Day 3: Eastern Washington, From Bottom to Top

LC is writing today’s post, with some editing (and requested embellishment) from JC. Our first night spent in the RV was cold, but wonderful. The snow on the ground is still there for a reason – it gets cold at night. So we went to sleep early—right after the bathrooms closed for the night at 8PM, and then we were up and at ‘em at 5:30AM, right at sunrise. We packed up and drive up to the crater rim for sunrise photos. Then we bagged another historic national park hotel for our collection by having breakfast at the Crater Lake Lodge.



We then had our first experience with coin-op showers: $.75 for 4 minutes. JC had nothing but scalding hot water, and I didn’t have water at all so it was a sponge bath for me. Bathed, fed, and fueled up, we headed north up the entire eastern side of Oregon. It was a drive through the high desert of Oregon with beautiful vistas of snow-covered mountains the whole way. We were getting frustrated by not knowing which mountain was which, when on US 97 we came across a pullout called “Mountain Indicator.” It was a way to identify 7 of them, and we could see all 7 of them from our 3300-foot plateau: Broken Top, Three Sisters, Three-Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams up in Washington. Very, very cool. JC didn’t take photos; too big of a panorama to capture, but it was breath-taking.

We made it to The Dalles after a long stop for wifi, lunch, and Target shopping in Bend. Given the hour when we arrived (and our need to learn how to hookup), we decided to make tonight a motel night. And what a quaint motel this is: Cousins Country Inn, er Motel. They call all the staff AND the guests, “cousins.” After a “home-cooked” dinner, I headed to the hot tub to relax my tight shoulder muscles from the drive. I’m getting the hang of driving this rig. I did run over my first curb, and now I get the value of the side view mirrors. ;-)

Tomorrow we are going to explore the Columbia Gorge by traveling on the Washington state side on scenic highway 14. Our destination will be a campground in Milton-Freeman, OR, and a dinner at a Roadfood-recommended steak house we have heard is very good. Let’s hope Nick is as good tonight as he was last night and all-day today. He’s getting the hang of things (and we’re remembering to exercise him enough). We had two, count ‘em two, meals in restaurants today and he was just fine. Yay! Think he’s getting used to the drill.