The wonderful thing about vacation is that nothing is familiar. Every mile that passes brings you a new visual experience. I’m excited to be in a town for the first time. Crossing a state line gives me a thrill completely out of proportion to the true magnitude of the achievement. I think most of us feel this way. Admit it, you 
have to read the “Welcome to Oregon” sign in a loud, happy voice, don’t you?
Yesterday we awoke in Klamath Falls. This morning, a couple hundred miles north, near Madras, I watched the sun rise on a panorama of lush, green farm land along a wide rushing stream called Crooked River. Isn’t that delightful? Of course it is.
Along the road just south of Redmond we visited the Petersen Rock Garden just because we could. For sixty years it has stood as a mind-numbing four acre collection of self-made tributes to the ambitious eccentricity of a Danish immigrant named Rasmus Petersen, who picked up a couple of rocks one day and decided that building miniature cities out of small stones was his divine purpose on Earth.
Scoff if you will, most of us never figure out why we’re here.
A few miles farther north brought us to Shaniko, an old West town that sprang 
up during the 1860s. Originally called Cross Hollow it was renamed after the town’s postmaster, August Scherneckau, who must have been a swell guy to receive such an honor but the locals apparently (and reasonably) decided trying to learn to spell his name properly was too much to ask of anybody.
But here’s the thing about road trips: some of the most awe-inspiring sights you stumble across have no explanation, no real purpose, indeed no reason whatsoever for existing except that they do.
This tree, for example…
We came upon it unexpectedly. Without fanfare, announcement, roadside glorification plaque nor explanation it just sits there, adorned with hundreds of shoes passersby felt compelled to deposit in its branches.
There’s a wonderful story here but I can’t find it.
And for some reason that makes it all the more wonderful.
Love these pictures from your trip. I notice you’re not saying “Wish you were here” and I don’t blame you a bit. You and Carolann and your motorhome – it’s the vacation of your dreams.
Well, you’re right except for one detail: Carolann’s Aunt Viettia is with us as the purpose of the trip is to attend a large family reunion here, in Deer Park, Washington, just outside of Spokane. But we love having Auntie along with us. She’s the perfect traveling companion and she’ll be flying home, leaving us to wander for another week accompanied only by our road warrior Yorkie, Cricket.
The true purpose of any road trip, of course, is to give us an excuse for going in the first place. 😉
Nifty. A shoe tree. Everyone should have one. Many of us do – but not like this shoe tree.