The Wild Side

                                                  




Large cities with swarms of humanity make it easy to forget the America of wide spaces that still exist today; the America where you can drive for miles and see not a house or pass another car. It becomes a reality when standing above a deep canyon or looking across an open expanse of land to the far horizon. When I find myself in an area of nothing I try to imagine what it was like to be the first person seeing this same view, to walk for days and not encounter another person, to see nothing but vast open plans and sky stretching from mountain top to valley floor. Even today that is still a large part of the western United States. We now can choose to walk as we explore or we can opt to use modernized transportation.

The Steens Mountain area of south eastern Oregon is a beautiful example of the same yesterday as today. It is rugged and empty just as it was in 1863 when John Work a fur trader from Europe saw the area. He called it snowy mountains. This land drew a unique type of individual. It had to be someone willing to gamble not only money, but life as well; a person with a bounty of confidence in his survival skills and willing to work beyond the normal meaning of hard. They founded their dreams on bits and pieces of information gathered from other curious sojourners. Sight unseen and banking on the stories related to them along with endless stores of faith they began their journey of exploration.

 I often wonder what it is that draws a person to the remoteness of areas like Steens Mountain. Even for a city bred person like myself there is a fascination and wonder when I stand in the quiet solitude and take in the unspoiled beauty.  Millions of years ago when the lava flowed across the valleys and built the mountains there was no one there to watch. They have seen millions of springs, hot summer heat, gentle touches of fall and harsh cold winters covered in snow, weathered away while changing in shape and adding sharp edges and canyons. A friendly land it is not, yet people came bringing cattle and horses and dreams. What happened to those dreams is open for speculation. Not all came to a happy end, which is the way of dreams.

I'm glad I saw this part of Oregon which is so different from the lush green forests we always associate with the state. An explorer or risk taker I'm no but do I like to see places like this and follow someone else's footsteps---Most certainly.  Thank heaven for the adventurous and curious individuals who found Steens Mountain and the Alvard Desert.

 

Spring is the softer side and flowers find a spot in the rocky volcanic soil

Family Richness

Years ago, when we had a young family, we bought a pop up camper with the grand idea of traveling with our kids so we could give them rich experiences as well as quality family time. We weren't sure what these rich experiences would be, but the idea sounded great. Hotels were costly, but a camper seemed to be the answer to traveling as a family. With a two burner stove, sink, dinette, and pop out beds on each end we had a little home on wheels. The kids and a dog were loaded into the car and off we went for adventures unknown.

It was understood right from the beginning that well equipped camp grounds were the only place I would grace. KOA became a sign imprinted in the kids minds. I looked forward to flush toilets and showers while the kids looked forward to a swimming pool and mini golf. Nolan looked forward to just getting the darn thing up and level and prayed it didn't rain. We were the people that motor home owners hoped and prayed would pass by and take the spot further down the loop. Unfortunately, we always went for the high end spots with cable hook up, water, and electricity. The five inch TV was a special treat when we tucked in for the night.

The one down side to a great road trip was rain. Setting up or taking down a pop up in the rain is a miserable job. There is no possible way to stay dry. You simply dive in and move as quickly as possible using team work to speed up the job. We weathered torrential rain storms, high winds while snug in our beds as the trailer rocked and bucked. The storms only added fun and adventure to the trips. The more the trailer rocked and the wind howled the richer the experience.

Our kids saw the Pacific Ocean and had it as a backyard for almost a week. For these land locked kids it was new, exciting and jar dropping cool. They saw mountain ranges of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana as well as  the coast line of Oregon and Washington and small town American in between.

 

 

 

Memories were made and there was an abundance of close family. (sometimes maybe a little too much close family time.) Problems were also mixed in the with the rich experiences of bonding. A wrong turn down a dead end street in Portland, Oregon made it impossible to turn around. The trailer was unhitched and turned around manually much to the humiliation of the two oldest boys, the dog got lose in a campground during the dead of night and terrorized the tent campers. We could hear people yelling as the dog ran in panic through the area. Too embarrassed to call her we just waited for her to find her way back. There was a lost purse in Montana, a flat tire on the trailer and a lug wrench that didn't fit, and a child left in a gas station in Washington.

 

Thankfully we finally outgrew the little home on wheelers and decided it was time to pass it on to another young family in need of rich experiences and bonding time. We watched with bitter sweet  feelings as the excited kids and parents pulled our little pop up down the driveway and around the       corner. They could find their memories in shared showers, or rough camp without flush toilets. Our    days of hauling kids to the showers and late night runs to the bathroom were over. There would be  no more pans of pop corn cooked in the foil pan that expanded into a dome, no snug nights tucked into warm blankets and the sound of the little furnace purring softly while keeping us all warm. 

 

We did find richness in those summer excursions and a sense of being a tight knit unit, a unit unto ourselves. I've learned through the years that in parenting there is a joy which you experience from giving and opening doors to your children. Providing them the chance to see the world and learn what is beyond their own backyard often is done through selfishness on our part. We want to see all things with them and all things through their eyes. Whatever our children gained we gained more because we were there with them.