Well, things are looking up.
In the first place, i was wrong, thank goodness, about failing to pack the charging cord for my Segway, as it had just got entangled in other stuff.
And then i got up this morning and went out on a most enjoyable Segway ride west along the Willamette bike trails in Eugene and got some decent bridge pics. For example, this one of the Peter DeFazio Bicycle Bridge.
And then i stopped at Costco on the way out of town and bought a Nikon L840 for only $219, and this being Oregon, there was no tax. This sucker has got 38x zoom, a welcome addition to my camera arsenal.
So then i was ready to work my way north along the Willamette, and my first stop was in Harrisburg/Junction City, where i drove around for quite some time before i gave up trying to find the two old railroad drawbridges in Junction City. Even when you can find ’em, railroad bridges are hard to photograph owing to the difficulty of getting to a good vantage. See, i’d found the things with mapquest but had failed to write down explicit directions and can’t access mapquest from my car…or the Segway. So all i got from my side trip to Harrisburg/Junction City was a marginally acceptable pic of an only moderately interesting bridge. Sigh
By the time i’d frittered all that time away, i realized that i was going to have to skip most of the mid-Oregon bridges in order to get to Portland in mid afternoon. Thought i’d just catch the two in Wilsonville because i pretty much knew which exit to take to get them. Pretty much. Missed by one exit. Grrrrr, took the next exit and then wasted more time trying to cut back south to find a vantage. So then gave up and went east to Oregon City, where i had moderate success with a couple of bridges before driving on to Portland to check in to the University Place Hotel.
OK, here’s a shot of the Oregon City/West Linn bridge.
Oh, and i have a Garmin and find it very useful, but haven’t figured out how to use it to find railroad bridges. What i have discovered is that it can get a bit confused if one is going around in circles trying to find vantages from which to take bridge photos. It sent me over that Oregon City bridge twice while it was trying to reorient itself. See, i’d just set it to lead me to the hotel and made one too many side trips trying to get bridge shots. What i clearly need is my friend David to teach me how to use the Garmin. Or better yet, his teenage son who’d of course be able to intuitively exploit all its features.
Had an early supper at Baan Thai, a really excellent yellow curry. And so to bed.