Back from coast

Spent week-end at Newport/Toledo, services for life time friend.

Decided to come back to PDX via US20 to Corvallis. Driven that route a jillion times but less so in recent years. Drove by wife%26#39;s old home near country club in Corvallis, then took US-20 through Corvallis along river to downtown Albany. Streets in Albany have changed

Took I-5 to salem but got off there and took 99E through woodburn, back to I-5 at Wilsonville for maybe 2 miles then off on Boones Berry Road

Nice to get off freeways in to more rural Oregon

Back from coast

I agree phirl. I stay off of I-5 whenever possible while traveling Florence to Salem and back. You%26#39;d be surprised how many different routes and variations there are, and the bonus is they all take roughly the same amount of time. The shortest (timewise) is hwy 126 %26gt;Poodle Creek%26gt;hwy 36%26gt;hwy 99 to Halsey. I-5 to Salem. This takes 2 hrs and 10 minutes, average (in a state vehicle driving the speed limit!). The longest is hwy 101 to Waldport%26gt;hwy 34 to Corvallis%26gt;hwy 99%26gt;hwy 22 into west Salem. This takes 2 hrs and 25-30 minutes. Both drives are waaaay more scenic!!

~Den~

Back from coast

Sorry to hear the reason for the trip, but at least you made lemonade out of lemons. I think that drive from the coast/Corvallis/Albany is really pretty, and like you, we have done that many times. I am not on that section of 99E very often. It sort of has a feel to it like time has forgotten about that area. Boones Ferry...right near me:)

Sorry, too, about reason for your trip. Seems like those reasons are mounting as we reach our ';mature'; years. My high school website details classmate doings and passings. To me, having only seen a few classmates in many years, they are still young, as I saw them, so long ago. Can those young faces really be ';gone';?

The beauty of the roads you mention is our learned or recovered ability to slow down a bit, take more notice of the land and its attributes. We often take these rural routes for that reason.

Sorry for your reasons to go.

I was in Toledo last week. :) ODOT is really working on Hwy 20...

It will be pretty nice when it gets done- soon we%26#39;ll have to go to hwy 34 to experience a really curvey road.

chinookgrrrl,

There are several other ';curvey roads'; to the coast. Hwy 53 and Hwy 36 are two that come immediately to mind, and I hope they remain that way, if for no ther reason, to SLOW PEOPLE DOWN!

~Den~

And 22 from Grand Ronde

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