A gamblin' we go, the rest of the story!

You can read about the first part of our gambling trip here, which includes a photo of a car in a tree, for real and on purpose.

We left the casino with plenty of daylight, so we took a bit of an alternate route home, Harmony Road, sort of northwest off Highway 22. Before long we came upon several photo-worthy sights.


Seeing the barn, I thought, "Oh, I need to get a photo of that one! Where can I pull over? Where? Oh, there!"


Right past the barn's fence, I noticed a graveyard, then a little white church, and a flat driveway into a small, leaf-covered parking area Harmony Cemetery at Union Baptist Church.


The wooden sign leans against the front porch.


The cemetery.


As I walked around for a little while, I didn't see any glass jars at the tombstones.


You can see the barn in the distance, past the church and the cemetery.


Across Harmony Road.


Around the curve after the church, I noticed another arresting sight out the passenger side of the windshield. "What's that? A dog statue? Huh?" I pulled off at a safe spot, got out and walked back to take a look and a couple of photos.


Have you ever seen anything like this?


Not too many miles later we had turned right onto Highway 18 and soon arrived out the Dairy Queen in Sheridan, Oregon. Actually, it's not in the center of town--we've never seen Sheridan itself, but we've stopped here practically every gamblin' trip--we get a four-piece chicken strip box with fries and a piece of toast; we share it for cheap eats.

From Sheridan we continued on 18 until we came to 99W. We followed it until it became Barbur Blvd. which we took into downtown Portland and then home. Luckily we found a close enough parking spot that Mama could walk to the apartment using her walker. All in all, a fine outing.

Friday, August 1, 2008 - Tricycle with Handle

Gee, do I wish I'd come up with this idea! Mama and I were over at the Dairy Queen on SE Division, near 56th, a few weeks ago. Remember when we had to buy a battery for the Buick? We ended up eating supper at the DQ. A daddy and his little boy stopped at the curb, waiting to cross Division so that they could come to the DQ. That's when I noticed the daddy had his hand on a handle attached to the back of his little boy's tricycle which meant no tired, aching back for that dad. I just had to ask the daddy, "Did you make that yourself?" "No," he replied. "My parents got it at a Western Auto." Western Auto! How cool is that? I can remember walking by the store in downtown Clinton, Mississippi, and seeing the wagons, bicycles and tricycles in the window, just in time for Christmas.

Have you ever seen a trike like this?

Friday, July 11, 2008 ... Bicycle Parking on SE Belmont

Mama, Duncan and I went on a sort of field trip in the Buick Tuesday after work. After Lamont and Lindsay got the thing to start--they kept it attached to her Honda for almost half an hour before trying to turn it over--I knew we needed to drive it for a while. I circled the block and picked up Mama and Duncan, with the kids help getting the two of them downstairs and quickly walking Duncan. Then, we were off, cruising here and there after we crossed the Willamette River. I don't mean to give you the wrong idea, though, because we had a goal in mind, the Battery Exchange at SE 20th and Belmont where we planned to get the battery checked and/or buy a new one. Long story short, checked, bad cell, new one installed. Then, we off again, with the A/C on this time, a change of circumstances that Duncan especially appreciated.

On the way from there to our next goal, the Dairy Queen on SE Division, I spied two sets of this unique bicycle parking. I quickly picked up the camera, pointed and clicked--the traffic hardly moved, so I felt safe in doing this, realizing that I might have a photo of a curb or a wall or a post. You see the cropped photo above, and the original photo below.