Years back an Australian stayed at the motel I was running at the time. He was an interesting fellow; his name, as I recall was Des Brooks. I realize that no one here will know him but stranger things have happened. (?)

He was originally from Perth and eventually bought a pub in the interior. He said he had no competition because he was 250K in one direction from the nearest one and 350K in the other direction. I think he said he had 11 rooms and that whenever he needed more parking he just took the blade and enlarged the lot.

He said that in the summer time they didn't drink alcohol, that it was too hot. He said too that people like me- who had never been exposed to that kind of heat and already past 40 - would probably not survive summers.

The reason he was in Oregon was that when an American waitress working for him went back home he promised her that if she got married he would attend her wedding, although he had not been out of his own country before. She did, and so he did.

He stayed at the motel a couple of weeks and then said he was moving closer to Portland so he could visit Mt. Hood. He wanted to see snow. He said he had never seen it live but that "of course, I know what it's like, from freezers and so on."

I assured him that he would find it was quite different.