April 2
Gotta share another interestingly named place with you: Wamsutter, doesn't sound native-origin to me, so who came up with a name like that? By the way, I let you in on a secret: Bliss, Paradise (Valley) and Eden are all located in Idaho...
Lots of driving today, after sitting in a traffic jam for two hours because a truck got out of control on the very icy road just after Rawlin. Conditions got better almost right after that and really good once we got to the Snake River.
April 3
We stopped for sightseeing one last time today, in Baker City, OR, for the Oregon Trail Interpretive Centre. We have been following the Oregon Trail pretty much since Independence. Or should I say the Interstate did....!? The Center was phenomenal! For the first time ever, I felt I didn't have enough time in a museum setting and wished I could have red all their displays. They made it that interesting! They asked the visitor questions, among others, such as: if you are a blacksmith, would you take your tools on the journey? Answer is no, because your tools would weigh 1000 lbs, for which you would need a second wagon; apart from the cost, who would drive it? Many more such questions that really got you involved. Lots of diary excerpts, too. Some reminded me of living on a boat ;-), reference being the bread baking, the laundry and general cleaning... ;-) We will sure be back and can only recommend visiting the centre to everybody. We even saw some original wagon ruts - from over 150 years ago! The Oregon Trail started in the 1840s just South of Kansas City in Independence. It took those guys up to 6 months to make it into Oregon with 1 in 10 people dying on the trail. About 300.000 people made the attempt in a 10 year time frame (of course the emigration didn't stop after ten years, it went on for decades). All because of some political scheme that promised people the land of milk and honey (not true) and free farm land (true)- so that the area would be populated to take it away from the British...Emigrants also wanted to escape the Cholera on the East Coast (many brought it with them, though) and later the Civil War.
We are back in spring, by the way. Lawns are a lush green and leaves are sprouting. It's a beautiful, sunny day. The air is so fresh, clean and not too crisp. I love it. Can't wait to get that at home. Can't wait to get back to Beautiful British Columbia!
April 4
The area around Bellevue must have been the furthest along into spring of all the places we've seen on our trip back. We are on the 1pm ferry, enjoying the Pacific Buffet. Another 1 1/2 hrs and we'll be home. It feels so good to be back. It's again a beautiful day. The ferry is going by the beautiful sceneries of the Gulf Islands. It's during moments like these that I ask myself, why did we ever leave? Well, it's great to go away, but it's always as least as great to come home.
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