Drive to Washington
After spending three weeks
in Oklahoma visiting and an anniversary vacation in Mexico, we headed out for Washington to see Elissa and Sydney on June 11. On our way out of Oklahoma we stopped in western Oklahoma at the U7 Ranch to visit with Beth's Aunt Audine,
who unfortunately lost her battle with cancer a few days after our visit. We were so pleased to see her one last time
and reminisce. We enjoyed our drive out
of Oklahoma via the western route. On our way to Dodge City, KS we ran into a gust front and rain storm. We skirted around the hail but nearly lost
our bikes in the wind. At one point,
tumbleweeds were pounding the side of our truck. We finally took refuge on the south side of a
Walmart in Garden City, KS and while listening to the radio found out the wind
was gusting to 90 mph. No wonder the
tumbleweeds were attacking. We drove on
through the night and made it to Colorado before stopping for a few hours of sleep.
Originally
when we planned the trip, we had planned on a nice leisurely drive through the
northwest. Of course, it didn't work out
that way. Jon went to sea early with a
different crew and Elissa wanted us to try to arrive by Father's Day. We buzzed on through Colorado
early in the morning since we had both been there before. We did stop in Wyoming at
a very nice rest area with a beautiful museum attached. We decided the museum would be a nice chance
to walk around. As it turned out, the
gust front that went through Kansas
was ushering in a cold front. We were a
bit under-dressed for the cold in Wyoming. We finally had to dig out some pants and
tennis shoes. We were freezing in shorts
and sandals.
Dee, the largest Columbian mammoth (bigger than a wooly mammoth) found in the world
was unearthed near the museum in Wyoming.
Our drive through southern Wyoming took us by the Wyoming Territorial Prison which once
housed Butch Cassidy. It is a beautiful
rock and brick building.
We really enjoyed the
scenery through Wyoming. We saw quite
a few herds of pronghorn antelopes along the way.
The
next day, we finished our drive through Wyoming
and headed through northern Utah.
The scenery was
beautiful. We stopped at a rest area
where they had squirrel donuts (cheerios) to feed the ground squirrels.
After leaving Utah, we entered southern Idaho and drove along the Snake River Canyon.
It was breathtaking. We stopped at Shoshone Falls just outside of Twin Falls, Idaho.
Finally, we entered Oregon. We drove along the Oregon
Trail route. Northeastern
Oregon really surprised us because it was high desert
and seemed to take a long time to reach the Columbia
River. We
could only imagine how the pioneers felt traversing this country.
We drove the rest of the day
right beside the Columbia River Gorge.
It looked very similar to the Snake River Gorge.
We
spent the night in The Dalles, Oregon.
About 30 minutes west of The
Dalles, we hit the lush green
part of the Columbia River Gorge. It was
an immediate switch from dessert to rain forest. We drove beside the Columbia
River for hours and we couldn't believe how wide it
was. The highway is right beside the
river and was considered an engineering marvel when it was made.
We stopped at some huge dam
on the Columbia River (I was getting pooped and can't remember the name). We went inside and they had a fish ladder for
the salmon with viewing windows.
Our next stop was Multnomah
Falls. It was
quite spectacular.
Our final stop before Vancouver, Washington
was the Vista House for a nice view of the Columbia
River. Except
that it started raining and we couldn't see much. The building was pretty. It was built in 1916 high above the river.
A quick stop and then on to the big reunion.
Elissa and Sydney met us in Vancouver, Washington at
the mouth of the Columbia River. We spent the weekend there together before
driving on to Elissa's house in Silverdale.
