Wednesday, September 26, 2018
After spending 5 full days in Seattle with Cheryl Lynn, we left the Everett, WA camp at 9:30am and drove southeast towards Pendleton, OR. This town of Pendleton is a HUGE Western Rodeo town with stores selling Stetson hats, saddles and all the cowboy stuff for Rodeos. It is very well known world-wide every early September for their rodeo and cowboy exhibitions.
We drove through Washington state's truly magnificent GREEN mountain passes and gorges with Indian names we have trouble pronouncing: Sammamish, Snohomish, and Snoqualmie. Then eventually, as we drove into the eastern portions of the state, the high mountain passes gave way to rolling hills with DRY BROWN grass gulches and gorges and deep ravines. We did see Mt. Rainier (elevation 14,411ft) and Mt. Adams (elevation 12,276ft) together, north and south on the same Cascades range near Yakima, WA.
We again drove south east through Kennewick/Pasco, WA, now both westbound (to see Joy/Rich Anema, as well as where the Snake and Columbia Rivers join), and now eastbound, over the Columbia River for the last time. We saw fields and fields, acres and acres of fruit trees and tractor trailers full of crates full of white and red onions, apples, pears, hops and grapes. Very fertile valleys but EVERYTHING is irrigated with hundreds of round fields of wheat or other green plants or hillsides covered in green trees.
We settled in our beautiful KOA in Pendleton, OR at 2:45pm and had a great beef dinner at Virgils in the town of Pendleton, OR.
When I asked the gas attendant (yup, ONLY Oregon and NJ have attendants at the pump!) how far away the hills at the horizon were he said about 30 or more miles. The day was sunny and crisp with a cloudless sky. Temps will be below 50 tonight.
We plan to try to do 300+ miles per day which will still take us out 10-14 days until we get back to Lackawaxen, PA. We also decided that we would bypass some of the National Parks and Civil War sites we initially planned, except Meriwether Lewis burial site in Hohenwald, TN. We've been on the road now going into our 7th week, and we both are okay with skipping them in favor of getting home in a couple weeks.
We drove through Washington state's truly magnificent GREEN mountain passes and gorges with Indian names we have trouble pronouncing: Sammamish, Snohomish, and Snoqualmie. Then eventually, as we drove into the eastern portions of the state, the high mountain passes gave way to rolling hills with DRY BROWN grass gulches and gorges and deep ravines. We did see Mt. Rainier (elevation 14,411ft) and Mt. Adams (elevation 12,276ft) together, north and south on the same Cascades range near Yakima, WA.
We again drove south east through Kennewick/Pasco, WA, now both westbound (to see Joy/Rich Anema, as well as where the Snake and Columbia Rivers join), and now eastbound, over the Columbia River for the last time. We saw fields and fields, acres and acres of fruit trees and tractor trailers full of crates full of white and red onions, apples, pears, hops and grapes. Very fertile valleys but EVERYTHING is irrigated with hundreds of round fields of wheat or other green plants or hillsides covered in green trees.
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| In the far horizon, the building to the left of the yellow Dead End sign is an Indian Casino, 10 miles away! |
When I asked the gas attendant (yup, ONLY Oregon and NJ have attendants at the pump!) how far away the hills at the horizon were he said about 30 or more miles. The day was sunny and crisp with a cloudless sky. Temps will be below 50 tonight.
We plan to try to do 300+ miles per day which will still take us out 10-14 days until we get back to Lackawaxen, PA. We also decided that we would bypass some of the National Parks and Civil War sites we initially planned, except Meriwether Lewis burial site in Hohenwald, TN. We've been on the road now going into our 7th week, and we both are okay with skipping them in favor of getting home in a couple weeks.
Love that you shared some of your trip with Cheryl's class!
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