08/18/2026
The Oregon Trail: Apparently We Chose the Advanced Level
There was a major traffic problem on I-84 today.
Not your ordinary “Oh darn, we’ll be 20 minutes late” traffic problem.
This was the kind of traffic problem that closes a highway for eight hours.
Now, reasonable people might have said, “Well, I guess we’ll wait.”
We are not those people.
We looked at the map and thought, There has to be another way.
And there was.
The Oregon Trail.
Or at least I’m pretty sure it was the Oregon Trail because what followed was approximately 30 miles of gravel road, enough dust to bury a small settlement, and speeds hovering around 2 miles per hour.
At some point I began to understand why the pioneers simply stopped somewhere and said, “This looks good. Let’s build a town.”
We had no covered wagon.
We had no oxen.
We had air conditioning, bottled water, GPS and snacks and yet morale was beginning to deteriorate.
Eventually, like weary settlers spotting civilization on the horizon, we emerged onto Highway 20 near Brogan.
WE HAD MADE IT.
🎉 Cue the victory music.
And then…
Pssssssssssssssss. 🛞🛞🛞💣
A hole in the tire roughly the size of an oxen’s head.
Because apparently the Oregon Trail requires a sacrifice before allowing you to leave.
Thankfully, I married well. 😂
Praise God, Jim is strong, handy and perfectly capable of changing a tire on the side of an Oregon highway while I contributed the extremely important task of standing nearby offering encouragement.
And civilization, otherwise known as Les Schwab 🙏🏼 was only 13 miles away.
So today’s travel lesson:
Sometimes an eight-hour traffic jam is actually the faster route.
But where’s the story in that?
Oregon Trail: 1
Jim & Ida: 1
Tire: 0
And unlike the original Oregon Trail…
Nobody died of dysentery. 😂
I’m calling it a win. ✅✅✅
