news update links
January 20, 2008

Florence, Or - Gold Beach, Or
By Allen Brown,

On my first day as crew member on the Solar Car team we drove from Florence to Gold Beach Oregon. I was struggling to cover all the
responsibility of the chase van. Had my hands full :)

Throughout the day there was never a dall moment. At a vista point we met Chris, a guy on a Harley, who was willing to help us take photos as we drove by. Chris took several pictures and zoomed past to do it again. But seems we had a miscommunication. Opsy! He expected us to pull over before we did. So he turned back toward his home. That would be fine except that he still had my camera! After a bit of tracing we found his phone number and arranged to drive 45 minutes back to his house to get it. Well it actually took more than an hour. GPS took us to the address. Actually it took us to a deserted intersection in the middle of nowhere. We had to resource to the good old fashion way of phisically looking for the address, it worked. The GPS was of by near 2 miles.

Marcelo and I were not planning to spend any time there. The plan was to grab the camera and go. Well, that didn't happen. When we got there there was a party with about 8 people celebrating the Obama inauguration. We were there an hour and twenty minutes. Most of the people there were artists. Chris was an artist in glass, and most of the art in the house was glass. There was some really nice art there. For instance there was a very nice coffee table with glass top and blacksmithed support structure.

We had no plan to eat but as I was sitting there Julie placed a dessert in front of me. It would be rude to refuse. So I dug in. Only as I was
well into it did I realize that she was still serving the others. So much for avoiding being rude :)

As we were finishing dessert a terrible stench hit, the dog got a skunk a bit too excited. The dog wanted in of course. Probably to escape the stench. There is a good chance the won't see the inside of the house for weeks or at least a tomate juice bath.

On the drive back we picked up a local who was walking along the highway. Craig had just been kicked out by his girlfriend. We didn't ask why.

Back in Gold Beach, Joe Ross put us up for the night. He cleaned up the loft above his shop. His wife, Tracy is photographer for the local newspaper. The cost of our staying with them was that she be allowed to photograph us with the car. A price we would gladly pay even if we didn't stay!

But Joe blew us away with his other offer: a hot tub!

At this point in the trip I am starving for internet access. And lack of a cellphone is hurting us.

http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown



Marcelo, Rich, Antha and Allen
Beatiful 101 highway and its tall trees, great scenic drive but often shaded
On the road from Gold Beach to Brookings, Oregon
The Oregon coast is "a beautiful place".
Chris
Say "solar car!"
The Oregon Coast is "a beautiful place".
The sun is shining. The batteries are charging. The scenery is lovely.
Life is good!
Words can only detract from such beauty
XOF1 reflected on the helmet
Image from the solar car at sunset on highway 101
As the sun set in the horizon
Driving on bottle sunshine.
Inauguration party at Chris's house