We left Lewis and Clark land this morning, retracing their steps east along good old route I-84 (I think I've written that we used to live at the other end of it in New England) which parallels the Columbia for about 150 miles. Just past Hood River, the dense green forests quickly gave way to golden hills and basalt formations leaning toward the Pacific. We've recently learned the river gorge area and these huge rock formations were carved by the great Missoula River flood many eons ago. By the time we reached The Dalles, around 10:00 AM, it was 86 degrees and the landscape was more Mojave than what those of us who have never been to eastern Oregon think of the Pacific Northwest.
We followed the wide river through delta of the Deschutes Valley where windmill farms dot the brown hills and many small boats fished the river, past dams and silos full of grain waiting for barges. There are a few sparsely populated towns but the whole Columbia River Valley is basically unspoiled.
When the temperature reached the 90s we turned away from the river and headed southeast where the hills flattened into a plain that felt like West Texas without Octotillo. No trees live as far as you can see; the sun just beats down on everything. Here and there huge rock formations - basalt from the ancient floods - sit on the fields.
In Irrigon (for irrigated Oregon, we think), there are suddenly farms and stands of Pacific Arbus, a deciduous looking hard-wood, lined up in neat rows with signs indicating the planting dates. Then grain bales stacked along the road and, in one place, thick smoke of fires burning the residual wheat that the threshers left. The fields are burned meticulously, leaving neat squares of blackened earth. We passed corn, sheep, cattle farms, an grasslands.
Pendleton is the junction of I-395 and I-84. We've here stopped for the night at the Indian casino and RV park run by three tribes. Of course, we hit the casino right away. It's a nice little place - low stakes, lots of blue-hairs, and friendly. After loosing the obligatory $20 in the slots, we played $2 blackjack for two hours and broke even, thereby setting a family record! Then we hit the buffet (like all the other blue-hairs). Once the sun set, the temperature dropped about 40 degrees. It's quiet and will be a comfortable sleeping night, which is good because tomorrow we have to make at least 200 miles through mostly isolated desert, so it will be a tough driving day. The last campground we stayed at was next to a train track used by long freight trains about once per hour all night. The trains were literally 50 feet from our heads. We can hear a train in the distance now (probably the same one); fortunately it won't be blowing it's horn next to us.
