Photos: Life in Oregon

Benton County chief sign fabricator Gary Champion shines a brand new road sign Jan. 31, 2013 in Corvallis, Ore. In an effort to meet federal safety mandates, Benton County employs a part-time crew of retired transportation workers to cruise rural byways after dark, checking road signs for legibility, general upkeep and retroreflectivity — a traffic engineer’s persnickety term for how well they show up in your headlights. (AP Photo/Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jesse Skoubo)