La Grande, Oregon

We're off...like a dirty shirt! (That's a Mike-ism. His family made that up. Nobody said they were comedians.) As I'm writing this, we're spending our first night of the trip at our old standby RV park in La Grande, Oregon, Grand Hot Springs RV Resort. We've stayed here often enough that I've lost count. It seems as if it's under new management and with a new name every time we check in. The quality is always the same, however. Nice level spots, and a good day's drive from home. This is a historic place, and I've written about the Hot Lake Hotel before. It's just down the road from us, and worth reading about. You can see my old blog post about it right here. The hotel seems to be a going concern now, and it looks a little more put together each time we visit.

As for today's drive, we made our way through Portland by around 10:00 a.m., and then it was smooth sailing eastbound on I-84. There aren't many barns along the way, but we saw a few.

The interstate is lined with trees on both sides of the road until we get past Hood River, Oregon. Then the view opens up and it's easier to see more of the Columbia River.

The river is an area of high commerce with tug boats pushing barges...

Long, long trains on both sides of the highway...

and of course, the ubiquitous truck traffic along the interstate.

We began seeing these signs shortly after leaving the Portland metro area, and we saw them at regular intervals all along the way.

About five years ago, there was a terrible fire in the Columbia Gorge. It was heart-breaking, and it burned most of the summer. I'm sorry this next image isn't better, but I was shooting directly into the sun. I've cleaned it up as best I can, but it still isn't a very good picture. Still, I'm hoping you can see the fire scar along the top of the ridge there. For the most part, the area looks green, but evidence of the fire is still very much present.

We stopped at a couple of rest stops. So late in the summer, there wasn't much blooming, but these petunias were pretty.

Quite some time ago, I abandoned my FitBit, but I'm wearing it again this trip. I promised myself I'd try to get in my steps each day since it's easy to sit like a slug, especially on driving days. While we had our lunch, we noticed this little swallow nesting in the cover over the picnic table where we sat.

We also saw a few seagulls who looked completely out of place so far from the ocean.

We're at the southern end of The Palouse here, and so there are plenty of grain elevators. You can read an old blog post with some pictures of The Palouse right here. We were traveling in the fall for that trip. We wanted to go back and see it in the spring, and you can read about that trip right here. It looks a lot different from spring to fall.

We saw a crop duster along our way today. He must have been heading back to the barn because he wasn't dusting anything.

As we crossed over the Blue Mountain range, it was hotter and drier.

On the other side of the mountains, there is more greenery.

Just prior to turning into the RV park, we noticed this dilapidated building. I don't know its history.

The kitties were happy campers after driving all day. They had their treats, and then relaxed.

Sadie needed to freshen up. It's important for a girl to look her best while traveling.

It's hot and bright just as I'm writing this. I want to get out and walk around the park, but it needs to cool off first. We'll be here just one night, and then on to Stanley, Idaho, tomorrow. As I've already mentioned, I'm not expecting to have wi-fi or cell signal there, and so we'll have to catch up when we're able...hopefully, by Thursday when we'll move along to Dillon, Montana. We'll spend some time relaxing this evening. I probably won't need to cook for several days since I have lots of leftovers packed along. It's good to be on our way.