When the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific Ocean, the bedraggled group of explorers were exhausted and desperate for a break from their long overland journey. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark established their winter quarters at Fort Clatsop, just south of present-day Astoria, Oregon, in December of 1805, but it was not going […]
Note: This story is from the November-December, 2015 issue of the Gypsy Journal. In the tiny village of Ilwaco, Washington we discovered a fascinating small-town museum that is a treasure trove of local history. The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum tells the story of this unique region that many call the Crossroads of History, where the […]
We love exploring America’s back roads and small towns and finding overlooked gems that the tourist brochures never cover. In a series of weekly blog posts we will be sharing some of America’s lesser-known small town museums, historic sites, and oddball attractions, on a state-by-state basis. We don’t have room to cover each and every […]
No matter what part of the country we are in, we would have to work very hard to be bored because there are never enough hours in a day to cram in everything we want to do. Yesterday was a typically busy day for us. We started out with a visit to Purley Shell Fiber […]
Well, actually we’re at the Leisure Time/Thousand Trails resort in Seaside, Oregon. But with roomy full hookup RV sites, a nice indoor pool, and fast Verizon 3G and 4G internet service, it sure feels like heaven! We hoped to get an earlier start yesterday morning, but the couple who were parked behind us came over […]
It’s always a crapshoot working with a new commercial mail service when we have an issue of the Gypsy Journal to mail out, and this time around we went bust. The mail service we had contacted to handle the mailing for the July-August issue assured us they had the capability to get the job done, […]
After a quiet morning at home, we crossed the bridge into Oregon again, and spent yesterday afternoon exploring Astoria. This charming and friendly little community at the mouth of the Columbia River was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Astoria started life as a fur trading outpost in 1811, and has […]