#WhereAreTheUbryTerrells ... Leg 15: Oregon (again!)

You may have noticed that I was a little grumpy during our last 2 legs. I certainly did. And Rand seemed a little grumpy too. When I approached him about it he said, "I'm thinking about what we are going to do when we land... where we'll live, what I'll do for work..."

We hadn't been having nearly as much fun as we'd had in the beginning, and the biggest reason for that was because we were so much in our heads. Randy was thinking about how he was going to take care of us once we got to Ohio. And I was thinking about the kids we'd left behind in Mexico.

We received an email in May letting us know that Mari, one of the dorm moms in Mexico and the daughter of the administrators who we worked closely with, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She'd lost her vision and was preparing to start chemotherapy. Our hearts broke, and mine was still broken a month later. I felt so helpless, unable to do anything for my friends, unable to be there to pray with and comfort my children. Every part of me wanted to push pause on this road trip and return to Mexico, to hug my kids and lend a hand in any way possible. Was this happening to draw us back? While there we felt unnecessary, but now it seemed we could be helpful. Randy said we would go if we were invited back, and I prayed that we would be -- that the directors would email us and ask us to come and fill in for a few weeks, or months, until everything settled down. The email never came, and over time my prayer changed from "call us back" to "provide them with help." But my heart remained torn.

If it had just been the two of us on this road trip I think we would have called it quits at this point. Either hightailed it to Ohio to find work and establish roots, or returned to Mexico for the remainder of the summer.

But it wasn't just the two of us. Our grandson was on this journey too. In fact, his journey had just begun. And so far it didn't seem like we were showing him a very good time.

We intentionally decided to turn that corner by doing something that had been on Randy's bucket list for practically his whole life -- to go to the film site of "Paint Your Wagon." Which of course meant returning back to a state we'd already explored -- Oregon.

  

"Paint Your Wagon" is a rousing musical featuring Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, that was filmed in 1968 near Baker City, Oregon. It's the story of a gold rush town called "No Name City," the men who sought their fortunes there, and the woman who fell in love with two of them. 

If I had to say what legacy Randy's parents left their 4 boys it would be road trips, a love of the outdoors, and "Paint Your Wagon." There's something very powerful about that kind of nostalgia and I was excited for Randy to make this trip. 

After our misadventures in Mt. Rainier, we tried to keep our expectations low. We knew there was nothing but a sign left at the film site (the forestry service required that the set be torn down immediately after filming), but I was still hopeful. And our expectations were actually exceeded this time around!

Because it was the 50th anniversary of the filming, the local museum in Baker City had an entire "Paint Your Wagon" display, with lots of loaned artifacts and photos. Any other year we would have made this trip we would have missed out on these relics, so we were thrilled to get to see original costumes, newspaper clippings, photos from behind the scenes, and firsthand accounts of the cast and the hippies that followed Hollywood into this tiny Oregon town. 

The movie had a baby in it, played by local twins, and one of them still lived locally. Unfortunately she had come to the museum to give a talk THE NIGHT BEFORE we came to town. We were so close to getting to meet a cast member! But Randy did talk a waitress at a local diner into giving him the poster advertising the event that still hung in their shop window.

The film site was about an hour out of town, along dusty, windy mountain roads. We were impressed with the way the motor home handled the roads, but less impressed with the directions we'd been given. (With no street signs we had to guess as to whether we'd seen the Lily White cabin or taken the right curve or the left turn...) But we made it, and it was so beautiful!

No, there wasn't anything but a sign and a couple of rusty bolts, but the trees, the mountains, the river, and the meadow were all just as they were in the movie. So we set up camp in the meadow for the night and slept well, dreaming of a wind called Mariah, in the morning getting up with the sun to spread some of Randy's mom's ashes.