I headed off on my spring trip – heading south along I-5, not anywhere close to the middle of nowhere.  But sometimes you have to do what you have to do.  Along the way I managed to see some wonderful grist mills.  Where things were powered by water and used belts and pullies to transfer the power through the mill.  Ah, mechanically engineering by the common man before technology. 

This is a small mill, yet it still has most of the workings and can still grind wheat into flour.  It is officially only open a few times a week, but don’t hesitate to email and see if they will open it at another time for you.  The tour guide told me he will open it for an individual if he is around.  He lives close by. 

Traveling south I made a point to stop at the Thompson’s Mill, Oregon.  This state park has been on my to-do list for years. 

This mill is large and multi-story.  It is impressive.  It had the capability to make flour, corn meal, and steel cut oats.  The web site lists when tours are promised, but if you just show up a volunteer will most likely be available to show you around. 

And without planning on this trip being a tour of grist mills, there was a third mill that has been on my vacation planning map that I would be close to, the Bale Grist Mill in California. 

This mill was unfortunately closed the day I visited, but it looked great from the outside. 

Facts

• The Paradise Point State Park campground in Washington was functional for an overnight stop on the way south.  It was clean and has a nice host.  But there isn’t much there to see/do and it has freeway noise.
• I had an interesting experience.  Looking for a place to spend the night by Grants Pass I found a county campground before I left home, it had lots of vacancies.  Now that it was a day before my arrival I looked again and found that reservations were required three days in advance and the campground was full.  Darn.  The only other options I found in the area were Walmart, a rest area, or a truck stop.   So, I decided to stop by and see if they had a cancelation or overflow lot.  Surprise, surprise, the campground wasn’t full.  To keep undesirable people out, they have the three-day requirement with a credit card.  When I showed up, they gave me a visual assessment and then offered me a camp site.   Good thing I had put on clean clothes that day.  Walking around the campground all sites were marked reserved.  There were two of us there that night.