Return to Corvallis

We have returned to Corvallis for another, but shorter stint at OSU. After a wild and wooley family conglomerate birthday party at our house, we had one day to prepare for our flight from CMI in Savoy to Portland via DFW in Texas, then drive to our "home away from home" at the poultry building of the Corvallis Depot Suites. We didn't really wake up until we had set in DFW for 3 hours waiting for our connection to Portland. Being a murky, sleepy morning, we pretty much just sat in our seats in the little plane that took us to Dallas. The rain had subsided by the time we flew out and I was dying to try out our new camera to be sure it was ready for the big event when we circled Mt Hood near Portland. Georgia and I had talked about it and someone from North Carolina who was going to Philomath (near Corvallis) to visit their children and grandchildren said that the last time they flew to Portland they didn't come near Mt. Hood. Oh,oh, whale watching revisited! (If you don't know what that means, you will need to go back to some prior posts (2008) to get the connection.) With nothing else to do on the four hour flight, we took turns snapping pictures of clouds and every once in a while, the terrain below. Chesteen Chappell, the science teacher at Silver Lake High School would have been proud of both Georgia and I as we recognized the various cloud formations and called them by name. Cirrus, Cumulous, Cumulonimbus, etc. Problem is for most of the trip, clouds were all there was to see, but we thought they were pretty neet. My facebook friends can find more cloud pictures there. (if you want).

We did learn something on the flight. Passing over the Great Salt Lake of Utah, we notice that there was a straight east-west line across the lake. The water north of the line was a different color from that south of the line. Last nite I looked it up to find it was the causeway for th Southern Pacific Railroad that runs right through the lake. Because of the division with most water coming into the lake from the north, there is different environment in the two parts of the lake, thus different algae, thus different colors. Now we know! http://geology.utah.gov/utahgeo/gsl/lakedivided.htm

From there, we started recognizing mountains, some with snow at the peaks. I got the window seat after Georgia used the "little room" and was ready to scan the horizon for that familiar peak that I had missed on our last flight into Portland (I had left the camera in the stow away compartment.) (See post from Early Feb 2009). About that time, the pilot said it was cloudy in Portland. I recognized the cascade mountains as they came into view. Then through the din I saw it rising up. We were taking the same route we had taken in the winter, but I appears the clouds will mess up the pic. I took a couple, saying, "at least I'll have something." Then we swung around the other side and it came into clear view. Got it!!! The trip was a success already.

We landed, got the one checked bag (Oops, it was too full to fit the criteria for carry on.), and headed for the car rental area. All was cool til we got to the Thrifty desk. (We used Dollar last time) There was no one at the desk, but a sign said to go to the "shuttle island 3". A blue phone was on the desk. I picked it up and someone answered. I told him there were two parties waiting to pick up cars. He said to go to the island and a shuttle would be by every 10 minutes. About 20 minutes later it did come. The other party waiting for a car was a couple from Bedford, Indiana who were going to Sandy, Oregon for graduation of 2 grandchildren. We had time to visit with them quite a bit. Found out he was also a Purdue graduate ('53).... and they had a Cannon Rebel camera like ours. For those who don't know, I dropped our Kodak on our last trip to Oregon and it hasn't really worked correctly since. The Thrifty site was away from the airport. Once we got there, the people were great and they hooked us up with a blue Dodge Charger. All is well. We needed to pick something up before going to bed last night, so we stopped at the Woodburn Mall that we had often seen on our trips between Portland and Corvallis. We had seen the beautiful spring everyone had told us about including honeysuckle hanging out of trees all along the highway and some really intense yellow flowering bushes. This mall was insane with these huge petunia plantings, including a petunia tree. As we got off the highway and into Corvallis, we noticed that the azalias and roses in yards were just gorgeous.. and everywhere. People were right; spring/summer is beautiful here. Of course our first stop was at the New Morning Bakery where we got chicken salad, etc. for supper. We settled in, digging out the boxes and suitcase we had stored in the shed at the Depot. We're ready to roll. We feel right at home, knowing that our neighbors and family will keep a good eye on our "other" home... the one with the mortgage payments.