Driving through Sheep Country

Sheep grazing along I-5 in Linn County, OR

When I set out from Portland in my not-as-cute-as-a-Chevy-Aveo Mitsubishi Gallant, I was looking forward to a 4-hour straight, easy interstate drive with little distraction except perhaps some beautiful mountain vistas. No one bothered to warn me that I was about to drive through Linn and Lane Counties which, by my observation, have the most sheep next to a highway anywhere ever (except perhaps Britain, but I've never been there).



Large, winter pastures dotted with puffy white sheep were very prolific in the flat areas before the mountains, and even as some hills showed up, there were still sheep - some even with fields of ewes and their week-old lambs! Lambs leaping, lambs napping, lambs standing around awkwardly in small groups. How do I know they were so young? Just trust me. I know. And a few I spied even looked to be newborn. Baggy skin around their tiny spindly legs and long tails that hadn't been docked yet. I pulled over just once to get the picture you see here, and it's amazing I didn't stop every time I saw a pasture full of them. Incidentally, Linn County is not the sheep capital of the world. It is, in fact, the "Grass Seed Capital of the World".

But back to the beginning. Some tidbits on the rest of this first day of the actual road trip:

• I rented my car from Thrifty. So far, so good. Except that the car next to mine in the lot - a hulking SUV - was parked so close to my driver's side door, I almost couldn't get in. And then when I did turn on the stereo after a while, I was greeted with a CD that someone had left in the player, a burned CD labeled "country folk". I think I'll leave it for the next renter if no one at home wants this souvenir. Oh, and the "thrifty" of Thrifty is clearly that they won't pay someone to remove all the bits of window sticker from the dealership signs. Classy.
• There was a beautiful freezing fog on the mountains that had descended into the plains last night and frosted all the trees and bushes along the road. I could have spent a long time taking pictures of those too.
• When I popped the CD out of the player, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Seahawks/Falcons game in the 4th quarter. Pretty damn exciting and great for keeping me awake. I love good football.
• Weather was perfect for the drive. Lightly overcast in the plains, sun shining in the late afternoon in the mountains. Roads absolutely clear, and traffic was light.
• The most interesting billboard I saw advertised a Cage Fight.