The Famous Newport Bridge

The Oregon coast is dotted with many small coastal cities that rightfully boast rich histories, scenic beauty and year-round adventure for all ages. It’s quickly becoming a surfer’s getaway and a family vacation destination for travel in all econonic groups. With a population of 10,000, Newport Oregon is set up and ready for tourists.

The Famous Newport Bridge

The Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center

PIR in Portland, OR

The best raceway on the west coast is in Portland, Oregon. It’s family entertainment with scheduled events that have something for everyone. There’s a lot to be learned just by watching while there, and you can sign up for a class or race driving school.

PIR, as it’s known to locals, is Portland International Raceway. It’s a regular hub of activity as lots of different things take place around the calendar. It’s home to three of the Pacific Northwest’s premier driving schools and PIR’s goal is to become a World Class Racetrack since it holds over 650 events
annually, attracting over 400,000 visitors.

See the Bridge Cam

Known as the Bridge Cam, it’s centered directly over the track for the ultimate view and can be seen from any computer in the world. See it here: http://www.PIRlive.com .

Currently, there’s a half-hour video pilot being taped at PIR for a weekly talk show on PIRlive.com.

Portland International Raceway is the first in two areas: being the first racetrack to broadcast live daily on Internet stream and being the first to broadcast the NHRA E.T. Drags weekly live on Internet stream. The goal is to be THE place to watch.

Wireless access service is provided via WiFi on a secure server, so updates can be nearly real-time and frequent, being posted the minute things happen. Anyone who wants can hop on the connection.

Late Night Drags are held at PIR every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights from 4pm to 10pm in an effort to give interested youth a chance to try while being kept off the streets to find entertainment. Known as their Race and Be Safe Program, it’s become very popular and runs April through October. Wednesday nights are usually classic and antique cars, and weekend nights are for everyone else.

PIR Offers 3 Accredited Driving Schools

Based at PIR are three driving schools; Pro Drive School, Performance Driving School by Team Continental, and HPDE (high performance driving event) courses.

The official driving school of PIR is Pro Drive; a fully fledged school for racing on high performance courses, SkidCar courses and other corporate happenings. It’s considered to be the Premier driver training in the PNW. Check it out at ProDrive.net.

Team Continental teaches car control and dynamics during a three hour class, aptly named “Ground Control.” A professional licensed race driver will assist the student in implementing the lessons behind the wheel. Find out more at www.teamcontinental.com.

Cascade Sports Car Club has a driving school that offers HPDE courses and activities in a four hour evening class with another whole day of on-track guidance. PIR’s “Experience of a Lifetime” courses offer both novices and experienced drivers plenty of time and space to hone driving skills.

PIR Has Important Friends to Support It

The Friends of PIR is a not for profit group that formed to connect all the groups of individuals that work hard to promote PIR. Preserving it while enhancing it ensures PIR to stay around for decades to come. See their website at www.friendsofpir.com.

PIR is inviting all non profit groups and individuals to submit interest in creating new interests, such as garage suites for weekend enthusiasts, commercial space for racing oriented businesses and/or an indoor Kart center, among other suggestions. Ideas are welcomed.

PIRlive.com asks that you register before watching the Bridge Cam, but that’s easy and takes only seconds. Watch the NHRA E.T. drags every Wednesday night from 4pm to 10pm PST. It’s free, until it isn’t anymore.

In Winter PIR Rocks a Christmas Light Display

PIR allows Jubitz to turn the track into a slow winding ride through display after display of Christmas lights every December. It lasts most of the month and in 2009 it showcased Christmas art from school children around the area. It’s great during bad weather because you stay in the car and slowly go through the displays. It can accommodate up to 700 cars at any one time, which is impressive. At only $16 per car load, you can’t afford not to take the whole family.

Tailgating is popular all over the US, and it’s obvious from the looks of the PIR parking lots that it’s popular in Portland, too. In fact, some people actually come for the tailgating while their friends go watch the race events. Good smells and happy sounds exude from every direction at PIR.

It’s close to Vancouver, Washington and just a stone’s throw from the scenic Columbia River. Hotels are abundant for the nearly half a million visitors PIR receives every year, and the prices and styles will fit anyone’s idea of comfort.

If you come to the Pacific Northwest and you like racing, be sure to stop by PIR, Portland’s International Raceway. Bring the whole family and you won’t regret it.

They're starting to like people.

Just outside of Ridgecrest, California lies a quiet compound that consists of many large connected corrals with animal shelters and fields with enormous stacks – some of them three stories high – of baled hay. Some of the corrals had horses and burros and mules in them and they all had a big stack of food in there, too.

It was the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Compound. There were full grown and baby animals and some that looked just grown.

It’s the BLM’s responsibility to manage the wild range-lands and the animals those lands support. In this case it’s wild horses and burros, of which there are over 37,000 roaming ten of the western states. By federal definition a wild horse or burro is an unbranded, unclaimed, free-roaming burro or horse that lives on public lands without any interference from humans.

It is thought that these horses and burros are descendants of those that either escaped or were released by early American Tribes, Spanish explorers or the US Cavalry.

The BLM was granted authority to protect, manage and control the animals on public lands by The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. They made it their job to ensure healthy herds and healthy range-lands, as well.

The land they occupy is prime for their habitat and there are no natural predators, plus they’re protected now, so the herds enjoy good growth every year. The only problem comes when there’s too many animals for the land to support. Both land and animals would suffer. So the BLM collects some of them and keeps them in good care until they can be adopted by someone. That way, some of the horses and burros get good homes and the wild ones are assured good survival.

At the Ridgecrest, California compound all the animals are divided among the adequate number of corrals, and the animals live and interact with each other like the would naturally. Mothers and foals stay together, etc. They stay there until they’re offered up and adopted. Whoever adopts them has the responsibility to retrieve their horse or burro at their own cost and method.

Want to Know How to Adopt a Horse or Burro?

To adopt a horse, a person must be a minimum of 18 years old, have no previous animal charges, have access to enough feed, water and supplies to care properly for the animals, and they must be able to provide a permanent home for the adopted animal that’s inside the US.

It’s really cheap to adopt a wild horse or burro at $125 per animal, and $250 for a mother and baby. Each adopter can have a maximum of four animal adoptions in a calendar year. If someone wants more than that and can prove they have the means and ways, then they can take it up with the BLM prior to the sale and possibly make other arrangements.

The Wild Animals Are Provided Veterinary Care

Specially contracted veterinarians come to the compound and vaccinate, de-worm and freeze-mark them when they come in. Freeze marking is a way of identifying an animal that’s unalterable and is usually found on the left side of the horse or burro’s neck.

The adopter doesn’t actually own the horse or burro outright until a year has gone by and some authority like a veterinarian signs a statement that the animals have had good care and a good home. The statement is called a Certificate of Title and is received soon after the final investigation is done. As soon as that certification is received, the horse or burro is the adopters for good.

Many states now have wild horse and burro compounds and there are several in each of those states. The BLM has plenty of horses and burros while managing the wild range-lands.

It’s Worth Waiting to Own a Horse or Burro

Many people report having wonderful relationships with the 217,000 animals that have been adopted and tamed since 1974.

To adopt a horse, burro or mule, or to find out more, simply call the Bureau of Land Management staff at 866-4MUSTANGS. They have offices in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and some Eastern states, as well.

Coming home from school in Alaska

We’d been in Alaska for a couple of years and the girls were both in school. We lived along a creek, Ketchikan Creek, that literally ran from our house to their school.

The pull of adventure was just too much, they came home every day an hour late and soaking wet. It didn’t matter if it was cold outside, they would be happy, soaking and quivering, and I began doing laundry an extra day per week. I worked full time and already had too much to do without adding an extra chore.

I should tell you that Ketchikan is a resort town where cruise ships from all over the world come to visit in short spurts every day except winter time. The population jumps by 4 – 8 thousand depending on how many ships come in on any given day. The town crawls with tourists, big crowds of them. Ketchikan Creek was on the path of a couple of tours.

I Gave Them an Ultimatum

One Spring I decided I’d had enough of the laundry. I had scolded them too long without results, so I laid down the law: Don’t Come Home With Wet Clothes ANY More! You Will Be GROUNDED! Grounding them was the worst punishment… on me….

They still came home an hour late, but they were dry. I compromised and didn’t harp on the tardiness, at least they were dry. Laundry went back to twice a week, like normal.

One day I got a knock on the door and opened it to find my neighbor. “Have you seen your girls since school got out?” I hadn’t, and she motioned me to come with her. I grabbed a sweater and out the door we went.

Ketchikan Creek has a small bridge that hooked one street to another across the creek. As we approached the little bridge I noticed a crowd of tourists, gathered at one corner and they were ‘awwwwing’ and clapping. I walked a lit faster to the bridge and looked over.

There were my girls, naked as the day they were born, laying in the sun beside the creek. Their clothing was folded neatly beside them. People were taking pictures, which freaked me out and I called down to them.

“Get dressed! What are you doing? Why do you have your clothes off?” The oldest one looked up at me with a puzzled look.

“You told us not to come home with wet clothes, Mommy!” Everyone laughed and ‘awwwed’ again. It was so cute and she was right, I had said not to come home with wet clothes on, and in a seven year-old’s mind, she was doing exactly as I wanted. I had to be more clear in my explanation of why she shouldn’t take her clothes off in town.

     A Great Place to Raise Kids

One of the reasons we chose to raise our kids in Alaska is that kids there are less inhibited and there are fewer people, so more freedom, discovery and such. Some kids got in a lot of trouble because of it, but generally kids learned a lot. The tourism was something we hadn’t known about upon going to Ketchikan and there was a lot to learn from that, too.

As I said, tourists crawled along the creek in groups mostly, and one day the kids came to me and asked if they could stand at the bridge and sing songs for the tourists. They showed me right where they’d be and I said okay. I watched them from the window and the tourists seemed mused and nobody tried to touch them, thankfully. I noticed they seemed to be getting some tips, too.

Twenty minutes later they came back toward the house. They came running happily in the door, asking, “Mommy can we have a big bowl to keep all our money in?”

They had made over twenty-two dollars in those twenty minutes! I asked them to sing the song for me, and it was one they’d made up. It was cute, but Ketchikan has laws about panhandling in a resort town, so I had to make them stop.

I Love Alaska

Alaska is the best place to raise kids, in my humble opinion. We introduced them to the big city as teenagers and now they can’t get enough of the fast-paced, plasticized crowded cities. Not that that’s wrong, but an unexpected reaction, to me. I love the slower pace and kick-back Alaska lifestyle, but I don’t know why I thought they would feel the same. They do grow up and have minds of their own.

While they happily discovered more and more about city life, I was in culture shock and unhappy as all get out, until I learned to find things I did like about living here and focus on those, rather than the crime, overpopulation, rudeness and litter that shocked me in the first place.

They grew into wonderful, fun people who still like the busyness and hub-bub and they’re both starting new career adventures. And, they’ve both said they hope to go back to Alaska one day. Later. You know, some day.

Beautiful, Scenic Alaska

It all started around 5:30 am…

Our first days in Alaska were as adventuresome as you can imagine, with the bears. They say you have to make a lot of noise when you walk in the woods, and the locals choose to sing. So, if you’re in the woods in Alaska and you hear singing coming from somewhere off in the distance, you know someone’s trying to avoid surprising a bear.

Black bears are just as scared of us as we are of them, but the fear on our part is mostly unfounded. We didn’t know until after we’d lived there for a while that black bears don’t eat dogs, cats or children. The few stories we’ve heard on the news about black bears attacking are not the norm. They’d just as soon avoid us as look at us. But, like I said, we didn’t know.

Bears are a lot like cats in the sense that movement attracts their attention and they like to chase things that run. So if you ever come across one in the forest, don’t run. Try to look big, put your arms up and sing as loud as you can, and they’re likely to run away.

Free Food in Alaska

I’d learned that sea cucumbers were very good to eat and I wanted to get some. You have to go at the extreme low tides to get them because they’re offshore a bit, deeper than you’d want to wade in. They’re bright orange and reddish and they’re easy to see under the water; you take a yard rake and pull them in so you can pick them up and put them in a bucket. And I do mean a bucket, I learned that a plastic bag doesn’t work. Those slippery suckers slither around and escape!

These animals are so helpless that their only line of defense is to puke out their eggs, and sometimes some guts, to try and repulse their attacker.

The extreme low tide was coming at 6am, so I got up real early and drove out to the south end of the road. I got out my bucket and walked through the woods via an animal trail to the shoreline and realized I’d forgot my rake. It was still dark and I was a little scared. Who knows what creatures roam around in the darkness of Alaska? I decided to run down the trail, it was a lot darker in the woods than on the beach, though it was getting slowly lighter.

     Alone in the Dark Forest

As I ran I thought I heard something behind me, so I stopped and looked. I didn’t see anything and the night was very still so there was no noise at all. A little leery, I started to run, and about a quarter mile into the woods I thought I heard something again, and again, I stopped. I noticed a strong stench of a musty, moldy smell and wondered if that was the smell people had told me about. There’s a certain scent that an old boar (male bear) has and it’s unmistakable.

Right behind me I heard a deep, gutteral grunt and it scared me so bad I instantly and involuntarily spun around on my heel. There, not four feet from me was the biggest bear I’d ever seen in my life! Of course, running into bears isn’t that common to most people and that bear was twelve feet tall if he was an inch, in my frightened eyes.

I Nearly Wet My Pants!

Without even thinking about it I let out a blood-curdling scream and the bear stood up on it’s back legs, looking even more huge! I screamed again and took my coat and held it wide open above my head, trying to look bigger, and the bear turned and took off up the hill. Daylight had begun to creep in and I could just barely see him go over the fallen tree and up and over the hilltop.

Suddenly I didn’t know whether to wet my pants or continue on. Of course I did continue on, there was no other way out of that place, and somehow I hadn‘t wet my pants. I made it to the car and got my rake and felt a little safer having something I could use for a weapon, if I needed it. I know I’ll never forget that smell.

Getting back down to the beach I raked the little creatures up until I filled my bucket, keeping an eye on the woods the whole time. I have to admit, I was afraid to carry the bucket back down the trail, I’d heard stories of people having to defend their fresh-picked berries or their freshly caught salmon from bears. I figured if the bear wanted my catch I’d just drop it and let him have it. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. I got home safely and had a great story to tell my husband when he got up. He was jealous he hadn’t gone with me, and you can believe me when I say that I invited him every time after that!

When it’s a nice day in Alaska, there’s not a nicer day anywhere!

Travel to Alaska was easy enough, and less expensive than we’d thought. We drove to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada and caught the early morning ferry to Southeast Alaska. Cruising through the narrows between the islands, we passed what we thought were the beginnings of villages. Run down, dilapidated buildings dotted the coastline as we went by, and we soon learned that these were the homes of peo

ple who lived away from the villages. Some had docks with skiffs tied up and some had milk goats on their land.

After six hours of looking in awe at the bald eagles, porpoise and orca whales that seemed to be escorting us in, we came to a real city. It had a large post office, a McDonald’s sign and a grocery store that we could see from the ship.

We docked, and the first thing to do was find a place for our two dogs to relieve themselves, which they did in the parking lot as soon as they got out of the car. We’d talked to some locals and found where the nearest campground was, and we went on our way.

We found a campsite and unloaded everything we had. Realizing we needed more ice, my husband went to the store while I tried to organize our things.

Our First Adventure in Alaska

Slam! Slam! I heard the two car doors shut and I turned to see our kids, Katie who was six and Jess who was four, in the car looking at me. I walked over to see what they were doing and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

“Why did you lock the doors?” I asked through the closed window. They pointed behind me so I turned to look and saw a big black bear sauntering down the road toward our camp. I turned back to the car in a panic. “Open the door! Let me in!”

“No! There’s a bear!” they retorted simultaneously.

“But let me in!” I yelled as I tried the handle repeatedly while pulling on the door handle. Again, they refused. I turned to see if the bear was getting closer when a white SUV pulled up behind the bear. A husky sort of woman got out and began yelling and waving her arms, and as she’d expected, the bear took off into the woods. She got back into her car and drove closer to us.

“I don’t think he’ll be back for a while!” she called from her car, waving and smiling as she passed us. I didn’t know much about bears, but I didn’t believe that bear wouldn’t be back. I wasn’t sure what to do next, so I tried to pretend I wasn’t scared (for the kids’ sake) and went back to organizing our belongings while keeping an eye out for more bears. The kids seemed happy to stay in the car and watch until their dad came back with the ice for our coolers.

The Adventures Have Just Begun

We had a habit of putting our kids to bed when it got dark. That had to change immediately, as it didn’t get dark until almost 10:30pm! The kids were exhausted, as we were, so it wasn’t hard getting anyone to sleep that night.

I woke up because of the bright light in my eyes, coming through the vent at the top of the tent. I sat up and looked at my watch.

“What? Everyone wake up! It’s nearly three o’clock, we almost slept away our first day in Alaska!” Everyone seemed groggy, but I wasn’t surprised after the trip we’d just taken. We got everyone dressed and got into the car to go to town and find a restaurant for breakfast. The town was dead, not one car passed us on the five mile drive there. Everything was closed and the entire town seemed asleep, still. We passed the grocer that had a digital clock on it, and we found out it was three AM! We forgot that Alaska is the land of the midnight sun! In summer dawn comes in right around 2:30am, we learned. We were in Southeast Alaska so it didn’t stay sunny around the clock, there were three to four hours of night each day.

We did some sight seeing and learning about our new home and finished setting up our camp. With small kids like ours and long daylight hours, we tried to tire the kids as much as possible so they’d sleep through the sunlight of the night.

Again, I was awoke in the night, though, this time it was still dark. Our dogs began barking and whining, and we heard things being tipped over outside. Some big breathing sounds and a few grunts told us what was going on; there was a bear going through our things!

My husband got up immediately to take care of the situation like a man – he unzipped the tent door and let the dogs outside!

“No!” I screamed, waking the kids. “He might eat the dogs!” My husband just chuckled at me.

“Bears don’t eat dogs, silly!”

“How do you know?” The question was quickly forgotten when it became clear the dogs had run off into the woods after the bear. “What if they get lost? What if the bear turns to fight them?” I was very frightened and my husband seemed far too calm for my comfort.

“They’ll come back, don’t worry.” But, worry I did, and I did it for the whole twenty minutes they were gone. I was so relieved when they came back and I checked them over for any wounds, finding none. My husband chained up the dogs outside the tent to ward off anymore curious camp robbers. I had to get the kids back to sleep before the sun came up.

We had many, many more adventures living in that tent in Alaska. I’m going to write about all of it here, so bookmark my hub and don’t miss my next entry!