In Willamina, we drove slowly into the town.  After the hustle and bustle of Tualatin, Newberg and Sherwood, this was a pleasant break.   

We saw this fabulous house!  Its uniqueness really appealed to me, and I stopped so we could take photos.  I just loved it!  I loved the shape of the roof, the wide porch, and those fabulous second-story windows. And it was for sale! 

The house sits right next to Willamina Creek; we picked up a flyer for it.  “Only” $349,000!

Before deciding where to eat, we drove down the main street of town looking to see what was available.

I took a photo of this sign because it perfectly described my friends and I at Alohaworld’s ‘Ohana Lanai message board.  Heh heh.

 We had lunch at Cactus Jack’s Tex-Mex cafe in the middle of town.  Signs of logging were everywhere, including this ‘way cool sculpture near the front door.

Underneath, a photo of a guy next to a ginormous tree; hard to believe a tree that huge!  Actually, it kinda looks like a giant foot!

After lunch for Nolemana and breakfast for me, we headed out of town to our next comp.  On the way, we passed the cute little Willamina Farmer’s Market.  That’s it.  Just two booths.

On the road again, this time heading mauka on Highway 18.

We turned North to go to the next comp.

  To get there, we drove right through a lumber mill that looked as if was processing telephone poles. We saw this interesting da kine; Nolemana thought it was something to pressure-treat the poles so they’d weather better. It was hot and steaming as we drove by, and just about as long as a telephone pole.  There were treated and untreated ones nearby, and the air smelled like pitch and tar.

We took a photo of Comp 3.

At this point, we looked at our Google map of the area.  Our next stop was going to be in Carlton, North and mauka from where we were.  We could have gone back to the highway and headed to Carlton that way, but the map showed that the roads connected in a few miles, so we thought about taking the back roads. 

Nolemana: “Well, what happens if the road doesn’t go through?”

Mokihana (with wanderlust in her soul): “Then we will have had an adventure!”

Keep in mind that Nolemana is an appraiser.  He lives by Thomas Brothers maps.  He likes to know exactly where he’s going before he gets going.  Had he been alone, he would have gone back to the highway and followed an exact map to Carlton.

However, he also happens to be married to a will o’ the wisp who has wanderlust and whimsey in her DNA. 

So we started up the back roads!  We had no idea what would happen before the drive was through.

Pau Part Four.  Stay tuned for Part Five, in which we discover roads that we never knew existed, and see sights that made for such a wonderful day.