Sunday, July 1, 2007

The Oregon Trail Journal


June 13 –I went next door to Tanners to have breakfast of oatmeal, brown sugar and raisins with milk. As I was leaving the restaurant the fire alarm went off--very loudly! Someone was cooking with a microwave oven. I could smell something burnt and saw a smoky haze in the hallway leading off the lobby.

I went down to the Radisson lobby around noon to watch the Elderhostelers arriving. The hotel arranged for the airport shuttle to take five of us to visit the Zona Rosa, a shopping area at Interstate 29 and Barry Road. I ate lunch at Barnes & Noble, wandered through the mall and purchased a raspberry sorbet at Cold Stone Creamery. We were picked up around 3:00 pm.

The Elderhostel group met for a Welcome and Orientation session at 4:00 pm, followed by a dinner and a lecture in the Meeting Room. We met the Group Leader Charla Johannes of St. Peters, MO and the Study Leader Molly Smith of Sandy, OR. I “volunteered” to be the weather person during the journey. I got a Hershey Bar from the vending machine for dessert.

2 comments:

robandjeanne said...

Hello,

I greatly enjoyed your journal about traveling the Oregon trail. We made the trip last year, and I loved it so much, I would like to do it again.

We used a guide book by Julie Fanselow "Travelling the Oregon Trail" and explored some off the beaten path sights as well as most of the ones you mentioned.

We're both retired, and I love camping although my wife doesn't. Of the 20 days, we probably spent 6 nights camping all of them noteworthy for one hilarious reason or another.

Most interesting probably was camping with the gracious and hospitable Mormons at the Willie Handcart Memorial Camp (sixth crossing of the Sweetwater), on route 287 near the river (Lander vicinity).

One of my most noteworthy sites was the California Hill Ruts near Brule Nebraska. The place was just there in the middle of nowhere (an agricultural area), and nothing but one sign to mark it. Julie's guide book said to open the barbed wire fence (hard to find) and hike roughly Northwest (no path) watching out for the occasional rattlesnake. In 90 deg Nebraska heat at the top of the hill (I'd never find them) were the best ruts in regular earth of the entire trail. Also when you stood up there you felt like a pioneer revisiting history.

Do you have any of your trip pictures on the net? Also your locations (longitude and latitude ?) of points such as the South Pass. If I don't get a chance to redo this trip (having back problems this year) I might want to try to revisit some sights on Google Earth.

Thanks,
Robert Dalton
rvdalton@yahoo.com

robandjeanne said...

Hello,

I greatly enjoyed your journal about traveling the Oregon trail. We made the trip last year, and I loved it so much, I would like to do it again.

We used a guide book by Julie Fanselow "Travelling the Oregon Trail" and explored some off the beaten path sights as well as most of the ones you mentioned.

We're both retired, and I love camping although my wife doesn't. Of the 20 days, we probably spent 6 nights camping all of them noteworthy for one hilarious reason or another.

Most interesting probably was camping with the gracious and hospitable Mormons at the Willie Handcart Memorial Camp (sixth crossing of the Sweetwater), on route 287 near the river (Lander vicinity).

One of my most noteworthy sites was the California Hill Ruts near Brule Nebraska. The place was just there in the middle of nowhere (an agricultural area), and nothing but one sign to mark it. Julie's guide book said to open the barbed wire fence (hard to find) and hike roughly Northwest (no path) watching out for the occasional rattlesnake. In 90 deg Nebraska heat at the top of the hill (I'd never find them) were the best ruts in regular earth of the entire trail. Also when you stood up there you felt like a pioneer revisiting history.

Do you have any of your trip pictures on the net? Also your locations (longitude and latitude ?) of points such as the South Pass. If I don't get a chance to redo this trip (having back problems this year) I might want to try to revisit some sights on Google Earth.

Thanks,
Robert Dalton
rvdalton@yahoo.com