What's All This About, Then?
(aka Your Many Questions Indelicately Answered)

(hint #1: scroll down and this won't be as hard to read. You're welcome.)


We go on trips. Road trips. Other trips. But mostly road trips. Sometimes (ideally) long ones. Sometimes not.

Yes, this is the same blog as the one about the Oregon Trail. Yes, it used to have a stagecoach and a dusty feel to it, which went along with the Oregon Trail very nicely. Yes, that was a great trip. That was three years ago. (the blog is still here if you want to read it...it starts here)

So...as we embark on the latest chapter of our roamin' ways, we want to invite you to come along. First, we might get lonely. I mean, we don't really get lonely much, but it's possible. Second, you might miss us. Third, you just might be nosy. And fourth, we are notoriously and and historically bad at sending postcards, circulating photos, keeping up with a scrapbook; as a matter of fact, with documenting our trip in most every way. We figured this might be the 21st century solution. It worked for the last trip, which was (as you know) three years ago (sniff). So we're keeping it going.


We hope you'll pop in, read about where we are, what we're doing, see photos of our adventures, and experience our gypsy hardships (like no room service) vicariously! Most importantly, we hope you'll add your comments and greetings, which we will get when we get to one of our stopping points. Souvenir requests will receive due consideration (Hint #1: Success is highly correlated with tackiness).

For those so inclined (you know who you are), we will also list links to related sites so that you can learn with us as we learn on the road, and maybe visit some of the same sights in the future!

Happy Trails to us all!

Love, Phoebe and Robin


Friday, August 3, 2007

Nampa, Idaho to Ontario...OREGON!!!

[Today's entry provided entirely by Phoebe]

At first, in the morning, I just scrambled out with getting the bags in the car, getting ice, and filling the cooler with it. And then we went out to the car and we drove a little while. And then we got to the pretend Fort Boise. Fort Boise is a pretend place because there was a bad flood in the 1800's near when the pioneers were going on the Oregon Trail. Fort Boise got washed away in the Snake River. The people tried to put it back up, but there was a big fight with Indians so they couldn't, they just had to leave. Then they discovered trains, so after a while, they didn't need it anymore.



And there was a girl there, I would say about in her teens. I heard a little woof of a dog and the girl picked up a sweet little puppy, about eight weeks old. It was a golden retriever. It was so cute. It was her resting time in the day, so she was yawning all the time. And she let me hold her! Her name was Casey. They had gotten her about three days ago.

So we went around to see the pretend Fort Boise. There were old schools, old churches, a place where there was all kinds of books, and there was a place, a little log cabin, that we got to go inside and see the beds and a little baby cradle and we were so surprised to come back, leave the pretend Fort Boise, and go to the REAL Fort Boise (but we couldn't see any of the buildings because they had probably drowned).


We got to see the Snake River up close.


It was an exciting sight. We heard either a fish or a frog. Then we went back and we started driving, and we saw quail birds. And we kept on driving.

Interruption: Betsye--I'm on my way to send you a postcard. Almost finished it.

We drove on and on and on. We had a great surprise coming up. I didn't know what it was. Then, I saw it! A sign of "Oregon"!


So, finally arriving in Oregon, we drove a little ways and we got to this man's grave. He had died of the black measles. The grave was put exactly where he died. We got to see it. It was just a big rock with a sign on top. But the most exciting part was that some pioneer had carved his name into his grave.



Then we got in the car again. We kept on driving. There was hardly any signal on the phone. First there was one signal, then there would be none again, then it would go to two, then there was none again. Finally, when there was two, I made sure that it was there for a long time. Then I quickly pressed send twice and I called Mama. She answered quickly. I said that we might lose her, and we did. We called her again when there was two signals and we said again that we might lose her, but we didn't this time. We talked for only one minute and then we hung up again.

We kept on driving for a little while. We got to the hotel. We checked in, and we went to our room. I watched a little TV when Mommy was getting the bags. Then we went out to eat at Sizzler's. We got fried shrimp and I got sweet potato with butter and cinnamon and I ate it all up.

Then we went out to the fair. We saw part of a rodeo, we looked at all the cows. Just between you guys and me, one of the cows peed and the other one pooped. Then we went off and we saw goats and sheep and we saw pigs and they were squealing like crazy.



Then we went and we looked at the rodeo. It was cool. They roped little bulls and they rode tamed horses that had straps on their back that made 'em kick and made 'em look like they were wild. Then we went off and I played the balloon game with the pins, you try to pop the balloon. And then we went off and we got some miniature little chocolate donuts, they were "mini" and we got them on a plate. They were like a plain donut with chocolate on it--chocolate frosted, it's called. I ate one. They were very good. Mommy ate two. And then we went off.

We got to the car and drove back to our hotel. Then we did some of our little model of Fort Hall. We glued them on. We need to let it dry now. We'll finish the rest tomorrow. Now I am sitting here writing my little story on the blog about the day.

Get back to us soon.

Phoebe

4 comments:

Eastbound Mama said...

Phoebe--that's about the best story I've ever read. "Just between you guys and me???" I laughed so hard I cried. So glad you got to see the cows peeing and pooping!

I love the picture of you at the Oregon sign. It made me smile really big! And I'm so glad that you called me to tell me where you were!

Keep on going, intrepid travelers! You've reached Oregon. No need to bust!

Anonymous said...

What a great post, Phoebe! Thanks for sharing your busy day with us. Boy, am I tired just from reading all of your adventures today--I don't know how you two cover so much territory every day. This is a really exciting journey you are on - and now you have made it to Oregon-CONGRATULATIONS!

Mommy took some great pictures of you by the Snake River and the Oregon sign. Maybe you can ask some other travelers to take a couple of pictures of the two of you together. I remember Mommy said it wasn't so easy to get those, but perhaps someone would be willing to help out.

The pretend Fort Boise sounds like a very interesting place, that helps you to imagine what life was like for the pioneers all those years ago. And then a fair AND a rodeo. I think you accomplished about a week's worth of sightseeing in a day...you are on the fast track!

Can't wait to read about your upcoming adventures in Oregon-keep having fun and learning!

Phoebe and Robin said...

I had to laugh at your comment, Susan...this was a SHORT day, our shortest yet!

We'll work on that "pictures of both of us" thing...

Robin

Eastbound Mama said...

Even your short days are action-packed--that's the thing about you two. You know how to have a great time!

On a more serious note, I was thinking about what Phoebe said to me when you guys got to Oregon (that you had gotten there and nobody died). At first, I smiled at the comment, and thought it was sweet (which it was, and is). As I thought about it more, I realized just how far we've come since the pioneer days, and what fantastic advances in medicine, in technology, and in transportation, have been made. It makes your trip that much more poignant and evocative for me. I think about how much people struggled, and how intrepid they were. (And I know I'm leaving out some dark parts too--about the government and how our country grew at the expense of the Indians.) But even with all the dark parts, people were really intrepid. I think we've lost that as a people. We've gotten fat and happy--the former literally and the latter only metaphorically.

(OK--done pontificating and philosophizing.)