East vs West amoung other things

Oregon Fun Facts:

You cannot pump your own gas. We learned this the hard way. The first time at the pump we got out like normal to pump and the attendant came up to us to ask if he could help when we declined help he replied "well this is Oregon, I have to pump your gas". Luckily since we have our NC plates still we could just pass off the situation as newbes!

In Oregon there is no Sales Tax. This always throws me off when we check out and the bill is the exact amount as what the price is.

You get money for recycling bottles.  This seems exciting but since its only 5 cents a bottle it takes awhile for that to add up.

All the major cities in Oregon are along the West coast meaning the East is mainly rural small towns.  This caused a political divide among the state with the more liberal democratic idealism on the west side and the conservative Republican side on the eastern part of the state. I have even heard it suggested by an easterner that the state should separate.

Eastern Oregon is also known for its amazing outdoor adventure and beauty.  Several mountain ranges fill the landscape which is scattered with pine and juniper trees. You can ski, snowshoe, hike, camp, kayak, canoe, ride horses, mountain bike, road bike, but there is driving involved in most of these activities and most of them can only be done in the summer.  As we are here in the winter and beginning spring we attempted one such outdoor adventure this past weekend.  We drove to the Eagle Cap Wilderness to Wallowa Lake. We have been hearing how beautiful it is. In the summer it is a huge tourist town. Here is a picture of what it looks like in the summer:





But here is what we saw:

For the first weekend in Spring we actually went snow shoeing in 33 degree weather. The lake was actually frozen but just beginning to melt. We saw a guy ice fishing.

The trip wasn't a total bust though we got to try two awesome breweries and chat with some locals.

Walk about Portland

This weekend we ventured again from East to West only this drive was 3 hours instead of 53 hours.  Our destination: Portland Oregon.  We stayed in a house found on AirBnB which is a website for bed and breakfast joints. The rooms are not usually at an established bed and breakfast but more like a room rented out of someones house.  The website also has some house boats for rental and tree houses. https://www.airbnb.com/

Our particular house was within walking and public transportation distance of downtown  Portland.  We began the weekend Friday night by having a beer at Upright Brewing Company and then headed down to the 5th quadrant for dinner and beers at the Sidebar. On the way back to the car we were walking and looking up at the stars which was amazing to be in a city and see the stars but dangerous to walk looking up after having a couple beers. Sadly I stepped into a pot hole and fell. I wasn't too banged up just a scraped elbow and a little humiliation.






One of the coolest things about the house was there was an outdoor bath house which included a sauna, shower, and bathtub in a not so hidden location. At first I was skeptical but after some convincing from Jonathan I gave it a try. I'd say the best part was being able to step into the sauna after the hot shower.
 

 
The next part of our day involved walking and walking and walking to Forest park! This is the largest park in a city in the USA. All the guidebooks and websites say to come here.  The thing they failed to mention is that you should really drive here! It was somewhere over 4 miles from the house to the park. On the way back we hopped a bus!

The second biggest thing to do in Portland is eat from a food truck.  They have blocks in the city dedicated to just food trucks. We decided to go with Egyptian food and it was a good decision.  While waiting in line a saw a girl walk past with a pet rat on her back. I was too slow to snap a photo but very alarmed!

There are too many breweries to visit in a day but we managed to go by a few and stopped in for some tasting.

The main reason we choose this particular weekend to go to Portland was that one of our favorite bands was playing called The Greensky blue grass band.  They played at a little venue called the Wonder Ballroom which used to be a church. Lady Gaga was known to play here just before she got big.

 

Here's the inside

 This was definitely good people watching at this concert. Most of the audience were hippies. One such girl with a plain dress and dreads in her hair was also using an iPhone...such a minimalist!  Another guy came dressed as a taco. Literally a taco.  I should never spend time worrying about what I wear again!

On the drive back to Pendleton we made another few stops. One was at Bridge of the Gods which crosses the Pacific Coast trail and was the stopping point of the girl hiking in the book Wild.

Another stop on the way back was the Stonehenge replica just across the Columbia river in Washington. It was built as a war memorial.

windmills!

More than dysentery, buffalo hunts, and wagon wheels

This weekend we went to Baker City, OR to the Oregon Trail museum.  I have always had an interest in the Oregon Trail and life as a pioneer probably due to the popular Oregon Trail computer game along with TV shows such as Little House on the Prairie and Dr Quinn Medicine Woman.  During the summers when I was younger I would make my brother play out scenes from the computer game with me. We would make a covered wagon out of the kitchen table and chairs and then run around the yard shooting buffalo and deer for food.

When we drove up from Idaho we actually were driving along the old Oregon Trail.  Coming across the strange rolling treeless lands that then turn into large Mountainsides was surreal for me in 2013 in a compact car. I cannot image how the pioneers felt in the 1800s coming across in a covered wagon!

I just wonder why would anyone do it? Six months of hardship to come to an unexplored untamed land.  My mom asked me this question of why people traveled the trail and my first answer was they were in search of gold but that didn't seem quite right so I did some Google research and this is what I found:

It  all started in 1803 with Lewis and Clark who were sent out by Thomas Jefferson to discover the newly added lands west of the Mississippi.  The route they established paved the way for the Oregon Trail. The route was actually traveled by fur traders and missionaries before the wagons set out. One of the major pushes to go out west actually started in 1843 when a law was passed that allowed married couples to claim up to 640 acres at no cost  other than to work and improve the land.  Unmarried settlers could claim 320 acres.  This law lasted until 1854.

In 1848 the California Gold rush brought additional pioneers but mostly men. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, providing faster, safer, and usually cheaper travel east and west the journey took seven days and cost as little as $65. Some emigrants continued to use the trail well into the 1890s.

Most often pioneers walked the 2000 miles which is a little less than the Appalachian Trail and I'm pretty sure they didn't have nice hiking boots! It started in Independence Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. 


The wagons Were 4 feet wide which is smaller than what I imagined. We got to take our picture by some at the museum.

Contrary to popular belief Indian attacks were rare as relations with Native American's along the way were more amiable.  More common threats were being run over by a wagon, accidental gun shots (still common today?), and Cholera. 

The museum had a walking trails that led to part of the actual trail where supposedly you could see ruts like in this picture.

 

However we only saw a marker for the trail.

I guess some people could question my decision to leave friends, family, and jobs to travel to Oregon today.  So maybe I'm not that much different than the pioneers!