Say Cheese

On Sunday we went to Tillamook to see the cheese factory. It was pretty cool. Although the county smells like cow ("smell the dairy-air", PH says), you can see that the cows are "happy cows" and then you can feel good about buying Tillamook cheese. Also, the entire plant has glass walls on the interior so you can watch the entire process and feel good about it being clean and sanitary. So we bought lots of Tillamook cheese since we saw flavors we don't usually see at the grocery store.

It looks like all of the residents of Tillamook and the surrounding area put their money into their cows and farm equipment. The houses are the saddest shacks I've seen in a long time. We drove by houses that were literally falling apart, windows boarded up, tin roofs that had buckled. More than once we'd approach a house like this and I'd assume it was abandoned, until we drove by it and I'd see the interior was furnished, or someone standing on the porch, or the front door open, or (twice) a For Sale sign, indicating that someone actually lived there. I'm used to seeing shacks, but not so many. For every house that wasn't dilapidated and falling apart, there were 20 that were. I don't think we'll be moving to the Tillamook area.