From: technobarbarian@gmail.com   
      
         My wife and I have been out flinging ourselves through time and   
   space again. We made another wild dash through Eastern Oregon. Four days   
   and roughly a thousand miles. I could easily spend four days in many of   
   the places we passed through in under 4 hours. We collected some nice   
   leaf and pine fossils from Fossil OR, from millions of years ago. Back   
   when that area was wetter and had more vegetation. We collected some   
   nice Oolitic agates, or Fish egg agates from BLM land near the Malhuer   
   Wildlife reserve. They aren?t really ?agates? and they are not fossils.   
   They are formed by rapid wave action in shallow seas over a long period   
   of time. Some of the best specimens look like clusters of fish eggs.   
   This was back in the days when the Cascade mountains hadn?t arrived in   
   Oregon yet and the wind patterns were a lot wilder. The experts say that   
   ?agates? have bands of color because they are formed by mineral rich hot   
   water flowing through volcanoes over a long period of time. That area is   
   a beautiful mix of desert and wetlands now. We did find a few agates and   
   a lot of other pretty rocks around the John Day river and the Columbia   
   river. We found a few fossils in those places too.   
      
         As you would expect there hasn?t been a lot of change out there   
   since our visit last year. We did have an opportunity to see some of the   
   things we had to skip last summer. The maga restaurant in John Day is up   
   for sale now. The owner wants to retire. It?s only open for 4 days, for   
   the dinner hours now. I highly recommend the Wheeler county Historic   
   museum in John Day. The historic jail at the museum was stolen from   
   another county out there. The museum proudly admits this. It?s a hoot. I   
   also recommend the museum/cultural center for the indigenous tribes in   
   that area near Pendelton. It?s behind their casino, which we didn?t   
   visit.   
      
          An online friend of my wife?s mentioned that if she drove that   
   many miles from Britain she would be in a different country. Well yeah.   
   We barely left Oregon for side trip to the Saint James Monastery?s   
   Bakery, on the other side of the river. The food and coffee draw us in   
   every  time. They have a lot of Greek food that you generally don?t find   
   anywhere, out in the middle of nowhere. It looks like it?s working for   
   them. The bakery is obviously successful.   
      
         We looked at the Columbia river where the Celilo falls had been   
   before the dams were built. There is more than one old town under water   
   out there now. I remember having lunch in one of them a long time ago.   
   We found some pretty rocks there and one or two fossils.   
      
          The folks out there speak a slightly different version of my   
   native language, and it is a lot like visiting a different country.   
      
   TB   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)