Interesting, Oregon

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd would have loved Oregon, as it is full of silly place names. Their book "The Meaning of Liff" matches place names with things that have no word in the English Language, such as "FARNHAM (n.) The feeling you get about four o'clock in the afternoon when you haven't got enough done; PAPPLE (vb.) To do what babies do to soup with their spoons; and EMSWORTH (n.) Measure of time and noiselessness defined as the moment between the doors of a lift closing and it beginning to move."

In Oregon, home of Yankton and Sitkum, they would not need to be so imaginative. Sunny Valley, Pleasant Valley, Gold Hill, Sweet Home and Happy Camp give a fair idea of the Oregon state of mind (as long as you don't visit Hemlock).

There are plenty of websites listing silly place names but here are some that jumped off the map as we got into day two of our big drive (Seattle to San Francisco). Damascus, St Paul's and Lebanon; Goose Nest, Remote, Finn Rock, Swisshome, Denmark and Norway; my favourites Goble, Lookingglass (not to be confused with north Oregon's Looking Glass), Wagontire and Whisky Peak. Just spare a thought for the people who live in Boring.

We've passed the Oregon Dunes, a field of 500ft high sand dunes stretching 3 kms inland, and stopped for a walk around Eugene, a classic sprawling town of clapboard suburbs and downtown businesses where it would be impossible to live without a car (or a thai-dye t-shirt, if the local market is any guide). After about 400 miles we're now in a motel in Bandon, less than three hours to the California border.
G