September 7, 2009 – McMinnville, OR

Lots of action today, moving here and there, in and out of the truck. After breakfast, Don put me in the truck and took me to a huge park in McMinnville, acres and acres of beautiful green grass, just made for running and rolling. I was off like a shot, running like the wind (well, maybe a strong breeze), stopping only for a quick roll in the grass, which was pretty wet. Soon, so was I. Didn’t bother me, I was loving it. I eventually stopped to wait for Don, and he caught up with me just as a guy running with his dog showed up. The dog was a really nice yellow Lab, and the guy had moved here from Los Angeles 30 years ago. He told us about another park near our place, just across the street from us at the airport. He said it had some nice trails, and was perfect for a good morning walk. Don said we’d try it tomorrow. I finally ran myself ragged, and we headed back to the truck.

When we got back to the rig, we had lunch and waited for Geri to get ready to go. We piled back into the truck and headed out on a tour of some of the interesting spots nearby. We spied a produce stand called Farmer John’s, and loaded up on corn, green peppers and fruit. Then began a search for a natural feature that Don had discovered on Google Earth, a rock. Not just any rock, a very special rock. He took a wrong turn and we spent a bunch of miles looking for it where it wasn’t. We finally went back to Farmer John’s and Geri asked one of the teen-aged girls who work there where this rock was. She knew exactly where it was, and gave Geri directions. When Geri got back in the truck, the girl came up to us and asked why Don couldn’t have asked for the way to get there. Don just grumbled “Because I’m a guy!” She gave Geri an understanding look. I don’t know what the big deal is, I never ask for directions either. Anyway, we found the path to the rock, which turned out to be kind of steep at the end of it, resulting in Don having to tow Geri up the hill while she held on to his belt. But we finally wound up at the rock. The reason this rock is so special is that it’s about 300 million years old, and was transported here in an iceberg that floated down the Columbia and Willamette Rivers during one of the Missoula Dam floods about twenty thousand years ago. I am not going to try to convert these to dog years, it’s too much. I’m sure Don will include a photo of the rock, but you won’t see me on it; no easy way to get up there. On the way back down from the rock, Geri and Don picked some blackberries off some wild vines, and carried them in one of my (unused) poop bags. I found a gaggle of geese near the fence along the path, and sent them scattering with a wild charge; felt good.

Back in the truck, we headed down the road to a little town called Amity. Don decided that he wanted to visit one of the wineries that are all over this area; Don says they’ve got more wineries than the Napa Valley here. We chugged up a hill on a dirt road to the Amity Winery, and they went into the tasting room to load up on vino. They came out with a big box about a half hour later; I think they contributed to the local economy. We headed back toward McMinnville, by way of another little town called Dayton, where Don needed a picture of an old fort that had been moved here eons ago. Why, I have no idea. We wound up back in downtown McMinnville, and took a walk through the main street area. On a street corner, there was a statue of a guy sitting on a bench, with a book on his lap. Geri sat down next to him, and Don got a picture of me looking at him. Another couple stopped to look at the statue, and asked Don why McMinnville needed a statue of Benjamin Franklin sitting on a bench. Don replied that it was because they couldn’t find a statue of Mr. McMinn to put there. That seemed to satisfy them. Anyway, Geri and Don both thought that McMinnville was pretty neat, though Geri observed that, again, Don had taken her on a tour of upscale shops when they were all closed. Don could not argue that fact. I know that it happens frequently, and it is probably not accidental.

We went back to the rig, Don cooked up some stir-fry for dinner, and Geri did some laundry. A little TV, a little blogging, and so to bed. Travel day tomorrow, up and at it early!