Inspired...0º

On this 2nd day of 2016 Bobi's Blog inspired me to write (not take a walk at 0º)...After taking a few days off from the daily grind of spitting out a blog, i'm back to start on my 5th year and blog number 1543, never dreamed when I started this that I would keep writing, almost daily for 4 years.

What got me inspired was her subject, The Bridges of Portland...Those bridges put the fear of God in me!..We haven't made a trip to Portland in several years now and for me the bridges, and the traffic, noise, freeways, crowds are the reasons...Bobi, I think picked up on this and for the last few years they have made many trips to Eastern Oregon so we didn't have to fight the city travel...Herb is still an excellent driver but with age the reflexes slow, as well as the workings of the mind and the traffic only gets more congested, more crazy, more confusing with each passing year...So since I don't drive in Portland and he would rather not we are happy to leave it to her!

My first introduction to the Bridges of Portland was the fall of 1963...Herb's Dad had a convention to attend in Portland and invited all of us (Herb, Me and Bobbie Jo) to go along with him and Herb's Mom...A fun family trip...At the last minute Herb got a call to fight fire so just Bobbie Jo and I went along for the ride...Actually the trip is another story so I will stick to the bridges today...We arrived in Portland, and a small motel near Lloyd Center (newly built and my first time at a shopping center.)The car was parked for two days and we walked everywhere until it was time to leave...Herb's Mom was a good driver and use to traffic after having a job (when she was young) driving Nuns (no she wasn't catholic) from the Albany NY area into New York City...So she took the wheel as we left Portland and headed farther West to the Oregon Coast...A first for all of us...But for some reason Portland didn't want us to leave...After several trips, trying to follow the signs, we went over a bridge, circled around and ended up right back where we started!!!Hmmm, after the 3rd time Mom found a safe place to pull over, looked around, got her bearings (we were all getting a bit dizzy) and said, "I need to be over there!" AND before we knew what was happening she bumped over two medians, took the Oregon Beaches exit and we were on our way.

On that first trip I knew we were in Portland but I'm sure I didn't know that Portland straddled a huge river and that already many bridges had been built to facilitate traffic in this growing city...Jumping ahead many years I still didn't know much about the bridges, only that they scare me and I want to cover my eyes everytime we went over one...I clicked on the link in Bobi's blog and a couple (2) more to see what I could learn and found it all very interesting...The bridges don't look so daunting when looking at a list and a map of them all in a row...I still don't want to drive over them but will enjoy learning more about them...Now added to my fear is that Cienna will be driving these bridges but thankfully only after taking a "Drivers Ed" course through PCC, starting this month...Cienna, work hard, stay focused, cross those bridges, conquer those freeways,  but please Luv, don't jump over any medians!...Hugs To All...OWAV:)