Didn't get anything written yesterday, obviously, and for that I apologize. The day was fun and by the time I sat down and thought about putting something down last night, it was already after 1:00 in the morning and I was starting to fall asleep.
    That being said; it was a pretty fun day over all. A nice easy, relaxing morning like usual. I was packed up and in the truck around 11:00 in the morning. I headed east up the Columbia River Gorge on my way to Bonneville Dam. Emma, my GPS, wanted me to take I-84 on the south side of the river, but I went via Hwy 14 on the north side instead. It was a nice morning for driving, with little traffic and some wonderful scenic vistas looking down on the river. It started raining as I headed east, and the further I went the more it came down, until by the time the dam came into view it was coming down pretty hard.
   There are very few bridges across the river once you get east of Portland, so I had to cross over east of Bonneville on what is known as the 'Bridge of the Gods'. The bridge itself is an older style steel truss type that arches up and over the river high enough that large ships and tugs can pass underneath with no problem
   The name of the bridge comes from and old Native American story about a land bridge that use to span the river in that area of the gorge. As it turns out it probably has a lot of truth in it as geologists think that a huge landslide came down off the mountain to the north of the river about 600 years ago and totally blocked the river for some time. It eventually ate it's was through the hundreds of feet of dirt and rock, leaving an arch over the middle portion that stood for some time before finally eroding away and falling down into the river. When Lewis and Clarke and the Corps of Discovery made their way down the river many years later, and prior to the dam being built, they found extensive rapids in that area from all the rocks that had been deposited in the river by the landslide.
   I crossed over the river, paying my $1 toll on the way, and then headed over to the Bonneville Dam visitor center. It was nice to see that it was finally opened to visitors once again after being closed because of terrorist fears for so many years after 9-11. I drove through the security gate and across the bottom of dam #1 and on to the visitor center parking lot where I parked and ran into the building. Pretty quiet there on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. I walked through all the displays on the 4th floor where you enter the building from outside, and then waited for the next ranger lead tour through the facilities and over to one of the three power houses, for a view of the 10 turbines located there. It was an impressive view of this massive structure with these 10 huge turbines in their housings. There were lots of numbers and facts thrown out during the tour, as well as lots of placards to read. I promptly forgot most of them of course, but if I get some pictures posted in a day or two I'll try to look some of them up again.
    The tour took about 50 minutes and was well worth the wait, plus it was free, so that was pretty cool. After that I wandered down to level one where they had a bunch of viewing windows that looked out into one of the 3 salmon ladders they have there at the dam. One for each of the 3 dam sections and powerhouse complexes. The biggest fish run was over for the year, that being during the month of September when as many as 20,000 fish of various species were passing up that ladder each day. Now there were only a couple of hundred coming through, but enough that you could actually watch a bunch of them if you were patient enough. As an added bonus there were also a couple small, 4'-8' long, sturgeon passing up the ladder. No one was sure why they were there, but it was neat to see them free swimming in the current. I did get one good chance to go out at one point and take some pictures of the outside of the salmon ladder while the rain was down to a bare drizzle.
    I had a dinner date that evening back in Portland so I got back on the road by 5:00. I had gotten in touch with my ex-wife's daughter and had set up a time to see her and her husband and their two daughters. A short disclaimer here.... I really don't know what the protocol is for 'what' the relationship Lea and I have is anymore. I am sure there is some specific word that identifies it, but I don't know what it is, so I am just going to consider her a good friend of mine from here on out, because I'm pretty sure we are.
    Anyway; I met up with them at 7:00 at one of my all time favorite restaurants, 'Hoda's'. A Lebanese restaurant that specializes in Mediterranean food, I love their hummus, and swarma and all the other good stuff they make. Last night I had sliced lamb sautéed in olive oil and spices and served over rice with hummus and hot pita bread. Along the way I got to meet Lea's, new to me, husband Todd, as well as their newest addition, their 3 month old daughter Lumen. Also along was Lea's first daughter Indigo, who is now 14 and in 9th grade, very tall and cute. Rather shy at first, she even talked to me a little bit after we had eaten for a while. The baby is beautiful of course, and remarkably easy going considering it was way past her bed time. But the whole family was very cute together and I am happy to have had a couple hours to spend with them on this trip.
   It has now been raining since last night and pretty much all through today. Other than a short trip out this afternoon in order to get some garlic and chicken broth for some soup I want to make, it has been pretty quiet here at the trailer. Of course I ended up buying more at the store than I went in for, like a rotisserie chicken and some fresh out of the oven French bread, but that was okay because it was yummy.  Other wise it has been a very peaceful day for me. Did a whole bunch of reading and did a couple crosswords, even cleaned a little bit of the trailer. I'm hoping it will stop raining tomorrow, or at least slow down a little bit. Either way I'll be bored by then and anxious to get out and about again. For now though; here are a few pictures from my road trip last Monday. I drove out to what is known as Camp 18, a wide spot along Hwy 26 where some guy has collected a whole bunch of logging tools and equipment from the past, as well as built a pretty good restaurant in a log building he also built.

Camp 18 near Elsie, Oregon - Oct 13, 2014

That big thing there in the middle is a band saw out of one of the local lumber mills that use to be in business in the coast range of Oregon. I'm thinking it is somewhere around 18'-20' tall and could cut a plank from a 6' diameter doug fir without to much effort. The blade, up close, is about 8 inches wide and had teeth on both sides so that half way through the work day they could stop and turn it over for another 8 hour shift before sending it back to be sharpened again. Even though this is the biggest saw I have ever seen, it is certainly not even close to the biggest ones out there.

A small tracked 'tractor' that would of been used to pull logs out of the woods.

Another small 'cat'. Aren't they cute!

An even older steam powered tractor. I remember seeing these in the middle of the country on farms. Here they were used to haul logs.

This contraption was known as a steam donkey by the loggers. Made up of a wood or oil fired steam boiler in the back, and attached to a set of geared windless on the front, they were mounted onto a set of logs that could be pulled through the woods to wherever they were needed. When securely tied down to stakes or stumps, and then hooked up to cables, and possibly a spar pole and high wire with blocks, they would pull logs out of country to rough for any other method.  

A closer view of the gears and the cable winch where wire cable was turned as the steam donkey's piston applied power.

Another old logging tractor.

A rail mounted log loader, very much like a Barnhart, these would often ride on top of the empty log cars as the train would come back into the woods after dumping their load at the saw mill. Loading the car directly in front of the one it was on, it would work it's way along the length of the train loading each car in turn, and then moving on to the next car over a short section of track laid right on the top of the flat car. This way the log company wouldn't need a separate loader at each landing, but could just uncouple one car and take it where ever it was needed.

A close up of the winches and gears on the loader.

This piece of tracked equipment is kind of fascinating. It would be attached to the back of a tracked 'cat' by the arm that is laying on the ground and then backed up over the end of one large, or several smaller logs. Once in position a 'chocker' cable or wire would be run under and around the log(s) and then pulled tight by a winch located on the tractor. Once the ends of the logs were off the ground it was much easier to pull them the rest of the way out of the woods or to a landing where they could be loaded onto rail cars or trucks.

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