Arduinna

Things went mostly smoothly?

The one problem is when I was headed out. In Portland, having a group suddenly try to surround me on a sidewalk is something that can happen, but it's been a while and it's usually easy to see potential pedestrian traps. Some parts of Portland have become very infested with evangelists, but they carefully toe the line. Their set ups on the sidewalks are not legal and every time they get too cheeky, try to infringe more on a sidewalk or something, they get talkings to. So, when I saw some down the street I just went eyes down, and pretended they didn't exist, only to have some guy in a trenchcoat block my path. I didn't react well. I don't expect static from that direction. So, I yelled at them and pushed through. I *think* it's because I was wearing a pack and thought I might be someone they could pull that on. In any case, being unexpectedly surrounded really freaked me out. It's something I usually handle well, but I was so 'eyes down, just ignore' I didn't see the close in.

Anyway, after that I got my lunch at Chipotle and headed out to the bus stop, planning to eat on a layover. I wound up getting some nice coffee from a stand near the Gresham Transit Center.

I had been worried about doing a trip where I'd haven to have walk, maybe hike, with everything on me - computer, days of food, etc - especially since the weather report went from '60s and partly sunny' to 'high of 40, overnight freezing and heavy rain'. But I managed it pretty well. I got out into the area, walked to the Wildwood Recreation Site and hiked a few miles before I could check into my place.

Because I was at Wildwood all 3 days, I'll do motel pictures on this post, Timberline on day 2 and post all the Wildwood pics for day 3.

I stayed at what used to be a very run down, sketchy motel in the area. I'd always wanted to stay there because I assumed one day it would be gone. Turns out, they got bought out by a resort company and the buildings were renovated with a focus on keeping with the original character of the place and they restored the original sign

I may have been mildly obsessed with taking aesthetic shots of the sign:





It's a really cute place with a grill and seating area for those staying there, that wasn't yet open for the season. Some of the rooms have their own patios. The rooms that used to be long-stay motel rooms now have full kitchens. I think my room was a storage closet and they renovated it to squeeze one more room in without changing the building too much. It was way smaller than any other on site and I am pretty sure the bathroom was made by shrinking the on-site laundry room. Not complaining, it was a cute place and well kept. Staying there post-sale was probably a much better and possibly safer option. I'm glad they are keeping it the way they are.