Adventure Day 11 (Oregon)

We left Boise, Idaho this morning and it was pretty cold. When we crossed over the line into Oregon, we picked up a map at the closed information center and I read that we had to have chains when posted. As soon as I looked up, there was a sign that said we must carry chains on this road. Now of course, Mr. I –follow-the-rules-to-a-T starts to get anxious because we don’t have any chains and if we get stopped, we will get a huge ticket. Since there is nothing we can do about we continue forward until we get to Baker City where we stop at a McDonalds and I ask people if they know where there is a Walmart so we can buy chains. I’m told that we would have to go to LaGrande which is about an hour away. Finally we stop at a fire station so I can ask them if they know where we can get chains. The fireman points us to a tire store around the block (Les Schwab) and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be open since it is a Sunday. Yet, as we get there, the door is open and the man is fixing flat tires for these guys and says he has the chains we need. He also said we were lucky that he had to help a semi this morning or he wouldn’t have been there for those guys or us. Then he proceeded to give us a lesson on how to put the chains on the tires (which I hope we never have to do).

When we arrived in La Grande, we had to park on the interstate until the pass opened again. The freeway was closed so everyone just sat there and waited. We watched 3 cars try to cross the median to go the other way but they got stuck. Each one was given a ticket by the state trooper before the wrecker pulled them out and got them on the road again. We weren’t there too long before we were allowed to continue and it was an exciting ride. The road went up the mountain through the national forest and was covered in snow. The snow plows had cleared the road somewhat but it was still really slick and scary.

We stopped in Pendleton, OR for lunch. They have a huge underground and you can take a tour of the underground but it wasn’t open today. Maybe we will come back another day after my conference. We did stop at the Pendleton Mill to see their products. They are famous for their Pendleton blankets. After lunch we kept heading north and decided to go towards Portland instead of straight up to Seattle which meant going through more mountains and passes and snow. I’m glad we went along the Columbia River towards Portland because it was absolutely beautiful. The river is so wide and wild looking. There were windmills as far you can see on both sides of the highway. Don says someone must have sprinkled windmill seeds everywhere.

We drove along the Columbia River to Portland, OR and it was absolutely beautiful. The walls of the Columbia River Gorge rose above us on each side. We took the scenic highway off the interstate for about 10 miles which brought us high above the river with awesome views! We decided that we would have to come back tomorrow because it was starting to get late and we still had to find our hotel.

See more pictures on Flickr – click HERE.