September 8th - A funny thing happened on our way to California...

The morning was a bit misty and rain was in the forecast.  We got up early and headed out.  The first order of business was getting some diesel.  After fighting some construction bunched traffic, we picked an off ramp to find a station.  Mistake.  With all the bodies of water and hills around, we ended up driving on residential streets with a lot of dead ends.  We carefully avoided the dead ends. Once we got back to business streets, we found a gas station.  In Oregon, they pump your gas for you like in New Jersey.  It was raining a sort of drizzle.  Just before we found the freeway entrance, we came across a train crossing. There were many cars on both sides stopped, but as we sat there, we realized there was no train coming.  Eventually, the ones who could get around the arms did but we weren't going to with the truck and fifth-wheel.  Someone had gone out and tried to push the arms up, but it wouldn't stay up, so he found a way to drive around.  I got out and went to the sidewalk and held the arm up while Laurie and the others on our side got by.

We drove through northern Oregon in the rain.  We saw a lot of cars sporting the University of Oregon Ducks. It was Saturday and college football was happening.  Apparently, southern Oregon has been wanting rain and not getting it.  Down near the end of our journey through the state, we stopped in Sutherlin.  Our friends, Stan and Dana live there when they aren't RVing.  The towns of Sutherlin and Oakland are small and quaint.  We met them, had breakfast and then got back on the road.

into California and made the turn onto Hwy 101 - the Redwood Highway.  Winding through the trees we came to Crescent City where we have stayed before.  Then, back on down the road to Eureka, Ca.

We pulled into the Shoreline RV Park.  The journey is done for now.  She'll train and start working and we will explore the lovely Humbolt County.

An unfortunate delay.

Oakland, Or

September 7th - Idaho and Washington (not to mention Oregon)

We spent Thursday night at a Montana rest stop on the border of Idaho.  "I wonder if there is a geocache here?) is the functional question.  There was.  We found it.  A great way to start the day.  It was early and we soon headed west into Idaho.

Rest 1 geocache GC1PAEA

This trip and our last one home are routes we haven't been through before.  Instead of catching I-15 out of Butte, which takes us through the toe of the Idaho boot, we continued on I-94/90 crossing the top east to west.

As we were crossing the final part of the Rockies up there, we became aware of a number of small towns stuffed between the highway and the mountains.  These towns are pretty old.  They are logging or mining towns.  Every town has a local volunteer fire dept.  You often see the constructed opening of a mine shaft that may or may not still be in use.  We got off at one of these towns and drove around a bit before heading on.  We hope to stop for a longer visit when we return this way.

We crossed into Washington state at Spokane and Coeur D'Alene.  The Coeur D'Alene lake is huge and we stopped for gas and fought rush-hour traffic and road contruction. Nice.

No stops in Spokane this time.  We traveled south west to the tri-cities of  Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland.  There are also three rivers here, Yakima, Snake, and the huge Columbia.  We stopped at a place called Ice River in Kennewick.  Trendy, but weak brews.  The building was an old railroad warehouse.

The drive down along the Columbia seems interminable.  The interstate never seems wide enough and winds and turns around the bends of the great river as well as going past a number of ancient bridges that never expected an interstate needing room there.

Eventually, we made it to Portland and stayed the night in Vancouver on the north side of the river.  There is a great craft brewer there called Ghost Runner.  They put spent valves and parts on the tables to fidget with while you imbibe.  They make for great still life compositions.

Tomorrow, we'll head south through Oregon and maybe make it to California.  Humm, it looks like rain....

And thank you to all you who read my postings.

geocache at this little rest stop

Ta-daa!!

Idaho. Finally.  

Mining town. Osborne, ID

Lake Coeur D'Alene

Spokane

Sprague Lake

Dust devil.  there were many playing in the fields

The columbia river curls up off the Oregon border and embraces the Tri-cities

Kennewick, WA

Later that day, we finally made it to Vancouver, Washington

still art

Amazing sky.  Rain coming.

September 6th - Montana, again

When we first moved to North Dakota, we were taken by the beauty of Montana.  We said that if we didn't like North Dakota and didn't want to go to New Hampshire, we would try Montana.  Since we've been traveling, we are almost always traveling the same highway seeing the same sights.  Last trip home and this trip, thankfully, the route has changed enough to offer some new sights even though it means more actual miles in Montana.  Instead of taking a left at Butte and going south on I-15, we continued on I-94/90.  This takes us through Missoula.  We'll have to come through here again because there a lot of cool little towns worth seeing.  We stopped for dinner just past Missoula in a little town called Deer Lodge.  There a lot of buildings from the mining and logging heydays of the  1880s.  The town shows a lot of pride in it's history by trying to refurbish and preserve them.

Amazing hand-carved counter