Fossil Oregon 30 mill.
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Fossil Oregon. 20 September 2006
Homestead with Michael, Ashby and Nathan way way out for me in Eastern Oregon. It was my first time east of the Dalles since I road tripped out here from NY 6 years ago. Taking so many Geology classes at PSU these past few years made me really hot to travel beyond the Columbia River Gorge. High desert but not too high up.
Morning: Awoke around the time for the alarm wanted to stay in bed forever. Gave 4 minutes for a hug ended up being 5. Ate Fressen Muesli toast with jam and butter swollowed down an emergen-c. Packed up Fraga Farms goat cheese and Tomatoes from the garden and hopped on the bike while it was still dark. Got to the Albina house after 8 scrawled a suited bird/bat/picturedrawing while waiting for Nathan to get us. Walked to the Fresh Pot with Ashby, Michael and Nathan got small coffee for a buck back to truck off on 84. Stopped at Nathan’s in SE played with his doggy sang the theme to ‘reading rainbow’ to the doggy but called him a ‘reading dog bone’. I know I know make no sense. Admired Nathan’s cultivation of “Airplants are Bromeliads that get their name from the fact that they grow not in soil, but instead attached to branches (epiphytically) and rocks (saxicolous). Their roots serve only to give the plants a firm anchor to whatever they are growing on. All of their moisture and nutrition is absorbed through their specialized leaves.” Especially the Stag Horn Fern cause I once attempted and failed.
Stops on the way out:
Nathans house (2) Hood River Safeway (3) Road side past the Dalles on the Journey through Time highway (4) Wasco Town (5) Mountain Interpretation Site Memorial (6) Sherman County Wind Farm (7) Sick in the car pullover before Condon (8) John Day River rec site (9) Fossil for gas.
It was a rad trip. We dug fossils behind the high school that was a shallow lake 30 millions years ago and played lots of records at the homestead. Vegetation was sagebrushy and lava fields were everywhere. All reddish vesicular Basalt cleving in ways that led me to believe that I could have taken apart that mountain with my bare hands.
I dug up the Oregon state fossil - The Metasequoia. Currently the metasequoia grows in China. 30 Million years ago we were just like China today. 