Rest area, a guppy, and a whole lot of wood

It’s been a while since we have spent a night at a roadside rest area, but after leaving our forest site and driving for hours to pickup water and trying to find a spot to crash for the night, we settled on the nice rest area just south of Tillamook, Oregon. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t one of those Interstate rest areas full of trucks and homeless either. On the contrary, the neighboring property was a chicken ranch with a gazillion chickens roaming around, none of which were happy to see Moose and I stroll up to take a gander at them in the morning.

Only a few miles away is the Tillamook Air Museum, and I love me an air museum, so after breakfast we popped in for a visit. First things first, the museum is housed in a *portion* of this massive WW2 era blimp hanger sitting out in the middle of green pasture. It is huge! In fact, they say it is the largest wooden structure in the world. It truly was a whole lot of wood.

As for the museum itself – well it was a bit underwhelming. Not really a lot going on in there to be honest. They have such a large space and only a few planes. They fill in the gaps with displays of old vehicles, tractors, and ship models made of scrap construction wood. The real stars of the show is the “guppy” plane sitting right out front and the hanger itself. They are both just so massive it blows the mind.