Tripping On Oregon's Treasures: One Woman's Van-Camping Trips Amid Oregon's Scenic Wonders (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781514194423)

The valley I was raised in is located in the Umpqua watershed of the Coast Range in Oregon. The ground is so fertile if you plant a garden you will need to run or it will swallow you! Along with that, game was so abundant we actually had two fawns live with us when I was a child. My family took two trips to town each year to purchase staples like flour, sugar and coffee. The valley was home to numerous Myrtle trees. I can still smell the 'Vicks' fragrance as the sun warmed their evergreen leaves. In spring the aromatic pennyroyal was so prolific the whole valley rang out its presents. Since our school was small--about twenty children--we all played together. If we wanted a game of baseball work-up it took the whole student body! My childhood home was heated with wood stoves, one in the living room and one in the kitchen for cooking. At night we had kerosene lanterns to stave off the darkness but we usually went to bed when darkness fell. My mother canned all summer and into the autumn. Neighbors had dairy cows that supplied our milk. Free-range chickens had the run of our yard and paid us daily with eggs as well as the wonderful clucking sounds they made as they went about scratching here and there while keeping track of their little chicks. Family outings centered around work. At the time, I didn't know it was work. I thought a day at the berry patch or an evening in the hills gathering a trailer load of firewood was great fun. After all, Mom and Dad, my sister and brother and I were all there working together. It felt like the best time a person could have. Maybe that's why I enjoy work to this day. I come by my ability to put this book and my first book, "Tripping On a Shoestring" together due to my family history as much as by any life experiences I've had after reaching adulthood. Those early lessons are the foundation of my life.