Day 27 Part 2: Rest Day

While Roy and Anne move on to Bozeman (north of here) we are taking a break and doing some laundry as well. We are parked in a nice RV park with big views all around of the surrounding mountains. This gives us an excellent views of the weather which is blowing in from the West. Heavy rain showers mostly, but falling as snow on the high bits. It is also quite windy.

 We took a drive into Dillon to finish the washing (only one dryer on the RV Park) and had a cruise round the old town and came across  a log cabin that had been moved to the museum, it was very interesting.


Evening produced a quite dramatic sunset, mostly with the sun reflecting off the clouds to the East of us.

Day 27: Taking a Breath

Tuesday: 30th Sept.

We wave a last goodbye

Together on Mount Howard

Today is the day we have said an almost certain last goodbye to our friends and traveling companions Roy and Anne, so this morning I have been reflecting on what has been. We owe them a great deal as they have shown us so much about this country (they have a different set of travel guides), they have been there when perhaps lack of confidence would have dictated going a different route. So what we have seen of  the countryside will always have their images built into it as well.

So further reflection brings me to think about just what we have seen when we are surrounded every day by such beauty as here it is easy to become acclimatized to it and neglect  to put that into our narrative.
For the last two weeks we have been traveling in the mountains and forests of Eastern Oregon, Central Idaho and Western Montana in some of the wildest and most remote countryside in the United States. Mountain ranges such as the Wallowa, Clearwater, Bitterroot and Beaverhead that give evidence to, but also hide, the story of the making of the Earth itself, Volcanic construction and tectonic upheaval, bursting forth of liquid minerals to create the mineral and metal wealth, the etching grace of glaciers. So remote that most Americans do not know where we are talking about. Mighty rivers such as the Snake River and small rivers like the Powder, Imnaha, Grande Ronde, Lochsa and the Big Hole each with its own story. Land that was only discovered by white men 200 years ago.
It has been our privilege to see some of the most beautiful rivers, valleys and mountain passes in the world. We are disappointed if we do not see wild animals and birds at every turn of the road, a deer or bear, or at every glance out of our trailer windows a stellar jay or squirrel, every time we turn an eye to the sky we look expectantly for an eagle or hawk. Every mile of the roads we traveled have their own story of the making of America by explorers, mountain men, emigrants, gold prospectors, real cowboys and real Indians. Of life and death, hardship and joy for grizzly men, women and children alike who passed across this countryside.

Day 26: Big Hole Battlegournd

Monday
Our route today takes us East, away from the Bitterroot Mountains, over three passes to a town called Dillon. The three passes prove not to be too arduous, but provide many wonderful views of the the surrounding areas. For every high pass there are also valleys (deep), the first is the Big Hole River Valley, The Big Hole River is a headwater for the Jefferson River (we camped b the Jefferson River on the last trip at Lewis and Clark Caverns SP).
Along this road is the Big Hole Battleground, which is now a cemetery, preserved as part of the Nez Perce Trail National Park. The battle which took place here was not pleasant (see our Nez Perce Page). Here we found another piece of the puzzle that was the long flight in 1877 of the Nez Perce Indians, under Chief Joseph. Although the weather was beautiful the story here cast a somberness on the landscape. Even the appearance of Prong Horn Antelope could not lift that. While we were here we had lunch with Roy and Anne before moving on to Dillon, across the Big Hole Pas and The Badger Pass.
While climbing the Big Hole Pass we overtook a chap pushing, of all things a penny farthing bike, he presented a fairly strange picture, further enhanced by his pith helmet and small union jack. Yes he is English. Yes he is cycling across America on a penny farthing (though I am sure he is pushing it further than he is riding it). As it was not a good place to stop we did not stop, however Roy and Anne did  and took a photo, which I have copied onto our photo gallery.
We duly arrived in Dillon at the Courtyside RV Park where we stayed for two nights, enabling us to catch up on laundry.

Day 25: The Bitterroot Valley

Sunday
Straight forward day today, drive down to Lolo, turn right and follow the Bitterroot Mountain South to Sula. We had a pleasant drive, while Sally took some nice photos of the mountains. Low cloud meant that we could not see the full splendour of the Bitterroot Mountains. These are the range of mountains that Lewis and Clark tried to find a passageway through, but could not, though they ranged south along the Bitterroot River for more than eighty miles trying to find one. On reaching the southern end of the Bitterroot Valley we parked up round the back of the Sula General Store, right next to a pretty little lake.

In the evening I went out with Roy and Anne to have a look at wildlife at sunset, only there wasn't any apart form some white tailed deer. Round the lake and a nearby stream though there were a variety of squirrels, Stellar Jay and evidence of beaver.

Day 24: Lolo Hot Springs

Friday and Saturday
Our next camping stop was at Lolo Hot Springs RV park, where we were able to camp alongside a pleasant little brook. The weather has now changed, which combined with being at 6000ft, means that is colder and we had some rain overnight! The first I think since arriving in the States.

This meant that on Saturday morning  we looked forward even more to checking out the delights of the Hot Spring spa pool, at a very reasonable 104 deg F. It was very relaxing and warm.
While we were there we saw an amazing RV - a four season travel trailer mounted on a full size truck. I think it is probably capable of independent camping for about a month in Alaska with those monster fuel and water tanks.

Saturday night we had a campfire and made more Smores! We were now rested and ready to move on tomorrow, Sunday.

Day 23; Lochsa River and Lolo Pass

Friday
At Fish Creek it had rained heavily in the night - our first rain since arriving in the States! So the morning by the river was delightfully misty. We left our lovely little camping spot by the river and completed our drive up the Lochsa Valley, Where every turn of the road brings a new and beautiful view of the river and its heavily wooded valley.
where we crossed over into Montana via the Lolo Pass, as coincidentally did Lewis and Clark in late September of 1805 and the Nez Perce Indians in July of 1877. This pass is also the boundary for the Pacific and Mountain time zones, so we had to put our clocks one hour forward. We stopped at the Visitor Center at the top of the pass and watched another video of Lewis and Clark, and also learned more about the Nez Perce Indians, this time with a group of school children, whose favourite question afterwards was ask "how did Lewis and Clark die?"

Day 22: Clear Water and Lochsa Valleys

Thursday

The next leg of our journey follows the Clearwater River and its tributary, the Lochsa River from Lewiston to Missoula. This road is part of both the Lewis and Clark National Trail and the Nez Perce National Trail. 

We had lunch near Orofino at Canoe Camp, which was a Nez Perce winter village where the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in order to recover from their long walk across the Great Divide from the Missouri and to build dugout canoes so that they could then travel down stream to the sea. A very interesting piece of the History Jigsaw of the North West.

Moving East along State Route 12 we called in at the Heart Of The Monster, which is a rock mound (natural) which was sacred to the Nez Perce tribe and has the story of Coyote and The Monster ascribed to it.

As we left the mound behind we moved into the Clearwater National Forest, where we planned to camp in one of the more primitive forest campgrounds, however we were greeted with the signs that the area has an active wild fire, this became obvious as we progressed. The blue haze became thicker until it was almost a fog, then you could see the ash falling around us. At a lot of the pull ins green forest fire trucks were parked, some with crew waiting, or eating. The fire was not far away! The wild fire declaration also meant no stopping along the road, and the first three campgrounds that we could stop at were closed, however about 10 miles further on the smoke cleared and we found a pleasant, but small campground by the river, just perfect!

We set up camp and that just left me enough time to have another go at gold panning in the river, after all, we are only about 20 miles from the spot where gold was first discovered in Idaho in 1860. However no luck, but it was good fun.

Day 21: Hells Gate State Park and Lewiston Overlook

We dropped down from the high plain into Clarkston and Lewiston. A twin city, Clarkston is on the West bank of the Snake River and is in Washington State, Lewiston is on the East Bank of the Snake River and is in Idaho. The twin towns are named after the famous explorers Lewis and Clark as they passed this way in 1805 and again in 1806 when they returned to the East. We found out later that by the time they got here they were in canoes.
We stopped in the Hells Gate SP alongside the Snake River, a campground built by the Corps of Engineer and run by the State Parks of Idaho. We relaxed here for three nights, The park is very well laid out and has Mule Deer roaming freely caught up on shopping and the blog, Roy and Anne did some exploring up the Snake River and Sally went across the Clearwater River and drove up Lewiston Hill and then drove down again on the Old Spiral Road to get a fabulous view of the twin towns and the three rivers.

 

Day 19: Rattlesnake Pass and the Grande Ronde River

Today we set off North again, once more into the wilds of the mountains, this time in search of the Grande Ronde River. Roy had found a picture showing extreme meandering on the river and we wanted to see it for ourselves. Although we could reach the Grande Ronde the bit we wanted to see was not accessible, however the road dropped down over 2000 feet of windy road to the river, where there was a café we could stop at for a cup of tea and a warm cinnamon roll. The river was very peaceful and beautiful. We then climbed out of the canyon like river valley, a 2000ft climb of windy road, before levelling off on a big plateau. This road by the way is called The Rattlesnake Pass and is famous for its twists and turns.
 This road led us into the twin towns of Clarkston and Lewiston.

Day 18 - Joseph Main Street Safari

Sunday
After our strenuous day yesterday we took it very gently and went back to explore Joseph as it has a very interesting main street. The town has a bronze foundry, which has led to a number of art type shops setting up, also the town has acquired a number of bronze statues which are displayed very pleasingly down the main street. We decided to have lunch first and after asking the locals settled on eating at R&R’s, a family diner, in there we met a number of old locals (mostly in their eighties) who were all very friendly. After lunch we walked up and down the main street looking at the bronzes and talking to other locals. In the process I found out that R&R also sell ice cream and they still sell a 25c soft ice cream, well I had to go and try one! We also ran into some really nice folks from the Jordan Valley in southern Oregon, they were real cowboys! So we had a quiet, but fun afternoon in Joseph.

Day 17: A Ride up the Mountain

Saturday
Got up early today to get pics of Lake Wallowa, which I have included on yesterdays blog.
Today we are going to ride the cable car up to the top of the local mountain - Mount Howard.
Sally is a little bit nervous about the ride, but is game to try. The weather has cleared and visibility is excellent as the local wildfire has been killed off.
It is a 4,500ft climb to the top and it took us less than 14 minutes. It was a wonderful ride up the mountain as views of the surrounding area became more obvious. We could see Lake Wallowa below,  and mountains surrounding us; Chief Joseph, Bonneville and Aneroid. Further away to the West you could just see the tip of Sacajawea and Matterhorn.
Once we reached the top we had a drink and although the paths were not particularly wheel chair friendly Sally and I managed to get round quite a lot of the summit pathways, with its views of the Wallowa mountains to the South and West, Clearwater to the North and the Seven Devils to the East. The weather was beautiful, really clear after the smoke from the wild fires had threatened to obscure the views. There was very little wind and so it was quite warm in the sunshine. A lovely day in a very beautiful place. Well Done Oregon

Day 16: Lake Wallowa and Joseph

Though the weather has been absolutely impeccably behaved the views have been restricted due to smoke from the wild fires. We have learnt that one such wild fire is still burning some five miles away, though it is now under control and will burn itself out. Reports on wild fires can be found on the internet, the information on this fire shows that they are still using helicopters to drop water onto the fire. Inciweb is a good site to use.
Yesterday was an arduous day, with the long drive on the gravel road, so today we will relax a little and Sally can get up to date with the laundry. After lunch we took a little ride back up past the Wallowa Lake to Joseph. We stopped on the way as at the end of the lake, on the hill, is the grave of Old Chief Joseph. A fascinating Indian who was born sometime between 1885 and 1890 and was chief over many tribes in the area.  A mantle which he passed on to his son, Chief (Young) Joseph who led the Nez Perce in their war against the Whites (see the yesterday in Imnaha).
While we were there at the roadside we stood and watched two police cars, one ambulance and one rather old volunteer fire truck come screaming past, we later found out that a paraglider had ditched into the lake, breaking a leg in the process.

We drove on in to Joseph and enjoyed a short walk up Main Street to the Arrowhead Chocolate shop, where Sally enjoyed an excellent cup of Earl Grey Tea, while I had a coffee. So good was the tea that Sally went and complimented the manager – something about getting the water to the correct temperature and stuff. Anyway the manager was highly delighted and proceeded to give us a couple of their bespoke chocolate truffles, one of which was an Earl Grey flavour! Each one sells at $1.50 a pop, costing more than the tea we bought! OIA!

Day 15: The Road to Imnaha and on to Wallowa Lake

Thursday

Our campground and road through the mountains lay in the Imnaha Valley, small by comparison to the Snake River, but would be a grand place if found anywhere in England. Instead of continuing along Route 39, with its narrow winding road over the mountains we decided to follow the river to Imnaha Village and then cut back to Joseph, about 22 miles longer, but flat and relatively straight. The views were beautiful, but the road was awful, so the 30 mile gravel road took us about 2 hours to travel. We did however get to Imnaha just about in one piece, though our mirror fell off the wall of the trailer, fortunately not breaking.

Imnaha is the one village in the Imnaha Valley. There is a general store there; however the village does have a long and honourable history. The Imnaha Valley was the traditional winter homeland of the Nez Perce Indians. Since 1805, when Lewis and Clarke passed near by, the world of the Indian had been squeezed in almost every way by the white settlers. By 1855 they were restricted to a reservation, in 1861 they were asked/told to sign a treaty which removed 90% of that land. Five tribes refused to sign. This was part of the Indian Wars. By 1877 life had become intolerable and Young Chief Joseph led his tribe on their journey of over a thousand miles, lasting thirty months, fighting the army all the way and ending up close to the border with Canada at Bear Paw. That march started from Imnaha Village. One can only imagine the activities of that Spring in that small village, but I bet is was not quiet as the whole tribe packed up and left with the Army close on their heels.

We continued to Wallowa Lake State Park, which is also part of the Indian Tribal Lands. It is also another fascinating geomorphological feature. The valley above it was carved out by glaciers and in doing so they dumped rock and rubble (moraines) at the entrance to the valley, the area behind the moraine filled with water to create a lake. The only thing about this is that the lake is about four miles long and the moraine is a couple of hundred feet high. The road from Joseph to Wallowa State Park approaches from the end of the lake and all you see is a hill in front of you, until you rise up and over the top and see the huge blue lake, with the mountains behind it and this huge wall of rock and rubble alongside, containing the waters. It is quite an impressive sight. The State Park is at the southern end in amongst some lovely pine forest. We managed to get a couple of full hook up site, even though it is now the weekend.

Day 14: Camp life, Gold and Hells Canyon

Gold and The Hell’s Canyon Overlook

Amongst its other fine attributes, such as potatoes, Idaho is also known as the Gem State, because it is so rich in gems and minerals. My research has indicated that the Imnaha River has been a source of placer gold over the years, so this morning Roy and I set out to pan the gravel at river edge for gold. We managed about an hour before realising that it was time for coffee. However I did manage to pan several samples of gold like substance. Very small, almost gold leaf, perhaps a couple of mm’s across. Not enough to give up camping and buy a yacht, but still a positive result. Gold is also indicated along the Lochsa River, in the Clearwater area that we will visit after Lewiston, so I will give it another go there as well. There are also a number of gems such as opal and garnet that can be found, but they are not easy to recognise without getting quite specialist about it, however did pick up a few pretty stones from the river bed as well.

After morning coffee we packed our picnic and set off up the road to find the Hell’s Canyon Overlook. We found it and stood for some time just taking in the breath-taking views, before having our picnic lunch. Although the views were excellent and we could see the Snake River Valley the overlook only gives access to the southern (upper) end of Hells Canyon, so was somewhat disappointing from that aspect. Also visibility was quite poor now due to the smoke from wild fires, which, from this excellent view point, we could now see away to the North East of us. Although we are not in any danger here the general haze is not good for tourism.

On returning to the campground we again had a campfire and sat around it eating more smores, I even broke out the mandolin for a few tunes.

Day 13: The Backwoods of Wallowa

Tuesday

Time to hit the road again and this time we planned to go with Roy and Anne up into the backwoods of the Wallawa Mountains to explore the Hell’s Canyon Overlook area. The weather is still good, though the air is now quite hazy with smoke from wild fires many miles away, however there are now reports that a wild fire is being dealt with near Joseph, which is on our route this week, we will keep an eye out for this.

The first section is the good road to Halfway, a small community nestled at the foot of the mountains. From there we took the mountainous road of Route 39. This road travels through some beautiful mountainous countryside, but is rather rough, even lacking a tarmac surface in places, and includes one of the longest, steepest climbs we have tackled with the trailer on the back of our chevy. However 33 miles from Halfway we found the forest campground that we wanted to stay at, with its primitive campsites and proximity to the Imaha River. We set up camp and in the evening sat around the campfire cooking marshmallows and creating smores, gazing up at the stars overhead. By the way these smores were somewhat adhoc, as we had no Graham Crackers and used savoury cheese crackers instead and picked the chocolate chips from Anne’s Trail Mix to use as the chocolate component, of course they still tasted excellent. With the warmer weather still with us it made a memorable evening for us all. We definitely felt right in the middle of the wild outback of America, 33 miles from the nearest town.

Day 12: The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

Monday
Our reason for meeting at Baker City was to visit the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center (OTIC). We have crossed the path of the Oregon Trail several times on our travels. The Dalles on the Columbia River, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, The Craters of the Moon NP amongst them. The OTIC is a museum which is dedicated to the Trail and the emigrants who travelled on it in the 1830’s – 1850’s. Clear blue skies beckoned as we climbed out of Baker City to the Center. It is built right beside The Trail and one can still see the old track, complete with ruts for the wheels, which passes right by the centre. The OTIC is built on a hillside which overlooks the Powder River Valley, at the place where the trail comes down from the barren, desert like hills and emigrants would have got there first view of the relatively lush valley, it must have been a welcome sight, although across the valley they could see the Blue Mountain Range stretching North and South and they would know that that was a trail yet to be conquered before reaching the Columbia River. We had a fascinating day there and learned a lot about the emigrants travelling the Trail and the hardships they endured. I am sure that we will see more of this epic trail way across the heart of the American West.

Day 11: To Baker City

Sunday

Ok, so it was time to move on, today we planned to tow our trailer to Baker City to meet up with Roy and Anne. They were moving South East from Pendleton, where they had been enjoying the Round Up (see previous Monday blog). We had a pleasant drive back up the I84. stopping off at Ontario for a drink in the very interesting coffee shop called Jolts And Juices. Ontario is just across the Snake River, just inside Oregon and just into the Pacific Time zone. We continued driving and arrived in sufficiently good time to be able to take a drive round the historic centre of Baker City, which seemed very laid back and pleasant. We returned to our campground – the Oregon Trail West RV Park and waited for Roy and Anne to arrive, which they duly did and we sat and caught up on travel news, which was great fun. One note of concern is that wild fires are in the news all the time. In fact Roy and Anne noticed smoke in the distance as they drove through the Blue Mountains on their way here.

Day 10: The Idaho Merci Train Boxcar

Saturday

 

The Merci Train, which I often go on about, gave a boxcar to Idaho State, that boxcar is kept in the state capital, Boise. It is preserved in the Transport museum, which is within the Old Penitentiary Museum near the State Capitol. So I decided to see where it was and what else was interesting there. I drove into Boise, past the Capitol and arrived at the museum. With the museum is a geology museum and a number of preserved or renovated buildings, which makes it a very pleasant little area. First stop was the Geology museum, which holds some very nice rock and mineral samples, it also enabled me to buy a field guide to the areas we are travelling to, as well as a pan for gold panning, which is on the plan for this trip.
Next the Old Penitentiary Museum and the boxcar. The museum was open, but unfortunately the transport section was closed. The sign said that it was closed due to “security, preservation and renovation issues”, but the man at the ticket office said it was because of funding cuts. Not to be put off I went to have a look. The transport museum was housed in the old shirt factory, which had windows. I could look through the windows and see inside and sure enough there was the Merci Train Boxcar, neatly displayed, but inaccessible. I did however manage to get a few pictures of it through the rather dirty windows, as well as some pics of the building and prison area. If I had taken the time to actually go into the Capitol I could have seen some of the artifacts from the Merci Train, one of which is a copy of a Greek statue of the Goddess Nike, the same statue that Nike used as inspiration to create their ‘swish’ logo (so they say, but I think they just wanted to copyright the tick symbol). All in all it did make for a pleasant trip out in the nice September sunshine.

Day 8: We carry Passengers

We have had a couple of rest days now that we are back in our trailer, since we watched Chuck and Carla disappear into the West in their beautiful Prevost Marathon coach. It has been nice to tkae that time. We have made a couple of raids on their garden and have turned their tomatoes, peppers and zucchini into a batch of frozen ratatouille. We have emptied two local Walmarts and also given the Chevy an oil change. On Thusday evening I went for a run and decided that the shoes I had were too small, so went to a local sports shop and bought some expensive Nike flex3 running shoes (it will not change my life).

When I collected our rig on Wednesday I noticed a spider web on the drivers wing mirror, to my surprise it was not blown away when I drove back to the trailer, so it has been happily living there for a couple of days, since it was a big hairy red spider and looked ferocious I looked it up and found that it was an orb spider (means it spins a traditional circular web) called a Cat Spider, as the abdomen (big lump at the back) looks like a cats face from certain angles, though my imagination is not that good. However, it's free ride days are now over as I have placed it to the side of Chuck's workshop. By the way, ferocious it may look, but it is not poisonous.

Day 6: Collecting The Rig

Wednesday was a much more relaxed affair and we were able to recover from our road trip. Chuck very kindly took me to return the rental car and collect our rig. There is always some trepidation when doing this, as one is never sure what has happened between leaving and collecting. However, once I had reconnected the battery, the Chevy fired up first time, the trailer was intact and dry, I removed the tire protectors and away we went - great feeling to have our home on wheels back again. Once back at Chuck's we happy to move back in. Meanwhile, Chuck and Carla were moving stuff into their bus, as they were going away for a few days to an exotic car show. The relaxed day moved to dinner time and we succumbed to the local Golden Corral for a very pleasant meal.

Thursday and Chuck and Carla and RC (their dog) fired up their bus and left for Bend, leaving us on their drive to organise ourselves for the next couple of months.

Day 5: To Chuck and Carla's

We rode out of Pendleton in the early morning and headed South East along I84 - destination Chuck and Carla's house, where we were looking forward to seeing them again. This road has been built almost directly on the Old Oregon Trail, which is the route used by the wagon trains of the 1840/50's.
The road climbs giving great views to the West, it must have been a great sight for the Emmigrants moving West, even though it was desert and they still had a long and dangerous boat trip ahead, they could at least see the 'Promised land', well at least the Cascades and Mt Adams. The road then descended into the narrow Grande Ronde River Canyon, a river we plan to explore further East next week.








We stopped at La Grande for a drink - Joe and Sugars Diner, had a reasonable coffee and a nice cinnamon roll (Sally dared herself to eat a raspberry muffin) and drove on.






I had totally forgotten that Chuck had recommended the Nell's-n-Out at La Grande for a cuppa - I felt bad (well my stomach did) that we had missed this opportunity to try one of the legends of Eastern Oregon.

From there we travelled through Baker City and then through canyons to the Snake River, which is the border between Oregon and Idaho. When we crossed the Snake river the speed limit goes from 65 m.p.h. to 80 m.p.h., so we were able to make good time to Chuck and Carla's arriving at 3.00 (would have been 2.00, but crossing the Snake River moved us to Mountain Time and we lost an hour).

We were warmly welcomed by Chuck and Carla and spent some time swapping summer travel stories and catching up on news.

Day 4: Road To Pendleton

We knew that today, Monday would be a long drive, so we attempted to set off really early and actually got away by 9.10. we left Mt Rainer National Park by going through the White Pass to Yakima. This took us through a deep valley with a beautiful waterfall at the head of it. We drove to Yakima and took a short detour to the Sarg Hubbard Park, where another of the Merci Train box cars is on display. we also stopped for a coffee at a small espresso bar and had a nice drink and a (small) goodie.
From Yakima we drove on across the Columbia River at Umatilla. This town is notable as it has a huge storage depot where about 12% of the USA chemical weapons are stored, we took a couple of pictures ans the storage facility is right by the road, this storage facility was started after the First World War.
From Umatilla it is only a short hop to Pendleton, so we arrived about 3.00.
We stayed in the Rodeway Inn, which was quite pleasant. Its major advantages being that it is close to the town centre and also had rooms available! Because this is Round Up Week, one of the biggest Round Ups (rodeo to you and me) in the USA. Pendleton used to be one of the biggest cow towns, though now its main source of income seems to be from this one week of the year festival. The place was buzzing with people in western dress. Sally and I took a walk along the riverside and found an entire Indian village set up for the week, as many Indians come here to take part in the Round Up shows.
Pendleton is also interesting for its social and cultural history. Being a railhead and centre for the cattle industry, it also had a whole load of 'ladies of the night'. Many of the houses are still there, though no longer used for their original purpose. There is also a very interesting Chinese perspective. Up until the 1950's it was actually legal to shoot any Chinese who were seen on the street in daylight hours! This ruling comes from way back and highlights another of America's less pleasant sides. Chinese were brought across from China in the 1800's to work on building the railways, often in conditions worse than black slavery. Once the railroads were built then they were just turned loose, wherever the job finished, and were seen as something close to vermin. In Pendleton, they managed to make a living by servicing the hotels laundry needs, however, because they could not be seen on the streets, they built underground walkways which joined  many of the hotels, so that they could remove and deliver the laundry. These underground passages were also used by people who wanted to get from their business premises to the hotels for their own purposes without being seen. The underground city is still there and you can now get an underground tour to see many of the things that happened underground.
We ate at The Saddle, a family diner, where the daily special was Prime Rib, on seeing what others were eating, we opted to have one meal between us, believe me it was enough for the two of us!

Day 3: To Mount Rainier

Well a couple of days in Seattle and we were ready to leave. Although it was a fun way to start this trip, it's excitement soon wanes, It has some exciting architecture and fascinating history. It is very artsy, and we are not artsy.
Our next goal was Mount Rainier (14,114 ft), sixty miles to the south, but dominating the Seattle skyline. Not the tallest in North America (Mt McKinley, Alaska, 20,237 ft), or even the 'Lower 48' (Mt Whitney, CA, 14,505ft), but one of the most impressive, as like Mt Shasta, CA(14,180 ft), Mt Jefferson (10,495 ft), Mt Hood (11,250 ft), Mt Adams (12,280 ft), Mt St Helens (8,360 ft) and Mt Baker (10,781 ft) it is a volcano, has a pointy top, is covered with ice and sits well above the surrounding mountains, making itself obvious, a bit like the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit. Colorado has higher peaks, but they are smaller peaks built onto bigger mountain ranges, I mean, who has heard of Mt Elbert (14,440 ft), which is higher than Rainier? The only famous mountain in CO is Pikes Peak which at 14,115 ft is only the 20th highest peak in Colorado. Enough.
The sheer size of this mountain is what makes it memorable to me. We entered Mt Rainier NP from the North, via Enumclaw. This time we stopped and could see the mountain, compared with our last visit when after a three day wait for the weather, we left without seeing it. The weather has been remarkable, clear blue skies and good visibility. We drove along SR410, before heading south, past Sunrise, which is the northern visitor center, waving at Roy and Anne on the way. We then took the road to Paradise, which is the southern visitor center. We had a very enjoyable visit. We wandered up to Myrtle Falls to take in the wonderful views. There were still many summer flowers in the meadows and lots of people to chat to on the way.
Eventually having seen all we could take in we drove back down the road to a little town called Packwood, where we spent the night in the Packwood Hotel, a very quaint turn of the (other) century wooden  hotel - lovely small rooms with shared facilities, but a very lovely hostess called Marilyn who made us feel very welcome. We really enjoyed staying here.

Day Two: Downtown Seattle

Today the weather was wonderful, record high for this day in Seattle. We planned to look at the older districts of Seattle today. However finding a parking space was tricky, not that there were no spaces, but should we park in them, would we get another ticket? We eventually parked near Pioneer Square and walked up to Pike St Market, which was very lively, very busy, and horrendous to navigate with a wheelchair, so that was not a good start for the day, although I did manage to go and see the Gum Ball wall in Post Alley.

However we then walked back to Pioneer Sq, where we had our packed lunch in the very tiny, but pretty, Waterfall Garden Park and then wandered through the Pioneer Sq finishing up at the Gold Mining Museum, which described the Klondike Gold rush in the Yukon Alaska. A fascinating insight into this piece of American history. This was a really tough place to get gold, with very few people actually getting gold out. Well worth the visit. http://www.nps.gov/klse/index.htm. We then drove back to the hotel for a nap before setting out to the local Diner, Li’l Jon’s, for a meal. From there we raced towards the Cascades, up I90 to Snoqualmie Falls to watch the sun go down. This was a very pretty place.

Day 1: Seattle World’s Fair

Friday

In 1962 Seattle played host to the World’s Fair. It’s most obvious legacy has been the Space Needle, so this part of town seemed a good place to start our exploration of Seattle. Seattle is also very water oriented, as it is built on an isthmus and surrounded on three sides by water. So on arrival at the Seattle Center our first activity was to take an orientation ride on a Duck. The tour leaves from just outside the Seattle Center and it took us on a 90 minute tour of downtown Seattle and then on to the waters of Lake Union, which gave us an ideal intro the world of Seattle. We were fortunate enough to ride with a Volleyball Team from Lafayette in Pennsylvania, so it was a very lively party as much as a tour. We loved Union Lake, with it’s many (501) houseboats, including, much to Sally’s delight, the Houseboat used by Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. 

After our fun tour on a duck (which is an amphibious truck, which was built as a workhorse of the Allied invasion of Europe, but then used all over the world) we had to move smartly to The Space Needle, where we had booked a table for lunch. At this point we can reveal that the weather was absolutely wonderful, clear blue sky and good visibility, the views of the surrounding city, mountains and waterways were amazing. We were shown to our table, which was a table for two beside the window, when we sat for a couple of hours, watching the world revolve round us (though of course it was the restaurant which was revolving) relaxing and enjoying a wonderful meal, wonderful view and wonderful company.

When we had eventually finished our meal we took a ride up one floor to the observation deck and had a wander round outside. We watched a number of seaplanes fly past quite close to the building. We looked down on to the buildings below, many of them with roof top gardens, One building had giant spiders either painted on, or were giant models. We could also see the International fountain, which looked a lot of fun. Eventually we returned to earth and took a stroll round the Seattle Center grounds, ending up at the International fountain. The fountain has a number of displays which are accompanied by music. The water is thrown way into the air across its giant bowl. It was fun to watch brave souls and children trying to get to the centre of the fountain without getting wet. Once again we marvel at our fascination for moving water.

 Having spent a great day in Seattle Center we returned to our car to find we had a ticket, which was quite distressing, but we think that it was issued in error, as they may not have recognised Sally’s Disabled Badge, so watch this space for a result on that one. We also realized one of the downsides to living in Seattle – The traffic is awful at drive time and all the little ways of making the traffic flow better are merely confusing for the casual visitor – special cycle and bus lanes, lane markings you cannot cross, one ways, it was a bit of a nightmare getting our of the city.

Preparation and hitches.

Today we started getting ready for our next trip in earnest. Terry has spent time in the garden cutting hedges and mowing lawns, besides sorting our apple crop which he and Stu took off the tree on Sunday. I've been collecting stuff, cut Terry's hair, weeded some Bristol sinks we grow flowers in and generally tidying up. There is always some last minute panic. This time, we realised that we had not renewed the trailer and car tags (like the UK tax discs) which ran out at the end of August. So Terry has had to renew them on line and they will be posted to our mail box and then they can forward them on to us. We have a print out of the transaction so hope that will be OK until we actually receive the tags and get them onto the rig. We are not sure if it's an offence not to display the tags if they are on their way or not - watch this space to see if we get a citation or not. Yesterday we went shopping for presents for people who we stay with or who offer us hospitality in any way. I love giving a little something from the UK to these kind folk. We went into deep Yorkshire to get these and had a lovely day in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside, with a lovely lunch out to boot. Shame it's getting a bit Autumnal here as it was overcast and the wind was a bit chilly. I expect we'll find the same sort of weather in the North West of the USA again. Hope we beat the snow. We fly from our local airport to Amsterdam early Thursday morning and then from Amsterdam to Seattle. We plan to stay a few nights in Seattle to explore the city, then we drive, in a hire car, down to the south side of Mount Ranier for one night. We HOPE we see the mountain this time, as last trip we camped for 3 nights on the east side and never saw it as the clouds never lifted. We did see it out of the airplane window as we flew into Seattle but we want to see it close to. Fingers crossed. Then we will drive for a couple of days to get to our friends Chuck and Carla who live near Boise , Idaho. Looking forward to seeing them again as we had such a blast with them at the end of our last trip. We will then pick up the rig, say a sad goodbye to Chuck and Carla and set off on our travels.