Group Study Exchange Tour 2010

What's This About??? I'm Nerys Rudder and I've been chosen by the Rotary Club of Barbados to participate in a cultural and vocational visit to Oregon and North California. This blog is my take on the whole affair.

District 7030 (Eastern Caribbean) to District 5110 (Oregon USA)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Arggggh - I Was Wrong - It's the Applegate Trail






We are so NOT on the Oregon Trail – it’s all been a fake! Two weeks in and I find out that we’ve been on the Applegate Trail all along! Apparently Lakeview, Klamath, Medford, Grants Pass etc. are all on the Applegate Trail which was blazed by the Applegate Bros. in 1846.

Found this all out in Grants Pass when we visited the Applegate Trail Interpretive Center and had a lovely driving tour through the surrounding countryside and the Rogue River with Fred, the club president, Nettie, and Cliff my host family

This was all after a visit to the Bear Hotel which is not a way station for a tired Ursa but actually a mind candy factory for the truly potty. Let me explain...

This banker named Brady Adams decided that it was vital to keep the community spirit and down town area of Grants Pass alive, so he decided to sponsor the making of bear sculptures by different artists as attractions. Fast forward a couple of years and the Bear Hotel is a cross between Santa's workshop and Willy Wonka's craziest schemes where Brady comes up with different ideas and artists execute them.

It was well and truely wild - we had lunch in a penguin teepee and saw a castle made of tin cans made from donated food items. And that was just the start. The most im[ortant aspect was that the whole thing is meant to encourage community spirit from people aged 5 - 50 and beyond. Well done Brady Adams!

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