USA WEEK 7 – Champoeg USA to Vancouver Canada

Many apologies for the delay with these scribblings I humbly apologise, if there are any of you left to apologise to…………..

Monday 2nd July – Today we headed towards McMinville and the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. We hadn’t planned on coming here but the owner of the campsite in Golden Bay, where Myrtle the moggy was, told us about it and said it was worth a visit. Well worth the visit it was too, we had a super day out. Planned for a couple of hours but ended up being kicked out at 5 o’clock!

The main reason for the visit was to see the famous ‘Spruce Goose’ the wooden seaplane built by Howard Hughes. It is in fact made from birch not spruce but it is enormous and only flew once for a few minutes – to prove his critics wrong!

It made its one and only flight in San Francisco Bay on November 2nd 1947. After this it was put away in a hanger for posterity. After Hughes death it was put on display in 1980 alongside the Queen Mary in a large hanger but the Disney boys bought the exhibition and the plane did not feature in their plans so it was then sold to Evergreen who have put it on permanent display at McMinville.

We did the tour of the museum and we also did the cockpit tour of Hughes plane and sat in up front in the seats that were once occupied by Hughes and his co-pilot, quite a special moment!

Also in display in the museum was the history of aviation going right back to the Wright brothers. There was also a good display of the aircraft used by Evergreen over the years.

In an adjacent building there was a space display. This was also excellent as there were space rockets, the lunar module from the moon landing, a blackbird and historical timeline on space travel. There were also a few USAF fighter planes there too. All in all an excellent day out and well worth the visit.

Tuesday 3rd July – Today we headed out towards the Columbia river Gorge. Quite sad really as this was pretty much where our trip started at the mouth of this enormous river. We had to go through Portland which was a huge sprawling mess but the gorge was quite a sight.

We visited the highest waterfall in Oregon, had a hike to the top, found another long bridge over the river, saw a huge hydro electric dam operation where in the basement they had someone sat at a computer counting and identifying fish in the lake. What a job, I think it was so they could keep an eye on fish numbers…..

In the evening we headed into downtown Portland where we had a walk and some grub. The centre where we were looked OK, typical of a large US city being super clean with what looked like an excellent public transport system. There was a blues festival in town but sadly it started on the day we were leaving.

It was then back to our campsite at Champoeg, which was not the best with a dingy corner for campers and it was extremely busy too. Oh well at least it was the last camp for a while, our next being a good few days away up near Whistler in Canada.

Wednesday 4th July – It’s US independence day today and we are moving on back up to Seattle via Mount St Helens. The drive up to the Johnson Observatory on St Helens was fantastic. Super views up into the crater which was venting steam all the time we were there. At the top there was a theatre where we watched two short films about that devastating day back in 1980 on May 18th. At the end of the film the curtains pulled back to reveal a most spectacular view right across and into the volcanic crater.

A steady run up to Seattle followed this, the last of our adventures in the US. We arrived in Seattle late afternoon, ditched the bags at the motel and went downtown to see if there was some 4th July event going on anywhere. I have to say, down town was pretty quiet. All we saw from our harbour side vista point was a display of fireworks going off in any direction you cared to look. Sadly nothing close enough to walk to. Slightly disappointed we headed back up to the motel for an evening not under canvas!!

Thursday 5th July – With the car now empty and all traces of chumping expeditions removed we went to drop the car off at the infamous Budget. Car now gone, with no hassle or fees I might add we headed back to the airport for the train into town.

We were going to check out the train station for our rail adventure into Canada tomorrow. Amtrak had sent us an e-mail saying that the station in Seattle was undergoing refurbishment and to allow more time. Good job we went as it was a major expedition just finding the station amongst all the building work!! After we got sorted for the following day we headed across town for a look round the centre of town. It was OK but usual city stuff, hard work wandering round towns.

Late afternoon we headed back up to the motel and got the bags sorted for the train tomoz. We did have a baggage allowance and Lynn was a bit concerned over the bag weights and would be happier as soon as the bags were checked in!

Friday 6th July – Early start into town for the 7.50 train to Vancouver. Bags just sneaked through within limits so there was a big sigh of relief. The journey was superb, the train very comfortable and roomy and the food tasty and reasonable. We did have a bit of a delay crossing into Canada over the river due to a broken rail. This however seemed to fly by due to the carriage entertainment. As we approached the border, the guard announced that there were 8 carriages on the train which would be let off 1 carriage at a time to get through customs. He said if anyone was willing to go to him and sing the Canadian national anthem over the speakers throughout the train, their carriage would be let out first. Well there was a line of Canadians attempting to get their carriage out first and the singing was interesting. We managed to get out 5th and the deal was whoever sang got to leave the carriage first. Quite entertaining, you wouldn’t see that on the transpennine express!!

We arrived at Vancouver Station early afternoon and got a cab to the hotel. The reception area was very nice and there was a microbrewery on site. We got a room key and went to a very small and untidy, unready room. A quick trip to reception got us another marginally better room overlooking the delights of East Hastings (more on this later.)

We unpacked and had a stroll into downtown Vancouver. We had quite a stretch towards Stanley Park, the cruise terminal and town centre. We were wrecked when we got back. We dined and had a local beer in Pats pub – the on site brew house – and it was very nice.

A note on East Hastings, it is an area of VC where all the folks with problems reside. Not just ‘problems’ but serious drug problems and serious mental health issues. The road out of town – East Hastings – is strewn with very shabby looking hostels where all these folks live. There are obviously some staff who keep an eye over them, feed them and assist them with their drug habits. I understand that they have to be somewhere but nothing on earth could have prepared us for what we saw in East Hastings. There was open needle use, all sorts of dodgy looking deals going on and lots of people with an array of injuries from minor to serious from either scuffles or drug related issues. It was quite shocking. The thing was that our hotel was in the middle of all this and we had to walk through it to get into and back from downtown, quite an un-nerving experience. The police were on hand many times daily resolving issues with the guys and local business owners. Very sad to see and there must be another way………..

Saturday 7th July – Today we had another walk into town via the seafront and towards Stanley Park. We noticed shed loads of bicycles going past and eventually found a hire shop. Great to see them all on official cycle paths. In the afternoon we called into VC Police Museum for a shuffle round. It was very interesting with loads of historical stuff on the force going back. The building used to be the mortuary where post mortems were undertaken. We were very surprised to find out that no less than Errol Flynn (Lynn’s brothers idol and hero) was taken there when he died and had his post mortem done in the building we were in! There was even a copy of the post mortem report on the wall in the mortuary next to the very table where he sadly laid dead all those years ago. We seemed to be in there ages, it was a very interesting visit. After the police museum we headed back up to good old East Hastings and our hotel where we had a splendid Chinese meal for dinner.

Sunday 8th July – Looking through the local what to see and do guide we noticed that there was a local custom to do ‘the Grouse Grind.’ Now the Grouse Grind is a mountain across the bay which is a 3000ft almost vertical climb up a steep winding path to the top of Grouse Mountain. At the top of the mountain is an alpine resort where they ski in the winter and hike in the summer. There is also at the top a hotel, various viewpoints one of which as at the top of a wind turbine, a collection of birds of prey and two grizzly bears who were found abandoned as cubs and have been living up there ever since. All sounds pretty good. So we decided to do the ‘grind’ so we got our bus ticket which was $2.50 and got a bus into town, a ferry across the bay then another bus to grouse mountain, splendid value! It all worked out very efficiently and we were at the bottom of the climb. Now the locals or anyone for that matter can register at the bottom and as you climb your progress is monitored electronically so you know your time, can attempt to beat personal bests an such like. Additionally when you cross the line at the top your name comes up on a screen to say you have finished and in what time. We didn’t bother with this we just struggled on up slowly and did the ‘grind’ in two hours. There were others passing us running, walking quickly and generally on a mission to get to the top. Looking at the time boards at the top, the best time for the day was 37 minutes!! We were wrecked again as we found it very difficult.

After a butty and a brew we had a wander around the top. Super views down to VC and out towards Vancouver Island in the distance. We found the grizzlies who lived in a huge compound and were very entertaining. When they were found, they were both in such a state it took weeks to save them, they had to be fed via drips intravenously. It took so long to get them right that by the time they were, they could not be put back into the wild and the decision was taken to keep them atop Grouse mountain in a dedicated enclosure.

After the Grizzlies we saw the birds of prey which were magnificent then watched a lumberjack type show before heading back down by a cable car. All in all a superb day out on the mountain and quite a public transport epic to get there and back. Back at the digs, well deserved showers and more of Pats ale and fine foods.