Portland FD, 55 SW Ash St.

We had slept in the car at an area rest stop, and got started again at sunrise. We made our way into downtown, found the Central FD, and introduced ourselves. We would always try to do as much advance tour work as we could. Sometimes it was never enough, and things would not get confirmed in time.

However, things always seemed to work out. On this occasion, it was a big station, and this morning we had arrived just in time for a shift change. This meant there were a lot more firefighters there at once. And since 9/11 many people were also visiting their local FD, so we even got to share the banner with people in the neighborhood.

And while we were there, our car was voluntarily being washed along with the trucks. We really appreciated this, and it exemplified the hospitality and compassion of the firefighters. We couldn’t stay longer as we would have liked, we were scheduled to be in Seattle WA before the end of the day.