Frying Pans & Fake Trees in the Furthest West
Today involves quite a long drive without too many opportunities for diversions. The bulk of this is is on the US 101 South, which is pretty much single lane along most of its length, with very few places to pass. This of course provides plenty of opportunities for impatience. Now most American drivers are pretty relaxed and polite, making for a fairly chilled driving experience. There are a couple of exceptions to this.
I have noticed that Tesla drivers in the US tend to drive like maniacs, making reckless manoeuvres to ensure that they are exactly where they want to be. I’m not sure whether this stems from the fact that they have mad acceleration and can get out of trouble very quickly, or whether Teslas just come with a sense of entitlement.
The second group are truck drivers. Now I understand that they are probably covering huge distances, but tailgating is just annoying. My usual response of course would be a fun game of passive aggressive obstruction. But I have seen Duel. I look for opportunities to let them pass!
On the way south I pass through Aberdeen again. The sign reads
“Welcome to Aberdeen
Come As You Are”
The Nirvana reference makes me chuckle - no opportunity is ever missed in the US. I don’t know whether Kurt Cobain and/or Nirvana hail from here rather than Seattle, but I assume there is some connection.
After about 3-4 hours of driving, I drift into Long Beach, which is a little like Skegness on the Pacific. First stop, the world’s largest frying pan. Because, why not? I think this maybe a somewhat spurious claim as research shows that there are at least another 2 or 3 other claimants for the same title within the US. I wonder how they thrash these things out?
There is a fun museum / gift shop that I spend some time perusing and allowing to relieve me of some cash.
The half-human, half-crocodile construct was reminiscent of Ripley’s Believe it or Not or the freak show which used to turn up with the Goose Fair - before such things would get you run out of polite towns! On the way in, the greeter scares the bejeezuz out of me!
Then across the road to the Lewis and Clark memorial park. This is Long Beach’s real claim to fame: this is where Lewis and Clark, on their epic expedition to open up the American West, reached the Pacific.
Heading out, I see a sign for a Clark Tree Memorial Trail. This sounds intriguing, so I throw a U-turn and head back. Turns out it is a short trail to the actual tree that William Clark carved a note into to commemorate reaching the west coast. Ignoring the injunctions against touching the tree, I can’t resist the temptation to touch such an historical object. Who knew that back in the early 19th century there were trees which formed naturally out of metal and plastic?
Overwhelmed by my proximity to such history, I head off towards Astoria. On crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge, creepy car welcomes me back to Oregon. I am genuinely sad to be leaving Washington. We have had some good times and I will miss the laid back, friendly vibe.
Still, Astoria is a nice coastal town whose own claim to fame is that the settlement of Fort Astoria was the first American settlement west of the Rockies. It seems that it changed hands a few times and was subject to numerous alliances between the Chinook Indians, the settlers and the British, but eventually allowed the settlers to lay claim to the land. The story of all of this is commemorated on a column (which apparently was modelled on Trajan’s column in Rome) overlooking the town.
After dutifully visiting the column, I set off to explore the book shops, new age shops, restaurants and brew pubs of Astoria. A not unpleasant way to end the day. Oh, and it turns out that there are some Goonies adjacent locations here, with associated trail of course. Yet another film location of which I was unaware. This region seems to have quite a draw on the film industry; probably not surprising considering the number of stunning locations.
And of course west coast sunsets are always the best
