Swing wide the doors of perception 8

We are on the way home, headed west on the Columbia River Highway, the original road east and west from Portland.

The van was running sweet and getting great gas mileage too- nearly 30 miles a gallon on the highway! (I am so glad I have a 4 cylinder engine! In the past, I woulda wanted the biggest V-6 I could get, a 3.8 L, but the 4 cylinder gets MUCH better mileage- very important in these days of 3 dollar a gallon gasoline)

The road here follows the Sandy River through it’s canyon, and at this time of day, it was still dark enough so that those pics did not come out so well. For example, here you can see the reflection of my dashboard- a speaker on the left and a defroster vent on the right.

By the way, of course I had the CD playing.

Carlos Santana’s "Put your lights on".

And mine were on – not only for me but to make me more visible to any oncoming traffic. Not that I saw any, because the road was mine and mine alone.

After this, we got back on I-84, and there was traffic there- too much to mess around with the camera, so 25 minutes later, I pulled into my parking lot and came home.

Just about 50 miles round trip – pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for coming with me! I really appreciated the company, and I love to show off my Oregon to all who ride along.

Hey! Where shall we go next?

*****

Spoo

July 19, 2006

For some reason my 1989 Dodge Spirit gets better mileage with a V-6 than our 1993 Dodge Neon with a 4-banger.

LightButHearty

I love the top photo…the way the dark edges frame the middle of the road. 50 miles is a good jaunt. With all the photos what did it take…about 2 hours for the trip? Nice thing to do.

gray tabby

July 20, 2006

oregon is very beautiful!! love the photos. take care,

pretty_when_crying

I agree… I love that first pic. 🙂

WebWoman

Lovely photos. Only scary thing is how you drive on the wrong side of the road. ;o}

TheWoodsprite

What a beautiful stretch of roadway! Anytime Joe and I are making a road trip, we leave super-early in the morning too. It is nice to have no other cars on the road, and to drive along in the quiet of morning, seeing the dark slowly turn to light. Thanks for sharing all these with us! hugs, Weesprite

It really nice travelling on a road when the darkness of deep shadows turns to the warmth of golden sunny light.(1st picture) I love your trees.Are they some sort of pine, or fir tree?

There is something I have noticed about your roads, you don’t seem to have any refector posts to guise traffic away from the edges, and keep them between the lines. Are there any at all over there, or do they just paint the road edges as a guide?

There is something absolutely wonderful about wide open roads…

woman in the moon

Aldous Huxley wrote ‘The Doors of Perception’ about mescaline. And The Doors named themselves after it too. But you knew that. That is pretty looking blacktop.

Holy_Smokes!

I enjoyed the ride very much. Next time you see me hitch-hike pick me up again, please. 🙂 Beautiful pics. So nice to see your country.

wanderlust (2)

March 4, 2007

thanks for taking me along. I love road trips. Hey maybe the next trip could be to Seaside :^) Take me along please. Let me see (I pulled out my road atlas) Seaside is a mere 75 miles from Portland. That would be a great day trip don’t you think? Let me know.

4 bangers don’t work as well here or driving from her to the lower 48. There are too many mountain ranges to traverse a 6 is much preferred. But I sure can agree with you about how nice the mileage is with a 4. I get 20 to 21 mpg with my Montana in the city & between 24 & 27 highway mpg. It all depends on the hills, wind etc. Let me know when & where the next road trip will be. Thanks.