goonies never say die!!!

i'm back from oregon, and i'm already sick of packing. therefore, here's what i learnt in the beaver state:

the first paved road in the US is along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, previously known as part of the Oregon Trail. gladly, i did not come down with (or die from) dysentery, though the wagon wheel came close to breaking. this road was designed by Sam Hill who was "committed to keeping a 5% grade along the road." for those non civil engineers out there, this means that if you travel 100 feet along the road, you gain 5 feet in elevation. in this section of the mountains of oregon, keeping to this grade is difficult and requires 25 curves including 8 hairpins. in 1909 such crazy talk was unthinkable, and he is often credited with the origin of the phrase "What in the Sam Hill is going on here?"

along this road i came across a flower with turretts syndrome. the "butter and eggs" flower aka linaria vulgaris . the filth this thing was spewing.....

seagulls do not like extremely happy, energetic, and homeless dogs with seemingly nothing else better to do than run after them on the beach.

a taxi driver said that mount St. Helens has erupted three times in the past 30 years. he was mistaken though i did not correct him. according to the USGS, st. helens erupted in 1980 and had 5 smaller explosions over the next 5 months. 16 dome-building eruptions occurred over the next 6 years. see mount st. helens here.

Portland is a fantastically clean and fun city. between the free public transportation and the brew pubs, i could find myself settling there. just have to deal with the constantly high, slow-moving hippies....

more later, i have to pack all my crap by 7 am tomorrow morning.