In June to July, 1989, Fran and I both took a month off from work and drove from Austin to Oregon, spending about two weeks exploring our scenic destination state and, while getting there and back, seeing many interesting sights in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. Our finances were not in the greatest shape. We had lost multiple thousands of dollars in the stock market crash of late 1987, and neither Fran nor I made much in our jobs. She was primarily then working as a private music teacher during the school term, for about $12 an hour, and I was employed as a state caseworker, at around $31,000 a year. Quite unrealistically, as we would later discover, we nonetheless had visions of at least semi-retiring to Oregon in just the next few years. So our trip was partly for vacation and yet also to scope out the real estate and other opportunities in the beaver state. Indeed, we found a great house, on ten acres with a mountain stream running through, that would have cost only $50,000 then, if we'd only had the extra funds and our foot already in the door for new work in Oregon. But we were, then as now, rather conservative with our money, especially after the 1987 debacle, and so not willing to take the financial and geographical leap. Today, the same property and location would probably go for at least four or five times that asking price of a little over 15 years ago. Oh well. To keep our expenses down and so continue with long-term saving and investing plans, we camped out along the way, once in Oregon, and fixed our own meals when making most of our stops. Fran, an enthusiastic and precocious camper with her family since about age two (!), was good at finding attractive locations in great parks or forests. And I, brought up mainly as the proverbial city slicker, was usually helping her with setting things up at our chosen camp site each evening, rather than vice versa. We frankly did not enjoy the eastern part of Oregon so much. While we were driving through, it was already, in late June, quite warm. I'm sure it has many features that are appealing in cooler seasons. Nonetheless, when we were there, and compared with the central and western portions of the state, we noticed few picturesque attractions. Once we reached the great Columbia River gorge, however, our weariness vanished, and we were full of excitement over each neat new sight or interesting stop of our continuing trip westward, then south along the beautiful coast, briefly stopping in a redwoods park in northern California, and then back northeast, to catch some of the best Oregon sights we had missed till then. Had we the resources and time, we could easily have spent two months or even two years there. The landscape vistas in Oregon filled to overflowing our cups of expectation. In addition, the weather, notoriously rainy and overcast near the Pacific, was entirely cooperative. Aside from a few sprinkles, there was abundant sunshine throughout our stay in the area. So I took plenty of pictures, in the hiking trails around Mount Hood, at each of the many beaches where we stopped (almost all then looking postcard perfect, and most even without other folks around), and of superb sunsets, huge spruce tree forests, coastal rivers, and stunning Crater Lake. Two weeks in Oregon did not feel like nearly enough. We are eagerly anticipating a return, and perhaps even a completion of the long hoped for permanent move there, before much longer.

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