7/29/4 - Astoria to Boise Cascade, St. Helens

Whoo-boy, it’s been a couple of hot ones here lately! Atop of all that, I had one of those run-ins today with the State Patrol boys who always seem dead-set on double-checkin’ my overload permits. They’re in order fellas, every damn time! Anyway, after unloadin’ at Boise, I parked the rig and grabbed some eggs & bacon at St. Helens Cafe. The waitress there was tellin’ me how some of y’all don’t think much of Old Town, which got me to wonderin’ why it’s any worse than some of the other parts of town. Ya mean some of ya would rather be up there on the highway by all those damn fast-food places? Hell, you can set-up shop and live there for all I care; I see that kind of thing in every small-town I drive through from here to California and on past into Texas. The way I see it – it’s sure is nice down here on the river: ya gotta real pretty marina, the old City Hall and courthouse buildings, and some fine little shops all along the street. Hell, I even grabbed my wife somethin’ in one of those places, (Meg’s I think it was called.) So Lorraine was just plain tickled to death when I got home this trip. Now ya see, if I’da brought home a couple-a bags of burgers from the Mac-Donalds here in St. Helens, why she’d a just turned down that pretty little smile of hers and kept on with her business. No sir, think I’ll be spendin’ most of my downtimes right here in Old Town this summer. It’s one of things that make this a nice little town y'all got here. Be sure and take care of things, ya hear? -Tom