It's almost 3000 miles wide, about 1600 miles tall, and includes 48 states. It's grand and diverse portion of our globe; it's the continental United States of America, USA for short, and often simply called America.
Forty years ago we drove around this country land touching all but seven of those states in 16 weeks. Now it's time. It's time to do it again. During the last trip we were a family with three children in early elementary school and a Subaru packed to the gills, and my mother for a part of the trip. This time it's just two of us in an extravagant camper van.
One goal is to visit and reconnect with friends and family, to see what they remember if they remember anything and to guess if we recognize them after years of maturing. Of course, some will have spouses and babies whom we have never met. Others will be children of the '80's grown to have their own children now.
It's not part of the March to May whirlwind RV trip but yesterday we drove to Bend and emulated facets of the trip.
From our home on the west side of the farmland rich Willamette Valley of Oregon, we crossed the valley through Salem where we got our dirty dirt-road car washed and headed into the Cascades. From the farmland we moved into the lush forests for which Oregon is known. The scene was a sad one as we passed through the remains of the 2020 wildfire that ravished the towns and forest. Incidental homes and businesses sat undamaged among cleared lots, scorched foundations, blackened trees, stacks of cut trees and new homes or travel trailers. A burnt out fire truck illustrated the irony and strength of the fire.
A bit further up the road crews were removing unsafe trees from the sides of the road causing us to sit as the flagperson wiggled the "stop" sign from side to side. After we were released from our stagnant location we repeated the same several more times, sometimes long enough to turn off the engine and rest one's eyes. The number of persons manning "stop/slow" positions appeared as samples of the number of persons working this cleanup and the cost to do so.
Higher in the pass the highway snaked through banks of snow layered with dirt and the next snowfall. The beauty of a fresh snowfall had been replaced with the mounds of remaining snow often with dirt showing through. Even though the melt was slow, the waterfalls off the roadside cliffs were gorgeous and rocks on the highway were evidence of small landslides.
As the journey continued the white covered mountains beamed against the now clear sunny skies and the road sides morphed from dirty snow into forests of Ponderosa pine with cleared underbrush. Soon appeared the human invasion in a place so well suited for fun and enjoyment. Our memories were modified to include the continuing advancement of development of homes and businesses to support the new influx of humanity. We were there as participants in this growth as the three families we were to visit had all moved to Bend in the last five years.
The people part of the trip was as one might expect. Conversations focused on topics common to us and our hosts. Refreshments, drinks and meals were generous and pleasing to the taste, while tours of the premises revealed the uniqueness of attitudes and tastes of our hosts. Kathy had a new garage with solar cells providing all her electrical needs, newly planked ceilings to cover the old popcorn ceilings and skis as decor most everywhere. R's backyard was natural open space which was revealed as a golf course while the interior had a remodeled kitchen and bathrooms. Doors were sitting around awaiting their turn for refinishing.
The third person we hoped to visit had to cancel at the last moment. That too is a part of traveling while only giving short notices and being available for short periods of time.
The drive home was comfortable getting out of the mountains before sunset on a bright sunny day. After some quick evening nutriment our bodies said it was time to go to sleep and our minds agreed that visiting, especially as aged adults, is exhausting. Probably we will not need to plan many evening activities when we travel; we will probably just fall asleep.
