2019, Our Year Traveling by Ship, Train, Plane, Car and Barge: Traveling the Oregon Trail

Susan, my friend (who we just sadly parted from) is a the retired history teacher. She informed us that one part of the Oregon trail has such a gradual, but steep, long grade, followed by a series of switchbacks that it was the part of the trail that almost thwarted the first wagon trains, even more so than the Rocky Mountains. WOW!!!

Today, we will go through Idaho, Oregon and Washington , 13 states, so far; and crossed into our third time zone. All the Oregon marijuana billboards are cracking us up.

We just passed the 45th Parallel, half way between the North Pole and the Equator.

We are listening to David McCullough’s, The Pioneers which so far is mostly about the Ohio territory. It’s hard to imagine it as a wilderness.

Just after passing Deadman’s Pass on I-84 W.

Love the road & city names: Old Emigrant Hill, Pioneer Rd, Walla Walla. One moment we are in hills and valleys and the next in vast plains. Farmers are busy cutting and bailing hay.

We have seen so many windmill farms, but not so much these solar fields...

Washington, the Evergreen state. We saw what appeared to be wild horses shortly after crossing into the state. A bit later, we saw acres and acres of vineyards between the hayfields with a few hops fields.

We didn’t expect to see more arid hills and plains outside of Yakima. Obviously, we aren’t in the rainy part of the state yet.

They must depend on lots of irrigation or watering for these type of green fields.

We are just outside Ellensberg, WA just southeast of Seattle, tonight's stop. This city is the home of Central Washington University which has about 10,500 students.

One of the older buildings

After researching what else is here besides the university. It's a cute college town Western style complete with an August rodeo.

Pearl St.

Another terrific place to eat with a killer Old Fashion

A tiny space with multiple associations within...http://clymermuseum.org/index.html

Part of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame

Love old photos like this from the 1920's

Love her tribal clothing

Artists have created these fabulous boxes for auction to raise money for the Rodeo and it's charities

Just a couple of them...

My favorite an antique trunk with images added

It turns out that we have seen his artwork, before at other Western art museums, but didn't recognize his name

I'm always fascinated by artist's paint cases...for my artist friend's ,please enlarge this photo to see his thoughts...

One of his funnier illustrations...

Aloutte

Then, we found Dick and Jane's Spot, a space that my friend Nelly Bly would have adored...

"Welcome to Dick and Jane's Spot ...an art site and a home. Dick and Jane made most of the art you see but we have also collected art. The works of over 40 Northwest artists are on display in the yard. Generally, what you see from outside the fence is what you see. The rest is our private yard so please respect the fences. The Spot has been a work in progress for 35 years. There are over 10,000 bottle caps and thousands of reflectors. The pieces in the yard are always changing. Old pieces decay and new ones are added."