Road Trip Oregon Trail

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Our drive through eastern Oregon to Crater Lake gave a full impression of the hardships that lined the original Oregon Trail. Even today in 2009 the state is made very difficult to navigate through due to lack of signs, constant road work, and rollercoaster roads. The most shocking thing was the change from desert to volcano to near-rainforest weather. The moisture in the air went from non-existent to oppressive. When we approached the park office pay-$10-booth at Crater Lake and I asked if there was camping, I was given a mysterious non-committal response and told there was road work causing delays, the campground was "far away" and I should turn around unless I "really wanted to see the lake". By the girl's tone of voice she didn't seem to suggest I did really want to see it so we turned around and began frantically searching for a campground with hook-ups. After pulling into any road that had a camping picture we finally approached the situation more tactically and asked someone. We found an isolated campground with only 3 hookups but we were the only RV there. A deer came to the fire and almost seemed to want to sacrifice himself for our gastronomic delight, but then sauntered away after we took a few photos. We dined on buffalo hotdogs instead, a parting gift from Beth and Israel. Even though it was still hot at dinnertime, by the time night hit we were cold for the first time. This would only be the beginning of the frigid Northwest weather....

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