ROAD WARRIOR

Greetings from Portland, OR. This week has been a blur, Dallas on Monday, Albuquerque on Tuesday, San Diego on Wednesday, today in Orange County and arriving just an hour ago in Portland. I hope to be out of here by noon tomorrow and back in Dallas for a little rest on the weekend. Sunday I fly out to Minneapolis, spend Tuesday in Detroit and Wednesday in Raleigh/Durham.

I'm bewildered by the price of housing outside of Dallas, which is one of the most affordable markets in the country -- how I take it for granted! How can ordinary people afford such prices as I've observed during the past several weeks? In San Diego I filmed a condominium project where the condos are priced at a half-mil and are so small (virtually studio efficiencies, one room and a bathroom) that prospective buyers are offered seminars that demonstrate how and where to purchase furniture (such as Murphy beds) to make the most of small spaces. Today in Temecula I filmed a couple of developments where prices ranged from $700k to $1.7 million, not a single house was over 3,500 sf and every yard was about as big as a handkerchief. Where do all the buyers come from?

By the way, the two-lane Ortega Highway through the Cleveland National Forest is one of the most scenic roads I've ever traveled. The view of Lake Elsinore as you drive up the mountain is breath-stealing. I did have a few nerves as we swerved around hairpin curves that had virtually no shoulder. At one point an eighteen-wheeler confronted us (he was well over the dividing line), and I was afraid our five-ton grip truck was going to go hurtling off the side of the mountain.

Well, it's time to catch up with the news and then try to steal a little sleep before I have to meet the film crew at 6 a.m.