The Coast Starlight

Journey to the Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part A: Getting There IV

Through the Willamette Valley to Eugene

The Coast Starlight was pretty much on time coming down from Seattle and we boarded it and left promptly at 2:25 PM. Almost immediately we crossed over the Willamette River on the same bridge we had seen on our walk (see the last post), and curved South to begin our Journey down the Willamette Valley.


Even today with all the urban sprawl in the country, the Willamette Valley remains fairly "agricultural." I use that word advisedly because according to what my nephew John O. says, the largest "cash crop" in the Willamette Valley these days is Grass Seed. We had noticed a lot of hay fields on our trip down and John says that they gather the hay only after they have gathered the seed. The hay, by the way, is used to feed a collection of livestock, both within the Willamette Valley and also in other parts of the state.



Whatever, to me the important thing I had to remind myself was that when the Pioneers trudged across the Oregon Trail to take up "new Lands" in Oregon, they were hoping to settle in lands such as the Willamette Valley. And yet, as we both knew from our early morning travels, much of Oregon is a desert and not nearly as fertile as this narrow valley.


At last, we arrived in Eugene Oregon, our "final destination" of our westward trek. I had called the Hertz car rental place while still on the train and they came over to the station and picked us up about 20 minutes after we got there. We then made the arrangements for "our" car for the next week and drove to our Motel. As I sank into the bed that night, I knew we had arrived.

Concluding Unscientific Postscript

You may be asking yourself, "Why did they pick Eugene as the base from which to begin their tour of Oregon?" Very simply, it was the closest I could get to the various areas we desired to tour, and could find "support" (i.e. Motels and Rental Cars) that would assist us in our further travels. Plus, if you will note from the map, the way our trip finally turned out, Eugene is almost the exact center of the northern boundry of the country that we saw. An extra benefit for me, was that we were able to base this trip off of a "smaller city." We had neighbors who took a similar trip last year to the same area, but they did it by flying into Portland and renting a car from there. This way, we got a totally different experience, both in getting there by train, and by leaving from a "smaller city."