Mom Hall's 60th Class Reunion--Day One

Last spring Mom Hall mentioned that she had received an invitation to her 60th class reunion in Ontario, Oregon.  She had moved there with her mom (Edith) and her brother Joe when her mom married Dewey Brown when she was 13.  For those who are not familiar with Oregon cities, it is located in eastern Oregon just across the border from Boise, Idaho.  In fact, Ontario and most of that county are in Mountain time instead of changing to Pacific time like the rest of Oregon.  It was a farming community and they lived on a farm north of the town.  There was 106 seniors in her graduating class and they have held reunions every five years since 1953.  Gary's parents have attended many of them together over the years so have kept in contact with her high school friends. 

She had not gone to the last one because it was the year that Gary's dad had passed away.  I am not sure who suggested the idea first but between the sisters we mentioned that we would be happy to go with her this year if she wanted to go.  It wasn't an easy decision as going alone was a bit scary, but she decided that she wanted to go sometime in the summer and so we started making plans.  It turned out that all three of his sisters wanted to go.  That meant five women traveling by car and none of us with mini-vans any more.  Gary came up with the idea of taking the motorhome.  I thought that was overkill for a three day two night trip and actually I wondered if bringing Jena and Gary would make it different.  I was so wrong.  It was so fun and it was perfect (at least from my opinion.).  I am so glad that we had a chance to go in Ontario and to hear and see some of the places for her teenage years.  And I am really glad that Gary and Jena got to have the experience with us.

Now the blow-by-blow:

This is the same freeway we took last year on our way to Seattle,  Washington, and for those dedicated readers and good memories, you will remember that we stopped at a bridge in Twin Falls which had appeared on a list for the 6 best bridges in the US--Perrine Bridge.  We decided to share that experience with Gary's sisters and mom.  I was a bit apologetic because I wasn't sure if they would think it was worth stopping, but it was just as fun the second time and I loved sharing it with them.  (Warning more bridge pictures):

I like fences, too.
The view toward the west.

Vonette, Charon, and Valerie
We suggested to them that walking across
the bridge was a good idea.
Jena, Grandma Hall, and Gary
took the motorhome across the bridge
and waited for us (actually they got lunch
from McDonalds)

The bridge



We first noticed the target to the
east of the bridge across the river
from us.  You can't see them but there were
some par gliders down there.

And then we started seeing people jumping off and gliding down.
Can you see them on the edge of the bridge?  They were amazing, but the
idea of climbing over the side of the bridge--with cars and trucks
traveling by was terrifying to me.

There are two in this picture.  It was hard to get them on camera.
When someone would jump, it seemed like it took them a long time
to pull the cord and activate their parasail.  Watching them float down
was beautiful.  We watched for while and I felt bad that the others
had missed it.

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Shots of the bridge

Views from the other side:
 

While on the other side, there was another guy watching the jumpers.  He mentioned that he had seen a girl in a white dress and a guy in a suit waiting to jump.  He assumed that they were going to get married on the way down. We waited for awhile to see them jump, but then gave up and walked across the bridge. We actually saw them with a couple of other guys standing on the other side of the road with their jumping backpacks on. I wanted to take a picture of them but thought that wasn't appropriate without their permission.  We decided to hurry a bit to see if we could see their jump.

 And as we were heading under the bridge at the other end, we heard screaming and got to the view area just in time to see the "bride and groom" land near the target.  These pictures are of their friends who followed their jumps with jumps of their own.

Just on top of the red shoot you can see the white dress and the black suit.
When they landed the bride grabbed the groom and didn't let go for awhile.
It turned out that this was a practice jump.  They were actually getting married
the next day and planned to jump AFTER their ceremony.
Not sure if the bride will do it again--she had a very loud scream.

Valerie with Mr. Perrine who gave his name to the bridge

The Snake River which created this deep gorge
Off to the right you can see a golf course which was built
within the valley by the river.

Lunch--sandwiches for us and McDonalds for the non-walkers

 Everyone loved our little stop.  In getting gas after this stop, we found this field of flags with a great wind.

We made it the rest of the way on Friday, September 6, and settled into our hotel in Ontario.