Klamath Falls
Lakeview to Klamath Falls
From Lakeview it’s about 100 miles to Klamath Falls on OR-140. The drive was half farmland, half mountains, though the highway mostly kept to the valleys. The trees grew denser and taller, as I slowly inched closer to the wetter western third of the state.
I made a brief stop along the way to photograph some llamas at someone’s farm. (Or maybe they were alpacas?) I didn’t notice the baby or yearling one at first, but managed to get a picture of it. A baby llama is called a cria, by the way. My search for this on the internet also brought up a cartoon answering the question “what do you call a baby llama?” with a list of names such as LLarry, LLewis, LLinda, etc.
Klamath Falls
I reached Klamath Falls around 18:45 (6:45 pm). My directions to the motel assumed arrival from the north on US-97, while I was arriving from the east on OR-140. But I figured I could find it anyway; The Quality Inn is at 100 Main Street. However, this proved to be quite a challenge.
Klamath Falls, I discovered, is separated into three or four distinct areas, each isolated from the others by vast half-mile stretches of endless wilderness. As if that isn’t enough, it actually has North, South, and East (and presumably West) Main Streets! If you travel on any part of Main Street you will eventually face all four primary and most secondary points of the compass, regardless of the directional designation of the stretch you are on. Surely every other town in this country has the good sense to know that Main Street should only run one direction and be divided into two parts at most. Then I have to appreciate the motel directions telling me only that it is at 100 Main. Small town mentality hard at work there. “Well of course it’s on North Main…” Well why didn’t you say so…
At last I found the motel. Now I had to question why any town would have a Quality Inn at First and Main. Shouldn’t there be a dime store there? Or a barbershop or something? Across the street is a Texaco, and at Second is another motel. The courthouse is at Third, and onwards from there it resembles a typical downtown.
Note to city planners: there should be only one Main Street.
I told the lady at the desk that I had a reservation, which she assured me was a good thing, as they were booked up. As I was unloading my car a short time later, a large tour bus rolled in nearby and unloaded a flood of Asian tourists and their luggage. Good thing I had a reservation.
The Quality Inn was $75 for the night, but at least it was a nicer room than the Days Inn. There was even a little fridge, so I stored my water bottles in there overnight and refroze the blue-ice packs for my cooler.
I went in search of dinner, hoping for a nice seafood or Italian place. However, I was already doubtful, because I had wandered over many parts of town already in search of the motel, and I hadn’t seen much. At this point I was too tired and hungry to make an epic journey out of it, so when I finally spotted a Pizza Hut sign, I decided that would have to do. I hadn’t been in one in probably ten years, but I figured it couldn’t be too bad.
This was the first Pizza Hut I have ever seen that is within a strip mall, however. Could they not afford their own building as usual? When I walked in, there were maybe four people in the place. I ordered a personal pizza, which the guy told me should be out in about fifteen minutes. Ok fine. I’ll eat and get out of here. My entertainment while I waited was watching two little girls attempt to manually rotate the three-horse carousel because they apparently had no quarters to operate it.
Not long after I had placed my order and sat down, more people trickled in, and the place started looking like they might actually do some business; an issue about which I previously had some doubts. Another issue about which I was having increasing doubts was the promised fifteen-minute ETA on my pizza.
Finally my number was called. Forty-five minutes for a four-inch cheese pizza is absurd. I should have walked over to the Texaco and bought a granola bar or something. I inhaled the pizza and made my escape.
Lakeview