Home - June 23, 2014

David had checked the air pressure in the tires and found that one of the rear tires was very low.  So we stopped in Sisters at the Les Schwab tire store to have it checked.  It turned out to be a defective valve stem.  While they were working on it, we walked into town.  It's always a fun place to visit. 

When the RV was ready, we drove home, looking for dippers in the usual spots along the river.  No luck. 

It was a nice trip, no surprises or disasters, unless you count the windshield that will need to be replaced.  Everything worked as expected.  We're already planning our next outing.

Sisters, Oregon - June 22, 2014

We drove along the John Day River on Highway 26, another very scenic route.  We stopped at an overlook to view the fossil beds, then went through a spectacular cut in the mountain along the river.  

We stopped in Prineville to look for a place for lunch but didn't find anything interesting.  But we did find the Crook County courthouse, which was worth the stop. 

We drove on to Redmond but still no luck finding a place for lunch.  We finally got to Bend, where we had lunch at Cafe Yumm.  After lunch, we drove toward Sisters.  As many times as we've seen them, the Three Sisters are still breathtaking.  

We stayed at Bend/Sisters Garden RV Resort.  It was very luxurious, with very extensive gardens and nice amenities.  We decided this would be a nice place to come and stay for a few days.  

John Day, Oregon - June 21, 2014

From Hermiston we drove east, looking along the way for the famous Hermiston watermelon fields.  We didn't find a single one. 

We drove to Pendleton, then south through LaGrande.  We stopped in Baker City, which is another really neat small town.  We got out and walked around the downtown.   

We had lunch in a rest area, then continued on.  Almost the entire day we were on a scenic route, through Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.  

 The road went through Prairie City, so we got out and explored. 

We stayed at the Grant County fairgrounds in John Day.  Not much there, but clean and quiet, except for the evening's bull riding competition.  We walked a few blocks into town, but there wasn't much to see.

Hermiston, Oregon - June 20, 2014

We drove east, then south, the first part of which was on the Columbia once again.   

We stopped at Wild Horse Overlook for spectacular views of the canyon and river.   

We found a small city park in Mesa, Washington, where we had lunch.  We then continued south on Highway 395, back across the river and into Oregon.   

We spent the night at Pioneer RV Park in Hermiston.  It wasn't fancy, but clean.  We had a tiny strip of lawn.  Along the way we had a small rock hit the windshield and we now have a crack. 

Wenatchee, Washington - June 19, 2014

We drove north on Highway 97 through lovely farmland, with Mt. Adams in the background.

We stopped in Yakima, Washington, to walk around and find lunch.  We had a really good grilled sandwich at a bakery/cafe and bought a loaf of artisan bread to take home.

Downtown Yakima is very nice and looks very much alive and well. 

From there we continued north to Wenatchee, Washington.  The drive was very scenic.  We stayed at Lincoln Rock State Park for two nights.  This is another really nice state park, on the Columbia but the part that runs north/south, so it wasn't as windy.  This is a very family-oriented park, with lots for kids to do.  We did some biking around the park, but the new bike path into town wasn't open yet.

This is the view from our backyard.  The cliff is Lincoln Rock because someone thought it looked like President Lincoln's profile.

One of the neatest features of the park is the resident yellow-bellied marmots.  They were everywhere, quite bold until someone tried to approach them.  

Late in the evening of the second night, a young couple from Lebanon (now Seattle) arrived in the space next to us.  After watching them struggle with a new tent, we went over and offered to help.  It took a while, (and one of us actually reading the instructions!) but we finally got it up.  They thanked us profusely and rewarded us with a bag of delicious roasted nuts that her family produces in Lebanon. 

RV Trip to Eastern Oregon and Washington - June 17, 2014

We set out on our first real RV trip.  We had spent two days at Cannon Beach, but that was just to make sure everything worked and we knew how to operate it. 

We left Salem at 11:30.  We had packed a lunch, and we ate it at the Aurora rest stop on I-5.  After a stop at Camping World in Tigard, we headed north, then east on I-84 through the Columbia gorge.  It's always a beautiful drive.  We crossed the Columbia and camped at the Maryhill State Park near Goldendale, Washington.  As it was right on the river, it was windy as expected.  But otherwise it was a very nice park.