Got back from Portland today

spike

spike

New Member
Long beautiful drive up to Eureka then to Portland then down to Mt Shasta and on home.

I really liked Portland and Oregon in general. The city is beautiful, the people are super friendly, public transportation was convenient as hell, good food, found some fun pubs. Mt Hood is only an hour away and has year-round snowboarding. I could definitely live there. I'd have to see what the whether is like other times of year. It was 80's-90's while we were there.

I got a sweet Shilo hotel room with a bedroom, living room, mini-kitchen, 3 TVs (one in the bathroom!), 24 hour pool/hot tub/sauna/steam room, and free hot breakfast in the restaurant for $65/night through Hotwire. (Hotwire hasn't let me down once yet).

A couple things I found interesting...

You're not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon. First time I stopped to fill up I got out and walked up to the pump and some guy runs out asking if he can help me. I say "no, I was just going to get some gas" and he tells me that he has to do it for me. While I'm checking to see if I pulled up at Full Serve or something he looks at my license plate and says "It's all Full Serve in Oregon".

He's real nice and we chat while the gas pumps and he cleans my windshield. So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tip so i give him a couple bucks and he accepts it awkwardly. I don't think I like this law.

Another thing is no sales tax. It didn't even look like I paid tax on beer from my receipt but it may be part of the price. Very nice for visitors.

They are also one of the states with the 5 cent deposit on cans and bottles as a method to encourage recycling. I like this. Throwing a can or bottle in the trash is like throwing away a nickel. Reminds me of how they used to have carts in the grocery stores to return those 16oz soda bottles.
 
The sales tax thing is nice but I think they make up for it in income tax. The opposite of Washington which I believe has no state income tax but does have the sales tax.

But hey, for visitors no sales tax rocks.
 
Alberta has no provincial sales tax, since they make enough money from their oil and the province generally manages their money well. It was sad to come back to 8% provincial sales tax in Ontario.
 
spike said:
The sales tax thing is nice but I think they make up for it in income tax. The opposite of Washington which I believe has no state income tax but does have the sales tax.

But hey, for visitors no sales tax rocks.
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this is why i often buy big items when i go down there...

i have pumped my own gas. i got sick of waiting. the attendant was so negligent he didn't even notice to tell me i wasn't supposed to do that.
 
We can pump before we pay at a lot of stations in Canada.

I hated the stations in the US where you had to pay before pumping but they didn't accept Canadian credit cards at the pump. Had to go inside and prepay, but then you had to pick an amount less than what you knew the car would hold to make sure you got all your gas...annoying. To make it worse I was trying to convert litres to gallons and then calculate what it would cost. Being slightly off on the conversion can screw you and then the total cost would always seems insanely low (because gas is insanely cheap compared to Canada). At one station I told the lady I wanted $30 and she looked out the window at my car and asked if I was sure I wanted 12 gallons...I definitely did NOT want 12 gallons. *sigh*
 
Are you drinking Orange or Lemon Lime flavored Haterade, minks?

When the weather is shitty, I can sit in my nice comfortable car and get the gas pumped for me. Our gas taxes are low, so we're usually cheaper than surrounding states even with full service.

Sometimes I cringe when they wash my windshield, though. When I cleaned it with Eagle One and a nice microfiber, and they decide to slather dirty water that hasn't been changed in years all over it, and drip it on the hood - ugh.

Unfortunately, it's been so hot, and I've been up to my balls in work, so I haven't had time to properly take car of the car. Hasn't been waxed in five weeks, or even washed. Exhaust is hanging LOW. I have one inch of ground clearance for the back of the resonator. Still have a check engine light for EGR, and the suspension is shot.

My first car (Mazda), the exhaust dumped right off the back of the manifolds. My second car (Oldsmobile), the exhaust dumped right after the cat. My third car (Maxima), the exhaust dumps right after the resonator (above the rear axle). However, the exhaust leak keeps moving backwards - I can only assume that given current trends, my next car will leak exhaust from the tailpipe, like it is supposed to.

Anyway, Portland is supposed to be pretty cool. My cousin and her husband live out there. She's a school teacher, and he's a graphic designer. Apparently, Portland is the spot for any sort of digital graphics or 3D animation stuff.

I've been to Seattle (family out there too), and it was pretty cool. Way different feel in the Northwest vs. the Northeast. I was born in Camden, just across the river from Philadelphia, and have lived my entire life either a couple miles outside of Philly or a couple miles outside of NYC. Spent so much time in those two cities that a West Coast city was a weird experience. Even weirder to go in the Pacific ocean. When I was there, I watched the sunset over an ocean for the first time in my life. I've seen the sun rise over the ocean more times than I can count, but only once have I seen it set over the ocean. Cool experience.
 
Nixy said:
We can pump before we pay at a lot of stations in Canada.

I hated the stations in the US where you had to pay before pumping but they didn't accept Canadian credit cards at the pump. Had to go inside and prepay, but then you had to pick an amount less than what you knew the car would hold to make sure you got all your gas...annoying. To make it worse I was trying to convert litres to gallons and then calculate what it would cost. Being slightly off on the conversion can screw you and then the total cost would always seems insanely low (because gas is insanely cheap compared to Canada). At one station I told the lady I wanted $30 and she looked out the window at my car and asked if I was sure I wanted 12 gallons...I definitely did NOT want 12 gallons. *sigh*
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Cam's credit cards all worked fine here. They even had nominal service charges for the exchange compared to what mine racks up there. Now debit cards might've not worked--I don't think hers was backed by Visa/MC like most of ours are so the station would've had to support that particular ATM or whatever transaction network.

Prepay only really became a standard thing about two years ago when gas prices shot up and driveoffs became more common. I think the major chains like Quik Trip offer turn-on cards where you fill out a form including a copy of your DL and you get a special card that turns the pump on (only works at that particular chain of stations) for a cash transaction without having to prepay or go in first. I have always used my credit card to pay for gas though, so it's never really affected me.
 
My credit cards usually work in the US, but many stations want your ZIP code at the pump to verify the card is yours. Not a very good idea if you want tourists.
 
sorry altron, but i've spent enough time in NJ to form an opinion. there's no other place in the country i find quite so rude in so many ways. and i'm in a lot of places, often.
 
MrBishop said:
It's all about timing... most gas stations around here make you pre-pay after 10pm or so.
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the couche tard in front of mum's place now requires you to either pay at the pump, or pay inside after 5pm. Evidently noone steals gas at 4:45pm. BUT!!! the CAA points you get with the purchase of gas can't be had if you pay at the pump. Only if you go inside. I've made it clear to them that their lack of concern for their customers has cost them my business.
 
2minkey said:
... as if we needed one more reason to loathe NJ...
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Not sure why you loath NJ... I road tripped to visit a friend in NJ and thought it was quaint and pretty. People were friendly and polite. I didn't find anything to hate about NJ at all. They do have an income tax and I would not want to live there because of that. I drove through Trenton on my way in but that wasn't any worse than any city I've ever driven through (or lived). I noticed that the closer I got to NY (example, Newark) the dirtier the environment got. But the further from NY you ventured the cleaner and prettier it was. A fond memory was the pretty little farms and the light house (Barnagat) in the south. It seemed like a nice place to live other than the income tax.
 
spike said:
I can't remember the last time I was at a station that let you pump before you paid. I don't see this being much of an issue.
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Most of them around here are free-wheeling chance takers.

Big cities & inner cites....

valkyrie said:
quaint and pretty. People were friendly and polite
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We certainly haven't been to the same places in NJ. Most of my memories are negative or neutral.
 
Well let's put it out there. I want some names of cities. Which places have you found to be dirty and nasty?

The Northwest Jersey mountains?
The North Jersey suburbs?
The South Jersey suburbs?
The north jersey cities?
The central jersey suburbs?
The central jersey shore?
LBI?
AC?
The south jersey shore?
The south jersey pine barrens?

These areas are all very different from one another.
 
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