THE DRAMA OF TILLAMOOK

I DRIVE INTO TILLAMOOK, OREGON LOOKING FOR TROUBLE---Looking for DRAMA! It is to me what blood is to a vampire. I'm drama hungry always--AS ARE YOU---and if I cannot find drama, I will create it. Saying hello to someone you pass on the street is a small drama; a meal at a restaurant is a drama. Simply put, drama is movement from situation through change to consequence. The crucial element is MOVEMENT and you are in love with it for the same reason as I---movement creates BRAINGLOW---a word I invented to describe the state of my brain when I am interested. Dull people barely glow at all and dynamic people light up a room.

Here's big time drama for me---that monsterous building once housed blimps that patrolled the coast during WWII---located in Tillamook for a very good reason: a gap in the mountains that allowed easy access to the ocean. And those mountains back there---scene of THE GREAT TILLAMOOK BURN. (1933--45) over 300,000 acres. The immediate drama that catches my attention are those holstein cows.........

Twice a day on cue they wend their way to the dairy barn......

go to their favorite spot to eat and be milked. The best producers among them give 22 gallons (186 pounds) a day--the average is 8 gallons a day.

The milk comes here--- 1.2 million pounds a day to Tillamook Cheese---one of the world's

largest. As luck would have it, I visit on their 100th anniversary. Goodies like ice cream sold for a song. Fellow WIN Member Dodi and I help them celebrate. The hidden drama here is that milk prices have fallen to an unsustainable low due to overproduction. Whether taxpayers should help with price supports or let bunches of them go belly up is a drama currently playing itself out.

One-of-a-kind tree that has arborist speculating if ancient coastal Indians "tweaked" it to create this oddity.

Extreme tree hugging. Biggest Sitka spruce in Oregon.

See the drama? A nothing of a tree hangs on for 800 years--gets very big--someone notices--makes a path--posts a sign--bingo, the world comes to ooooh and aaaah. Do you know the story of Tioga George---shy little man began to post his travels on the web---now thousands tune in to see what he's done and where he is today. Are you going to share your drama with the world in some form or fashion?

I think I'm faking a thoughtful look--behind me is the drama here--Oregon's second highest waterfall--300 or so feet. I think this is the day I got taken to the woodshed--but that's another blog.

Here's what I came to photograph--the stone that didn't roll---and sure enough it gathered moss --as the old saying predicts. What I don't get is whether thats a good or bad thing. The rolling stone gathers none---who's the good guy and the bad. What is this aphorism supposed to teach?

I'm standing where an Atlantic City type Boardwalk was supposed to be. 2000 dreamers worked to build a West coast version of that famous recreation area. Highways, railroads,a natatorium(whatever that is) and 59 houses were built.------AND THEN-----AND THEN---men built a jetty and God sent a storm---WHAM---POW the enterprise died a lingering death. Only 5 of the houses were salvaged. I located and interviewed one of the last to leave. He moved his home a mile away where he's lived ever since.

Here's the sad story--hope you can read it.

Meet Robert Gray--1755--1806---the most famous sea captain you've never heard of. The first American to captain a ship around the world---did it twice. First to sail into the Columbia River---he named it---was the basis of our claim to Oregon. (Statue and museum in nearby Garibaldi)

A bit of mundane drama I enjoyed---guy pushes the pipe into the sand--air escapes via that hole near his thumb---then he puts his thumb over the hole and lifts up a pipe full of sand exposing a big hole---he immediately reaches to the bottom and pulls up 3 or 4 shrimp looking things--said he uses them for bait--saves $4--cost of a box.