Play-time in Oregon

• My two week visit with Donna and Tom in Portland was fantastic; pretty much like “going out to play with my friends.” We hung out together, laughed, toured around, laughed, did silly things and laughed some more.

• Throughout my life’s travels – which have always involved the comforts of modern transportation - I’ve had a fascination about the stamina of pioneers who piled their often meager earthly possessions into covered wagons and endured a 2,000 mile trek – mostly walking - across North America. While visiting Portland, where the temperatures were in the range of 100+ I wondered if any pioneers could possibly have imagined the air-conditioned comfort of the Oregon Trail Museum within which I leisurely examined their artifacts and listened to their stories.

• Built in the shape of three giant covered wagons, the museum informs the curious about the excitement, difficulties, pestilence, disease, extreme heat, extreme cold, and boredom faced by some 200,000 pioneers whose overland voyages took four to seven months to complete. Historians estimate that one in ten died along the way. Three out of four women were at some stage of pregnancy during the journey and many died delivering babies in the back of wagons that often did not stop bumping and grinding long enough for the birthing event.

• Not all pioneers travelled as far as the west coast. Those who did must have been overwhelmed by the sight of the Pacific Ocean where, I happily discovered, the temperatures can be some 30 degrees cooler than in Portland. My friend Donna, her daughter Sarah and I had a blast during a three-day girlfriends’ trip to Lincoln City; one of an endless string of small towns along the Oregon Coast. We checked into a touristy motel, explored the local shopping and restaurants, played cards, talked, laughed, watched movies and walked on the beach. The only thing missing was the sight of the Pacific Ocean which, throughout our stay in Lincoln City, was blanketed with a thick and lingering fog.

• While in Portland, I also learned more about the ups and downs of owning and maintaining an RV. And the more I learned the more convinced I became that, despite the fun of it, the RV lifestyle – much like travelling by wagon-train - is considerably more than I am inclined to, or capable of, undertaking. Lucky for me, Donna and Tom have already invited me to visit them in Texas where they will spend the winter and again next summer in Portland.