Dull Boring And Bland

One of my favorite named towns in Oregon continues t make news because of its name. That would be Boring, Oregon. Boring is about 15 minutes from my own city here and is noted for the rich farm land that produces wonderful fruit. In summer many Portland area residents pick strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.. on Boring U Pick farms. For about half the price of grocery store fruit and veggies one can pick fresh ones.

Boring is also on the way (another 25 minutes) to Mount Hood, the highest mountain in the U.S. and to my kind of pilgrimage, Joe's Donuts. in adjacent Sandy, Oregon. For many years in succession, Joe's has been awarded the title of best donuts in Oregon. They are old style, hand made donuts worth a drive to get. Hmmm Maybe I should build a shrine to Joe's donuts on the top of Mt. Hood.

I am off topic. Anyway, Boring was in the news for adding a third member to the triad of sister cities. In addition to Dull, a village in Scotland, a third sister city tie was announced . Bland, Australia has joined forces wit the other tow dreary places to promote themselves to tourists as places to see when in the area. Dull and Boring became sister communities in 2012, after a Scottish woman passed through the U.S. town on a cycling holiday. That tie  has boosted the profile of both places. So Dull officials just hosted the mayor of the region of Bland, New South Wales, at a reception to celebrate the third member of a club self labeled as the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'.

I am not sure they are extraordinary. Boring does have quite a few antique shops of interest and a finny named bar in the center of the place (It takes about 5 minutes to drive the length of Boring). The Bar is named 'The Most Boring Bar', but I have not been inside to verify that. If not exciting, the most interesting thing about those three dreary cites is their names. Bland  and Boring are both named after early residents, William Bland and William Boring, while Dull’s name may come from a Gaelic word for meadow. Boring has a population of about 10,000, which makes it the big city among the three. Bland has about 6,000 people and Dull has a population of 84 Dull residents.

But Wait! That's not the whole story. The three sister cities have bigger plans to put us all to sleep.  They've found Ordinary and Dreary, both in the U.S., and think they could soon be part of the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'. Why, I am almost excited about that!