back on Wednesday.  Back to work this afternoon. 

The yute in his microscopicly small and spartan dorm room.

Unloading the yute's worldly possessions at the dorm.

On the way down, the town of Weed.  Hated by gardeners, adored by smokers.  On the way up, I saw a couple who had actually stopped to take a picture of the sign, the female posing with one knee bent and hand on hip, as in a million billion facebook photos, where that image was certainly intended to go.

Weird things about Oregon

It is illegal to pump your own gas.  I haven't done anything else for three decades, so it was odd in the extreme for someone to come to your window, and to tell them, "Fill it up with regular."  When I got out to stretch my legs, they looked at me with trepidation, as if they were afraid another crazy Californian was about to snatch the gas nozzle out of their hands and gas their own car.  In Ashland, just north of the border, all the stations have big signs informing the southerners of this local rule, so fist fights don't break out at the pump, I guess.

They allow triples on the freeway.  As if two trailers weren't enough on a big rig, in Oregon three are allowed, which makes for quite a road train.

Coming from California, I'm used to a vast diversity of humanity.  In Oregon, if you see someone who isn't caucasian, that in itself is remarkable.  Asians seem relatively common in Portland, but there are few blacks and hispanics, at least where I was.  What is this, the sixties?

There must be some law in Oregon against tall signs advertising gas stations and restaurants.   In California, you can tell what is available from miles away as you approach freeway interchanges because super tall signs that jet into the sky let you know that there is a Shell station, or a Burger King near the off ramp.  I saw very few of those in Oregon.  Instead, before each off ramp there are three official state highway signs which describe the lodging, gas, and food available if one were to exit.  Perhaps that's a better way.