Exploregonians: Travel Misadventures

There is a famous anomaly in Southern Oregon that Katie and Jordan finally physically find themselves in this week. 

The Oregon Vortex has confused, frustrated, and mystified people for nearly a century. People appear way shorter or taller than they usually do! Things roll uphill! A broom can stand by itself! By. Itself. This mysterious sphere of a vortex has even inspired a Disney animated series.

Katie and Jordan discuss what it wa...

Battling intense allergies and/or a sinus infection, Katie discusses her first solo outing as a traveler: the Galápagos Islands. She journeyed from Colombia to Quito, Ecuador before hopping on a plane and a boat to the archipelago, which is an excellent word.

Jordan throws out the trivia nugget for the old definition of “galápago” then proceeds to make two excellent puns on the word that impresses nobody. 

Katie’s first time snorkeli...

The river is calling Katie and Jordan’s name this week as they head south along Oregon’s Highway 138 (a.k.a. “The Highway of Waterfalls”) along the special North Umpqua River!

Katie takes Jordan whitewater rafting on a “ship of a raft” for his birthday and she is still unsure if he could do a full day on the water. Jordan is moved as they navigate downriver along an area important to the Umpqua people, which is a tribe he is alleged...

We’re in the Deep South now, according to a pair of high school girls working in a Laurel, Mississippi ice cream parlor. 

Katie and Jordan discuss how they never expected to romp around Mississippi and visit the homeland of the popular HGTV show “Home Town” and realize our best friend is a Ben Napier doppelgänger. 

Jordan wonders if Laurel overemphasizes fun, eye-catching design in its downtown over quality businesses and Katie remin...

Hit the deck! This week, Jordan tells Katie how Cannon Beach got its name — and it definitely has to do with a shipwreck. Katie talks about her favorite four-legged roaming residents of Cannon Beach and Jordan tries to untangle his own childhood socioeconomic mental block with the popular Oregon Coast town. 

Katie saw Little John smoking a cigarette outside the local community theater and Jordan tells the tale of two Haystack Rocks ...

Missoula, Montana holds a special place in Katie and Jordan’s hearts because it was the first big stop on two separate road trips. 

Why is Missoula called ZooTown? Katie instantly figured it out and Jordan is probably still struggling with it. 

The duo have never been to Missoula in the daytime and once rolled into town right when a major concert was starting in the university’s football stadium that neither knew about, but ran to li...

Yeehaw! Katie lets everyone know Jordan has pronounced “Pendleton” incorrectly for his entire life and Jordan argues there shouldn’t be a silent “D” in words.

Katie’s grandfather was born in Pendleton, and the duo discuss wandering around one of her ancestral homelands with her grandparents in their 90s. Jordan is disturbed by a broken weather widget on Travel Pendleton’s website and Katie is excited about a museum that chronicles w...

DIY cheek-peekin' chaps and a bag full of melted truffles marked the beginning for Katie and Jordan's sweltering time on Thailand's largest island: Phuket.

Before they could even step foot on the island, they were trapped on the plane waiting for a "VIP" to fly out -- and they have some guesses as to who it was. 

Katie reads verbatim from the travel journal they kept on their three-month honeymoon around East...

Katie and Jordan venture into the Portland-Metro by exploring Oregon's sixth-largest city -- and one-time hopeful to be second-largest -- Beaverton! 

Katie talks about how the city's modern multi-cultural identity helped introduce her to different cultures and cuisines at a young age and talks about the now-shuttered Beaverton Bakery and Jordan wonders if it was a "Ratatouille" situation.

The city is home to one o...

It's the most magical time of the year in Tillamook, Oregon! The biggest, most unifying event on the local calendar is the Tillamook County Fair and the annual four-day extravaganza is an explosion of all the pent up magic in the community. 

Katie and Jordan discuss this year's upcoming 100th anniversary of the fair's marquee event the Pig-N-Ford races, three-lap races around a horse racing track with stripped down Mo...

Katie is absolutely "breathless" when she visits the otherworldly Arches National Park, which is described as a "red-rock wonderland." 

Both Katie and Jordan bring the same facts about the geologic formations to this podcast, which means they must be true, right? 

Arches National Park contains 2,000 natural stone arches and the park has the highest concentration of them in the world. Katie wants to do an arch audi...

Jordan immediately goes off the rails with "Chronicles of Narnia" references and Katie loves the city's iconic Lithia Park, but Jordan suggests the city of Ashland just raze the downtown to the ground to double the size of the massive park. 

Once Jordan finally visits the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he watches the the worst musical of his life, "The Three Musketeers", which takes some interesting cre...

Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti (even though it’s, like, 200 miles away), Katie and Jordan take a very special trip down memory lane this week with guest Jessica, who spent eight weeks in East Africa, primarily in Tanzania, during a study abroad trip in college!

Jessica was on the worst boat ride ever on her way to the paradise that is Zanzibar and bought spices that are probably stale by now. Jordan attem...

It's Independence... Week? Katie and Jordan discuss iconic Fourth of July events and memories across Tillamook County in Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Oceanside, and Pacific City. 

When Jordan was, like, three, a stray bottle rocket attacked him, but he was protected by his San Francisco 49ers sweater and the spirit of Joe Montana.

Katie's first time watching fireworks on the beach resulted in a sulfurous fog that obscured the...

We'll always have Paris!

This week, Katie and Jordan visit the City of Lights and discuss what saved the seemingly doomed Eiffel Tower in 1909, escargot tongs, and melt their brains attempting to pronounce "Louvre". 

Katie goes down memory lane when she had to literally crawl up and over a Parisian barrier wall for a flight she didn't actually have and Jordan picks a fight with Paris's coffee game. 

Have a tra...

Let the Cajun Tots rain! 

McMenamins is an iconic Oregon and Washington staple famous for some of the state's first modern brewpubs, historic buildings that have been renovated into funky hotels, and a wild scavenger hunt that awards you while visiting every one of the 50+ locations! 

Katie and Jordan have been to every single McMenamins location twice in pursuit of serendipity and the wondrous glamor that comes from becoming a ...

Katie and Jordan drove across North America to visit the birthplace of "Anne of Green Gables" and her creator Lucy Maud Montgomery. 

Beaches with red cliffs, a free toll bridge that charges when you leave, and a sky-high lobster roll awaited us on this beautiful island, that is the smallest Canadian province and is only larger than one U.S. state: the mighty Rhode Island.

Jordan gives Katie way too many "fun facts"...

Katie and Jordan go to a place near and dear to their hearts - and, geographically, because Bay City, Oregon is 5.6 miles north of their hometown. Is it a different place? Technically!

Listen this week as Jordan talks about his first crush, a neighbor-girl that may or may not also be Katie's childhood best friend! 

Katie reveals Bay City was the first place she ever saw those intense "Neighborhood Watch" signs and neve...

Katie and Jordan are alive after a two-year hiatus! What have they been doing? You'll just have to tune in and find out!

This season, our plucky hosts would love to feature your travel misadventures, so please record yourself sharing a couple minute anecdote or write one up for us to read and send them to exploregonianspodcast@gmail.com or send a sweet, sweet message to our Instagram @exploregonians.podcast 

We have a great seas...