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Oopse...just saw the last page that you'll be on the depot! DH is a federal worker (forest service), and almost all government housing with them is long gone, which makes things challenging!
Good luck with your move! I absolutely love Oregon, and hope you 2 will as well! TN is beautiful (we have relatives in Nashville, and I used to live in KY), but one thing you won't miss is tornadoes :-O. We do get wind though... pretty strong at times, and some ice on the roads in winter. Being so arid, the weather changes a lot temp-wise even in a day, but otherwise, I'd take the weather here than in the South in a heartbeat.
The Wallowas are called "the Alps of North America." Think of a park hundreds of square miles big, right next to the Snake River Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America. Then there's the Columbia, not that long, but for volume of water it's the 4th largest river in the world. The pheasant hunting is world class, and there are duck blinds available on the Umatilla Refuge. I don't know where the jackrabbits are in their population cycle, but when it peaks you will be astonished at the number of rabbits. The mule deer in Eastern Oregon are a third again the size of the mulies in the SW.
The Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are a picture postcard. The town of Fossil is appropriately named and there is a whole fossilized forest. Umatilla is about in the middle of the Columbia Basalt Flow. A million years ago or so the earth opened up and lava ran like water all the way to the Pacific. Then subduction zone volcanoes laid down a thick layer of pumice. Repeat. You will see flat topped mesas all over the area. There are some serious gold mines in the Blue Mountains, in the NE corner of the state. They estimate that 1/3 of the gold that went through the San Francisco Mint during the California Gold Rush actually came out of the Blue Mountains.
If you enjoy outdoor activities, you are going to love Umatilla. If you prefer urban activities, pray for low gas prices.
If you like nature, you'll like Oregon and will probably be surprised at the wildlife that exists in what at first looks like a barren wasteland.
There are a fantastic amount of birds in the area of an amazing variety, including nearly any type of game fowl you can think of. There are more hawks in more varieties than nearly any where else I've lived, 2 kinds of eagles. There are cougars, the occasional bear (yes, in the desert) and there have even been the occasional wild buffalo in the area...descended from places that raise them. Lots of deer, elk, Rocky Mountain goats nearby...just about any kind of animal you can think of in the western US is there. The McNary Wildlife Refuge is nearby and you aren't far from the Blues, or the Cascades or the Wallowas, or the Strawberries, or the Ochocos, etc.
A lot of great fishing, too, from sturgeon to walleye, to salmon to steelhead to trout to a variety of warm water fish as well.
If you love the outdoors and outdoor activities, you'll like it there.
Get you some Wranglers and ropers, a belt buckle bigger than your brain and a cowboy hat and you'll fit right in. Just don't make it a red or purple cowboy hat...that's how you can tell who the outsiders are!
That sounds awesome. When we were stationed in KY we were in the woods and the greatest thing were the deer and baby deer that came to our backyard and the raccoon that would come to our trashcan every night ha ha ha! I have never went fishing, but I think that is more because we never really had a place near to go fishing. So who knows.
I also been wanting to see Yellow Stone in Montana and it just wasn't going to happen as long as we are on this side of the country. But now it looks like we may be able to make it there.
FWIW, I'm in Pendleton, but grew up in Louisiana, and Kentucky. Yes, it gets hot here, but it's like an oven rather than a sauna, and unlike back East, it cools down at night, and only lasts a month or 2. Not nearly as many bugs too. Plus, I love the sun on this side of the state vs the West side (I've lived in Portland, and Medford, also near Klamath Falls.
As someone mentioned, Hermiston is the biggest town near the depot, but Tri-City is only about 30-ish minutes away. Tri-Cities has practically anything you'd want in a city... COSTCO, a mall, big hospitals, a small airport, medical specialists, etc... There are also some colleges there. Hermiston and Pendleton have only community colleges. I'd guess Tri-cities is about 200-300,000 people, and due to the Hanford nuclear facility, lots of other federal workers. Schools are better there too.
But I like Hermiston too...It has a big Wal-mart, plenty of restaurants, a small hospital...
I think Pendleton is the prettier than either place, but it's about the same size as Hermiston, so you wouldn't gain much more than a commute living here.
FWIW, I think Pendleton is more racially diverse than where I lived in Medford, OR. I can't really speak for Hermiston. When I moved to Oregon from the deep South, I was struck by how white it is here in Oregon (and I'm white!). But unlike the South, there's a much larger population of Hispanic people, Native American, and Asian people than there was in the South. There's going to be racism anywhere, and it kind of aggravates me when people say it isn't out here (look at the police shootings in PDX), but for the most part, the culture of the West is very different in a good way. I love it!
FWIW, I also love small towns, and folks who say it's the end of the line are sadly mistaken. Give me horizons that you can see rather than non-stop traffic any day!!!
The hubby is from Louisianan too. He already told everyone that they need to come and see us now cause after we move they wont be seeing him for a long time . My mom has a German friend that lived in FL for many years and just recently moved to WA and he said the only thing he regrets is that he did not move to WA a long time ago. I only hear good things from the West.
I also prefer small towns and hate traffic.
My daughter had googled Colleges in the area and then decided to stay here and go to college. From what she saw the colleges that were close to the Depot she wouldn't be able to transfer the credits to another college if we had to move before the was finished, which is most likely going to happen. SO she would have ended up being stuck there if we had to move or staying on campus at a college further away and if she had to do that she might as well stay here and go to college with all her friends and stay on campus here. So it will be Mommy and Daddy time and I sure have been waiting for that day since 18 years! LOL!
Oopse...just saw the last page that you'll be on the depot! DH is a federal worker (forest service), and almost all government housing with them is long gone, which makes things challenging!
Good luck with your move! I absolutely love Oregon, and hope you 2 will as well! TN is beautiful (we have relatives in Nashville, and I used to live in KY), but one thing you won't miss is tornadoes :-O. We do get wind though... pretty strong at times, and some ice on the roads in winter. Being so arid, the weather changes a lot temp-wise even in a day, but otherwise, I'd take the weather here than in the South in a heartbeat.
Welcome!
Ha ha yes we just had a bad thunder storm the other night and we were saying that we wont miss this weather when we move. As a matter of fact, the day we found out that we are going to OR we said: Hmmm you never hear anything bad about OR in the news!
The Wallowas are called "the Alps of North America." Think of a park hundreds of square miles big, right next to the Snake River Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America. Then there's the Columbia, not that long, but for volume of water it's the 4th largest river in the world. The pheasant hunting is world class, and there are duck blinds available on the Umatilla Refuge. I don't know where the jackrabbits are in their population cycle, but when it peaks you will be astonished at the number of rabbits. The mule deer in Eastern Oregon are a third again the size of the mulies in the SW.
The Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are a picture postcard. The town of Fossil is appropriately named and there is a whole fossilized forest. Umatilla is about in the middle of the Columbia Basalt Flow. A million years ago or so the earth opened up and lava ran like water all the way to the Pacific. Then subduction zone volcanoes laid down a thick layer of pumice. Repeat. You will see flat topped mesas all over the area. There are some serious gold mines in the Blue Mountains, in the NE corner of the state. They estimate that 1/3 of the gold that went through the San Francisco Mint during the California Gold Rush actually came out of the Blue Mountains.
If you enjoy outdoor activities, you are going to love Umatilla. If you prefer urban activities, pray for low gas prices.
he he. Nature is fine with me!!! Not so sure about the hunting part.....I could not kill a fly.... lol.... but everything else sounds really great!
Neat about hubby being from Louisiana. I grew up in baton Rouge, moved to KY for 3 years, then we all moved to New Orleans. I moved in 1990 to Oregon, while my family stayed there. It is a long ways away, and with gas prices being so high, it's even harder to see family. Mine all moved to Dallas after Katrina, so for the first time in decades I have no family in Louisiana, but at least they now have decent medical care and schools (sigh).
Besides family, I miss good food the most, as well as the rich culture but have learned to adapt and cook my own Cajun and Creole food. I even have an okra patch in our back yard! It actually gets hot enough to grow it here, but not nearly as well as in the South. I miss good shrimp and catfish, but now love Salmon and all of the wonderful fresh produce we get here. As mentioned, I think there's a richer culture here than there was in Southern Oregon, where we lived for many years, and certainly richer than in Northern Michigan where we lived prior to here.
Neat about hubby being from Louisiana. I grew up in baton Rouge, moved to KY for 3 years, then we all moved to New Orleans. I moved in 1990 to Oregon, while my family stayed there. It is a long ways away, and with gas prices being so high, it's even harder to see family. Mine all moved to Dallas after Katrina, so for the first time in decades I have no family in Louisiana, but at least they now have decent medical care and schools (sigh).
Besides family, I miss good food the most, as well as the rich culture but have learned to adapt and cook my own Cajun and Creole food. I even have an okra patch in our back yard! It actually gets hot enough to grow it here, but not nearly as well as in the South. I miss good shrimp and catfish, but now love Salmon and all of the wonderful fresh produce we get here. As mentioned, I think there's a richer culture here than there was in Southern Oregon, where we lived for many years, and certainly richer than in Northern Michigan where we lived prior to here.
Oh I was hoping someone would say fresh produce. Its horrible here and I was telling my husband maybe it will be better in Oregon with it being so much farmland over on that side of the country. Not sure how prices are there but here you can pay about $2.50 for a bell pepper and its just ridiculous and on top of that they often don't even look fresh and you have to dig through a pile to find a good one. I tried to grow my own tomato's ones or twice and they never even made it outside. I don't have green thumb at all.
The hubby is from Monroe and he already told everyone if they want to see him they need to come visit now or they won't see him for a long time. I know from here it is a 34 hour drive and thats about the only thing I am not looking forward to. But I think it will be all worth it when we get there.
Glad to hear your family made it out of there safe. We used to live in TX and Dallas is a nice city from what I seen driving past, but I am not a city girl. I actually told my husband before we even found out about Oregon that if we ever moved again and lived off post I do not want any neighbors. Or at least I don't want houses that are really close together like in our neighborhood here. Well seems like my wish came true since the commander and us will be the only ones living on post ha ha ha! Funny how things work out!
Hello
So glad your moving our way.
The best corn we ever ate came from the Tri-cities area, it was like candy on the cob..The Hermiston
melons are worth the wait..We get them here in salem and they are the best..We do get sweet corn from near our home too.
Don't forget the cherries, and peaches too.
You have all this and more to look forward too.
Have a safe move.
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. My mom has a German friend that lived in FL for many years and just recently moved to WA and he said the only thing he regrets is that he did not move to WA a long time ago. I only hear good things from the West. 
