Yachats Oregon Writer Rick Schultze

I had an appointment in Portland so my girlfriend and left our house in Yachats for the big city. It’s always a trip to go to Portland with its big population because the biggest towns I usually frequent are Waldport and Florence and while both of them have traffic signals, something Yachats doesn’t, they aren’t exactly big cities.

We left early in the morning east bound on Highway 34 and since it was a weekday there was very little traffic. In fact we were the only ones for miles rolling through the quiet picturesque countryside with only the occasional clusters of cattle stirring. However that pleasant part of the journey came to an abrupt halt as we met up with Highway 20 in Philomath and joined the morning traffic heading into Corvallis. It was a reminder that there are a lot of people in the valley moving about and hitting I-5 north to Portland

was like taking off at a busy airport, you’ve got to have your entry speed up or get run over.

Negotiating the traffic jamming into Portland actually was fairly easy; it was just a matter of going the same speed as the rest of the folks and aiming at the right exit which I did and a couple of hours out of Yachats we were into the hotel and ready to explore a bit of Portland before taking care of business in the morning.

Of course when you in a city like Portland you have to watch out for all the wild things that happen, especially the stuff that is on the nightly news but on our tour we met no problems and met many Portland residents who recommended restaurants, sights to see and other helpful tips like we do here on the coast.

Thus in the morning we were ready for business which was a routine visit to the VA hospital for my eye checkup. The Portland VA hospital is a big place with a lot of veterans and their families there for treatment but even with all of us crowding the hospital my appointment started right on time and soon we were back on the road to Yachats.

I was born in Portland so it’s always a special place to visit but we were excited to be heading back to the Central Oregon coast and tranquility. The trip back was on Highway 18 via Lincoln City. After going through the Van Duzer Corridor and Otis we hooked up with Highway 101 and slowly crawled through Lincoln City as it was the afternoon traffic time and after a nice drive entered Depot Bay only to see a bunch of police cars and officers surrounding the West Coast Bank. Obliviously it wasn’t a place to hang around so southward we continued and just as we left Depot Bay the radio update reported there had been a bank robbery at the West Coast Bank and that the Lincoln County authorities and the FBI were on the case.

So it goes, at all of the bigger spots we’d visited nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but close to home there was action of the big city kind.

The folks in Depot Bay now will have something to talk about for a while but I must say that making it back to Yachats and watching a whale out in the ocean rolling around and spouting was a great way to end a trip that had been nothing short of being very interesting!!

Be careful on all the tips you take and enjoy summer!

To reach Rick Schultze email: yarick@pioneer.net