#14 At the end of the Oregon Trail

Hello again, we are back…we will never abandon our blog!

We have just been a little busy since leaving Idaho; not only have we visited eight states since (some twice over), went back to Phoenix and filed for an extension to our visa, but we have also started our very own YouTube channel. And that was all in just two months!

Let’s start where we left off, shall we? Leaving Idaho was hard, but travelling is all about leaving your comfort zone and discovering the new, right?… and Washington State was exactly that, completely new to us.

This state is divided by the Cascade Mountain Range; a hot, arid and dry desert-like east, and a green, lush, mild and humid west. Contrasted not only by its scenery but also down to its politics. With cowboys and ranchers in the east, and city-slickers and liberals along the coast. We don’t care too much for politics and didn’t let that stop us climbing over the mountain range anyway. In fact, that very mountain range held its own. Take Mt Rainier, for instance, where we spent three nights overlooking this ancient snow-capped volcano from our awesome campspot, located just outside the National Park. Or how about Mt. St Helen further south? The volcano that erupted only 40 years ago and altered its surrounding landscape yet again dramatically. It was pretty impressive!

Although we tend to opt for blue skies, drier and warmer climates, the olympic peninsula in the northwestern corner of the state was truly breathtaking. It sports some of the tallest and oldest trees on earth and a very rugged coastline, with driftwood, left, right and centre.

And did you know they make their own wine? We couldn’t pass through Washington’s wine country region without a sample or two. Wine tasting is a thing here, who would have guessed it? The Riesling we tried out in Ellensburg was very good and made Abigail’s day 🙂

It was here in Washington where we started filming our adventures and got our heads around the idea of having our own YouTube channel. Not only do we want to report to you through this blog, but from now on out, we want to share our experiences with motion pictures too. Little Goose Dam, on the Snake River, was the ideal place to pause for a few days and do exactlly that. By the way, our Youtube channel is now up and running. We release a new video every Sunday at 8am PT (Los Angeles time). Check it out, please subscribe and enjoy the show!

Oregon

Copy and paste all of the above! Well, with a few unique exceptions of course. Mt Rainier is called Mt Hood here; Seattle, Portland; and the Olympic Peninsula, the beautiful Oregon coast. What Washington doesn’t have though, is Crater Lake. What a beautiful National Park that is. This ancient volcano that erupted 7,700 years ago left a giant hole, which is filled only by rainwater, creating the deepest lake in the U.S.

Having not used ‘Boondockers Welcome’ since the break of the Pandemic, we booked one in Eugene. It is such a cool way to meet locals, getting tips on things to do in the area, and also to camp in those urban environments. Whilst we were there, we met friends of a friend and went blackberry picking. That was such a fun idea! Thanks again for meeting us Tim and Judy.

Looking back on our time spent in these northwestern states, we conclude that they are pretty similiar, in that they are divided into two climate zones by the same mountain range, which are crowned by some of the most beautiful dormant volcanoes in the U.S., and that their coasts are truly wild and breathtaking. We were however, quite shocked by the sheer amount of homeless people pitching their tents along the freeways, under bridges, and in downtown areas in every bigger town, especially in Oregon. When we were in downtown Portland, locals had advised us not to park our truck there because: “You will get broken into”. That’s sad!…

It turns out, that there is still a lot of (homeless) people on the Oregon Trail…

Now, speaking of trails, it was time for us to set foot on the ‘Arizona Trail’. Whilst we were camping in Pacific City, Oregon, we got news that we needed to be in Phoenix in 10 days time. ‘Only’ 1300miles / 2000km away! The immigration had received our applications and wanted to verify who we were by taking our fingerprints, photos and signatures.

Because of the ‘Corona Pandemic Crisis’ that we are all facing and the travel restrictions and shutdowns that come with it, it would be best for us to stay a little longer in the U.S. and wait it all out. After all, there is still so much more to see. This is the land of the free and that’s exactly where we want to be, especially during these times, thank you America!

Thanks for reading, we’ll meat you around the world!