McMinnville, Oregon

We are staying for a few days with friends, on their farm up in the hills between Amity and McMinnville. Their view of the valley below is breathtaking, and we've spent hours setting by their pond, under giant fir trees, just watching the world go by.

Sopwith Camel in front of the Spruce Goose

Friday we saddled up and meandered through the beautiful Oregon farmlands to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville. This museum is home to the world famous "Spruce Goose" - Howard Hughes' "flying boat". Its first (and last) flight was in 1947.  Completely built of wood, it is an amazing feat of engineering.

We visited the 'Goose years ago, when it lived in Long Beach, California. Then, when we lived here in Oregon, we watched in 1993 as they moved it north to its current home. That move was an extremely challenging task. Here's a photo of the pieces of the ship as it traveled north from California. It took a few years to reassemble and restore it, and it's now the centerpiece of one of the wonderful collections at this museum. The brainchild of Michael King Smith, who passed away in  1995  in an auto accident, the project was pursued by his father, Delford Smith, who founded Evergreen Aviation.

Curtiss P-40N Warhawk

The facility is actually two museums and an IMAX theater, and the collection is worth more than one visit. There are aircraft outside of the buildings, two nice gift shops, two cafes, a playground for the kiddies, and that's just the stuff you don't have to pay admission for!

Inside, the collection is divided into two sections - space, and the history of flying. Both worth the time, and very knowledgeable docents are available to conduct tours, or to answer specific questions any time.  There's something for everyone here, whether you are interested in the engineering aspect, space exploration, the history of aircraft, or just history in general. There's artwork too - paintings, sketches and photographs are interspersed throughout the displays.

Guardians of the Realm

There are also original manuscripts and newspapers along with uniforms from historic flights. These are all carefully displayed behind decorative screens to protect them from damaging sunlight. This is a beautifully designed space, very visitor friendly and comfortable to spend the time it takes to view it all. Commercial airliner seats are scattered about so you can sit and rest or contemplate the many videos placed throughout the displays, and in spite of the open arrangement and all the video and audio displays, it's not particularly noisy. We spent four hours and really could have taken longer, but we didn't want to leave Molly in the trailer for too long, and we had to get ready for an early departure for the game on Saturday. More photos from the museum here.

Saturday was first University of Oregon Ducks football game, against University of New Mexico Lobos.

We met our friends in Eugene and then went in to the tailgating area. As usual we had a great time, but the score was a bit lopsided...  Ducks 72 - Lobos 0. Ouch! It's apparently the most lop-sided game in Autzen history. Traditionally our Duck has to do pushups equal to our points scored after every touchdown - with touchdowns plus field goals he did a final total of 506. By late in the game he was (very dramatically) crawling off the field and plopping down on the sidelines with his big orange feet stuck up in the air. The television broadcast had a little fun with it too. Here's a videoclip, watch the lower left for Duck action (speeded up just a bit!).

We'll be here another day or two, then move north to Washington to visit friends there.