Views From Paradise

For the last few years Pat and I have joined in many Miata club drives.  This last week we drove down to Oregon to join the Explore Oregon 2013 drive.

It is difficult to describe the reason why we love these events.  The basic description is that we check into a motel along with 70 other Miata owners (virtually all the same age as us).  We go on organized drives where 20 cars drive in tandem through wiggly country roads,  stop at a road house for lunch and then make our way back to the hotel.  On the Saturday night you have a roast beef dinner in a hall with 150 seniors excited by a couple of beers or glasses of wine, and bid on Mazda MX5 tee shirts and paraphernalia.  I know it sounds lame but what a wonderful week.  We met or shared meals with couples from California, Wisconsin, and Washington as well as the groups from BC.

We were staying at The Dalles in Oregon which is about 2 hours east of Portland up the Columbia River.  The Columbia river has cut a deep channel from the high plains to the coast.  As you drive east you follow the river from lush rain forest on the west coast to a point just beyond The Dalles where it looks like Drumheller Alberta.    Along the length if you leave the interstate you can drive on winding highways beside 300 foot waterfalls through heavy forest and within 45 minutes  you could be on prairie roads with cattle walking across the road in front of you.

As Miata drivers we love the steep wiggly roads where you can blitz along taking corners as if you were in a Grand Prix course.  Once you leave the heavily travelled Columbia river with its thousands of tourists the roads through the ranch lands are fabulous.

Unfortunately I only took the cheap old 5 megapix camera along, so I cannot begin to show the sights as we drove around Mount Hood and Mount Adams with canyons dropping off 500 feet to one side and cliffs rising on the other.

The first picture is early in one of the drives when about 25 cars in our initial group set off (there were 3 groups setting out that day in different directions).

Pat and I are in the car about 10 from the front.  30 minutes later the leading group of 8 (including us) had lost the cars that did not want to drive aggressively.  There are those who want to experience the glory of the views and those that want the thrill of near death on narrow winding roads with great views.   I am very fortunate that my wife does not share the driving illness issue of her sisters because we drove like fools on paved wiggly mountain roads with virtually no one coming the other way.  Waving back and forth on roads designed for our cars.

This was a wonderful weekend in beautiful weather and fabulous scenery.  I am sorry for the pictures as I have scanned them from photos given us.