Looking for Paintings - Part 26

I had forgotten that the Spruce Goose had been moved from Long Beach, California to Oregon. As I was driving around exploring McMinnville, Oregon, 4th of July week, I came upon the Evergreen Air Museum, the new home of the Spruce Goose along with plenty of other historical airplanes and military vehicles. The museum was closed, but there was plenty of daylight and plenty of glass to see inside, so I was able to get these shots through the windows.

The Evergreen Air Museum is about 8 stories high and is all glass on two sides, front and back. In this picture, you can see some people standing outside the museum looking in, just to give you a sense of scale.

A shot through the window at some the great stuff inside. That's the Spruce Goose dwarfing everything else in the shot.

A beautiful little GB.

More interior stuff. The place was stuffed with planes, tiny in contrast to the Goose.

There were sevaral other warplanes on the grounds surrounding the museum, too.

Another interior image, this one featuring a Messerschmidt, I believe.

There were also some great WWII tanks out back, too.

Another great old tank.

If you dig out your maps of Oregon and find McMinnville, you'll see that it is part of a triangle of towns that include Sheridan and Willamina to the southwest and Dallas and Rickreall to the south. Route 99W runs north and south between Rickreall and McMinnville, Route 18 runs from McMinnville to Sheridan and Willamina, and Route 22 from Willamina back to Rickreall. This triangle of land is criss-crossed by a network of small, paved farm roads that are pretty much totally devoid of any cars other than mine. This is the Oregon I'd like to live in, and as I sit here typing this stuff, I continually ask myself, "What the hell am I doing here in Los Angeles?" I've been in Los Angeles since 1961, (Except for 2 years in the Army, 5 years in Utah and 2 years in Denmark.) After a 35 year career in the animation business in Los Angeles, I hope my next big move is going to be completely out of the animation business and completely out of the state.

If you want to find me then, here's where I'll be.

Above: Farmland southwest of Amity. I hear a train coming.

Above: Here's the train. Even the traintracks are hard to see out here. I love this picture, and when I saw that the approaching train was orange, I knew I was about to get a good shot, so I prepared for it and waited for the train to arrive. The engineer waved as he passed by.

Oh, just another country road about 1/2 mile from the previous shot, with a nice white gate leading to a wonderful meadow.

Along Route 22 headed for Rickreall, the grass was wonderful.

This is beautiful image of a terrific little farm just off Route 22, late in the day. I can't take credit for the scenery, folks. I just aim the camera and click the shutter.

More wonderful grass.

That's my shadow stretching into this image in the foreground. Probably the last shot of Oregon I'll be posting here for awhile. I'm planning to return to the area around Thanksgiving, looking for more paintings and looking at homes. A nice little farmhouse in the McMinnville area would suit me just fine.