"Homestead cabins were so numerous that at night as kerosene lamps blazed from the small windows, the lights viewed from nearby Pine Mountain looked like twinkling stars. It usually took about 5 years for a man to arrive, build a house, fence some land, plow it, put in a crop, wait in vain to harvest, lose his money, get tired of jackrabbit stew, and leave. About 1916 the land rush was slightly in reverse due to crop fizzles and a growing shortage of sagehens, deer and antelope. The June frosts blighted the town of Imperial as well as neighboring settlements and they eventually faded into oblivion with heaps of tin cans, pickle jars, and catsup bottles left as a memorial of these citadels of high hopes. From society's standpoint a serious consequence of homesteading was that it was hard on the land in that most of the acreage should never have been plowed."
The Makenzie River in Oregon today was very beautiful, as was the Willamette National Forest. We stopped in Sister, OR for breakfast and continued to Idaho. Idaho may be famous for its potatoes, but so far all I've seen are dairy farms and cattle.
I felt ok at my brother's house in Eugene yesterday, but today is quite different -- new and odd pains, but I think it's back stuff, and not cancer stuff. Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow feeling better.
We didn't make it to Salt Lake City tonight, but that's oooooookay.
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