October Driving Quest

For this Tripster Adventure I planned to cover Portland West Side, the rest of North/NE Portland, White Eagle Saloon & Hotel to be exact, Southwest Portland, Grand Lodge (where I stayed) and Hotel Oregon.

This was quite a grueling trip.  I had no idea it would be so grueling!  I started out around 9:00 am I believe it was with GPS ready to go for all my many, many stops along the way.  Well, I-5, being unforgiving as it is, had a big wreck on it Southbound and it took me nearly two hours to reach Lakewood, which normally would take 15-20 minutes.  With all my stops it turned out to be a 10 hour day on the road.  For a person like me who detests driving, this trip really confirmed why I detest it so much.  If I were to strictly take buses to all of the McMenamin places I need to get to, it would take me WAY longer than driving to them.

My first stop of White Eagle in NE Portland was the start of my frustration.  There was no parking to be had!  I parked in an iffy spot across the street and checked with the staff about it. They told me that if I were to park there most likely I would get a ticket.  Great!  So I went to move my car and drove around and around and around for who knows how long until I finally got a parking place.  It should not have to be this difficult!

I was pretty wiped out by the time I reached The Grand Lodge at 7:00 pm or something like that.  I had redeemed for my garden burger from Cornelius Pass Roadhouse and brought it back to the lodge.  I went and got a beer and had it with my burger in one of the common rooms on my floor.  After that I hit the soaking pool, which I really needed greatly to de-stress.  I met a nice woman in the pool who was there by herself.  She is from Arizona and was visiting her son and family in Forest Grove.  She came for the first time last year and stayed at The Grand Lodge and loved it so much she came to stay again.  Her name is Donna.  I kept running into her here and there around the property.  We listened to music together on Friday night (I will explain later about why I was there on Friday night).

So it was Wednesday, October 28th when I arrived at Grand Lodge.  My original reservation was for two nights.  Well, I ran into a McMenamin Manager (sorry, I forgot his name!) at one of the Pubs along the way that I got my stamp at.  He saw me come in with my Cosmic Tripster On the Quest t-shirt and exclaimed, "Tripster!"  I am like, "Tripster Wannabe!!".  So we got to talking and I told him that the next day I will be going to McMinnville and getting my Hotel Oregon stamps.  OMG, I am so glad I ran into him!  He informed me that The Cellar Bar there is not open until 4pm on Fridays and also the same for Bob's Bar at the Grand Lodge.  Oh Sh..!!  I was so upset since it had been such a grueling trip already and I really did not want to make it again.  So I figured the best thing to do would be to add another night onto my stay.  So that is what I did, which is why I was there on Friday night when I was supposed to be at home at a Halloween Party.

I hung out most of the day in McMinnville on Friday, which was fun.  Of course I had to wait until 4:00 pm to get my last stamp there.  I got lost going back to the Grand Lodge.  My GPS on my phone was not working, only to realize later that I did not have my mobile data on.  Oh darn!!

So I got back there exhausted.  Once again, a dip in the soaking pool in order before listening to the music.  I think that was the order of it.  Whatever, I make it back there and it was time to relax.

The drive home went so much better than the drive there, 2.5 hours vs 10 hours!!  Oh, maybe it was almost 3 hours since I did stop off in Portland at the Market Street Pub to get a stamp there.

Since this last adventure, I found out I need another stamp from a newly opened location - 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop.  At least it is in a part of Portland that I frequent when I am in town so that is not so bad.

Recounting all of this gets me pretty tired.  I have mixed feelings about being a Cosmic Tripster Wannabe.  I am so far into now though that I have to keep going.

What do I have left?  Let me tell you, it is pretty good and do-able.  Maybe not by the Spring time and maybe not in time to go to next year's Tripster Party, but at least it is do-able.

I have to complete Hawthorne Blvd. since the 3 bars I need stamps for do not open until 4pm.  What is it with this 4pm nonsense??  I still have the Mission Theatre in NW Portland.  I have the Portland Eastside and Suburbs including Gresham.  Oh my.  Then there is Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and Roseburg.  That is at least two more trips.  I will combine Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and Roseburg.  I might even end up in Ashland at the end of it all!  Could be more airbnb locations in my future and maybe even hostels.  I recently joined Hostels International and see that there is a nice looking one in The Hawthorne area.  Yay!  I may do that to save on money.  The good thing about doing all of this and spending the $ to do all of this is that I enjoy doing it overall!  I get to meet other Tripsters and/or Tripster Wannabes and we get to share stories.  I love that.

Here's to me eventually becoming a McMenamin's Cosmic Tripster Wannabe!

I would like to thank the Manger whose name I forgot for letting me know about the limited hours on certain pubs.  That helped so much.  I would also like to thank Craig Owen who I met at The Grand Opening of The Anderson School.  He has been so kind to me, thanks so much!

Cheers!

August Portland Area Tripster Quest

Since this was awhile ago now and I have been neglectful of my blog, I am going to go by my best recollection of this quest.

I did stay at an Airbnb place that was close to The Alberta District in Portland.  I got around solely on public transportation.  I took the train to Portland and the bus to the Alberta District.  First though, I hit some of the Pearl District spots to get my stamps.  I completed The Crystal Hotel & Ballroom page.  Fortunately, I was able to attend a tour of the ballroom that replaced the "ticket" requirement otherwise. Yay!

As far as downtown and NW Portland, I got all my stamps but one - The Mission Theatre.  I was not there in the evening since I wanted to be back in the Alberta area for The Street Fair.  I was disappointed by the Street Fair so I could have actually gotten the stamp but how did I know.

I even took the bus over to North Portland to St. John's Pub for my stamp.  It was getting late so I did not stay for a beer, just headed back to the Airbnb.

This quest is fun and it is also tiring!  I am going to be so happy to be done and get the Grand Prizes.

So I got as much accomplished in two days as I could.  I know I have more of the Portland area to cover, which is another trip, which will be my next post.

Pictures to come, as I make sure I have them on my laptop to share.

Cheers!!