We got up early, but stayed in the hotel room (and the air conditioning) aslong as we could. At the continental breakfast at the hotel, they said itwas 110 yesterday, but it was only supposed to get up to 102 today. By theend of the week, it’ll only be in the 90’s. Where’s my sweater?!
We took care of our tire (the reason we’re here) and a few othererrands. After grocery shopping, we headed out to the Mystery House at theOregon Vortex.
The Mystery House at the Oregon Vortex is a tourist trapwrapped around an anomaly. There seems to besomething there. They say horses and mules would refuse to go into thearea. There are no squirrels, chipmunks or other small animals that wouldstay in the area (we didn’t see any) and birds that build nests there abandonthem. It didn’t stop miners from digging out all the gold in the area, butpeople aren’t as smart as animals. An old mining building from early1900’s was used for a few years and when the gold played out, sat on the landabandoned. Suddenly, in 1911, the building slipped off it’s foundation atthe weird angle it sits today. It’s held by cables for the safety ofvisitors. While standing on a level platform, people are supposed to getlarger or smaller depending on whether they are near the center of the vortex orfurther from it. We felt something while we were there, but maybe we’rejust hungry.
We stopped at a rest area to make some dinner on the road and someone came upto chat with us about our travels. Mike Guthrie is an Oregon local,originally from Arizona, retired and camps a lot. He gave us a couple ofbooks on camping in the state and on the state parks.
We moved on to a short visit again with Martha at her "NeverdoneRanch" in Lebanon, OR. We got to Martha’s late, but we still caughtpeople awake. Martha’s having company, Greg and Julie with their kids, Willieand Claire. All the kids were heading out to "camp out" on thetrampoline for the night. Sounds like fun!