We have been in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, back to Idaho, Washington and now Oregon. Next Washington for a week or so, then back to Oregon.
Sunday, June 9 - Today's mission - see Palouse Falls. But before we get there, we have a confession. Mary found a great COE CG on the Snake, $7 with hookups. However, when we got there, it was closed. The really bad news is that KOA had taken over management of the other nearby COE property. So yes, we stayed at a KOA. $28 and that included many signs prohibiting this and that, plus a guy in a golf cart to ensure you did not park on the grass or even hang the rear over the grass. Contrast that with our next stop, a private park that not only took Passport America, but had self registration. We went to the falls and they are scenic. But none of us saw a reason to extend our visit.
Monday, June 10 - We drove west to Sunnyside, WA in the Yakima Valley, where almost every bush has wine berries on it. We had a goal in being in this area. It's Wine Country and we needed to go to some tasting rooms. We visited Tucker Cellars and Randy Tucker, the owner, was there. We sampled some wines and enjoyed conversation with him. We left with four bottles of wine and so did the Gardner's. We started Happy Hour early, but continued at the campground. I fixed dinner for all of us and once again we were able to enjoy it outside.
Tuesday, June 11 - We left at 10:00 for Prosser, WA where they have several tasting rooms. The first was Coyote Canyon Winery where we tried some good wines. Next was Apex Cellars where we tried some more good wines. We purchased four wines at Coyote Canyon and four at Apex Cellars. Since we got there around 10:45, the knowledgeable sales ladies had time to spend with us and kept giving us wines to try. By the time we got to the third winery, I had enough to satisfy me. But they kept giving me wine! The only thing that I bought was a bottle of delicious pickled asparagus. Around 12:00 it was time for us to find someplace to get lunch. We had Mexican and I had no desire to have a margarita with it. Before we left town we stopped at Chukar Cherry Co. They don't have fresh cherries, they have many different kinds of cherry candy. This was a place Mary said was good. And she was right! Now we have 12 bottles of wine and cherry pecan chocolate candy.
Fried asparagus was advertised at several places. Yuck!
Before returning to the campground, we stopped at Fiesta Foods, a Mexican grocery store. The population of Sunnyside is about 80% Mexican. The store had great fresh produce and very good prices, so we bought a few things. Back at the campground, we opened the Roussanne white wine. It is so good. All of the wines we bought are white that are good in the summer. So we had our last Happy Hour with Dave & Mary. Mary fixed a Norwegian chicken dish for dinner that was delicious.
Wednesday June 12 - We bid David and Mary adieu this morning and headed toward Portland. We have spent 20 days with them and really did enjoy getting to know them better. We shared many Happy Hours, delicious dinners, and day trips to take pictures. It was a great time. We will see them on the road again someday. It was a pleasure to travel with them. We found we share a lot of interests. Plus, I did not have to think about what to do, they planned the activities and we were pleased to follow. Now, we have to fend for ourselves again. Where to go, what to do, etc. We will just muddle along as we always do.
We have set a personal record, 24 days continuous days with electricity. Our other record is over 90 days without hookups. Tonight we are nestled in a USFS CG, called Trillium Lake, about 50 miles east of Portland. No hookups. Last week we had a fine campsite for $5 with electricity. Tonight, we are paying $10 for no hookups. We are sure half of that is because it's concessionaire operated. Still it's good place to veg for a few days and plan our next moves. Just fir and spruce trees. It's flat enough for peddling Trixie and a small lake for paddling. Mt Hood is close by. No TV here, but we have a really hot on-ramp to the Internet.
Thursday, June 13 - It was a rainy, cloudy, cold and dreary day. Sounds like the start of a murder mystery, doesn't it. Well it was the start of a lazy lazy day where we did almost nothing except surf the web and read. Actually I enjoyed the day, just reclining in my nest, err bed. Before you think I was too lazy, I did cook three meals. We watched two episodes of Downton Abby. Thank you Doug & Roxanne, we are addicted! Hopefully tomorrow will bring out the sun because the solar panels need it.
Friday, June 14 - Sun and 60 degrees. I wanted to get to Flag Point to take pictures of Mt. Hood. This requires staying on Bennett Road, which we were not able to do. The roads did not match our paper or digital maps.
After lunch and nap, we put the yaks in the water for the first time since last year in Utah. We paddled out 50 feet and there was Mt. Hood.
We chatted with a Japanese family fishing at the boat ramp. They asked if we fished. We said, we only eat fish. We were surprised a few minutes later when two of the kids brought us three rainbow trout. They tasted great.
Saturday, June 15 - We are in an RV park in Portland. We thought about parking at a Wally World, but Portland does not like them or any big box stores. Kinda like GM food I guess. It's a good park. Across the road from the Columbia River. The Portland YC is across the street, the east border of the park is a snazzy CC and there are two more YC's, down the street. The place is full tonight.
We stocked up on foole and pita bread at middle eastern market and went to Fred Myer for basic foods. We tried to go to Powell Books, which is downtown, but everyone under 30 is downtown on a Saturday afternoon so there was no on-street parking and with the yaks on the roof we were too tall for underground parking. We will try again Sunday morning before the young ones get up.
I think we have only been to Portland twice, but we shopped today at the same Fred Myer as we did when Doug and Roxanne flew out and we drove pass Northside Ford where we got an oil change. But, that's about all we recognized. Driving in much of the city is like driving on the freeway in Marin County. Only non-standard ramps to the expressways and you are always turning the steering wheel.
Rain is forecast for the next several days. So we will move slowly toward the Hoi Rain Forest.
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