Alaska--here we come! First major stop--Oregon

In July of this year, we decided to make our longed for trip to Alaska.  On the way, we stopped in Oregon to visit places and people Sherry hasn't seen in 42 years.  We stayed with Dennis and Colleen Langford, in Union, Oregon, and they invited several couples, from Sherry's past, to enjoy an evening of good food and getting reacquainted.  Thanks, Denny and Colleen!  You can tell who took the pictures by his conspicuous absence--my sweetheart Gene!  Since the blog is not cooperating with me--it wants to do its own thing--I'll need to do our trip in segments.  Following is the first segment, our stop in Oregon on our drive from Utah up to Washington, where we took a flight to Anchorage.

Not very impressive by today's standards, but this is where I taught 2nd Grade my first year of teaching.  Baker City, OR.

This is all that's left of the ranch that Bob Asper's family owned for three generations.  Times just got too hard!

From left to right: Sherry, Marian and Tim Taylor (when I knew Tim, he was married to Margie, but
they had gotten divorced and she subsequently died of cancer), Don and Joyce Baxter (Joyce is in
front of Don—she and another friend, Claire Hawkins Averett, used to babysit Ladd and Jolie;
Don was the bishop’s son), Mary and Alvin Shaw (friends of the Langfords),
and Denny and Colleen Langford.

The Union Ward building where we used to attend Church
 and Ladd was blessed.

The house where we used to live in Union when Ladd and Jolie were babies.

Our house from the front.

Aunt Rena Cox, Bob's aunt.  Can you believe she's 96?  She says she's
going to live to be 120!  She was getting ready to attend a pow-wow, on
the Indian Reservation, to be held the next week.
She's a very independent woman.

Bob's father's grave.  He was killed by a train in 1971.  Very sad!

Joyce Wilde Baxter, who took us on a grand tour
of Union and surrounds, seeing places we used to haunt.
This picture is up at Catherine Creek at the Church
campgrounds where we used to have Girls' Camp.
Thanks very much, Joyce!!

 

On our way to Washington state, we stopped in La Grande, Oregon, to visit with Sherry's ex-mother-in-law,
Lodema Asper, and her older son, Pat.  We had a nice visit with them and enjoyed refreshing glasses of lemonade.
Lodema will be 96 in December, still takes care of herself, and goes for a walk every day.  Special people!