Portland

We arrived in portland around eight or nine at night but we realized pretty quickly we had a bit of an issue. A trend was emerging; as we had gotten closer to the west coast, fewer and fewer states had free camping anywhere within hours of their major cities. Being optimists who trusted a mildly incompetent GPS we figured on popping up at a rest stop until morning. What we hadn't counted on was that Portland had almost no rest areas within its surrounding sixty miles and of the ones that it did have almost none allow overnight stays. Keep in mind, though, that we are professionals, and very crafty. Fred had been talking to another travel enthusiast from Portland who was interested in our blog. She used our friendly new contact to recommend camping sites, and when that failed, Google rest areas for us on the surrounding highways. This sounds like a pretty painless process, but just like anything else we've ever hoped to accomplish it required four hours and about fifteen U-turns. Every rest stop we entered was either closed or just a parking lot next to a river. 

A one point we pulled off at an outlook over a historic sawmill and I (Dan) spent a few minutes playing with the idea of giving up hope and just living on the river like Huckleberry Finn. Then it got cold and I got back in the car. Eventually we did manage to find a rest area just outside of Portland. About a half hour south from the city were two rest stops nestled into the trees. They reminded me somewhat of our campsites in North Carolina, and it felt like we were in an asphalt lot in the middle of the woods surrounded by fog and darkness. We picked the one headed into town and set up shop for the night. 

Fred used her new friend to pull together a list of must-see spots in the city. But we had only one real goal, and not surprisingly it was pizza. Whenever the topic of things to do in Portland was discussed, all Fred wanted to do was eat pizza at Lonesome's Pizza. As the trip progressed and the idea of pizza became more and more of a made up fantasy while eating bologne sandwiches and ramen I believe it was that pizza that carried her through. 

Waking up that morning we noticed that our propane stove was leaking fuel. Not wanting to incinerate the camper, breakfast was probably going to end up being a cold flour tortilla and soggy cheese. So we tried something we always wanted to do. While we were folding up the camper I rubbed some oil on the tortillas, put them in tin foil and threw them on the running engine in an attempted car-B-Q cheese quesadilla. This probably would have been easier on a V8 but it was definitely melted cheese on a hot tortilla, which is totally food. I tell that story to explain why our one true goal was pizza. 

After a unique breakfast we headed into town. Our first stop was the Portland Saturday Market. We really enjoy farmer's markets and flea markets and such. It's the opportunity to see weird people who are devoted to a very specific skill or business, I think. We both have weird hobbies and interests and places like those are the haven of the broadminded. We took Rosie, Piper, and Juno along with us and walked the food stalls trying to divert our attention away from pizza. The surprise of the day came when we ran into Duncan Lou Lee. Fred lost her mind because she loves this two legged dog. If you don't know her story you should definitely check it out. Among two legged dogs in the United States (of which there are a surprising number) she is probably the most famous. Duncan's owner was just as surprised to see a goat at a farmers market and snapped a picture with Rosie and Duncan. We were so excited we forgot to take our own picture. Afterwards we decided to check out some culture.

Our contact suggested we visit the Portland Rose Garden, which is the largest rose test garden in the world.  What that means is that botanists plant their cultivated breeds of roses in this garden to determine which ones they want to choose to sell to the public. The roses are judged on looks, smell, and other characteristics and are categorized so that you can find the "best smelling" "fruity" or "spicy" rose in the grid system. It was way past the season for roses to be in bloom but it was still a pretty spectacular experience. It was kinda hard to control Rosie in the face of what i can only assume is a goat buffet, but it was a pretty magical experience.

It was just after Halloween, so there was a Jack-O-Lantern!

The last of the roses.

Afterwards we began to discuss what we had left to do. Both Fred and I wanted to spend more time in Portland. The culture there is something rarely seen in the rest of the United States; everyone you meet seems to be a transplant that has travelled the country and ended up there. But we are on our own schedule and truth be told we don't want to spend another night at a rest stop, so the descision is pizza and then we run.

So far as I can tell the pizza we are getting appears to come from the back door of a strip club and is almost comically expensive at $26 a pie, so Fred and I decide that we'll look around at the other restaurants in the neighboring China Town area before settling on the pizza. Our journey through China Town is like a 45 minute homeless gauntlet that I lose two cigarettes in. But finally I tell Fred that she came all the way to Portland she might as well get her daggone pizza. So we head back over and order a a half mint, mozzarella, lamb, artichoke heart, and goat cheese and half ricotta, mozzarella, bacon, potatoes, walnuts and rosemary pizza. Lonesome's Pizza gives their pizzas fanciful names such as "David Hasselhoff vs. velcro headboard restraints" and "Lou Ferrigno vs. a shark with throwing stars for teeth." We're told it'll take around 15 minutes,  but it takes a whole lot longer. The pizza itself is not in my opinion that great but you know what, if Fred liked it I'm happy.  (Fred says the artichoke and lamb half was on point, but the bacon walnut half was really dry.) At this stage we drove off into the night and headed to an Indian casino.