Oregon Vortex

  After living in Southern Oregon my entire life, I finally decided to get the family to the "House of Mystery".

  This area was known by the local Indian Tribes as "forbidden".  Their horses refused to go into this forest.  Actually, there are NO animals in this forest, just lots of bugs, with nothing to eat them.  This is strange as Southern Oregon is filled with deer, squirrels, and singing birds.  Here...... Nothing.....

  They have certain points on the ground where, if you relax and stand still, you will start oscillating, due to the magnetic pull.  You try to fight it, but cant.  You walk along a level board, and are taller on one end than you are on the other.  Mind you, it is level.  If you use a tape measure, you are the same height, but not so when you take a picture and measure it with a ruler later.  Weird.

Is Arthur taller on the left, or the right?  Not just Arthur, look at the difference in size with the kids right next to eachother! 
( I stayed in the same spot for both pictures....)

 

   The magnetic pull allows for a broom to stand alone in the middle of a room.  You look around and find you, and everyone else are leaning, or are they standing straight?  Balls and jars roll up hill, or so it seems.

   There is definitely something weird. When you get closer to the house, which is built right in the middle of the vortex, you find it harder to stand up.  It feels like you want to topple over, but you are on level ground.  Or so you think.  It looks level, but its like you are standing sideways on a hill and want to fall.  Also, your head feels light and slightly dizzy.

   Yes, this was an interesting experience.  It was very cool and defies all normality.  It messes with your brain a bit and makes you really think about which way is up and which way is down.  Nothing seems to be what it seems.....

   If you have never checked this out I would recommend it!  It is a fun, new experience worth doing at least once!  The boys really enjoyed some of the demonstrations they gave as well!

   Have you ever been to the Vortex?  What did you think?

Desperate Times

 

   I have a confession.  I have been a chicken writer.  I have been holding back funny stories as I don't know how people will react to them!  I know, I know, you don't have to tell me. 

   So today, you get a hilarious story I have been holding onto in fear.  It was 6 years ago......

   Titus was just a baby and  Nick and I were exhausted!  We never slept, and NEVER had a moment alone.  The "love" was not happening!

   We finally decided we were taking off!  We planned a trip alone to the coast and left the kids with grandma and grandpa.

  We decided to take an obscure back road for the fun and beauty of it.  Ahhh, it was beautiful!  It was relaxing, and most of all, quiet.  Then it happened...

   I found my hand on Nicks leg, upper, inner leg.  This is a dangerous place of no return!  Well the desperation we had both been feeling got the better of us, and we found a secluded pull out and pulled on in.

  We couldn't stop!  We were like horny teenagers on a hot date!  Anyway, when we were done we started pulling the van out and heard a funny sound.

   It was a loud mixture of scraping and whooshing.  Nick and I looked at eachother in wonder, but as we drove faster, it went away.  So we forgot about it and REALLY started to relax and have fun while away from the kids. 

   A while later we had come to a rest area, and decided to stop in. 

   The sound came back as we started to slow down.  It got louder, and louder, the slower we went.  Upon opening our doors, we discovered what the sound was.....

   Apparently someone had thrown out their old Christmas tree in our pull out, and in our desperation, had not seen it before we drove over it.  The van had picked it up and we had branches sticking out both sides of the van! These were not twigs, these were full on huge branches sticking WAYYYY up!  Half of the tree had been scraped off on the road, and I can't help but wonder what any passers by thought when they saw us driving with a tree sticking out from the underside of the van! 

  Just thinking back on this story, I am laughing, and have had to take breaks due to the laughs! 

  I think any parent wil understand this level of desperation, and the hilarity of this silly situation!

  Do you have any desperation stories?