The New York Times has a great story today by a reporter who headed across the Eastern Oregon desert in his 1989 Volvo and lived to tell the tale. Matt Gross, writing as The Frugal Traveler, has been chronicling a road trip from the east coast to the Pacific Ocean; in this installment he checks on some of The Real Oregon’s favorite places, from Burns to the Pete French Round Barn and the Alvord Desert.

Read his account here.