7-21-2025 Salem, OR

I forgot to tell you a story!  Sometimes, our campsites are narrow, so narrow that in Twin Falls, ID, we shared a patio with our neighbors.  Naturally, we wound up chatting it up and found that these folks are from Port Washington, WI.  Many of my ancestors on my Grampa Kraus’ side settled in that area when they immigrated from Luxembourg.  My Great Great Grampa, Philip Gonwa, helped build the St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Dacada (population zero unless you count the souls in the cemetery across the road).  Dacada isn’t even on the map.  I mentioned Dacada to Christine, our neighbor.  She said, “Dacada?!  That’s a church and a cemetery!”  I told her that most of my ancestors lie in peace there, the Gonwa and Kraus side of my family.  She said, “Oh, I know many of the Gonwas!”  So that’s the news from the It’s A Small World Department.

 

On Sunday, Mike wanted to take a drive out to the ocean and have oysters on the half shell at one of his fave places, The Schooner.  The route wandered past many farms and fields, then twisted sharply and dropped downward for many miles amid the dense, tall conifers and even denser ferns until finally, we emerged onto the broad sand beaches of the Pacific.  We desert rats jump at any chance to see water but the vastness of the ocean takes our breath away. 

Mike's cute shy pup, Willow

Oysters at The Schooner

Three Arch Rocks

Rob and Mike at The Schooner

On the beautiful COLD beach

Mike & Willow

Three Arch Rocks is behind me.

 

Mike is a great travel agent!  The Evergreen Aviation Museum was next.  After a long journey from Long Beach, the Spruce Goose, aka Hughes’ Flying Boat, is now on its final pedestal in McMinville.  I have seen this masterpiece before but no matter how many times you see it, it stops your heart.  It is ENORMOUS in spades.  And it actually flew!  Unlike Long Beach, at this museum you can go inside and for a small fee, tour the cockpit.  Howard Hughes was a modern-day Leonardo DaVinci.  A genius.

Little DC3 and the tail of the Goose

One of the many nav stations in the Goose

Looking aft.  Check out the relative size
of the man standing to the right.

The huge Flying Boat!

One of the buildings at
 Evergreen Museum from the road.

 

Howard Hughes seat in
the cockpit of the 
Spruce Goose
(Officially, the Hughes
H4 Hercules)

There are two branches of the museum.  The first building houses displays dating from the Wright Brothers all the way to Viet Nam.  Included in this is an original DC-3 and I took a particular interest since my big sister was a stewardess on North Central’s DC-3.  They invited us to step inside.  The structure was almost comical to me… tiny little frames and longerons and square windows.  It held 21 passengers in 2-1 rows.  Everything was so basic, simple and foreign to me after having worked on monsters like the DC-10 and C-17.  I could almost bend the edges of the aluminum with my fingernail.  But even though production of this plane ended in 1942, there are still a few DC-3s in the sky.  It was Douglas’ version of the Sherman Tank.

Inside the DC3

DC3

 

The second building is mostly about the space race of the cold war era.  The USSR vowed to bury the USA (for reasons that remain a mystery to me) and the displays include Russian satellites and MiGs.  Lots of rockets and early space vehicles.  But the coolest thing I couldn’t wait to see was the SR71 Blackbird.  It was designed in the late 50s to early 60s and looks like it came out of the imagination of someone who draws the cels in space age comic books.  Lockheed’s Skunk Works and Kelly Johnson really outdid themselves with this one!  Its first flight was in December, 1964 and now, sadly, all 32 that were built are retired.  After many hours exploring we were exhausted.  It was time to head home for a delicious dinner featuring wagyu steaks courtesy of Mike.

I plagiarized this excellent
photo of the SR71

There are no more SR71 tires
available anywhere.  But you
can own this one, still in
its original wrap, for $10K!

The beautiful Blackbird

Rob standing behind one of
the Blackbird engines.

 

Tuesday was a workday for Mike.  It was also a workday for us.  Even on vacation, there comes the time when we must do housework, the laundry and change the bed.  Oh… and work on a few mechanical problems.  We are still struggling with a slide problem and had a mechanic out to work on the issue for a couple of hours.  Rob spent much of the next day on our ladder studying.  Next stop:  the hardware store and a repair that we devised.  At this point we are still on schedule.