Pendleton, Oregon

Buck and Sharon have several horses, dogs, and the occasional herd of elk and deer that cleverly find their way into the barn to partake of the horse feed. Buck has made a comfortable home away from any city noise and in what I think is a lovely place. Ken and I are so excited for the opportunity to travel and to be able to visit them while we both are able and healthy. 

Considering our destination of Alaska, it is also a benefit to visit with Buck to talk about his life in Alaska. Several decades ago, Buck was a teacher and coach in Galena, Alaska. I know from my trip to Alaska in 1999, that Buck’s life there was a much different experience than it will be now or was on my first trip. The advances in digital technology alone would be amazing, much less the options of travel and clothing technology. I don’t mean to imply he was there during the gold rush days, he did after all, fly with his teams to play other schools. In fact, that is one of the reasons he left the state, so much traveling by plane and being so far from other family. Galena, like many small towns in Alaska, is not connected to any other part of Alaska by a paved road. It is on the Yukon River, north of Anchorage, north of Denali National Park, north of most civilization, yet short of the Arctic Circle. We ask him about darkness, snow, caribou. He’s a rather matter-of-fact guy. His answers are basic, its not dark as much as you think and he stayed busy with school; you just get used to the snow and cold; and yes, there is a lot of hunting. As much as he likes to live in place that is a long arms reach away from a big city, he does like to be able to drive to a store, or to the mountains, or to his brother’s. (below, descending to Pendleton off the Blue Mountains)

To his brother’s, my other second cousin’s, is where we are headed now. This part of Oregon (really all of the state) is beautiful. On our way in from Nampa on Interstate 84, we skirted Hell’s Canyon along the Snake River. In 2002, on my western travels with my Great Uncle Andy, we thoroughly explored the area because he had spent many years in the region mining and just plain trying to survive. One of Andy’s younger brothers, Kayo, whom I only met when I was a baby, was Buck’s dad. All the brother’s and my great-grandparents toiled in these and nearby mountains after a bust of trying to dryland farm on the Montana prairie. Andy and I visited some spots he had not seen since the 1950’s. And before that it was World War II that took him away (round-aboutly). Yet, in the year he and I were together, at his age of 91, he could sniff out every hand wrought hole in the ground that he dug gold out of, incredible! We made many stops on that trip, enough for a whole other story. What I am most happy about in the differences of that trip and this move (besides by loving companion) is the weather! November is so much nicer a time of year than when we visited in the summer of 2002. Andy was hoping to escape the heat of Scottsdale yet we were punished with extended days of 100+ here in eastern Oregon. (below, cut in the rolling foothills of the Blue Mountains)

Ken and I drive Interstate 84 from La Grande to Pendleton. This stretch of 84 from Baker City to Pendleton is part of the historic Oregon Wagon Trail and the Blue Mountain Forest State Scenic Corridor. There is one rest stop in the mountain section where Uncle Andy and I took our lunch one day. There I learned this scenic corridor is home to intermittent stands of stately old-growth ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, western larch, and Engelmann spruce among others. An uplifting thought considering how the settlers thought everything was put here for their taking. My sister and I stopped along the road at a few national monuments where the wagon ruts are still visible in the ground today. Why our contemporaries are oblivious to the many “marks” we leave on the earth confound me when these from over 100 years ago are plainly visible. Again, I could digress. 84 cuts through the Blue Mountains before dropping into the flat lands of Pendleton, location of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and acres and acres of farm land. The Blue Mountains this month glow golden with deep basaltic rock underneath. To me, this color combination hints at a deep purple-blue. The highest pass we cross between La Grande and Pendleton is just above 4,000 feet. There is a light snow on top today, but dry air once we drop into the city. It seems an easy cross in our 200+ horse power car, we will traverse it twice in one day. A wagon train would be relieved that it is their last mountain crossing for most who settled what is now the Hermiston Valley or any other spot along the Columbia River. 

Pendleton is home to the Pendleton Woolen Mills, not much is actually made here anymore but the historic mill is open for business and tours. A world famous rodeo, the Pendleton Round-Up is held here late each summer. I can only imagine how the city swells at that time of year. Cousin Mike grew up here, coached baseball for years, and married his lovely wife here. They live in the house that he pretty much grew up in. I had a lot of fun visiting with Uncle Andy the hot summer we stayed. Mike’s wife Carol collects lots of neat things and one I really enjoyed was costume jewelry. We talked a lot about thrift store shopping and ebay selling. This year, we again compared re-sale stories, neither of us works much with ebay anymore, too many large businesses and so many reproductions available now. Otherwise, we had a great visit with Mike and Carol, they both have a great sense of humor, are hugely warmhearted, friendly and just plain good folks. 

Knowing Someone Who has Driven to and From Alaska is a big Help!

Besides rebuilding planes, Johnny also rebuilds cars. The next project he is embarking on, the 1952 Chrysler, sounded like a major one to me. It had been sitting on his Aunt’s land for over 40 years, what condition could it possibly be in? No one had really seen it in ages so He and his sister Rosie will be going to visit the car to make a preliminary plan on how to move it. 

Johnny and his cousin will be putting the car and a farm tractor on a trailer and towing the whole load up to Alaska with the cousin’s truck. The car will be going to Eagle River and the tractor to Soldotna. Pretty amazing feat to carry out as we are learning just with our little trailer. While Johnny waited on his cousin, Rosie suggested we ask Johnny about carrying some of our gear in the car to help lighten our load. 

One thing Ken became concerned about with our rig due to the oil loss was too heavy of a load. Rosie had the great idea of putting some boxes in the Chrysler on the trailer as a way to help us out. Plus, another serendipitous moment for us, our destination is Chugiak which is two miles from Eagle River!!!!! How crazy is that! We talked to Johnny about it and he had no problem with it. He talked to his cousin who was not totally hip to the idea, but went along with it anyway. 

Ken and I spent the day separating out goods that could withstand frigid temperatures and that would fit in the car easily. We figure we offloaded about 800 pounds of goods. These containers were not light. There were two with clothes in them. The clothes where in vacuum bags so there were a lot of clothes smashed in there! One container was office equipment, the two below are tools, a kitchen mixer, juicer and all kinds of small items filling the voids-things that might be missed, but can be replaced should anything happen to them. We also gave Johnny a few extra dollars for gas and the trouble. We could not have been more lucky or grateful! Thanks a million times over to Johnny and his cousin.

Our original total rig weight was 7940 pounds measured the day we left Wichita at a truck scale. 

The vehicle alone weighs 4000 (with us). Which leaves 3940 for the trailer so that WAS a little over our 3500 pound towing limit. OOPS

With our offload, we estimated now to weigh 7000 total. Estimate.....

We also packed up a few more boxes and sent them through USPS, adding to what we sent from Wichita we have spent $555.00 on media mail, parcel post, and priority mail.

Plus we gave up our Canon ink jet printer. It would not fit in the car so we left it with Rosie. Not a big deal as she was more than kind to us while we were in Nampa! Thanks Rosie! Clearing out some bulk should also make it more comfortable for us to sleep in the trailer without moving too much around. 

Moving is rarely fun or easy. Moving from one end of a continent to another is the exact opposite of easy. We knew we could not take all of the possessions we had been living with for the past 3, 5, 10 years with us. Ken had already moved from the mainland to Hawaii and back, so he was aware of the drastic slashes that had to be made in material possessions. Sure, I had moved across the U.S. a couple of times, but each time I made provisions for storage or made the purchase of a used moving truck happen. This time I did have space offered to me by my sister, that was a huge help for family mementos and artwork. To the folks who only drive a car up, our rig may have seemed big, but to us it felt small. After assessing what would or must be kept and stored, selling or otherwise donating that which was not absolutely necessary, we thought we were left with what we could afford to carry and what we felt was absolutely required to start a new life in Alaska. Alaska is not uncivilized, many of the things we left behind we knew we could replace if we wanted to. I thought we had limited what we carried with us very well. However, with the realization today that we had to take more stuff out of the trailer, looking at this stuff and deciding what I could do without should I not see it again, was just an amazing decision to make. After a few moments though, I did not let it overwhelm me. We had made a decision to move a long way from where we were entrenched, from where we had connections. By letting go of more items, it seemed we were really cutting our ties to our old life. But a bigger realization than that emerged. We were discovering the minimum requirement of stuff we needed to survive. Our rig had to be mostly self sustaining, especially due to the time of year we were driving north. So really, what did we need? Safe transportation, food, shelter, warm clothing, safety gear. 

Just a few things to think about if you are planning on moving to Alaska.