\I moved to Oregon in May of 2009 with no job, no friends or family close by, and into an apartment I rented on Craigslist. Fast forward a year and a half later. I am still in Oregon, but have relocated 1 hour and 45 minutes South from where I originally landed. I have learned a lot about Oregon.
First you pronounce it Ore-gun. Not Ore-gone. I think most Midwesterners do say Ore-gone. The most popular game in grade school besides Chinese jump rope was Oregon Trail. Using the space bar and arrow keys to hunt for food was amusing and challenging.
Out here the trees are bigger. Well, that was the first comment my mother made when we arrived here from our 30+ hour road trip from Wisconsin. Oregon is a lot like Wisconsin. It has dairy farms, vineyards, corn, rivers, nice people and cheese. And of course lots of Christmas trees and they are a lot cheaper than in the Midwest!
Snow stops everything. When it snows here everything shuts down. People have studded tires on their cars, and there are a limited number of snow plows and salt/dirt trucks. In the Midwest everyone jumps on their tractors to clear the roads so you can make it into work. Brings back the time when I moved back from California to Wisconsin. My Dad and I had driven cross country without an incident (Well an unexpected ice storm in Texas didn't stop us for too long. We had some excellent Mexican food in Amarillo, a quick nap and continued on our way.). It was a long trip, and we finally made it to the driveway. Home sweet home until I slid my Xterra and U-Haul into the ditch. It was 4 AM. We woke Grandma and Grandpa up because my Dad had to fire up the tractor to pull out the Xterra and U-Haul. Hey it was just my way of letting everyone know I was home.
Snow stops everything. When it snows here everything shuts down. People have studded tires on their cars, and there are a limited number of snow plows and salt/dirt trucks. In the Midwest everyone jumps on their tractors to clear the roads so you can make it into work. Brings back the time when I moved back from California to Wisconsin. My Dad and I had driven cross country without an incident (Well an unexpected ice storm in Texas didn't stop us for too long. We had some excellent Mexican food in Amarillo, a quick nap and continued on our way.). It was a long trip, and we finally made it to the driveway. Home sweet home until I slid my Xterra and U-Haul into the ditch. It was 4 AM. We woke Grandma and Grandpa up because my Dad had to fire up the tractor to pull out the Xterra and U-Haul. Hey it was just my way of letting everyone know I was home.
Oregon is known for award winning wines and micro brews. Just another perk of living here. Not to forget the wonderful farm to fork restaurants in Portland, Dundee, McMinnville and Eugene to name a few.
When I changed my drivers license and license plates from Wisconsin to Oregon, I ended up with a license plate that read 353 EUG. Get it? I live in Eugene. How cool is that? I couldn't have asked for a better license plate.
There is still a lot of Oregon I hope to explore: Crater Lake, Southern Oregon wineries, the rest of the Brew-ha guide, crabbing on the coast. Oregon, you have been a great place to live thus far. Sorry suitcase, you will have to deal with the Oregon terrain for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment