Reedsport Oregon

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part B: The Oregon Coast II g

Supper and a Sunset with Vintage Cars

Our second day ended up in Reedsport at supper with J. who had finally joined up with us.



One of the aspects of our whole 3 days of tourning the coast not mentioned to date, was that we were there during the time that Winchester Bay (see previous post) was sponsoring a Vintage Car Show. Consequently, there were vintage cars everywhere. The one pictured here was in Florence. But the parking lot of our motel was filled with them and their owners.



They were an interesting bunch of guys to be around. (And while there were wives along, most of the real attendees appeared to be male.) One morning in the Motel's breakfast room I heard a couple of them talking. One of the guys stated that he was almost finished with restoring his car.



His friend expressed astonishment. "Almost finished? What more can you do? It looks and runs perfectly! I would sure like to have it right now! What more are you going to do.?"



Then the first fellow related that he planned to completely clean and chrome the bottom of the Engine Block so that when he came in for a show he could slide a mirror under the hood so that passerbys could admire all sides of his engine. "You know, I want them to see all of it, including the bottom. That way I will feel that I have done a complete restoration."



His friend just shook his head and agreed that it would be neat to see all sides of the engine block.



Somehow that conversation took me back to my early years on the flightline and some of the mechanics I knew back then. Now most of us would not have been so all encompassing and complete about our work (it is hard to be that way when your bird is 30+ years old and you have to struggle to get parts, time etc.). But I did know one or two who would have fit into this category. And they were universally admired by all of us as great mechanics.



Funny, folks like that almost seem to be vintage themselves. They have an attention to detail, a pride in their work, that too many times is overlooked today. I wonder. . . what kind of a society would we have if more of our mechanics and other workers had the same kind of pride? It might move slower, it might be more stressful, but it would sure operate more smoothly.

It was, needless to say, an interesting 2 nights at the Salbasgeon Motel (named for the 3 fish in the area, the Salmon, Bass, and Sturgeon in an obvious attempt to appeal to the "sport fishing" trade). It was part of the Best Western chain, but the weekend we were there it was not your typical "Best Western." You had all these really classic cars, yes, some/most I remembered, and hearing all these guys talk about gears, generators, starters etc. Not your typical motel stay conversation to say the least!

Anyway, back to Reedsport and supper. After supper we went down along the Umpqua River so A. could shoot some sunsets. Then we made plans to meet up with J. in the morning and continue our exploration of the Middle Coast of Oregon.



But more on that in future postings.