Albany

Albany is easily overlooked by most people traveling through on the interstate.  A lot of Oregon can be seen via the highway, if that's the way you do things.  When I was in college down in Eugene and dating a girl up in Portland, Albany was nothing more than the blur of a McDonalds sign or the promise of a Taco Bell.  Interstate 5 is both a blessing and a curse to towns like Albany.

Here's the way I see it:  Albany probably started as a river town that depended on steam ships for goods and services.   A few years later, the railroad probably showed up and shifted their economy a few blocks inland.  A few years after that, highway 99 brought automobile traffic through the city.  And then the interstate cut a swath through someone's farm two miles outside of town and in no time Best Western and that Taco Bell I mentioned earlier became the face of Albany.  That's the abridged history of Albany according to me.  

I'm sure the real story is better, but the point is that you're doing yourself a real disservice by zooming by Albany without getting to know it.  But it's actually harder than just getting off the interstate.  You also have to get off of US Highway 20 and make a couple of unmarked turns.  But after that, it's easy to find downtown.  And once you do, head straight for Calapooia Brewing Company.  I'm not saying that the food is going to blow you away or anything, but when you see people shoveling hops out the back of a Ford F150 into a wheelbarrow then I think you know you're getting some fresh beer.  

Just down the road from that is Bryant Park, a cozy spot on the Willamette that I have had the pleasure of spending 4 hours at last summer due to weird circumstances.  If anyone reading this knows the story about the mushroom house, I'd sure like to know it.  

Perhaps I should have asked Mayor Sharon Konopa when I met her and she autographed the map.  Perhaps we could have gone out under the cover of darkness and burned down that Taco Bell.  Probably not.

12 down, 230 to go.