Day 29, Sept 5`, 2009

Posted by Allen Alley Sep 6, 2009

There is No Place Like Home

Wow. 381 miles from Baker City to Lake Oswego. So many miles, so many smiles, so many new friends it was great to come home to some old friends and neighbors. Thanks to the entire crew for supporting me. I can hardly wait until Tuesday for our walk to Portland.

We had a wonderful wet walk through the Willamette Valley today. It was only fitting that we got soaked as we walked the final miles to our home. It illustrated the diversity of our state. We started in 100 degree heat in Baker City and ended up in a 60 degree cool mist in the Willamette Valley. They represent the diversity we found in our state.

Can it be a Ferry? Yes, it Canby!

When we first laid out our course, we realized that taking the Canby ferry would save us several miles. The only question was none of us had ever been on it. Turns out we were really missing a great time. The ferry is fun, efficient and entertaining. Our captain was very helpful and although the ride was short, it was quite enjoyable. Highly recommended. The kids would love it. And it is electric. How cool is that?

Canby Dahlia Festival

We quite literally stumbled on the Canby Dahlia Festival. The fields of flowers were beautiful. We didn't realize that we were going to see something like this and it was a special treat. It sounds cliche but it really brightened our day.

The Home Stretch

With only a handful of miles left I am overwhelmed by what the team has accomplished. I could not have ever done this without their support. They always were there to encourage, support and to lend me a hand if I needed it. They kicked me when I needed it. Kept me on schedule and gave me constructive feedback on my speeches. AJ, Ryan, Lauren, Daniel, Amos, Jackie, Rick and Terri. Thank you so much for turning a figment of imagination into one of the most important and interesting months of my life.

Also a special note of thanks to everyone who came out to walk with us. There are too many to list here. You know who you are and your dedication and support kept us going. Every one of you brought us new energy and spirit. We could not have done it without your optimism and drive. Thank you!

One blog left. See you all Tuesday.

280 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: aj, ryan, lauren, daniel, amos, jackie, terri, rick, canby, dahlia, ferry, home

Day 24, August 30, 2009

Posted by Allen Alley Sep 3, 2009

Walk Update

Easy walk. In fact I think every walk is now easy. Difficult to say if it is easy terrain or I am just getting in much better shape. In any case the walking is much easier. I have a new set of blisters that are bugging me but are not catastrophic. More of an annoyance than anything else.

Dinner At Stoller Vineyards

I am starting with our evening activity and it was a most special treat. I got to see Debbie! We attended a dinner at Stoller Vineyards for the benefit of several charities (Metropolitan Family Service, New Avenues for Youth, Friends of the Children – Portland, Trillium Family Services and YWCA Clark County), All great organizations and worthy of the support of the community. It was wonderful to see Debbie after being apart for several weeks. I know our time apart is nothing for many families where spouses spend time serving in the military but for us it was the longest time we have been separated in 27+ years. We had a great dinner with friends and spent some time reflecting on our walk and the future of our state. As you can see from the pictures, we have some world leading vineyards and facilities here in Oregon.

The above picture is of our friend Jane and I think captures more than just her silhouette. Jane is a wonderful water color artist and you can almost see her mind sketching the vineyard as she gazes through the open cellar door and out onto the vines, highlighted by the amber light of a setting sun.

The above scene is what Jane was looking out on and across the valley.

A view of the vineyards from below, looking up toward the house. Many thanks to Bill and Cathy for a wonderful evening.

Zapproved Board and Old Friends

We had a walking board meeting today for Zapproved. Well it was not quite a board meeting because we did not have a quorum but it was fun to say we did. We were also joined by our intern Lauren and her mom who provided much needed local knowledge. We were also joined by our friends Shawn Lindsay and Taisoon Doctor for the day. Everyone made it a full 15 miles with a little help from athletic tape and mole skin :-)

New Friends

We meet new friends almost every day, usually in a restaurant. When you are walking 15 miles a day, you think you can eat anything and everything so you spend a lot of time in restaurants. Everyone we meet, seems to be genuinely pleased to support us and our trek.

Freres Lumber

I got to know the Freres family on the Treasurer's race. Kyle Freres gave us a tour of their Veneer Mill and Electric Co Gen plant. The operation was clean, neat and really humming. This is a well run operation. You can see it on the faces of the employees.

Caution Another Co-Generation Rant

The Freres facility also has a very nice Electric Co-Gen plant on sight. It is a state of the art 10MW facility. Exactly like the Co-Gen plant in Prairie City. It uses scrap wood products for fuel, just like Prairie City. Their control systems are similar to Prairie City. Even the electric generators are similar. The difference is because the Freres plant came online in 2007 the power is considered "green" and the almost identical facility in Prairie City came online in 1986 so it cannot be counted as "green" power (Since Governor K vetoed the bill this session that would have included it). So we have one brand new $20+ million facility built with the assistance of the state and its almost identical twin, built in 1986. It absolutely makes no sense at all that Prairie City is excluded.

As you can see from the pictures this is a very well run facility. Nothing goes to waste. Extremely clean and modern. I can attest that the computer controls and machine vision systems are state of the market. Thanks so much to the Freres family for treating us to a great tour and informative afternoon.

273 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: freres, zapproved, randy, monica, bill, cathy, stoller, prairie, kyle, lauren, co-gen

Day 22, August 28, 2009

Posted by Allen Alley Sep 3, 2009

Walk Update oops Canoeing Update

Today we took a day off from the usual routine. We walked a couple of miles to Detroit Lake Marina and then rented a canoe to paddle the length of Detroit Lake. It was quite the adventure and provided a nice break from our walk. It was about 7 miles of rowing and it cut off a little more than that of roadway. All survived quite well, but we did sink the canoe twice (story below).

Thanks Detroit Lake Marina

Special thanks to our friends at the Detroit Lake Marina. We could not have done it without you.

The Birth of a Baby Reduces Crew by 2

The weather was great with a little overcast at the start which made for some pretty spectacular pictures. Interns Loren and Ryan were with me the whole day. AJ and Kelly drove out to be with us which would have given us a great crew. But, Kelly's sister Hilary went into labor just as we were launching. We made the strategic decision to send them home and the three of us continued physically two short but confident that we could still pull it off. By the way mom and baby are fine. Congratulations Hilary and Chris!

Ryan and Lauren Save the Adventure

I could not have done it without Ryan and Loren. We had just enough for one person in the safety boat and one in the canoe. We were on a pretty tight schedule so everyone had to be on the top of their game. The lake starts out very calm in the morning as you can see in some of the early pictures. By about noon the wind kicks up, especially by the dam, to the point where you have white-caps. We needed to finish before noon or we could have a long day ahead of us.

The significance of the picture of me with the cookies is our office manager Jackie had been with us for the past two weeks and during that time we discovered that she adores cookies. She was supposed to be with us on the canoe trip so Lauren baked really great chocolate chip cookies especially for Jackie but she was a no-show (she actually called us and let us know she had a conflict but we like to pick on her anyway). So we were fueled by some excellent home made cookies which greatly increased the likely hood that we would finish by noon.

The Lake is Conquered

And finish by noon we did! Victory. It took us a little more than 3 hours. Which is a little slower than our walking pace of 3 miles per hour. The wind did start to kick up as we rounded the final corner on our last leg to the dam. I had to keep the canoe pointed directly into the wind because if we got sideways, the wind would push us toward shore and away from our destination. So you may be wondering about the sinking...

The Canoe Sinks

We had to tow the canoe back to the marina (above left). It seemed like a good idea, until the winds blew up and the canoe started taking on water. It sank as we towed it and the ensuing scramble to pull it to the boat, lift a water logged canoe, dump out the remaining water, untangle the lines which seemed to be magnetically drawn to the propeller and get the thing back behind the boat was quite comical. The sheriff came to our rescue but it only humiliated us more with the lights flashing and the bull horn blaring "Are You OK? Please Signal That You Are OK". We eventually dragged the canoe into the little fishing boat, which left almost no room for us and to add insult to injury crushed our beloved chocolate chip cookies into cookie dust.

We decided that rowing the entire length of the lake and having the only casualty be a soggy canoe and crushed cookies was pretty good. Thanks to all, mission accomplished.

240 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: cookie, birth, detroit_lake, hilary, lauren, baby, boat, ryan, detroit, chris, canoe, marina, jackie, kelly, aj

Allen's Oregon Trail

Day 29, Sept 5`, 2009

Day 24, August 30, 2009

Day 22, August 28, 2009

Walk Update oops Canoeing Update

Actions

Recent Comments

Popular Blog Posts

Filter Blog