Glenn’s Ferry, ID

2021-08-19 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Day 22 – Traveling from Glenn’s Ferry, ID to Vale and Baker City, OR

Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenn’s Ferry is a beautiful park, with large grassy sites. But we must keep moving on. Today we reach Oregon!

Eastern Oregon looks a lot like south western Idaho…

We are heading to Vale, OR, to rendezvous with all 20 Airstreams; then we will convoy into Vale with a police escort to assist crossing streets and staying together…

We passed through some very fertile farmland…

We all parked together in this small lot until we were all here…

Our police folk posed for pictures while we waited…

When we were ready we traveled the 2-3 miles through the town of Vale, and we parked in the Rodeo Grounds…

We were greeted by the Mayor of Vale, then we boarded a school bus to travel to our three historic sites…

Vale was the first stop in Oregon after the emigrants left Fort Boise… Here we see the ruts and swales along the trail…

We climbed to the top of the hill where we could see the trail as it passed by here…

The paved highway basically follows the route of the trail through the Keeney Pass…

Next we moved to the gravesite of John Henderson…

The emigrants buried Henderson here and scratched his name on the rock…

This last plaque was placed by locals, who based their description on an essay by a local schoolboy… No, he didn’t die of thirst… More likely was some disease…

Also near here is the Meek’s Cutoff. Meeks thought he had found a shortcut; it turned out it wasn’t…

Vale was founded in 1864 by Jonathan Keeney. As you can read, he named the area Malheur, which means misfurtune…

Vale is famous for their fine collection of more than 30 murals all around the downtown area…

We stopped in at Mal’s Diner for a mid-afternoon ice cream break…

And then we headed out for Baker City… We soon found the Snake river again…

And we found cute little mountains…

We arrived at the Mountain View RV park in Baker City…

The RV park buildings love their old west theme…

We had a lovely happy hours with several fellow Airstreamers…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 23, 2021 0

2021-08-18 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Day 21 – Traveling from Pocatello, ID to Glenn’s Ferry, ID

We were awakened in the wee early hours by booming thunder, flashing lightning, and pouring rain… We’re not in California any more…

However, by 8:00 the rain had mostly stopped and I was able to disconnect and hitch up without too much difficulty. At 9:00, Lynda and I showed up for our duties as assigned – we are part of the launch crew, or, as we typically call it on other caravans, we were to be de-parkers. As each Airstream leaves, we give a once-over look at their hitch, lights, vents, TV antennas, and we keep an eye our for any other unusual conditions…

Our duties were uneventful, and at 10:00 we returned to the Villa and finished up our hitching routine. We were on the road by 10:20.

We are heading to Glenn’s Ferry, ID.

The scenery along the way is fairly typical. Lots of potato farms…

We always stop every hour or two to stretch our legs…

This particular rest stop had a path to take us to see the Snake River, an important feature along the Oregon Trail…

We are nearing the “Parting of the Ways”, where the Oregon-bound emigrants separated from the California-bound emigrants…

One of the reasons the Snake River is important is that it must be crossed several times; some crossings were easy, some were difficult and dangerous…

Around lunch time we pulled off at Jerome, ID. It was lunch time, and we know most small towns have a large city park at the center of town. We can park, walk around the town, and have lunch, either at a café in town or in the Airstream…

We found parking at the park…

After a relaxing lunch we were off again…

We arrived at the town of Glenn’s Ferry, and we parked for the night at the Three Island Crossing State Park. It is right on the banks of the Snake River.

There is a nice Visitor’s Center… The Oregon Trail History and Education Center

It tells the story of Three Island Crossing…

The Snake RIver is wide here, and the current is deep and swift. But there are three islands at this one spot that allowed the wagons to cross in smaller bits, hopping from one island to the next. It was still a treacherous crossing, and many emigrants debated whether the crossing was worth it – only a few day’s travel down the river they would have to cross back. But if you cross here you have several days travel with ample grass, game, and water. Those who avoided the two crossings risked running short of all three…

And then came Gus Glenn…:

He knew that Three Mile Crossing was one of the most famous and treacherous river crossings on the Oregon Trail. Pioneers forded the Snake River at the Three Island Crossing until 1869. It was then that Glenn constructed a ferry about two miles upstream, primarily to expedite freight but also for emigrants. His boat, which could hold two wagons, cut nearly twenty miles from the former route. In 1871 the city of Glenn’s Ferry was established. Construction of the Oregon Short Line Railroad through the town in 1883 doomed the ferry business…

Here sits Glenn’s Ferry, a little worse for wear…

From down on the river bank we see a nice view of the Visitor’s Center…

Here is where the wagons exited the river, if they didn’t tip over whilst crossing…

Back at the Villa we enjoyed this beautiful state park…

The middle of August and the fall colors are turning in Idaho…

We had a lovely happy hours and a light supper at the Villa…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 22, 2021 0

2021-08-16 and 17 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Days 19 and 20 – Pocatello, ID

August 16, 2021

It is an exciting day for us today! Most of our grandchildren start school for the first time in 17 months…

3rd grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten… While the 3-year-old looks on wistfully… (She starts Preschool next week…)

Or as they say in Burbank: “Primer Dia de Escuela! Kinder, Grado 2, Grado 3…”

But on to today’s activities:

We took the truck in for an oil change… I tried to get an appointment for today a week ago, and I was told by the Chevy dealer and the GMC dealer that they were too busy. When I asked the GMC dealer, “What am I supposed to do?” he replied, “There’s a Jiffy-Lube right across the street!”…

We stopped in at Fred Meyer to do some grocery shopping…

After we returned to the Villa Lynda remembered that she forgot one item, so she walked to the nearby Kwik Stop Market…

But they didn’t have what she needed, so she walked a bit further to the Albertson’s…

So after that exhausting round of activity we took it easy the rest of the afternoon. We enjoyed Happy Hours with friends, then we joined others for a post happy hours Happy Hour…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 17, 2021

The caravaners toured the Museum of Clean this morning…

Donald Andrew Aslett (born 1935) is an American entrepreneur and author who specializes in cleaning and housekeeping products, services, and techniques. He co-founded Varsity House Cleaning Company, a house cleaning service, in 1957.

He is considered a cleaning expert and has written books about how to reduce the time spent cleaning by reducing clutter, selecting and organizing the efficient cleaning tools, and creating what he calls a self-cleaning house.

In 2011, he opened the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho, a six-story building with a theater, art gallery, and collection of 6,000 artifacts. The building is a restored warehouse in Pocatello’s historic warehouse district…

They do have the worlds Largest Janitor!

The musem has collections of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and similar apparatus…

This display is close to home for us… In 1974 there was a winter storm that brought giant waves to San Onofre, at San Clemente, where we typically came 4-5 times per year. Hank “Crawdad” Wilson, a master surfer, who lived in nearby Dana Point, went to surf those giant waves. Unfortunately, his board was in the shop getting some Fiberglas work done. So he grabbed the closest thing in the shape of a surfboard – an ironing board!

He hit the waves and created a surfing legend that day…

(I have no idea what this has to do with clean…)

After the museum we headed north to Blackfoot, ID. To the old train depot…

Because, after all – we are in Idaho…

The potato museum was even more fun than the clean museum… We watched videos of potato harvest, we saw how McDonalds makes their French fries. There is also a potatoe, autographed by Dan Quail…!

And it has a café! We shared a baked potato with a few toppings for lunch…