Off to sleep. Great dinner tonight by chuckwagon crew. Kids all asleep in the cabins. Adults in tents (yes it does seem a bit backwards)

We are getting ready to head up the hill to our campground and I don't think we will have cell coverage up there. This might be the last post for the evening.

I haven't posted lately. Sorry. Right now we are on the road back from the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It's a long bus ride but the kids are in high spirits. The bus has become the focal point of the trip as I thought it would.

We went to three interpretive centers and together they do an incredible job telling the story of Pacific Northwest history. I believe the kids have a pretty good understanding at this point,

It's back to camp at Emigrant Springs now. Gianna is on the bus PA doing a lesson with the kids about the exhibit we just saw.

Tomorrow we will be walking in the footsteps of the pioneers at Echo Meadows,

Very good weather continued,

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Gabrial's new song: Industial Agro-business

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Far from home!

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Kids looking over their  gift shop receipts and discovering Oregon has no sales tax. 

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Kids spotted rabbits, marmots and ground squirels

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Oregon trail interpretive center. Fantastic view with mountain ranges in three directions.

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Great scavenger hunt through the museum. Kids learning about the pioneer travels through this area overlooking the Oregon trail and the grand ronde valley.

Oregon trail

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Nice view from the bus. Plenty of time to enjoy it. This old bus tops out around 35 going uphill. 

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Just crossed over the 45th parallel.

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Life on the bus: lots of cards and reading. And cookies what seems like every 10 minutes. 

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My two favorite pals. Chuck and Wagon

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Lunch and visit at Tamastslokt cultural institute. One on the four birds on exhibit. 

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Suzzie tells us these are cottonwoods. Huge. Beatiful. 

Somebody out there want to tell us why there are giant painted concrete frogs everywhere in Milton-Freewater?

We're in Oregon!! Big cheers from kids.

Mika walking foundation of original houses

Class climb

Harrison on the wagon trail. Whitman memorial grave site atop hill. 

I sort of expected them to offer Lila a job. 

My so called chuck wagon life 2

Ok, probably be the most memorable moment on the Chuck Wagon happened on Day 2. Somehow we managed to get Michaele (Conrad) and Kristen (Lila) on the van as well in effort to get dinner started early. Wellllll.... we made wrong turn out on the peninsula, got lost and ended up at Camp Coleman of all places. So... we had no map, no GPS and limited cell phone connectivity. In front of us were three signs:

1. Camp Coleman
2. Joemma Park - pronounced by Kristen as "Joe Mama"
3. Almost Home Kennel (with a phone #) - Reading this sign made us all want to cry

So we decided to call the Kennel. Here's Dave's conversation with the nice owner:



Anyway..realllllll lonnnng story short, by the time we un-Lost ourselves the bus was already past us and so now we had to devise a way to keep dinner on time. So we called ahead to Jay Berry's Pizza in North Bend and ordered 10 pizzas. Luckily Anthony (Isabella) and Money-man Paul (Shira) were in a separate car ahead of us and were able to pick up the pizzas. In the meantime, we nearly arrived to the camp the same time the bus did. The Chuck wagon folks then scurried to get a salad pulled together with fresh greens from Sunny Farms Market in Sequim.

Great Pizza, great pizza loving kids... and the gracious flexibility and understanding saved the day. Note to self: Bring your GPS next time.

Arrival at Whitman Mission

Kiara: I think what was funny was we were taking our lesson and I fell asleep.  Emmy: that Noah changed Griffins name to "Grill". (see photo)

Asked the kids what the funniest part of trip so far: Ella Mae: I like telling jokes. Sibleigh: you've got to look at the mood ring Noah and Emmy: Noah and I could not remember the last lines of This Land is Your Land so I said it was "I was walking all over the place" then we tried singing it. It did not work. Sibleigh: Stella said that the wind turbines blades GROW up to 350 feet. Emmett: a girl at the park asked Gabe out. Grace: I fell asleep at the wild horse wind farm presentation. Emmy: the same girl who asked Gabe out thought Emmett was in high school. Griffin: a random girl asked Gabe out. Kent: every time we go by a McCdonalds the kids go "eeewww" Shiraz: when my dad almost forgot his swimsuit Mikala: getting lost in the chuckwagon for hours.

Vasily was telling Paul this morning that our trip to Hanford yesterday had him a little nervous. He grew up not far from Chernobyl

Vasily (our bus driver) asks "how's the weather?" Took us a second to figure out he was asking if the heat/ac was ok in the back of the bus.

Notice: we will be fairly remote later today so updates (and cell calls) may not get through

On the road

This morning's class meeting

My birthday cake with cookies from home! Thanks!

Prepping lunch for later

My so called chuck wagon life 1

From Day 1 - just another day on the Chuck Wagon.....