Aug 17, 2011 - Heading East

Aug 14 we traveled to Northern Ca. and set up in Klamath CA. on the Klamath River. We immediately discovered that there was a Grey Whale hanging in the river right next to the campground. She has been there for 7 weeks. Her calf came with her but has since left and returned to sea. We drove a scenic coastal (gravel) road for about 7 miles and saw amazing views that most people will miss because they stay on the paved roads. The temperature difference here from Vacaville id dramatic. Daytime highs run in the mid 60’s and night time lows drop...

Jun 3, 2011 - Along the Old Columbia Highway

This morning we took a stroll in the park along the Deschutes River before we left to continue our journey. Our first stop was at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the mountains and river made the perfect backdrop in the photos we took. There was a bicycle race in progress on the old highway making it difficult as we were continually asked to pull off the road to let several more cyclists pass. Haven't figured why they have to have these races on main roads, anyway. The overlook of the river and gorge...

Sep 13, 2010 - Sights Around the Upper Columbia Gorge

The Bridge RV Park is in Washington and just across the Columbia River is Hood River, Oregon. We decided to take it easy on Sunday so Susan could watch the US Open Tennis finals. About 1:30PM local time, the tennis was rained out so we decided to take a drive south toward Mt. Hood. It turned into a really pleasant drive--one reason was the road basically straight with 55 mph speed limits. The 45 mile trip to Timberline Lodge was a breeze. Along the way, the views of Mt. Hood in Oregon and Mt. Adams in Washington were spectacular. Clear...

Sep 11, 2010 - Across the Columbia River Twice

We left Seattle on Saturday when the I-5 traffic would be light and it was--as compared to Fridays gridlock. We decided that I-5 from Seattle to Tacoma is the roughest interstate we have traveled on. It is the only north-south route in the area so it get a lot of traffic. We could not figure out when they could repair it. About 100 miles south of Seattle, we stopped at the Mount Saint Helen's Visitor's Center at Silver Lake. It is a great Visitor's Center with friendly staff, great displays about the eruption as well as a great a view of...

Jul 26, 2010 - Columbia River Gorge

We took a day and drove up the Columbia River Gorge. It is a beautiful drive whether you go up the Washington side or the Oregon side. Along the Washington side, you drive a winding road thru forests and small towns. We went as far as we could, stopping at some wonderful view points, which were obscured by "June Gloom Haze", and..about 11 miles from Bingen, WA, we were stopped for roadwork. They actually closed the road for a couple of hours. It ended up being ok, since we turned around and went back 10 miles to the "Bridge of the Gods"....

Jun 30, 2010 - Mount Hood, OR

We were lucky today and had beautiful weather. Mount Hood often has clouds around its head, but today all was clear. We left the pups in Arvy to recover from yesterday's adventure and headed south into Oregon to Mount Hood. We passed pear (Bosc and Bartlett) orchards, cherry trees full of fruit, and pinot noir vineyards. Farmers were cutting and raking hay. One sign advertised alpaca wool and we saw the naked alpacas it came from. And, strawberries are in season and are wonderful. We had good views of Mount Hood from time to time along...

Jun 29, 2010 - Columbia River Gorge

We rode across the bridge here at White Salmon over the Columbia River to the town of Hood River. The Hood River flows from the south into the Columbia River there. The town of White Salmon is very small. Hood River is larger and has a Safeway grocery and a small Wal-Mart. When we drove from Portland, we chose to travel on the Washington side of the river because we had read about the bridge here. Reviews of the campground where we are staying said that crossing this bridge was a "white knuckle experience". We drove across it today in the...

Jun 28, 2010 - White Salmon, WA

We took our time leaving this morning because we were not going far, and we couldn't check in at the campground until after 1pm. We took I5 south toward Portland and turned east on Washington 14. That is our official turnaround toward home. We will be going east and southeast mostly for the rest of the trip. Washington 14 follows the Columbia river upstream and is called the Lewis and Clark Highway. Most of the time we were close to or in sight of the river. The railroad runs along the same route and was close to the road part of the...

Mar 7, 2010 - The Columbia River Gorge

Happy Birthday, Debi. After being slugs, sleeping in until nearly 9am, we finally got up, made some coffee, ate breakfast, and did a few e-mails, and finally hit the road after 12:30 this afternoon. We started out on I-5, but just north of Portland, OR we turned east on WA-14, also known as the Lewis & Clark Highway. Now this is the type of roads we enjoy traveling on, 2-lane old country roads. The view of the Columbia River Gorge is absolutely fabulous. Beautiful! This was one of the early roads traveling along the river. We passed through...

Sep 4, 2009 - Day 43 Friday, Sept 4, 2009

Day 43 Friday, Sept 4, 2009 Today we traveled to the “Dalles” again. This name comes from a French word meaning “flagstone” , which refers to the columnar basalt rocks & cliffs that line the Columbia River in this area. In 18?? a young man named Joseph Lee came to the Dalles as a Methodist missionary to the Indians. There was a huge rock, high up on the side of a hill that he would climb up on and preach to the Indians. It is located in a residential area and is located right in the middle of the street. We went there and made photos. Then...

Sep 3, 2009 - Day 42 Thursday, Sept 3,2009

Day 42 Thursday, Sept 3,2009 We started the day out by heading out Hwy 35 toward Mt.Hood. We were looking for fruit stands since this area is known for it's many orchards. We found one, checked it out but they didn't have too much friut so we traveled on. Found another. Loved it, believe it or not, it is the one Don & I had visited several years ago, just recognized it after we stopped. It had all kinds of frest fruit and veggies. You could even go out and pick fresh corn yourself, so Don & Ron went out and picked us a dozen ears of corn....

Sep 2, 2009 - Day 41 Wednesday, Sept.2,2009

Day 41 Wednesday, Sept 2, 2009 Today was a travel day. We left Centralia Mid-Way RV Park about 10:00am. We traveled south on I5 to Vancouver and then turned east on Hwy 14, which goes east-west right alongside the Columbia River. There is a highway on each side of the river. The one on the Washington side is very curvy and winding, plus being two-lane and has many tunnels. The one on the Oregon side is fairly straight, plenty wide and Big Rig friendly, this is I84. Did we travel I84? No,no, no. We like living on the edge!! We traveled the...