From Tree to Shining Tree

Good morning, my friends! I've missed you guys. It's nice to be back! Last we spoke, we were packing up and getting ready to head out on Grand Adventure 2021. I've been so excited about this trip ever since I started planning it back in April. We're gonna see so much stuff! Right now, you can find us in La Grande, Oregon. It's a great first stop when we're heading east, and we've stayed at this park many times. We may have stayed here on our first RV trip when we had our first small RV, purchased in the early 2000's. I'm happy to say the place hasn't changed much over the years. It has changed hands at least three times, however. When we made our reservation back in May, we asked for a space away from things. They couldn't have chosen a nicer spot for us. Looking to the rear of our rig, there is a wildlife preserve. There is a lot of bird activity here.

Looking south, we see this:

When we pulled in, we had a neighbor on the driver's side, but I notice he left sometime before we got up this morning. The kitties like it best when they don't have people and woofies walking past their catio. Sometimes we can even entice Smitty to get out for a walk. 

So, it was a long day yesterday. Heading east out of downtown Portland, the road is lined with trees on both sides.

As we headed east into the Columbia Gorge, we noticed the burned out areas from the devastating wildfire during the summer of 2017.

There is enough green mixed in that the entire area doesn't appear charred, but it's still a heartbreaking ride through this area.

We passed by Multnomah Falls. This isn't my picture. I was so busy looking in the wrong direction that we'd driven by it when I realized my error. This image is from Creative Commons.

("Multnomah Falls" by Miradortigre is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Eventually, the trees began to thin, and we had just the Columbia River to our driver's side.

And eventually, there are no trees at all. At this time of year, everything is pretty dry.

Trains run on both sides of the river. This one was just about to go through a tunnel on the Oregon side.

This one was heading in the opposite direction on the Washington side.

We passed by Maryhill Museum. There is a permanent Rodin exhibit here, but I've never seen it. Someday I would like to.

We passed by the Bonneville Dam. I thought I had pictures of the dams on my blog, but I couldn't find them. I'm borrowing these next two images from Creative Commons as well. This is Bonneville Dam:

("Bonneville Dam Spillway" by Kirt Edblom is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Then a little ways down the road, we passed by Dalles Dam:

("The Dalles Dam" by annapolis_rose is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

And then we just drove, and drove, and drove. Things are so dry, we didn't see much in the way of blooming things. We stopped at two different rest areas and found some things there. These huge trumpet-shaped flowers looked completely out of place outside the men's restroom.

The flowers were HUGE! I put my hand there for scale.

At another rest area, we found this. I think this is called a "cock's comb."

Around the other side, some potted petunias.

On long drives, we like to take a walk around the rest areas. This one was beside a pasture. There was a drainage ditch that led to a watering hole for the cattle. There, we found a huge field of cattails. I love cattails, even when they aren't attached to actual cats.

A few cows strolled by on their way to get a drink.

For as many times as we've driven this route, we saw something we hadn't noticed before. Even if the place isn't new, we believe the sign designating the City of Echo as a national historic site was new. When I saw the sign, I had to look it up. You can see where Echo is located on the map, halfway between Boardman and Pendleton (of the Pendleton woolen mills). 

Here's what I learned about Echo:

The Oregon Trail passes through Echo. Emigrants crossed the Umatilla River and camped at a site called the Lower Crossing.Sometimes the emigrants would camp here for a few days to refresh their animals, do laundry or trade before starting across the dry, dusty desert to the west. . . . Many emigrant diaries mention this first building, as it was the first frame building they had seen since leaving Fort Laramie.

It's an interesting part of the Oregon Trail's history, and you can read more about it right here. 

We didn't see many barns along the way, but here's one right here: 

 Mainly we saw a lot of grain elevators. We're traveling at the southern end of The Palouse here. 

Mainly we saw fields of grain.

 

Miles and miles of fields. 

Eventually, we climbed the steep hill to the summit of the Blue Mountains. You can see trucks across the way, having already made the hairpin turn we were approaching.

When we reached the summit, we started seeing trees again.

They grew thicker as we drove along.

Until they were lining both sides of the roads again. When we started our journey, we were seeing Douglas Firs. These look more like Ponderosa Pines.

Not too much farther on, we could see the RV park.

As we made our turn, we passed by the Hot Lake Hotel, another national historic site. You can read more about it at this old post right here.

The kitties are such good travelers. All they need is their treats and their dinner served up on time, and they're happy little kitties. Sadie was ready for a nice sit in a comfortable chair. She looks a little shell-shocked, doesn't she?

Smitty needed a good stiff drink. 

Their water dish is called a "Water Hole." They have access to their food, water, and their potty box as we go down the road. The water hole has a lip on it so that water doesn't slosh out onto the floor. Once he'd slaked his thirst, he sat at the door awaiting the hanging of the catio. Just outside...do you see it? 

A woman walked by with her vile woofie. Oooooh...that makes Smitty's blood boil. Later, they were ready for napping. I don't think they sleep much while we're going down the road, even though they are riding comfortably on the bed. Sadie claimed this spot on Mike's side of the bed.

Smitty chose his cubby beside the bed. We give up a lot of packing space so the kitties can have their cubbies. By the way, the device you see to the right of Smitty...

is a nifty new gadget we picked up for this trip. It monitors the temperature inside the camper as we go down the road, and transmits it to this thermometer we keep in the truck cab with us. The top temperature is the temperature inside the RV. The bottom temperature is the temperature inside the cab of the truck. The kitties were riding cooler than we were.

In our earlier RV days, we got into some hot weather once. This was when we were traveling with the original three cats of the Three Cats Ranch and our first small fifth wheel. We knew it was too hot, and we had no choice but to continue on down the road with them until we could find a suitable place to stop and turn on the air-conditioning. We opened the doors to find the kitties overheated and looking pretty bad. We felt absolutely terrible. We set out buckets of ice and blew fans over them to cool them off, and then we vowed never to let that happen again.

We ended up purchasing a new RV after that...one that had the capability of turning on a generator and running the A/C as we went down the road, if necessary. This camper has the same capacity. When we're traveling at this time of year (and especially a trip that will take us into Arizona), we're always guessing at how hot it might be in the RV. We have gone down the road with the generator and A/C a few times, but this new device will take the guess work out of it. It was very reassuring when the outside temperature hit 91 degrees to be able to look at this thermometer and see that the kitties were cool and comfy. This was a $10 item from Wal-Mart. A small price to pay for peace of mind.

Okay, so here we are: La Grande, Oregon. We're here two nights so that we can have a day to relax and do nothing before continuing on. It's a lot of work to get ready for a trip of this length, and so a day of relaxation is welcome. We'll get out in a while and take a walk around the place. The air quality is bad here...smoky from wildfires and dusty from the plowing of fields. Everything is tinged orange. A little while ago, I watched a blood red sunrise filtered by the trees.

As always, I'll blog when I have good internet signal, and that will change each time we go down the road. Right here, the signal is booming in, and so I'll have more to tell you about this place tomorrow. For now, I'm going to settle in for some breakfast and slow-stitching. A day of relaxation awaits.