Corvallis, Oregon.

I felt it was a bit too early to knock on Mo and Scott's door when I arrived In Corvallis,so I asked the guy in the Greyhound office for a good breakfast place. He suggested a place, then asked me if I was walking and thought that it might be too far away. I said that it was fine, there does seem to exist a no walking mentality. I went and had breakfast and then headed to the local library and some internet time. I foolishly hadn't taken down Mo's contact details and so had no way of getting in contact with her. Mo was much smarter about this and had sent me an email with her address, tel no and directions to their apartment. As it happened their apartment was just one block away from the library. so off i went to knock on their door.

Scott opened the door and welcomed me in, Mo was at school.We went into town for lunch and Scott showed me around downtown Corvallis. Corvallis is the home of Oregon State university,is sited on a river and still retains a small town feel thanks to good planning controls. We went to a local bagel shop for lunch and then Scott left me in a used book store. I was very happy.He found me still there when he was done with his haircut and it was back to the apartment. We were having tea in the sitting room when Maureen popped back from school, she couldn't see me. Scott was talking etc. and then she walked fully into the sitting room, where I was. It was great to see her again, it is hard to believe that we hadn't seen each other in over two years. The time seems to have flown by.After a short visit Mo had to go back to school and I settled down for a relaxing afternoon. See, I am now using the visit as a regular verb to mean sitting down and chatting with people, instead of going to see them!

Our first evening together we went to an Italian restaurant and had dinner with three Japanese students in Corvallis to study English. Mo and Scott are involved with exchange students and help them with their English and with the adjustment to life in America.Dinner was fun and the conversation interesting. It's good to get a reverse view of my own experiences when I went to Japan.Just as Japan was foreign to me, America is foreign to people from Japan. And to be honest, it is a little foreign to me despite sharing a language. Afterwards I got to cycle back to the apartment. That night it was really nice to be able to sleep in the horizontal position instead of in a bus seat. The seats never quite recline enough.

Maureen had school the next day and Scott had stuff to do, Mo was kind enough to lend me her computer and I went to the library. The library is on the same street as Mo & Scott's apartment and over looks the train tracks that run down the middle. When a train came through I was able to look out the window and take a photo. I wonder why Scott chose the apartment?!! I had a relaxed lunch in a local sandwich shop and then headed back to the apartment to meet Mo. We went on a bicycle ride through the university and then on through the university's agricultural area. It was another beautiful day and it felt good to be active and not sat on my butt. I got to cycle through a covered bridge,pick and eat blackberries and saw a llama. It was a good change of pace and a beautiful day. There are people I'm sure who may not understand going to visit a place like Corvallis, there are no obvious tourist spots, but I was there to see friends and the town was an added bonus. I can see that it is a lovely place to live, the quality of life is good and it has most things that a person could want. If you feel the need for a big city, Portland is only a couple of hours away by car or bus.There is no train unfortunately. Of course at the moment it is very quiet as the students haven't yet returned but probably the better for that.

September first is Mo and Scott's American wedding anniversary, we had a lovely dinner at home with some local beer. Mo and Scott are now real locals and buy as much as possible from within the local area, which makes sens as so much of it is so good. I certainly did enjoy the beer.I got to see their wedding photos, the whole day looks lovely and relaxed. Mo assures me that there was some drama but was a fantastic celebration with their family. The car was in the shape of the Shinkansen train, with different cakes for each two cars. Cool, something for everybody.

My last day in Corvallis started as the one before, with a visit to the local library. You have to love local libraries! I say local libraries as the ones I have used so far are not as busy as the ones in SF and generally don't have homeless people in them. I know that I shouldn't judge, after all I have no idea what these people have been through, but there were times in SF library that I felt a little uncomfortable with the other clientele. And let's face it there are very few positive stories in the media concerning homeless people. It's only the horror stories you hear,add to this that the walk to the SF main library from downtown takes you through the Tenderloin, the SF homeless area. It's enough to make anyone nervous. I didn't have a bad experience and that is what I should focus on.There but for the grace of God, go I.
Mo took me to a Vietnamese sandwich for lunch and we took our sandwiches and sat beside the river. I also bought some Vietnamese coffee that I had become addicted to while I was there. Both items were excellent and really reminded me of Vietnam and the great time I had had there. Definitely a place I need to return to at some point. Unfortunately I don't think that I will be travelling much in the next few years, it will be all work. Mo and I returned to the apartment and got our things together for an adventure. Mo & Scott were going to show me the Oregon coast, promising me that it would be nothing like the Californian coast i had experienced already. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but they explain it would be a whole lot cooler.
We drove to Newport, which they assured me was a coastal town, but the fog was so thick you couldn't see the ocean. It reminded me of Hokkaido and Yotei San, the volcano next to Niseko were I learned to snowboard. I went to Niseko three times in my first winter in Hokkaido and I never saw the volcano. Everyone told me that it was there, but I got to a point where I just didn't believe them. As far as I was concerned it was just a huge cloud bank, I eventually got to see it, I never climbed it though. We drove up onto the cliff and across the Newport bridge, which was also shrouded in fog, this was fine. I had driven across the Swan bridge in Muroran many times in the same weather conditions, it brought memories back.
The goal of our trip to Newport was on the other side of the bridge, the Rogue Brewery and producer of Dead Guy ale. Mo had timed it perfectly and we arrived a few minutes before the start of the last brewery tour of the day. I haven't taken a tour of a brewery before, even though Salisbury,my home town, as a few of them. The process of making beer seems fairly straight forward and the list of ingredients isn't long. I didn't catch what they do to make the different beers, but I do know that they make 26 varieties and would get to taste some of them. After the main tour we walked across the pier to the spirit tasting room and tried the spirits they are starting to produce, rum,whisky and gin. I have to be honest, I don't think I really liked any of them but then I generally don't drink straight spirits and I don't like whisky anyway.
We had dinner in the brewery restaurant, overlooking the harbour,which gave us the added bonus of seeing the fog clear off and the bridge emerge from it. The food was good and the company better. And even though I wasn't driving I didn't have a pint. I think the spirit samples had been enough for me and a beer would have finished me off, I had an early start the next day after all. After dinner we took a walk along the beach and then headed home. It had been another good day.
My bus was at 07.35, so I got up early and said goodbye to Mo & Scott. I had really enjoyed my time in Corvallis and would love to go back. Maybe someday I will, but until then a Greyhound ride was in my immediate future. I was headed to east Oregon and Dustin's parents, the lovely Lynn & Judy Kidd.