Chehalis to Longview

Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010
After my brief recuperation in Chehalis, I set out for Longview. The night before, I had written out turn-by-turn directions to Longview, but just a few miles south of Chehalis I found one of the major routes on my itinerary closed for construction. No problem, I'll just go down this road which looks like it runs in a southerly direction. Oops. It started off southerly but soon veered east, and because of the cloudy (occasionally rainy) conditions I was unable to use the sun to determine east from south.  After a while of going the wrong way, I asked a man in his yard what was up ahead. "Onalaska. You're going east." Crap. Fortunately, he gave me directions back to my intended route, and after 11 extra miles, I was back on track toward Toledo, Castle Rock and Longview.

Passing under I-5, here was a different perspective of the familiar bridge over the Cowlitz river:

Under the bridge there was this little outhouse:

Wait, what's that on the concrete block down to the left?

Why, it's the lower third of a deer leg!! (I suppose status quo for this part of the country?)

And then there was lots of this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And cattle feeding alongside the road:

And here's downtown Toledo (during rush hour):

Entering Castle Rock:

(The second sign says "Churches of Castle Rock" and lists 11 churches! I think that's more churches than Seattle has.)

Here's downtown Castle Rock:

The Cowlitz river (w/ fishermen):

Passed this 'fixer-upper' a few miles north of Longview:

Fascinating to me to think that decades ago (110 years?), somebody took great pains to build this house (with ornamentation), maybe in it raised a family or two, cared for it, had Thanksgiving dinners, etc. And now it's nothing but shelter for a few wild critters.

Arrived in Longview at the Hudson Inn motel. Will leave Washington tomorrow.