The Scenic Road

A little drive through Idaho, over the river...

And we arrived in Oregon.

We spent the night in charming Baker City and managed to get NO pictures!  We had a great meal at Barley Browns and then some world famous bread pudding from the Geiser Grand Hotel.  Maybe some day we will spend time exploring the historic Oregon Trail in Baker City...and get some pictures!

The next day we took the scenic route and headed across Oregon.  It really is lovely, even on the Eastern side of the state which is much dryer than the classic views of coast. 

 

I kept imagining riding across the prairies and hills and mountains and rivers in a covered wagon with all of my belongings and family and livestock.

And I could feel the internal tension and external (marital) tension that would go along with conversations such as, "This is a lovely meadow, why don't we homestead here?" "What if the next valley has better water?" "This valley doesn't seem as fertile as the last one, what if it's too rocky to plant?" "We've been making good progress, we should keep going" "Are we going all the way to the Pacific?" "Why didn't we stop before our wagon fell apart/cattle died/etc."

 

The boys occupied with "sewing cards" and laces.  Hours of fun when your pent up in a car!

The scenic route took us through Deschutes National Forest and Willamette National Forest.  Beautiful!

Some fire damaged area.

Hemmed in by pines. 

I will attempt to finish the posts about this trip soon....now almost a month past completion! 

Because we've got other things to talk about!