Bridges of Lane County (plus one in Douglas County)

Can we dance wif yo dates?

Our trip to Oregon is coming to an end, but fortunately the weather held out for another day.  We had a lazy morning. After breakfast, Mary did some laundry, and Steve went to find some local geocaches near Lowell, Oregon.  Lowell is a small town on Dexter Lake.  The Dexter Lake Club is a little bar that was the location for the bar scene in the movie Animal House.  The scene where the guys from Delta House pick up some girls and take them to see Otis Day and the Knights.  The Dexter Lake Club had been empty for a number of years but was recently sold and reopened as a bar with a diner next door.  They are playing on the bar’s role in the movie in hopes of making the bar a success.  They even brought Otis Day back for the grand reopening.

Restored Chambers Bridge in Cottage Grove, OR

After a lunch, we headed to Cottage Grove to see the covered bridges.  The Chambers Bridge was being restored when we were here in May 2011.  It had unused since the 1950s, and a high wind had almost toppled it.  It was undergoing renovation in 2011-2012.  The bridge is the last remaining railroad covered bridge west of the Mississippi.  They used metal artwork to represent the modified engines inside and outside of the bridge.  They’ve created nice little park area, but the beavers have cut down two of the newly planted trees.

Currin Bridge

After a quick stop at Territorial Seed to check out what’s new in gardening, we drove up toward Lake Dorena.  We circled the lake, stopping at the Currin, Dorena, Mosby Creek, and Stewart Covered Bridges. 

Dorena Bridge

There are two large hiking/biking trails, one on each side of the lake following the old railroad tracks.  A scene from the movie, Stand by Me was shot at Lake Dorena near Cottage Grove.  It was not the iconic railroad bridge scene, however. They are relatively flat, and lots of people were out on bikes. 

Mosby Creek Bridge

We were impressed with the number of biking and hiking routes in the area.  Cottage Grove is a small town but is neat and clean.  

Stewart Bridge

There seems to be a high quality of life there.  Cottage Grove was also used in the Animal House movie.  The main street in Cottage Grove as the location of the parade scene that was one of the final scenes in the movie.

After leaving Lake Dorena, we went southwest to Drain, Oregon in Douglas County to see the Pass Creek covered bridge there.  

Pass Creek Bridge in Drain, OR

Unlike the ones in Cottage Grove, there wasn’t signage, so we had to ask for directions.  It was painted dark brown but had a high opening like the Chambers Bridge.  After stopping for gas in Crewell, we headed back to Whittingtons.

Robert had to work until 8 pm and Michael wasn’t interested in joining us for dinner at P. F. Chang’s.  We had chicken-lettuce wraps and fried green beans as appetizers.   For entrees, Cindy had pad Thai, Mark had sesame chicken, Mary had crab fried rice and Steve had kung pao chicken. We all enjoyed our meals and shared each other’s selections.  It was a very nice evening out.

We spent the rest of the evening packing and preparing for our early morning departure.  We will need to leave at 3 am to return the rental car, check our bags, get through security and make our flight.  We will go from Eugene to San Francisco to Dulles to Charleston.  We have little time to change flights at each airport so we are hoping that everything is on time and that we make all of our connections.

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