Oregon Trails

Originally published on www.clearasmud.blog on July 23, 2023.

This is our second summer going on a trip with Chana Laya while the rest of the crew is in camp (or out of the house). We love to find a city or town that we have never explored before, show up without a detailed plan, and tackle the uniqueness of the locale. We only had a few days, so we picked somewhere that’s relatively easy to get to from Bozeman. This year it was Ashland/Medford, Oregon—two short flights away from Montana.

While on our trip, I put a question box up on Instagram. A question came in, “How do you travel so much, expense-wise and time-off-wise?” It’s not the first time I’ve been asked this question, and I think many more probably think it :). I did speak about it in my stories, but I feel compelled to share my thoughts in this article to give the discussion and my viewpoint a more permanent space. My thoughts on this topic are layered and nuanced, and so spending time expressing my perspective will allow for more articulation on our decision-making without feeling like I’m being defensive.

I choose to share big chunks of our life on social media. That, of course, comes with the inevitable judgmentalism. I get that, and I can live with that reality—but I can’t live with the judgment influencing me to hide parts of myself or my life. It’s important for me (this is not true for everyone) to show up in the reality that I am in, unadulterated and undiluted. I have spent much time—and a full session in therapy—processing this and reflecting on whether I should base what I share on what “people can handle” or “what they will think,” balancing it with the internal flip side of the coin telling me, “You gotta read the room.” Ultimately, there are going to be people who judge your life and your choices. My job is to show up in the way that feels right for me. Over the years, I have worked hard on fine-tuning the balance of sharing and oversharing. My sharing might be your overshare—but ain’t that the beauty of us being individuals?

These are my thoughts surrounding travel. I believe that because I share so much of my life, you see all the little road trips and quick getaways we do, and it looks like we are always traveling. We also happen to live out West, where a quick drive is so spectacular that it’s hard to imagine it’s not a whole trip, but rather a few hours’ drive away. In addition to that practical nugget, we do go on one big adventure a year. Sometimes we skip a year, and sometimes it’s more than one a year—but that’s the average, and I think it’s important for our family.

I grew up on Shlichus (Chabad emissaries) in San Antonio, Texas. My parents did a beautiful job modeling for me and my siblings how to balance a very public life of service with the importance of quality family time. We always went on trips—sometimes it was a short drive to the Texas coast, and other times it was bigger adventures. To me, it was the secret sauce in living a life that involved so much personal output with minimal resentment.

And now it’s my turn to model that for my family.

I’ve figured out that the life I chose to lead requires breaks, rest, recovery, and quality time with my family while away from home. There are the 2–3-day respites we take that are a drive away, and there are the two-week adventures we take that require a year of planning and lots of savings to pull off.

Life is a lot, with immense responsibilities and overwhelming pressures. Raising children is a lot. I have found a way that balances it all out for me and my family.

So, I will continue to share. I will continue to model the life that I have worked really hard to create. There is a very big will to travel, so we have found a way. You’ve heard me say this before: the world is a beautiful place. If you can’t travel across the world right now, maybe you can hop in the car and drive a few hours and find the natural beauty nearby.

I hope this provides a little insight into the way we see it. And when I take you along on our family shenanigans, I hope you can appreciate the thought, the depth, the logistical planning, the financial planning, and the intention that goes into it all.

Wow! Ok! Thank you for hearing me out. Sorry if you just came here to find out about Oregon. By now you probably already know that you never get a travel post without some musings.

Now, without further ado, Oregon!

It is very fun to land somewhere random with no real reason or preconceived notions and just check it out.

One of my favorite things about Ashland was the unique and beautiful landscape and topography, if you will. Rolling hills, beautiful vineyards, innumerable trees! It was gorgeous and unexpected. Just driving around town was a treat.

When we landed on Sunday afternoon, we went straight to an animal/bird refuge and sanctuary. It was hot, and they had a petting zoo that did not go well. All the goats descended on Chana Laya—she did not appreciate it, to say the least. But then we got to meet and learn about a bald eagle named Ms. Jefferson (MJ), who injured both her wings as a baby while falling out of her nest and has never been able to fly. She has been at this sanctuary for seventeen years, and boy does she have a personality. It was fascinating to hear all about her, and she was very entertaining to watch. The visit was redeemed.

Next stop was Trader Joe’s to stock up on food. Coming from a place with no Trader Joe’s, that’s a treat in and of itself. Then off to our little farmhouse rental (which ended up having rats in the ceiling—but that’s a story for another time) to settle down.

We spent the next three days exploring nearby cute towns. Jacksonville was my favorite! We drove two hours to Mount Shasta, ended up on a scary dirt road with the most gorgeous views. We had picnic lunches, canoed on Lake Siskiyou, and drove to the caves at Lava Beds National Monument—until Chana Laya declared, “This is creepy, and I am not going into any more caves.” We drove through a plague of locusts in Merrill, Oregon, which was disgusting. We got to see how glass is made and do some glassblowing of our own up in Grants Pass, and the views everywhere we drove were majestic. It’s hard to put the beauty of nature into words—as the song goes, “It’s a beautiful world.”

Ma Rabu Ma’asecha Hashem.

We really enjoyed one-on-one time with our baby (there are perks to being the youngest, I tell ya).

Stay tuned for our big family adventure happening soon :).

Love,

Chavie