The Real Oregon

A few miles north of Florence on Highway 101, you come to the bureaucratically named Darlingtonia State Natural Site, which is, as it happens, the only place in Oregon dedicated to the preservation of a carnivorous plant: the Darlingtonia californica (wouldn’t you know it would be a Californian).

Audrey this is not, though these bull-head ferns — also known as cobra lilies — can be a true little shop of horrors for your passing house fly, which is lured by nectar to swoop in for what turns out to be a last peek down the plant’s sticky gullet.

Nice, easy and weird walk from the car.

The worst bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich we ever had in our life was at the Hampton Cafe some years ago. It arrived, two soggy pieces of bacon between two stale pieces of toast, without lettuce or tomato. “We’re out,” was all the owner said. “My husband’s gone to get some.” He never came back. The restaurant was filthy and we had to clear our own table to sit down.

A couple weeks later we read in the newspaper that the owner had been arrested after throwing an ashtray at a county health inspector, and the cafe was closed.

We trust that things have picked up in Hampton, which seems to be under new ownership, but we haven’t been back to see. A tiny isolated town, Hampton is the third stop heading east from Bend on the 130-mile Bend-Burns highway.