Our Final Destination

On our last day in Prairie City, we took a drive into the Strawberry Mountains that form the southern border of the valley and are headwaters of the John Day River. It was a beautiful drive until the road got too rough for our two wheel drive pick up. When we got back to the valley floor, I took a few pictures but they didn't do the scene justice. If you do a Prairie City, Oregon Internet search you'll find lots of pictures and information.

When we got back to the RV park I took the tour of the museum. If you're a railroad buff, particularly narrow gauge, the museum is a must stop and see. There's an admission charge but what you'll find is well worth the price.

The next morning we headed east toward Sumpter and then on to Baker City. We'd contemplated stopping, but our conscience was beginning to nag because we wanted to see old friends and familiar places again.

We followed the Powder River east past the Sumpter turnoff and on to Baker City. When we got to Baker, we found Safeway was having a grand reopening. We needed to stock up, so we got a sale brochure... each. According to the brochure, the sale would be off before we'd planned to have to go back to town, so we cruised the aisles, filled our carts and checked out separately. When we left Baker the refrigerator was full, most of the storage space was stuffed and so were our stomachs. Gas was less expensive than we'd seen in a while but we didn't need to fill up. You can't trust the gas gauge but according to our Scan Gauge® it appeared we were getting somewhere around 17 mpg, not bad for a loaded 32' motorhome with a 454 V-8 and in the mountains.

Both Celinda and I had taught health classes during the mid-nineties in Baker City and, to our delight, the town didn't appear to have changed much. We'd been there the year before but that didn't influence our opinions about how much it had changed since leaving the area 15 years before.

It was late afternoon and we still had some miles to go and weren't exactly sure where we'd end up for the night. We'd made some preliminary arrangements the year before to stay at our longtime friend's parent's small farm. They had an RV hookup and needed some help with chores they were getting too old to do. It sounded like it would be a win-win for everyone. We knew we were compatible with our friend and his immediate family, but didn't know how a long-term relationship with his parents would work out. We weren't even certain where the small farm was, we'd only been there once and time fades the memory.

When we got to our destination town, we unhooked the pickup from the motorhome and drove to our friend's house to see if he would lead us to his parent's farm. When we got to the farm, the sun was going down and we just had enough time to back into the RV spot and get things done before dark.

The next morning we had a meeting with the owners of the farm and everything appeared to be agreeable to all, but one never knows what life has in store. We'd had lots of invitations to stay during our trip but we didn't want to backtrack, plus we wanted to reestablish our relationships with old friends in the area.

Being seven plus weeks late, our first priority was to get the garden planted. At this writing, almost two months later, the garden is putting fresh food on the table. We're part of the local CSA, community supported agriculture, farm project which has a full spectrum of organically grown produce. We help our long time friends harvest their bounty for the local Saturday market and they share it with us as payment.

When we arrived, the wild cherries were ripe enough to harvest and we were cherry gluttons until the huckleberries were ready. There are still some huckleberries, blackberries are getting ripe down in the canyon, plus wild plums and apples are beginning to get a blush of red. The mountains that ring the valley are quite tall and even though it's only mid-August, the nights have already begun to have an autumn chill to them.

Here at the farm, we've been part of an old-time barn raising, met other RVers who are friends with the owners, and who stay for a few days on their way through, I've split enough wood to last the winter, done some general handyman work and rewired the RV space to make it compatible for multiple RVs. We drive the owners to their doctors appointments and no one assumes anything ahead of time. As I write, there's a White Tail deer and her two fawns grazing on pasture grass not 50' from our window. Our cat loves the hunting possibilities. And, as soon as the snow flies we'll be headed south.