Highway 26 as a Charm Bracelet

This week's Poetry Potluck theme is Beaches and Mountains
http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com/2010/10/poetry-potluck-beaches-and-mountains.html

Well- living in Oregon we have 363 miles of coast along Highway 101.

But, that really didn't do too much for me.

Then I thought about Oregon's State Highway 26

that meanders from Astoria all the way to Nyssa, Idaho.

A mere 472 mile drive.

I began to think ( I was awake in the middle of the night) about all the

little towns that Highway 26 passes through

and voila! here's my little poem:

(a small caveat- all photos are from a free photo site.

I will eventually have the time to upload my own of all these places )

I Think of Highway 26 as a Charm Bracelet

Little towns linked together

by silvery rivers and waterways

Astoria has the mighty Columbia

where the Peter Iredale still sleeps

Passing through the Coastal ranges

of Clatsop and Tillamook

Chinook and Salish spirits in the trees

mix with Lewis and Clark

Onto the old city of Portland

Sometimes called Puddletown

Clackamas, Tualatin and Mollala

waters feed into the Willamette

Continuing east towards the Cascades

with sleepy slumbering volcanos

past Rhodedendron and Zig Zag

Mt Hood rises above the timberline

Over the summit, passing Frog Lake

and down into the Warm Springs

where the Deschutes River

meets the Crooked and Metolius

Through Madras and the Grasslands

Through Prineville and the Ochocos

to the Painted Hills, Fossil Beds

Strawberry Mountains and John Day River

I think about the Oregon Trail as

I see a sign for Baker City

But continue to my final stop

Nyssa and the awesome Snake River