Playing with AutoStitch Panoramas

I-5 bridge across the Columbia River

It’s hot in Vancouver, Washington, USA today.  101 degrees at 5:30 pm.  We are finally experiencing some of the heat that the rest of the country has had all summer.  Our heat wave has been with us since Friday and is supposed to be gone by Tuesday.  We are planning on going to the coast next weekend and the temperatures are supposed to be down in the 50s.  That’s a big difference!

Despite the heat, I was determined to practice my panorama photography skills.  My camera does not have a panorama setting, so I have to use the AutoStitch software program.  It’s a fabulous program and very easy to use, as Rick wrote about recently.

Vancouver’s Red Lion at the Quay amphitheater with bridge in background

Parking lot where Dave waited patiently in the car while I took pictures of the I-5 bridge

The Columbia River, east of the I-5 bridge      

Statue of Sacajawea along the waterfront path (non-panorama)

If we can’t be out on the water on this hot day, the next best thing is to be able to look at the water and take pictures!

A Bridge, a Park, and a Lake

Today I was a golf widow, so I took my friend, Dennis, on a short road trip.  Dennis Prager, that is, and on my iPod, not in person.  He keeps me company when I go on road trips, and keeps my mind busy while my eyes are busy taking in the scenery. 

Don’t worry, I am VERY CAREFUL when I snap pictures while I am driving! Here I am driving east on US Highway 20 west of Sweet Home, Oregon. After leaving Mallard Creek RV and Golf Resort, I drove about 25 miles and then came to Linn County’s most eastern covered bridge, Short Bridge. Short Bridge, built in 1945, is the sole survivor of the covered bridges which crossed the south fork of the Santiam River.  It’s one of the few remaining in the county to have a wooden shingle roof.   When the bridge was built, it was known as the Whiskey Butte Bridge but was renamed for a long-time resident, Gordon Short.

The view from each side of  Short Bridge.

Cascadia State Park is located just a couple of miles east of Short Bridge.   I explored the park and walked on the Soda Springs Trail.

The view of the Santiam River from the Cascadia State Park bridge.

From Cascadia, I headed back to Lebanon after stopping to admire Foster Lake.

Happy 4th of July

This flag was waving in Sankey Park in Sweet Home, Oregon this morning.  We visited a couple more covered bridges, one in Sweet Home and one in Crawfordsville.  We also saw two miniature bridges in Sweet Home.

Cannon in Sankey Park.   Dave thinks it was a 3-inch Howitzer.  The park was built by the WPA in 1935. Weddle Covered Bridge in Sankey Park in Sweet Home, Oregon   This bridge, unlike the ones I saw yesterday, is not actually on a road.  The bridge originally spanned Thomas Creek for 50 years.  When a concrete bridge was built downstream, Weddle Bridge eventually became unsafe and was scheduled to be demolished.   In 1990, local bridge enthusiasts were able to save the bridge and rebuild Weddle Bridge across Ames Creek in Sankey Park.

Crawfordsville Covered Bridge In 1963, a new concrete bridge was built on Highway 228 right next to Crawfordsville Bridge, which made it obsolete.  Little upkeep or repair occurred during the 1970s.  In 1976, crews involved with the filming of the television movie, The Flood, painted the span.  The bridge received some more repair work and paint in 1996 after being damaged by a flood.

After viewing the bridges, we came back to Lebanon through Brownsville, Oregon.  This lovely building used to be a Baptist church, but now holds a massage therapy business.  Below are a few more pictures of scenic Brownsville. Above, Moyer House, built in 1881 in Italian villa style

Above, Dave with a couple of pioneers.  Below, let freedom ring!

We saw this bell outside the fire station in historic Brownsville, Oregon.  The bell was missing its clapper, so we couldn’t ring it!

The Bridges of Linn County

Dave felt better this morning, so he headed for the golf course.  I learned that Oregon has 51 covered bridges, and that 11 of them are here in Linn County.  I looked at a couple of maps, and set out on a journey to see five of the covered bridges.

After arriving at the first bridge, which was about 25 minutes from the RV park, I discovered that my camera was missing its memory card.  Has that ever happened to you? 

I thought about continuing my covered bridge tour without using my camera, and decided, no, I’ll go back to the RV and get the memory card.  It was still in Dave’s computer.  I rescued it and also grabbed my iPod, which I like to listen to during these exploration driving trips. 

I drove back to the first covered bridge using a slightly different route. 

Larwood Bridge, built in 1939, crosses Crabtree Creek

 

I found a website, Covered Bridges of Oregon, which has an interactive map of all the counties of Oregon with bridges.  There’s an excellent picture of each bridge, a write-up of the history of the bridge, and directions to get to each bridge.

Larwood Bridge was built to Highway Commission specifications which included a standard 105-foot length, partially exposed trusses, white-wash interior and rounded portals.

The covered span is located three miles north of Lacomb, next to Larwood Wayside Park. Roaring River, which empties into Crabtree Creek near the bridge, is the only river to flow into a creek, an oddity in U. S. geography that was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not. 

The second bridge on my journey was Hoffman Bridge, built in 1936, also over Crabtree Creek

Built primarily with hand tools, the upper timbers of Hoffman Bridge show adze marks where workers shaped them by hand. The bridge is painted white and has two Gothic windows on each side.

On the way to the next bridge, I drove through the tiny town of Crabtree, Oregon, and was treated to the sight of this church built in 1909

Next I visited the town of Scio, where I saw this cute replica bridge

Continuing on the drive, I came to Hannah Bridge, built in 1936, which spans Thomas Creek. 

This characteristic Linn County covered bridge design includes segmental portal arches, exposed beams at the gable ends, and white board-and-batten cladding.  The 105-foot housed Howe truss is exposed through large side openings on the bridge. 

Shimanek Bridge is one of the few red-colored bridges From the Oregon Covered Bridges website, Shimanek Bridge in the winter

As Linn County's newest and longest covered span, the Shimanek Bridge offers an exception to the usual open-sided structure with rounded portals.

Red paint, portal design and louvered windows are features similar to the former span, which was built in 1927, and found on no other bridge in Linn County. Rods in the truss are grouped into a series of four instead of the usual three at each compression joint. The bridge shares the white painted interior of other Linn County bridges.

The first bridge built at this location is believed to have been constructed as early as 1861, while the first documented covered bridge was built in 1891 for a cost of $1,150.

In 1966 the current Shimanek Bridge was completed, the fifth covered bridge to occupy this site. It has been rumored that the 1891 bridge had a welcomed accommodation of a two-hole toilet built into the foundation, a luxury not found at the current covered bridge.

Gilkey Bridge, the final bridge of today’s tour

The Gilkey Bridge spans Thomas Creek and until 1960, it proudly stood next to a covered railroad bridge. 

The current railroad without the covered bridge

After driving a total of 65 miles, I completed my tour of these five covered bridges and arrived back at the Mallard Creek RV park.