Brendan Gates

There is a main exit from downtown onto the highways in Eugene, and that stoplight always has somebody asking for money. The same people, actually, rotating in shifts. Depending on the time of day, I can always predict which panhandler will be waving a sign at me. Today the morning shift man was wearing this north face jacket and a cowboy hat. I don’t know that I suspect the man is scamming drivers, and that maybe he secretly has money. Panhandling is probably his profession at this point, and I doubt he views it as a choice. But today, his coat was definitely much nicer than mine. I would think one of his other coats (either the poncho or the dirty brown farm jacket) would be better for sympathy.

Speaking of panhandlers, the cantaloupe hand man was back. A co-worker saw him a few weeks ago, and his hand appeared to be much smaller. So I felt better about my donation, considering he might have actually used the dollar on antibiotics. Then, more recently, he was spotted again. And again, his hand/arm was puffy and bandaged. It’s like some kind of magic trick! A different co-worker watched him ride his bike into traffic and throw himself in front of an SUV. A police officer also watched the whole thing, and immediately jumped out to yell at the relatively unhurt man as he bandaged his arm and waved the very shaken up SUV driver to go on.

I’ve learned that having a homeless person jump in front of your car is a little more common around Eugene. Presumably the jumper is looking for a way to get medical care, or is simply more aggressively soliciting a donation – since you might be more likely to pony up if you thought you just ran somebody over.

So yeah, no more streetside donations from me. I’ve decided that instead I will donate to a few of the local shelters, clinics, or soup kitchens. Clearly there is a problem in this town, and I want to help somehow, but I also don’t want to be taken advantage of or have that donation abused.

I’ve been in Eugene, Oregon for about two and half weeks now. My time has been split between working, slowly unpacking our apartment, and trying to figure out where things are (grocery, pharmacy, cleaners, etc). I haven’t really done any recreational exploring yet, but it looks like there will plenty to see and do once we get to that. A few initial observations:

Weather
Yes, it rains most days. Usually just a mist or light drizzle; I think I’ve only seen a really hard downpour once. On the upside, the temperature is a bit warmer than I’m used to for March. Still chilly, but snow and ice are pretty rare occurrences in these parts.

Bikes
I was told ahead of time that Eugene is a very bike friendly city. And as expected, more businesses here have bike racks than back in the Midwest. Even PF Changs has a bike corral. But I haven’t really seen as many bike commuters as I expected, and those I have seen look more like they probably couldn’t afford a car if they wanted to. Maybe there will be more when the weather warms up? I did see one guy riding down the street with a 70 lb rottweiler (on a leash) sprinting along side him. And yesterday I saw a 50 year old woman gliding down the sidewalk on one of these. Not a bike, I know, but still notable to me.

Pedestrians
There are people walking or running all over, especially down by where I work. Not everybody looks like they’re necessarily going anywhere specific, though. I’ve seen more people with butt length dreadlocks, or guitars/backpacks/bongo drums on their backs than anywhere I’ve ever been (including San Francisco). And while many of these pedestrians don’t seem like they have anywhere to be, they do still walk aggressively. I’ve watched two hippies embrace and start to chat in the middle of an intersection (light had just turned green), a group of HS kids walk in front of a city bus, and two different walkers step off of the sidewalk in front of me. I feel like I need to blow up my front plates so that peds will know that I’m not local, and I’m not used to this “cars will always stop at any time anwhere” attitude that drivers are expected to have.

Panhandlers
I worked at the same place in St. Louis for five and a half years, and I think I might have been stopped for directions once. In less than three weeks I’ve been stopped for cash three times at my new office. Two times by teenagers who didn’t appear to need any change (if the money they spent on trendy clothes and hair products was any indication), and once by a guy on a bike with a hand as big as a canteloupe. Giant hand man waved his engorged digits at me and asked that I give him a donation so he could afford his antibiotic prescription for said hand. Actually he offered to sell me his bike, which I declined. He is the only one of all the beggars that I gave a dollar to. I figure that whether he was going to use the cash for antibiotics, or for meth, or for malt liquor, I didn’t really care. His gimmick was good enough for me, and he needed something to take his mind off that enormous hand.

UPDATE: As I was writing this, two kids rang my doorbell and offered to pull weeds from the yard if I would give them a donation. I said I didn’t need the weeds pulled, so they asked if I would give them a donation anyway. Apparently they needed it for a trip to Tijuana next summer (not kidding). I told them no.

Gas
Gasoline is a little more expensive here, maybe 10 or 15 cents more on average. That’s not really a big deal, since it’s a small place and everything is close. I’m only 5 minutes from work or anything else in this town, so I’ve only had to fill up twice (and that rate will slow down once we get settled into more of a rhythm). And along with New Jersey, Oregon is a “you can’t pump your own gas” state. That means that every station is basically full-service. Which I’m sure will be nice eventually, but now it’s still kind of weird that I can’t even touch the pump.

That’s all I have for now. In the next couple of week we hope to get everything unpacked at our new place, and at that point I’ll post some more pictures of the house’s interior.

Oregon Trail
When: 3/15/2008 2345 Hrs PST
Where: Eugene, OR (The Residence Inn)

We made it to Eugene! To the Residence Inn, specifically. A welcome reprieve from the budget motels we had been frequenting along the way.

Let’s recap the trip:

Miles driven: 2853
Hours on the road: ~44
Sodas consumed: Too many
Motel 6’s visited: 3
Times dog “relieved himself” in a hotel room: 2
Times we were asked about the prius: 2
Cans of V8 consumed: 4
Highest point: 8046 feet (outside of Flagstaff, AZ)
Oil Changes: 1
Knives purchased: 1
Times I was lost at the Hoover Dam: 1
Pictures taken: Countless

I mapped the whole thing out in Google Maps, but I exceeded the number of stops you can add to a map so I had to break it into two parts:
Part 1 (St. Louis, MO to Turlock, CA)
Part 2 (Turlock, CA to Eugene, OR)

My pictures are all up, you view them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brendangates/sets/72157604109924659/

Once Ladyfriend posts hers I’ll link to those as well.

It was a very long trip, and we’re very glad to finally be off the road (though still not quite in our own apartment). Thank you to everybody who left comments or called or sent notes along the way, your support is much appreciated.