Adventure 614: Madras, OR/Shaniko, OR/Post A

Jack and Rhonda

After a great overnight at Jack and Rhonda Pierson's in Madras, where we enjoyed taco soup, great company, and a soft sell for us to take one of their new puppies home, we headed for Boardman around ten in the morning. It had snowed a wet, then crusty snow over night, and the temperature had dropped to 24. But the local weather said it would warm to above freezing in the early afternoon. That was there. When we got up to the plateau, the temperature dropped to twenty, and the harsh wind scattered icy, drifts across the road. My white knuckles were just about the only calm thing on my body. The trailer, unsuited for winter driving, fish tailed a couple of times, adding much angst to my already frazzled nerves. I managed to keep it on the road after a few tense back and forths, and now we're holed up in Shaniko where the people are decidedly unfriendly and every much unsympathetic to our plight. The old gray lady at the store has more ice dripping from her than the eaves of her tired store. But so far, we have enough propane to keep us warm, enough gasoline to keep the batteries charged, and enough grace to keep us safe. We've decided that holing up here until the weather breaks is the prudent thing to do. Yesterday, I heckled Judy to have us head back South until she said, "Will you quit saying that?" No matter. We're here now in the frozen wasteland of Western Oregon and we're happy to have made it. Once again we've been blessed with traveling mercies. We could just as easily be crashed along side the road, dealing with much more serious problems. So life is good, especially today.

 Floyd, the Labra-Doodle we chose not to bring home. 

 The view from our bedroom.

 The view from our living room.

Fric and Frac, hunkered down in the ghost town.