Northeast Oregon

We are on our way to Coer D'Alene and will be there on Monday for a five night stay.  We left Portland right at 11:00 a.m.  I did another minor mistake...I left the GoGo Scooter charging in the car accidentally after our visit to the Rose Garden.  Well, the GoGo got charged, the car battery ran down.  Thank goodness I was parked right along the back of the RV near the batteries, so a quick shift to neutral, moved it back about 4 feet, hooked up the jumper cables, started it up, and after a quick drive for a few miles, we were fine.

About 15 miles out of Portland we stopped at the Multnomah Falls Vistor's Center.  The parking is between the east and the west bound lanes of I-84, and parking for RV's is really lacking.  There is room for three motor homes pulling tow vehicles, which means that you can pull in and pull out without backing up.  There was an additional 8 spots for RV's to pull into, and then they need to back out of it to get going again.  There was probably 90 parking spots for cars, and for some reason, many cars felt that they needed to stop in the RV section, which made matters worse.  There was one spot left that we were able to get into, but a car, with people inside, was sitting in it.  So I did what I thought was best....I blew the Air Horn at them.  Yes, they moved and we were able to park.  Thank goodness, because the Multnomah Falls is a wonderful site to see.

Above you can see us crowded into RV parking area, and you can see a few cars which decided that they needed the RV area more than the RVs needed it.

Below is Multnomah Falls.  It is 620 feet high, with the longest fall at the top falling 542 feet, then there is a 9 foot middle area where it runs like a fast creek, and than another fall at the bottom of 69 feet.  It is the tallest waterfall in Oregon, and is feed by mountain springs along with rain & snow runoff.  There is a path that goes to the top, but we passed on that.

 We did notice a second, much smaller falls to the right (west) of Multnomah Falls.  In the picture below you can barely make it out.

We stayed at the falls for a good hour, mainly because we needed the RV in front of us to move along because we had to park so close to it we could not pull out without backing up...and backing up with a tow vehicle is a no no.

We traveled on and enjoyed the beauty of the Columbia Gorge.   Marcia saw a few other small waterfalls, we saw much of the Columbia River, some dams, mountains, and overall it was a very nice drive.

We did stop at a rest area for lunch, and we both decided to take short naps.  Below is the view we had out of the back.  This rest area was fairly active, especially when four buses filled with church youth pulled in...hmm...I think a few lessons in dressing more conservatively might be in order for a few of them.

 As we go past "The Dalles", which is a city of about 15,000 people, the landscape changes...less green, more brown, and wind mills abound.  Note: The Dalles was "the scene of a bioterrorist incident launched by members of the Rajneesh Movement in an attempt to gain control of the local government of Wasco County. Salmonella placed in ten restaurants resulted in 751 cases of Salmonellosis. It was the first known bioterrorism attack of the 20th century in the United States." (see Wikipedia)

Anyway, we have stopped for the night at a rest area near Boardman, Oregon.  Tomorrow we are going to make our way towards Spokane, so we will have an easy drive to Coer D'Alene on Monday.  Below is a shot of us at the rest area.  We are hoping for a semi-quiet night...time will tell.