We planned to get on the road by 0800, and by 0942 we were.
"I have to go to the bathroom," says Libby, approximately 15 miles from home. First stop, The Banker's Cup coffee shop in St. Paul. We took the opportunity to get some coffee for me, hot chocolate for the girls, and a latte for Kricket. Also, there was a great mural for the St. Paul Rodeo across the street. Kricket says she wants to go some year. I tell her I need at least a year to stock up on Benadryl.
Next stop is the Wheatland Ferry. It's on the other side of the Willamette, so we have a minute to relax. No one who's in a hurry should be taking a ferry, (at least not over the Willamette.)
Crossing.
Look at that handsome guy driving.
The ferry ride was quick, less than two minutes, and barely enough time for me to explain to the girls that the ferry won't break away and send us down the river.
Less than a mile from the west side ferry landing we encounter the (Polk?) county emergency services cutting a downed tree out of the road.
We signs for many wineries along the way, but it takes a cheese company to get me to put on the brakes. We turn of the road and bump down the long puddled driveway of Willamette Valley Cheese Company, which runs right past one of their barns.
Libby is not impressed with the smell.
One of the cows looking up from a salt lick to pose for Kricket.
We are all impressed with the cheese however. After trying 3 or 4 varieties, (of the ~30 available,) we settle on two, and get back on the road. I figured that if we tried more, we would end up hamstringing ourselves, or buying a wagon-load of cheese.
By the time we got to Dallas, the girls were feeling pretty hungry, and literally begging for some of the cheese we'd just bought, so we pulled into a parking lot, and Kricket made a snack on the tailgate.
Abby posing for me:
Libby hiding from me:
We headed west, and were soon passing through Falls City, and once we crossed the Little Luckiamute river, we were on Valsetz road.
Valsetz was a company logging town that operated under various owners until it was shut down and razed by Boise Cascade in '86. The site was planted with Douglas Fir, and it looks like the rest of the forest now. Some more pictures and info here: http://valsetz.homestead.com/
Chock it up to my worst case scenario disaster planning, but before we left, I sent my mom and Kricket's mom a message describing what we were doing, where we were going, (Google maps are awesome!,) and a promise to send a text on our way out of, and back into Falls City. Unknown to me, my mom went to Valsetz when it was still a town, on a date w/my dad, before they were married. Mom called and told Kricket the story while we were driving. Apparently, my dad's old mid-40's truck had stiff springs, and no seatbelts, because mom remembers the rough road bouncing her to the roof on the drive up.
Valsetz Road is still pretty well traveled, hell, we passed a Prius heading down on our way up.
Sign at the beginning of one of the private road sections:
As we started to climb, the rain, which was just drizzling before, really started to come down. Soon, Kricket and I noticed that the "rain" had chunks of snow in it.
It wasn't long until pure snow was falling.
We stopped on the way up for some picture taking.
We pressed on to the 10 mile mark, (or so,) of Valsetz road, but could see no evidence of the old town site, and only learned later, (after getting on the computer here at home,) about the site being planted over.
Someday, I'd like to pick our way through the Coast Range over to 101, but today was not the day. We turned around, and headed back for Falls City.
We did stop at the top again for some snowballs and some more pictures.
Filthy car, (though it would be mostly washed off by road spray by the time we got home.)
We ate lunch in Independence at the Pink House Cafe, and then crossed the street to the movie theater because I spied the King and Marilyn.
On the way out of Independence, the girls and I spied another statue, an 8-ish foot tall wood carving of Jesus outside a Baptist church. I was hoping for some decorum from the girls, but they weren't going the solemn route.
We had planned to take the Buena Vista ferry back to the other side of the Willamette, but it was closed. We crossed on a bridge, and headed north through Mt. Angel, (a favorite of Kricket and I,) and then took the super slab home from Woodburn.
The girls had a good day. Abby confessed to me, after we got back in the car from playing in the snow, "Dad, I thought this would be boring, but it's really fun."
