1500 Days to Freedom

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Adventures In Oregon: Doughnuts, Dairy and Beer

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Ask the Readers returns next week. This week, we’re in Portland on spring break, so I’m taking the opportunity to regale you with gratuitous pictures of doughnuts.

One of the best parts of not being confined to a traditional job is being able to wander around without the constraint of time. Usually, this means that I go for aimless walks around my neighborhood or hikes in the mountains near my home. At other times, this means traveling to a different corner of the globe and well, walking aimlessly. I don’t like sitting still. I also like changes of scenery.

This week, the girls are on spring break and I find myself in Portland Oregon. I was last in Portland over 10 years ago for work. That trip was incredibly stressful and there wasn’t a lot of time to enjoy my surroundings. This time, I’m done with work. No server rooms. No crazy co-workers. Totally different and totally better. Except for our car rental…

Terrible Turo

I rented a car for the trip at a traditional company for $300 (8 days). That seemed like a lot of money, so I decided to try Turo (NOT an affiliate link for reasons you’ll soon read). Turo is a service that lets you rent cars from private individuals. It’s an auto Airbnb. I quickly found a Ford Taurus that was only $155, almost half of the cost of the traditional rental. The reviews were good, so I booked it.

The car was in an economy lot at the airport and the owner told me I’d have to pay $10 to get it out. I was OK with that considering the savings. I found the car and it looked fine from the outside. The trouble began when I started it. The Check Engine light came on and the engine wasn’t smooth. I thought the car may get better after it warmed up (I’ve owned my share of crappy cars), so I drove to the exit of pay lot. It turned out that the car cost $30 to get out. The owner had lied to me. I should have backed up and parked it, but didn’t.

Bad idea.

Instead of getting better, the car got worse. It struggled to keep up at highway speeds and then stalled out at stops. The brakes didn’t work so well. I called the owner who insisted that the car was fine and that I should continue to drive it. I told him:

HELL NO!

I turned around and put it back in the economy lot. I then called Turo to explain the situation. This did not go well either.

I had thought that Turo would be easy to deal with. They’re a young company, so they should be eager to please. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I sat on the phone for at least 30 minutes while the Turo support guy tried to get hold of the owner. Turo was reluctant to issue a refund for the undrivable car. Luckily, I had taken pictures and video of the car (including the Check Engine light). It was only after the Turo support guy saw the pictures that he agreed to refund my money.

A couple things to note:

  • Turo seems to protect the auto owner much more than the renter. I’m sure Turo has these systems in place so owners feel comfortable letting a stranger use one of their most expensive assets, but they were way too rigid. This car was unsafe. Perhaps Turo needs a system like Uber where cars have to be inspected?
  • I know plenty of folks who use Turo and have never had a bad experience. I’m sure my experience was in the minority. However, Turo needs better customer service. Both parties need to be protected.

Now that I have that off my chest, let’s move on to important topics like doughnuts.

 

In Search Of Doughnuts And Dairy

We woke up Sunday morning and headed to Voodoo Doughnuts. I was worried about lines, but if you get there at 6:55am on Sunday, the place is empty. We bought five doughnuts and went to the car to sample:

Voodoo Doughnuts

The verdict? They were good, really good. However, it’s hard to go wrong with deep-fried dough and sugar. I wouldn’t have been thrilled if I had to wait 30 minutes, but I’m happy that we went. We haven’t been to Blue Star yet, but will. Oh yes, we will.

Next, we headed for the coast. The countryside was beautiful and the girls laughed every time we saw this sign:

Look kids, rocks!

Our next destination was Tillamook a dairy most famous for cheese and the samples made the stop worthwhile. Even better, if you fill out a free post-card, Tillamook gives you a free cone. And not a tiny baby-sized cone either. A full-on, real cone:

Mmmmmm, ice cream!!!

We headed up the coast where we saw no whales. It was whale season, but they were shy. Or maybe there were all at Tillamook getting free ice cream.

We stopped at Cannon Beach.

Our last stop before heading back to Portland was Astoria! I knew about Astoria from the movie The Goonies which I first saw as a kid. In the movie, Astoria had so much character that it was almost a cast member. The town was so cool (at least it was to 12-year-old me) that I wanted to move there.

First, we went to the Astoria Column:

We then went to Buoy Beer Company. Buoy has something for everyone; good beer (yay adults!) and a window in the floor where you can see seals below (yay kids!).

More Soon

Portland reminds me a lot of another town that we used to live in, Madison Wisconsin. I like Madison and I like Portland too. I’ll have more to say on the topic soon.

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Comments

  1. In my neck of the woods there’s a car rental place that’s a 5 minute walk from our home. I use it very rarely (once every other year) when me and the Mrs. take long east coast road trips. Was hoping Turo would be a good alternative to that, but it sounds hit or miss. Sorry to hear about your rental car adventures, but thanks for sharing your experience.

    In any case, Portland looks beautiful, and those donuts look awesome! This is my current view from my computer haha! Have fun on spring break, and good luck with the half marathon!

    • Nah, I think most people on Turo are fine. I just got one of the rare Turo Turds.

      Also, I love renting cars for road trips! Rentals are so cheap, so why put the miles on your own car?

  3. Your killing me over here with the donuts. After the last post I had a dream about that style of donut. I could even taste it. I’m on a diet over here can you tone it down 😉

  4. I did Turo and had a similar experience with a 1965 Mustang. Near death-trap. However, you did not even need to contact them, the owner would have canceled the reservation for you or risk a 1 star feedback rating which he would have likely done anything to avoid.

    • Ahhh, thanks for the tip! This owner was a massive jerk, but he probably would have gone along with it because he had good ratings. Letting the complainers cancel must be how he salvaged his rating.

  5. I’m curious for the Madison comparison. I’ve been feeling lately like I want to move back to Madison. MKE is just too “big city” for me. Madison had its cozy spots and I miss our friends.

    Those pictures of the coast are beautiful!!

    • Cozy spots! YES! The things I really liked about Madison were all of the funky little spots. Portland is eerily similar. Bigger, but still the same feel.

      I also LOVED the Madison Farmers’ Market. I hear that Portland has a great one too, but unfortunately, we won’t have a chance to see it.

      • We try to make it to the farmers market at least once a summer. It’s just so much fun to walk around that whole area of downtown, from the capital to the terrace, and all over… Eating all the goodies bought at the market. My final year of living there, my SO and I had finally convinced my parents to come out and experience this wonderful farmers market.. So along with my parents came my grandma, and some aunts and uncles. As we’re walking around the square, the naked bike ride happened and everyone got a site that cannot be unseen! Whoops on that timing.. 😀

        • Oh wow, this brings back a lot of memories. Looking at Lake Monona from Monona Terrace, hot spicy cheese bread, cream cheese cinnamon rolls…

          I’m glad I never saw the naked bike ride! I hope those folks didn’t skimp on the sunscreen!

  6. The raspberry rosemary buttermilk at Blue Star is out of this world good. I had one on a recent trip and have been dreaming about it ever since.

    • “The raspberry rosemary buttermilk at Blue Star is out of this world good.”

      Holy *&^%!!!! Had it this morning. I hope Mrs. 1500 doesn’t take offense, but that doughnut may be one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

  9. It is so hard for me to not eat donuts (there are 5 places within 2 miles of me).

    I’ve never heard of Turo before and your review doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in using them.

    We have not yet been to Oregon, but I know my wife wants to go and Tillamook dairy is on her list of places to o when we do make it out there.

  10. We lived in Portland for a year and a half. The food is delicious, the beer plentiful and wine country a great place to visit – in other words, a great place to eat your way into bigger pants. I hope you got to see the Goonies house? You know, just to brag that you saw it! Portland also offers THE BEST people watching opportunities, so I hope you’re enjoying that too. Portlandia was no exaggeration.

    • Goonies house! Damnit! We missed it!! Next time.

      Portlandia! I feel like I’m in the minority here since my nose (or any other parts of my face) isn’t pierced and I have no tattoos.

  11. My first visit to Portland was last year; we did the Tillamook-and-Cannon-Beach thing, too. I’m not used to needing a jacket on the beach in midsummer but it was well worth it to get my feet wet in the Pacific for the first time.

    I could not believe how big a tourist destination Tillamook was — and I grew up just outside of DC, so I’ve seen my share of tourists. Incredible. But that ice cream was worth it!

    Portland summer weather was a revelation. Cool nights and crisp warm days… my wife and I loved it.

  12. If you’re going all sugar wild in Portland, I highly recommend Kyra’s Bake Shop. It’s gluten free, but you’d never know it. Most importantly, Kyra won cupcake wars FOUR TIMES! Her cupcakes and cinnamon rolls are friggin’ amazing! Post race treat, maybe? 🙂

  13. Thanks for the honest review of Turo. I usually use traditional rental places because I know exactly what I’m going to get — a working car.

    Maybe Turo can improve however. Shopping around for rentals helps quite a bit. We just got back from a trip to Texas, and only paid about $22/day for a car. It seemed a reasonable price.
    Mr. Tako recently posted…Texas Trip ReportMy Profile

  15. I hope you get this in time but my husband and I visited Portland last year. (We went to Astoria too and loved it too!!)
    Anyway you must visit Jade Bistro and Patisserie for lunch in Portland.!! Best food ever!! Vietnamese spring rolls YUMMY!! Get there early because there will be a line.

    • Ha, we went to Jade yesterday! It’s walking distance from our place. #score

      Portland and Astoria are both pretty great! As I type this, it’s about 60 outside and the sun is shining. Maybe I’ll just stay here!

  17. It’s 7:58 in the morning, I’m at work on a Friday, and those doughnuts look extra good right now….

  18. Great pictures! I never understood whale watching. You just see a tiny speck in the ocean. It’s always too cold to stand around to wait for that. Have fun! Great that Voodoo didn’t have a line. Nice job getting there early.