Spots of mystery: a discussion

I have just realized that we have been neglectful in our duties of talking about our most recent mystery experience.

Let me start by saying that there are a great many mystery spots in the U.S., but only a few are vortexes. Of this I have been assured. Our most recent, in Oregon, is the oldest and largest of these vortexes, and I believe that Cosmos was also one. I am also assured that this is meaningful and not just a word applied, but I'll let you visit and judge that yourselves. My purpose is merely to contrast. Possibly also compare.

Cosmos is a wacky experience. There are myriad jokes and little fun quirks. We were lucky in that our tour guide (Peter, look for him) excelled in them. We were also lucky to be in a small group made primarily of that most extroverted and secretly nerdy subset of the population: bikers. Our whole experience there was rowdy and fun. It was not, however, convincing.

The Oregon Vortex, on the other hand, was a relatively more sombre experience. It was peppered with scientific or pseudo-scientific theories. We were given dousing rods and there was a lot of measuring. Both spots use so many levels that the Carpenters doubt their vocation, but only Oregon also uses varied measuring implements. Our guide here, Alex, was on his last day. He had us, then two more tours, and then he was out of Oregon, presumably forever. He did not care. And yet he did a great job. He did reference other mystery spots quite frequently and seemed to be up on the mystery spot scene. He also was very tall, which he seemed amused to point out frequently on height-changing demonstrations. Our group was very quiet on this tour and mostly in some degree of awe. The explanations offered were... well, they were explanations of some kind. Which is nice for believers. Trefor and I feel that we have debunked everything but the dousing rods, but this is neither the place nor the place.

Final decision: both entertaining. I liked Oregon more.