A Botanical Framework for an Oregon Journey - May 2007

Roadside Attractions OR Coast Prehistoric Sights California Illinois Valley		Roadside Attractions This year for my sister Jeffi's birthday trip, Sheila and I decided to take her out for Spring flora viewing -- some organized and some casual, and whatever else looked good along the way. We were headed for the northern California redwoods, the ultimate flora on Planet Earth (in my opinion), and decided to go down the Oregon Coast to get there. Portland is only about 60 miles from the coast as the crow flies, but it's a lot more crowded and less direct than that. We decided to take Highway 99 which cuts over to the coast on a diagonal just south of Portland. First you have to slog through about 25 miles of metropolitan area, several suburban cities, all of it pretty congested. Fortunately we left on Friday morning, instead of Saturday morning so it wasn't too bad. All the chain restaurants along the way were advertising strawberry lemonade and fresh strawberry pie, but we were not fooled. All these strawberries are from Mexico or southern California, because Oregon berries are not on yet in any significant quantity, despite the increasing use of cold frames and green houses to extend the harvest season. The Strawberry Commission's home page will tell you a little about our strawberries. I have eaten some fine strawberries in California and Florida, but when berries are shipped, it's not the same. Home-grown are the best. So, no stopping for berries Botanical Interlude 1: After the urbanized area falls away, you get into plant nursery, nut orchard, art gallery and wine country. There are still some farms and a few of the fields are planted in crimson clover as a cover crop (because it replenishes nitrogen so well), which is quite attractive. Here's the best picture I could find, never mind the silly, proud gardener . This area is also where the roadside wild blooms begin. The most noticeable is the Scotch Broom. A brilliant deep-gold flowered bush, prolific, invasive, allergenic and awful, it's everywhere and getting worse. Cutting it down does no good, you have to pull it out by the roots. It takes over farm land, forest land, sandy land, swamp land, anything. Oregon, Washington and Northern California appear to be losing the battle. Even though it has been declared a noxious weed, no one seems to have the money to pull it out of the roadsides. We don't even think it's "pretty" any more, but you might. The other three most common roadside blooms are California poppies, sometimes yellow or gold, but mostly orange; lupine (or lupin), blue or purple; and Queen Anne's Lace or Cow Parsnip or Hemlock. All three of these last are white and lacy. You can always tell Queen Anne's Lace because each cluster of flowers has a tiny red heart blossom in the middle. It is somewhat invasive and not particularly welcome. Hemlock is really, really poisonous and difficult to tell from the Cow Parsnip. So it's better not to have any of them. Still, we did party flowers once time with Queen Anne's Lace, Sunflowers and Hydrangea and it was quite nice for an outdoor gathering. And inexpensive. Here are some pictures of the major roadside players. California poppy Lupine White lacy flowers Scotch Broom There are other wild flowers, too, but you can't see them very well without getting out of the car. Which we did later several times, and I'll tell about some of those, but first I want to describe another roadside attraction. No, not the Tom Robbins novel, but the Spirit Mountain Casino run by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Sheila and Jeffi had never been to one of these new-fangled casinos and they wanted to see what it was like. I visited one a few years ago and wasn't at all impressed. I used to like to go to Reno once in a while when the rain was getting to me in Oregon. And back then, you could find a blackjack dealer using only two or three decks of cards and sometimes even one! And the drinks and entertainment were free and the food was good and cheap. It doesn't work like that any more. This casino is all about the slots. Oh, there was a poker room, and roulette and black jack tables, but the majority of the floor space is devoted to slot machines--2,000 of them. There are slots that let you gamble one penny at a time or two cents or five or ten or twenty-five. There are a few that let you bet $1.00 or $5.00. The games have names like Mystical Dragon, Egyptian Riches, Easter Island, Leprechaun Gold, Chainsaws and Toasters. All these machines do pretty much the same thing, they just have different pictures. We had a lucky quarter we wanted to play, but you can't. You have to play dollar bills on all the machines. We found one that had cherries and bars and bells, instead of dragons or leprechauns or chainsaws, so we put a dollar in. You don't get to pull a lever, you push a button, and most, but not all, slot machines are electronic now. This one actually had reels which is another reason we picked it. Eventually we won $1.25 playing a nickel at a time. But you don't get any nickels and no one walks around with ice cream buckets full of coins. You just get a piece of paper. The lighting is bright, the sound levels are subdued, the air circulation is amazing and the coffee and soda are free. In "The Peak," a special area we didn't know about when we were there, the chairs are ergonomically-designed and " ... padded with memory-foam designed by aerospace engineers." Maybe this is only for the serious slot players. There are lots of snack bars of junk food and for some reason lots of Snickers bars for sale. And a good restaurants and several gift shops with clothes with lots of bling-enhanced Native American design elements. The Casino runs a shuttle service from various cities in the area and when we were there, most of the players appeared to be retirement age. And not really having all that much fun. But it was Jeffi's birthday trip and she wanted to join the Coyote Club. So she did. She always was the Indian when we played cowboys and Indians and I think she hoped it would make her more of a tribe member. I suspect is doesn't. When you become a "member" of the casino, you get to keep track of all your gambling activity with a special card. So when you lose enough, they offer you some wonderful incentive to come back, I guess. You also get a birthday present in your birthday month. Jeffi got four glass coasters with the Spirit Mountain logo and a nifty pen that flashes in four colors. She also got a small supply of handi-wipes. Which isn't much of a present because they are everywhere--another change that makes you think. We didn't tarry long, it was getting time for lunch. But one other roadside feature I'd like to mention here is a sign in a yard in Dundee that's been there forever. It reads "Obsolete Harley-Davidson Parts Here." Which turned out to be part of the week-end theme because there were bikers EVERYWHERE! A nice week-end for tooling around on those winding roads, I guess. We see very few motorcycles in Portland, so it was quite noticeable. Now on to the coast Next