Oregon

I scanned the dusty shelves stocked with bagged and boxed provisions encrusted in a time capsule of dirt. After leaving Baker City, we attempted to secure lunch at what was billed as a convenience mart. I passed on the outdated condiments and the embattled envelope of Lipton pasta Alfredo that looked as if it had spent hard time at the bottom of the rubble in our van.

Signs warned us early on that the scenic byway on which we embarked en route to Crater Lake and California would take us on a “Journey Through Time.”

In that respect, the trail did not disappoint. Indeed, the entire day was a journey back to a time before Internet, modern rest stops, and even restaurants.

My husband pointed out that our route followed the Oregon Trail. “That explains it!” our daughter said, recalling an Oregon Trail adventure play she helped my niece and nephew produce. Her cousins were the only actors, as all the other characters were either dead or off searching for food.

After many hours of pine forest and rocky brown mountains covered in low-lying scrub, we decided to find a town in which to settle for the evening, rather than press on the additional hour to Crater Lake. We naively hoped to follow through on the thought of a night at the movies.

We secured accommodations at a lodge with a rustic woodsman theme. Fake animals and plastic woodsmen aside, the lodge is quite comfortable.

Despite elements such as the rusty saw over the door, the room is well decorated. The furniture is gorgeous, cabin-style wooden-type stuff, and the room is stocked with Seattle’s Best coffee.

The proprietor informed us that wi-fi isn’t standard in these here parts. I actually feel fortunate to have a power outlet that enables me to pre-compose this post in Microsoft Word.

Speaking of Microsoft, my husband keeps claiming their headquarters are nearby, a fact that kept him pressing forward expecting to hit a high tech corridor. From our vantage point outside the lodge, we can see a sign indicating that we must haveblinked and missed the only existing pocket of technology an hour back.

As you might guess from this shot of the main drag, we were not successful in locating a movie theater. In fact, we resorted to emergency Cup of Soup and Wisconsin cheese and crackers for a makeshift in-room dinner.

If you are reading this post, we were likely successful in today’s goal of wrapping up this flashback in time and reemerging in twenty-first city California.

Miles to date: 4066.9
Highest gas price: 3.29 9/10
Creatures: fox (deceased)