We follow pioneers

The 2024 version of DART (Disappearing America Road Trips) was an adventure along the Oregon Trail. Inspired by Rinker Buck's best-selling account of taking a Conestoga wagon, with his brother as the driver of three mules, across the trails followed during the migration of the pioneers in the 1840-1860 era, before the railroads made train travel possible across the VAST open space of the West. We did the segment between Fort Laramie to Baker City and traveled 3,000 miles in nine days across forbidding terrain.  

Photos from Day one- from Denver - via Cheyenne WY to the start of our part of the Trail with our first stop at Fort Laramie and then on to Guernsey WY where the first of a number of ruts we will see - and by far the most dramatic - are located... we also stopped at the Register Cliff (carved names of those who took the trail west in its heyday.) We spied markers for the Pony Express stops and an early Iron Bridge built by the Army

 on to Ft Laramie

The book that started us on our own Oregon Trail exploration.

lunch on the way- and our view from the parking lot picnic table-

 

on to the best ruts still to be seen on the trail 

 

On to Register Cliff-

a marker for the Pony Express which operated for a limited time during this period - gaining far more fame than might be called for thanks to Hollywood glamorizing their exploits- 

 on to Casper for our first night on the road- 

We Do PDX - the Wine!

So no trip to Oregon would be complete without a visit to wine country.  We broke our visit up into two days - visiting DDO, Argyle, Roco and Ponzi on Friday and Bergstrom and JK Carriere on Saturday... the weather was glorious and so were the wines-

We started Friday with lunch at the Dundee Bistro (both of us picked burgers- which are very good there!)

the new Ponzi tasting room is magnificent with killer views!

the Saturday visiting included Carriere and Bergstrom-

Mt Hood peeks above the trees and the vines---

a view from the road -

a new deck at the Bergstrom Tasting Room - is a nice addition- with special seating for club members-

Then it was back to town and the party at S&S home for Al-

the week of partying has tired out little Lucy - LOL

so we met Steve for lunch on Monday on our way out of town- at Bunk's sandwich shop-

an excellent Cubano (Steve and me) and a meatball sandwich for Phil- then we were off to PDX and back home around 10 PM - in time to start laundry and get ready for our visit from Cousin Iddo!!! so stay tuned-