The Bridge of Marion County

After so many days wandering the back roads of Oregon, searching for bridges, we decided to spend our last day out taking things easy.  One lovely bridge was on our agenda for the morning after a great rainy day breakfast at “The Gathering Spot” . On the menu were crepes with Black Forest Ham and swiss with arugula, and home fries with fresh baked pastries.  I even had a perfect cappuccino with floral designs in the foam in a big ceramic cup. 

Before traveling north the short distance from Silverton to the bridge, we walked around town a little bit, checking out the antique stores and a few other shops. I still don’t quite understand why there are always antique stores in these little towns. Is it a low overhead to run an “antique” store? Most of the stuff was certainly less than antique…more like oldish and used.

Gallon House Covered Bridge was one of the older bridges we saw on this trip, built in 1916. We now recognized the old Howe trusses, and noticed that the portal was large and square, an indication that it had been redone to accommodate bigger logging rigs over the years. The roof was especially lovely, fresh with new lumber from a recent restoration.

Back to the park for a relaxing afternoon in the rain with books and movies felt wonderful after all the running around we had been doing. Silver Spur RV Park was a good place to be on a rainy day. The park was only about 1/3 full, with the majority of rigs grouped along the upper boundary near the fishing pond.  The lower area with huge pull-through sites was nearly empty.  We found out later that the upper sites are for longer stays with metered electricity.  In spite of the cloudy skies, the rain came and went and made everything look so fresh and clean.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The next morning we planned a visit to the beautiful Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, right on the way via the back roads from Silverton to Mo’s brother’s place in Beaver Creek.  Our trip was coming to a close, with a night at Dan’s spent visiting family and picking up the log splitter that Mo had taken there previously to benefit from Dan’s amazing welding expertise.  We were treated to the most amazing display of tulips I have ever seen at the farm.

Even though the “official” dates for the Woodburn Tulip Festival ended last weekend, the fields and store were still open for a few more days before closing up shop until fall for the Pumpkin Festival. Most of the huge fields of early tulips were long finished, but the display of late tulips still in bloom were breathtaking. Mo especially enjoyed the old wood burning steam powered tractors.

After spending a relaxing night at Dan’s, we put on our traveling shoes and headed straight home down I-5 and 140 over the pass to Rocky Point.  Using the power of the MoHo to pull the trailer loaded up with the splitter, I followed along in the Tracker. Not a speck of ambling, even though we knew there were bridges waiting for us near Myrtle Creek and other points south that we hadn’t yet explored.  Another time.  We were like horses going to the barn, ready to get back to Rocky Point to see if our very own tulips had opened.  Sure enough, all was well, and we didn’t miss that ephemeral moment of tulips in full bloom.

Author: kyotesue

Soil scientist/mapper working for 35 years in the wild lands of the West. I am now retired, enjoying my freedom to travel, to hike without a shovel and a pack, to knit and quilt and play, to play with photography and write stories about all of it. View all posts by kyotesue