Beaver Fever

Last night, the unimaginable happened....the OSU Beavers played a home football game against #1 ranked University of Southern California - and OSU won, 27 - 21. We watched the game from a local bar with our new friend Kjell (pronounced "Shell" - he's from Norway), not having acquired tickets ourselves. Kjell knew the rules pretty well for someone who grew up in the land of snow and ice - turns out that, as a boy, he had a Football game on his Gameboy, so he picked up quite a bit from that...

Home game days around here are a sea of orange -- EVERYONE wears orange. It's like being in a crazy Halloween world all day. And instead of one giant tailgating party in the stadium, like we were used to at NC State, there are pockets of tailgaters all around the neighborhoods near campus, in small parking lots, on student housing lawns, etc. We could have dropped in on a half-dozen different parties on our 8 block walk to the bar last night....

I confess, I left the bar early and missed the end of the game so that I could watch the season premiere of The Office at home. But the real excitement happened as we were getting ready for bed. Nate and I live only a few blocks from the stadium, in a neighborhood that's a mix of family and student housing. Apparently, we live pretty close to more of the student housing, because a bunch of guys decided to start shooting off fireworks from the road right in front of our house around 10pm. Big mortars, flashing lights. It sort of felt like we were living in a war zone. Just when we were about to be "old fogies" about it and call the cops, it quieted down again. Maybe the fireworks ran out, or maybe the police found the revelers just then...

This last photo is unrelated, but I thought it was funny that even the door-pulls at the OSU Bookstore are beavers...

I Dream of Eugenie

Last weekend, Nate and I headed down to Eugene, about 45 minutes south of Corvallis, to hang out with my friend Erik and his wife Natalie. Our first lesson was to not try and leave town at the same time as an OSU football game gets out...slow going amidst throngs of Beaver fans leaving town (luckily, they were in good spirits, having won their home game).

We arrived in Eugene with our bikes in tow, met their cute dog Olive, and were soon on our way up over the hill between Erik and Natalie's house and downtown Eugene. We were on our way to an annual outdoor festival in Eugene - this years theme was "I dream of Eugenie". Nate spotted 8-10 turkeys just hanging out in someone's yard on our ascent up the hill....good to know they're here...And as it turns out, the hill we were biking up was the same hill that U of O running legend Steve Prefontaine died on in a car crash in 1975. We found the 'Pre' memorial and looked at the funny assortment of stuff people had left there to commemorate him.

Arriving in downtown Eugene, we parked our bikes, bought our wrist bracelets, and promptly regretted not having the camera with us. Eugene is a mecca for crazy people of all sorts - imagine the funniest looking person you've ever seen on the street, multiply his/her attire by 10 and that's most of the people at this festival. It was the best people-watching EVER. Many had taken this year's theme to heart and were sporting some sort of 'genie' look...

We found our way to one of the music stages and were rewarded with a good beer tent selection (Miller Lights were $5, just like the other 4 local micro-brewery options) and a crazy, fun band called Hillstomp (check them out at www.hillstomp.com) - two guys who are self-described as bluegrass/blues/punk. They wailed and sang and strummed their hearts out for a while and we continued to have fun listening to them and watching passers-by.

Minor car troubles (fixed now) prevented us from doing a big hike like we planned on Sunday, so instead I made some apple butter from the still-plentiful apple tree. We plan to do a hiking/camping trip in the Cascades with Natalie and Erik this weekend, and we look forward to a visit from our good friend Brian next weekend!

Mary's Peak

Our first weekend in Corvallis was enhanced by visits from two different sets of friends. Salinda reconnected with an old high school friend, Laura Beckwith, who was down for the weekend visiting Corvallis with her husband Ulf. Laura and Ulf moved from Corvallis to Seattle last year, so they had plenty of great advice on fun things to do/see in the area. Salinda was treated to delicious French pasteries and coffee when she met Laura, Ulf and their friend Cory out for breakfast on Saturday. Later that afternoon, our friends Kelly and Jack drove down from Portland to stay with us for the night. Everyone met up around 4:30pm in downtown Corvallis to enjoy the Rhapsody Wine Festival - the deal was you bought a wine glass for $5, then walked around to all the local stores downtown (bookstores, clothing stores, bakeries, bike shops, etc...) to sample wines from local vineyards. It was a fun way to get to know the downtown-area shops and sample some of the Willamette Valley wines. What a treat for our first weekend in OR!

On Sunday morning, Kelly, Jack, Nate and I drove up to Mary's Peak - the highest mountain in the coastal range (between Corvallis and the Pacific Ocean), which happens to be just a short drive out of town. We enjoyed hiking around for a couple of hours, watching for birds, discussing the various fir tree species that could be found there, and quizzing Kelly on the Cascade Range peaks we could see off in the distance.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the fact that mountains are now a part of everyday life!

3115 NW Orchard Ave - College Hill District

Our house is great - spacious rooms and more storage space than we've ever had before. The screened in back porch is quickly becoming our favorite evening hang-out. And the backyard trees and gardens are attracting all sorts of birds that are new to our 'eastern' eyes/ears. The best part about our place, though, may be the Spartan apple tree in the back yard, which is loaded down with fruit! I predict a fall with many "apple" themed meals...We also have a greenhouse and 2 raised beds in the back fenced in area.

Our neighborhood is right on the NW edge of the Oregon State University campus - Nate has to walk all of 3 blocks to his office. Also within walking distance are a number of good restaurants and coffee shops (in fact, coffee shops seem to be more common than gas stations in Oregon), Reser Stadium, some nice city parks, a co-op, and our bank.

The College Hill neighborhood (which isn't on a hill at all) is full of craftsman style architecture, which happens to be my favorite. Walking around the streets this past week, I've never seen so many homes with more beautifully maintained flower beds, gardens, or landscaping. I guess any green thumbs are also helped out a great deal by the good climate and fertile soils of the area.

On Friday's, the Oregon State University Organic Garden Club sells an assortment of produce they're harvesting at the time. I found their veggies on campus and spent a whopping $6 on everything in the bowl!

The Cross Country Move

Our cross-country travels were without too much adventure (just as we hoped) - 54 hours of driving, just over 3200 miles, averaging about 8 mpg in our 22' diesel, towing Nate's car (and kayak) behind. We left Morehead City around 9:30am on Wed., Aug. 27th and arrived in Corvallis on Mon, Sept 1. at 2pm.

Day 1 - Made it to Beckley, WV, where we endured some cool, rainy conditions. It was good to have a shorter first day in order to get used to our big rig and side mirrors - braking time and maneuverability are much reduced in a truck that size, so we quickly recognized the importance of all the road signs about "35mph around curve", etc..

Day 2 - Arrived in St. Louis, MO, through some pretty country across northern Kentucky, then Indiana and Illinois. Some notable places: Santa Claus, IN; Warren County, MO; and Emma, MO. Enjoyed our night's stay with our good friends, Ellen and John, and were on the road again the next morning around 6:40am.

Day 3 - Kansas was long (6hrs across?) but kind of pretty, with small hills and patches of trees in the east giving way to sunflower fields and open rolling plains, wide lanes, sparse traffic, and easy driving conditions. After a long13.5 hour drive that day, we finally arrived in Denver (Aurora) at Dan and Molly's house (Nate's bro and sis-in-law). We both looked forward to a day of rest on Saturday.

Day 4 (REST DAY!) - Relaxing, birding, dog park adventures in Denver with Dan, Molly, and Lucia (yellow lab).

Day 5 - North out of Denver to Cheyenne, WY. Then straight west across Wyoming. Wyoming was probably the state that surprised me most (and was my least favorite of all the western states) - most of the drive is across arid, windy plains....some neat rock outcrops, but mostly a gray/brown landscape, and lots of wind. Long lines at a truck stop in Wamsutter, strong t-storms near Ogden, but we made it into Nampa, ID, by 9pm. Another long day - nearly 14 hours on the road....

Day 6 - We got an early start and hit the Oregon border by 7:15am (with the final time change into Pacific Time). Eastern Oregon provided some of the longest hills we had seen yet, surprisingly, with a 6% downgrade (nearly 6 miles long) coming out of the mountains near Pendleton. We traveled along the Snake River, just south of Hells Canyon, and hit the Columbia River heading due west. A couple of hours east of Portland, we had a beautiful view of Mt Hood and continued on into Corvallis by 2pm. Then came the hardest part of the trip - the unload. Labor Day took on a new meaning as we unloaded all of our worldly belongings! We muscled through and had the truck emptied out by 6pm, but not before both of us sustained some good bruises and slightly strained backs. Tired and hungry, we found a great pizza place just 3 blocks from our house.