Sunday, July 18, 2004

NOT TOO FAR FROM ANYWHERE

This is a wonderful part of Oregon. Head west from Eugene/Springfield and you are on the coast
in about 90 minutes. Head east or southeast and you are in the high Cascades in about the same
amount of time. About three hours and you are at Crater Lake. Three hours north and east of here-
up I5 and you are in the Columbia Gorge. Along the way are fascinating little towns, and this time
of year-produce stands and craft fairs.

We have a reputation of being rainy. It's more cloudy and foggy than rainy. We get 35 to 40 inches
of rain a year. Most of this between October and early May. One down side we're at the bottom
of the Willamette Valley and a lot of the polution doesn't have anywhere else to go once it
gets here.

Right now, it's about 85 degrees, getting cloudy and they are making rumbles about possible
rumbles-what my grandmother called the "tater wagons." Unlike so may other parts of the
country we have the potential for about 6 weeks of hot summer weather. By mid-August
it cools down at night even if it hits 100 during the day. All in all it's a pretty place to be.

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