THE CAMPER EXPERIENCE

When we lived in Cottage Grove, Celia had a friend by the name of Uele (not sure of the spelling) that moved to a ranch in eastern Oregon as a caretaker.  The ranch was located above the Snake River.   A few months after Uele moved, she contacted Celia asking if we would be interested in helping her prune a walnut orchard.   Uele said she would do all the cooking and provide us with living quarters in exchange for our labor.    After considering the offer, we committed ourselves to the adventure not knowing what to expect.   Our vision was an old fashion ranch house, barns and other outbuildings with a scenic view of the river below.   After spending a good part of a day driving to the ranch, located on the Snake River Road between Huntington and Richland, it turned out not to be the scenic vision we had.    It was dry rolling hills separated by ravines going down toward the river.    Following the directions Uele provided, we came to a dirt road leading up a dry gulch to a single wide trailer where Uele lived.    There was no view of the river below and no barns or other outbuildings, just some old farm equipment scattered around the place.  The walnut orchard was in a flat field behind her trailer, overgrown with brush between the trees that had been neglected for years.   We had our work cut out for us over the next week.  After eating dinner with Uele, she directed us to an old pickup camper located further up the dry gulch road that would be our living quarters.  The camper was mounted on jack stands with a rear door, some appliances and lights powered by a battery.   The bed was located on the upper portion that went over the cab of a pickup with very little clearance from the ceiling.    It was definitely tight living quarters.   At night it was a romantic setting as we would sit in our camp chairs outside in the dark looking up at all the stars.   Once we called it a day and climbed into bed with not much wiggle room it was hard to control ourselves after getting in a romantic mood watching the stars.  

It was an experience we would never forget, and worth all our labor.