I'm Back In the Saddle Again

We made it back from our vacation and so I thought I would create a quick post to give you the synopsis and then as I get time, I'll fill in some of the details. For this trip, we focused our sights on The Dalles, Oregon for one big reason. Maybe ten years ago while doing some genealogy research, I discovered my 2nd great granduncle was a noted saddle maker in that area as well as a state senator and prominent business man. As successful as he was, his son who is my 1rst cousin three times removed, would be even more successful in his life and when he died in 1992, he left nearly his entire $9 million estate to the county to be used to build a history museum after purchasing the land upon which it would be located for $500,000 while still alive. Nobody in my family knew about it and to my knowledge has ever seen the place and so I wanted to represent the family so to speak. 

While there, I have never been to Oregon or Washington states and so I wanted to roam about a bit and see what there is to see while there. They would be my 47th and 48th states I have visited out of the fifty with only Alaska and Rhode Island having alluded me thus far. So around the museum and a little family history research with some local historians, we set aside several days to go this way and that and do some exploration.

What a beautiful country it is. I'm pretty sure if someone asked me to just up and move to The Dalles tomorrow, I wouldn't hesitate much beyond the usual things of stressing out about finding a place to live and settling into the new community. It is a river town situated on the bluffs of the Columbia River and reminded me very much of the river town I now live in on the bluffs of another river. History is everywhere in both places. 

So I'll start writing up a few posts with some highlights of our trip and posting them in the upcoming days as I try to get caught up on everyone's blogs. Although I don't know if I'll get to it right away, I would also like to write more on the story of my ancestors out in The Dalles but due to the huge amount of material I found on this trip, it is going to take a lot more time to digest it, perhaps do a bit more research here and there before I can do them justice by writing about them. Look for them to pop up later this fall perhaps or even this winter when outside jobs are not as desirable.