Oregon Road Trip

Saturday began with a sighting of one of a pair of Western tanagers we have seen here the last couple of days. They aren’t rare here, but they don’t show up much at our feeders. Then a road trip to the Corvallis Saturday market. A little early for many veggies, but we found some green onions, and some radishes larger than red potatoes. The market is a great place to eavesdrop conversations. My two favorite today. The first, two couples talking about dogs: “Ours are nowhere close to being socially behaved enough to bring here. We have to drive them to the middle of nowhere, and turn them loose.” The second was at a booth with knitted headwear. A lady picked up a beanie, and declared, “Oh, Gina would wear the shit outta this.”

We walked from the market to one of our favorite bookstores, Grassroots Books, in a new location a block or two from their old place. It was National Independent Bookstore Day, so I bought a book, The Well Gardened Mind” by Sue Stuart-Smith.

We headed back across the wide Willamette, its current running crazy strong, via the Buena Vista Ferry. Our soundtrack included Warren Zevon, Audioslave, Neil Young, Leo Kottke, Tom Petty, Acker Bilk, Phish, Cracker, and others. One of our favorite short road trips.