Oregon!

Last night we arrived in Oregon!

We had a beautiful drive from Missoula through Montana, Idaho, Washington and then, finally arrived at our Oregon destination for a few days, Joseph. Julie's friends, Erica and Tyler, are getting married on Saturday, so we are hanging out here for a while. It's beautiful and quiet and an excellent payoff for many days of driving.

What an adventure it's been. In previous posts we promised to fill you in on some things from the trip and, since we have wi-fi and a computer with a real keyboard, we will attempt to do so now.

First, here's the muster we cracked from Mystery Cave: there is water dripping constantly from the ceiling in one section of the cave and they have no idea what's feeding it. They know it's not the nearby river and can't find any other source for such a constant stream. So, it remains a Mystery. Also, after this cave was discovered they stole the name from a smaller cave nearby, which was originally called Mystery Cave. So, it should be called thief cave. Or unoriginal cave. Or Mystery Cave #2.

The tour of the cave was awesome. Our tour guide, Lynn, was excellent and we would take a tour with her again anytime. Julie enjoyed the tiny bats living in the cave and Chris wondered why they poured gravy all over everything in there. It was time well spent.

We wondered if we would pass any forest fires on the drive so we weren't surprised when we spotted one in the distance on our way from Mt. Rushmore to Yellowstone. As we drove we came pretty close to it. Chris snapped a photo. It was pretty crazy.

The entire city of Missoula was smoky from numerous fires in the area. Missoula is located in a valley with mountains all around and so the smoke collects there and rolls around. We noticed a lot of locals complaining about the smoke. Yesterday we passed another small fire in the mountains in Idaho.

Today we plan to explore Joseph and relax. We will give more updates soon!