"Best ... bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine - or Portland, Oregon...” -Jack Torrance

My own westward expansion is accomplished! Portland to Portland! All 4000K miles of the journey! DONE!

"… You were always the best of 'em. Best ... bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine - or Portland, Oregon for that matter.” -Jack Torrance, in The Shining.  The exterior of the 'Overlook Hotel' is the Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood in the Hood River area of Northern Oregon.

One of my "Wander List" Items that I am proud to check off is coming to Portland Oregon. The idea of all those explorers making it “out west” and crossing the vastness of the continent to “see what is out there” has always been appealing. Perhaps because I am the child of immigrants.  I am an immigrant.  The image of all those people taking the chance and picking up all that they could to make it “all the way” to Portland… Leaving everything behind and carving a life in a new place.  I identify with all of that… the sense of adventure, the search for something better… the wander of it all and the tenacity to accomplish the journey.  

I AM HERE!  

Just as I did when I was over-whelmed by traffic when I left Virginia, I am hiding at a Wholefoods again. I arrived right at the thick of rush hour.  Poor planning on my part, I know! I am having dinner and watching the traffic rush by.  Funny enough since I made into the “west” I have not felt “out of place” with my hiking boots, braided hair, and funky looking “tech-gear” clothing…. I guess I found my people (Ha ha) – the “Dora the Explorer” look is totally okay around these he’rparts…

Any way – you are not here to see me rambling, but for the pics… so here are some pics from Easter Oregon – which DO NOT look AT all like the Oregon I had picture – still beautiful – took 84W and little by little the Oregon on my imagination began to materialized mile by mile…  

Tomorrow I’ll stick to the coastal roads and this is when the trip starts going “south” (in a good way). First I am going to go look for One-eyed Willy's to help me pay for this trip! - points to the person that tells me why? or where I am going .... 

First some pictures from Salt Lake - yup it is salty... 

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Eastern Oregon and the "Oregon Trail"

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A short visit to Washington State across the "river" to say I did it and then on to the west:

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