Meeting with Uncle Sam

I have been trying to get together with my brother for some time. He mentioned the Sportsman's Show in Roseburg as something he hoped to go to and I decided to make a visit happen. The Bean Himself and I hit the road early for the meet up.

We stopped at a rest area on the way down to stretch our legs. I was snapping some photos and a passerby offered to take one of the both of us. Nice gesture I thought since I am not in many of the kids photos. There is a nice Oregon State History "Beaver Board" at this location detailing the history of the Cow Creek Indians.

We were soon on the road and hooked up with Sam at the fairgrounds. Near where we parked is the county museum and part of their collection is the old train depot from the nearby town of Dillard. The Dillard depot is a beautiful old structure and we spent some time photographing it's new home.

After the show we all loaded up and headed over to the Rodeo Steakhouse. The Bean Himself really loved this place because of the large containers of peanuts that were at each table.

It wasn't so much the peanuts but the fact that the restaurant allowed and even encouraged you to throw the shells on the floor. We had some problems while paying. They made a mistake running a card and they gave me a card for a free entree at one of their locations. Nice that.

While we were eating I had mentioned that I thought there was an old locomotive somewhere around and that I would like to visit it with The Bean. Sam knew right where it was even though he hadn't been there for decades. Sam grew up in the area and played on the locomotive when it was first donated and installed in the park 50 years ago.
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We drove on over and The Bean Himself played for awhile. He really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the engine (Southern Pacific 1229). Afterwords I grabbed a few photos of a rare benchmark. An intersection station using an airway beacon. Most airway beacons are long gone but this one is still standing tall. Next we checked out the old Southern Pacific Depot that is now a McMennamins Restaurant and found a benchmark on it's wall then we bummed around downtown a bit.

On the way out of town I saw a vintage neon sign in action and did a u-turn to capture photos of it before heading home.

Today we loaded up and headed toward Salem. I had read a recent article in the Register Guard about Thompson’s Mills State Park. It is currently the newest park in the Oregon State Parks system. It turned out to be a fascinating piece of the 19th Century preserved here in the here and now. Thompson's Mills is the oldest surviving grist mill in Oregon and was originally named Boston Mill. In 1858 Richard Finley bought the water rights to the Calapooia River for $75. The mill was built soon after. A thriving town named Boston was built next to the mill but in 1871 the railroad was built to Shedd Station further west and the town’s people picked up lock stock and barrel plus the buildings and moved to be near the railroad’s new station. Originally built for farmers to grind grain for their personal use, silos were added and the name was changed to Thompson’s Flouring Mills in the early 1900’s. With the addition of the silos flour was produced for commercial sale. In the 1940’s the mill made another transition to the creation of animal feeds. Production of electricity was also a source of income up until 2005 when the land was acquired by the State of Oregon.

After the tour of the mill we headed on to Salem where The Bean Himself and Mr. Bean made a whirlwind tour of The Gilbert House Children’s Museum. The Sprout was asleep so Mrs. Bean sacrificed and slept a bit too to let her get some needed rest. Gilbert House is a wonderful place built around several historic structures that were saved from the wrecking ball. One of the Victorian style structures that makes up the museum complex was built by Andrew T. Gilbert the uncle of the “man who saved Christmas” A.C. Gilbert.

A.C Gilbert was an extraordinary man. He was an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal in the pole vault, he earned a degree in medicine from Yale. He was also a prolific inventor and the creator of the erector set. The museum pays homage to him in many ways. A huge play structure is built to look like the erector set. A model train display shows his American Flyer train sets in action and several displays detail his accomplishments. After we played in the bubble room and on the playground, The Bean Himself spent some time pretending he was a grocery man and then pinched a penny at the penny smasher in the Parish House.

Afterward we walked over to the old Southern Pacific Railroad vertical lift bridge to take a look at the old abandoned crossing. While there we found an Oregon Dept of Transportation benchmark 44 56.802 123 02.433 in one of the bridges footings but it was really hard to identify the mark due to damage on the face of it. We made a quick stop at a local store (Burlington) to bargain shop and then headed home having had a full day.

29th of December 2007

We gave The Bean Himself a treat today. Mr. Bean got tickets to ride on the Amtrak to Salem. So early in the morning (for a vacation) Mr. Bean and The Bean Himself left on their adventure. Mrs. Bean and The Sprout drove up to pick us up. We had a bit of spare time so we took our time at the Salem Station exploring and admiring it. Next we walked over to the Mission Mill Museum and looked around a bit. When Mrs. Bean and The Sprout arrived we decided to take the tour and found that we enjoyed it more than we expected.

Origin of TheBeanTeam:
TheBeanTeam was created on a Thanksgiving day in 2002. Brother in-law RvrRnr (aka Dean) introduced Mr. Bean (aka Garbanzo Bean) to an activity called Geocaching.

We were a new family with a brand new baby boy that we were obsessed with. This little boy also has, as part of his name, the "Dean" moniker and his Aunt started calling him The Bean. In December of 2002 Mrs. Bean (Coffee Bean) produced a Christmas gift that included a GPS receiver and we signed up for a geocaching account. Thus, TheBeanTeam was born.


In April of 2006 the team added another member. The Sprout was born and transformed our home as only a little girl can.

Our original team included our greyhound, Dango Dog, who went everywhere with us and accompanied us on our wanderings. He was a retired racer who helped separate folks from their money by being a class c racing dog and not all that dependable on the track. He was dependable in our home however, we could depend on him to dig in the trash if we didn't secure it and to run off if the chance provided itself. Dango developed a limp that proved to be bone cancer and has retired once again...this time permanently. Rest in Peace Dango Dog.

Since 2002 we have added other activities as well. Mr. Bean now hunts benchmarks and creates waymarks . Both are GPS related activities.