Port Orchard Washington
Port Orchard Washington, a suburb of Seattle and thanks to my friend Barnie who set me up with here friend Ann, have a place to stay for the weekend. You have to give Ann a lot of credit for not knowing me from Adam, but putting me up for a few nights and hey, she has some more Minnesota company so I feel right at home. Kathleen is here for an AcademyHealth conference and her daughter Emma is here since her birthday is Monday…I already feel right at home – and sleeping in the garage, maybe for my own safety more than theirs?
The plan for the day was to go and see the Spruce Goose, but was surprised by how much more they had at this museum than expected. It was cool seeing all the different displays and I wish could’ve captured just how massive the Spruce Goose was better than I did. All the other displays were dwarfed by the Goose which of course was the main stage and the video on the building of it, its flight and rough history was very interesting. The one thing I learned is the reason it was built out of Spruce wasn’t because they thought hey, maybe a wooden plane would be a better idea than metal, but because of the war going on when the thing was first being built, there was a ban by the government against building anything of metal…that’s how they came up with a design of wood with a laminate exterior. Well, the way thing looks now you’d never known that it was disassemble for shipment here and rebuilt on the spot which took I believe it was 180 days, or maybe that was just to move it. And where they moved it from was a museum built for it in Long Beach next to the Queen Mary; remember that from at least a week ago, my visit to the Queen Mary? Well, before that it was stored for decades in a warehouse built just to hide the thing since it was built with some U.S. funds, but mostly Howard Hughes money that they wanted to keep it secret until after Hughes died and Long Beach wanted it since that was where the virgin flight and only flight took place. Eventually Long Beach decided they didn’t want it anymore and were going to destroy it until Evergreen Aviation stepped up to the plate and purchased it to build a museum for it and many more aviation artifacts, some I’m not sure are originals, like the DaVinci wings, but ya never know. Anyway, was a very interesting museum to visit and the Spruce Goose was definitely worth seeing.
Ok, time to check out the map and figure out how to get back to the coastal highway to ride that up to Seattle, that was until I noticed on the map, St Helens and since that volcano erupted in my lifetime should check it out, right? Sure glad I did too because it was a sight to see and once again some great riding to get there. This time I made sure when going the right way meant making a left turn as opposed to a right turn and although I stopped a couple of times to ask for directions, it still took longer than expected, but the reason for that wasn’t getting lost, but something else I learned. According to the map I was looking at the town of St Helens which is in Oregon, but isn’t where the mountain is. Ok, now how do I get to the St Helens Mountain National park? Well, could go back part way the way I came and catch the interstate or take a more scenic route thru Rainier, the city, nope, not the mountain there either. You got it, took the scenic route and when stopped at the first St Helens visitors center found out it was an hour and 10 minutes one way to get to the Johnson Ridge which had the best viewing…that means 5 hours before I’d make Seattle, but hell came this far that have to go for it and I’m glad I did. Seeing the mountain from that view and the movie on how it erupted and created everything around there was very interesting and well worth the visit – oh yea, the movie had a special ending, but can’t tell you, don’t want to ruin the surprise for your visit. Found out that when they were building the facilities, the workers had paths they had to stay on and if any of them stepped off, they would lose their contract. After the buildings were built, everything that was moved for the building of the place was put back where it had been moved from, that was to keep record of how things ended up after the eruption…again, definitely a place worth visiting and I’m sure glad I took the detour. On to Port Orchid and something to eat while Ann, Kathleen and Emma were stuck in Seattle because the ferry was full and had to make the hour drive around the peninsula thru Tacoma. Tomorrow probably an oil change which is a thousand miles overdue and the sites of Seattle and maybe even a Kenny Chesney concert as long as he’s in town this weekend. Museum Pictures. Mt St Helens pictures.
The plan for the day was to go and see the Spruce Goose, but was surprised by how much more they had at this museum than expected. It was cool seeing all the different displays and I wish could’ve captured just how massive the Spruce Goose was better than I did. All the other displays were dwarfed by the Goose which of course was the main stage and the video on the building of it, its flight and rough history was very interesting. The one thing I learned is the reason it was built out of Spruce wasn’t because they thought hey, maybe a wooden plane would be a better idea than metal, but because of the war going on when the thing was first being built, there was a ban by the government against building anything of metal…that’s how they came up with a design of wood with a laminate exterior. Well, the way thing looks now you’d never known that it was disassemble for shipment here and rebuilt on the spot which took I believe it was 180 days, or maybe that was just to move it. And where they moved it from was a museum built for it in Long Beach next to the Queen Mary; remember that from at least a week ago, my visit to the Queen Mary? Well, before that it was stored for decades in a warehouse built just to hide the thing since it was built with some U.S. funds, but mostly Howard Hughes money that they wanted to keep it secret until after Hughes died and Long Beach wanted it since that was where the virgin flight and only flight took place. Eventually Long Beach decided they didn’t want it anymore and were going to destroy it until Evergreen Aviation stepped up to the plate and purchased it to build a museum for it and many more aviation artifacts, some I’m not sure are originals, like the DaVinci wings, but ya never know. Anyway, was a very interesting museum to visit and the Spruce Goose was definitely worth seeing.
Ok, time to check out the map and figure out how to get back to the coastal highway to ride that up to Seattle, that was until I noticed on the map, St Helens and since that volcano erupted in my lifetime should check it out, right? Sure glad I did too because it was a sight to see and once again some great riding to get there. This time I made sure when going the right way meant making a left turn as opposed to a right turn and although I stopped a couple of times to ask for directions, it still took longer than expected, but the reason for that wasn’t getting lost, but something else I learned. According to the map I was looking at the town of St Helens which is in Oregon, but isn’t where the mountain is. Ok, now how do I get to the St Helens Mountain National park? Well, could go back part way the way I came and catch the interstate or take a more scenic route thru Rainier, the city, nope, not the mountain there either. You got it, took the scenic route and when stopped at the first St Helens visitors center found out it was an hour and 10 minutes one way to get to the Johnson Ridge which had the best viewing…that means 5 hours before I’d make Seattle, but hell came this far that have to go for it and I’m glad I did. Seeing the mountain from that view and the movie on how it erupted and created everything around there was very interesting and well worth the visit – oh yea, the movie had a special ending, but can’t tell you, don’t want to ruin the surprise for your visit. Found out that when they were building the facilities, the workers had paths they had to stay on and if any of them stepped off, they would lose their contract. After the buildings were built, everything that was moved for the building of the place was put back where it had been moved from, that was to keep record of how things ended up after the eruption…again, definitely a place worth visiting and I’m sure glad I took the detour. On to Port Orchid and something to eat while Ann, Kathleen and Emma were stuck in Seattle because the ferry was full and had to make the hour drive around the peninsula thru Tacoma. Tomorrow probably an oil change which is a thousand miles overdue and the sites of Seattle and maybe even a Kenny Chesney concert as long as he’s in town this weekend. Museum Pictures. Mt St Helens pictures.
posted by Dalej Webb at 10:47 AM
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