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October 3, 2014
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Lots of things happening this week. We started out by driving up the Columbia Gorge on Thursday (last week) to our destination, The Dalles, Oregon. Dave has a second cousin that works for the local radio station and Dave was to meet with him at the studio on Friday and do an interview about his career as a radio engineer for the Portland Trail Blazers. We got to The Dalles around 6:00 p.m. and checked into our hotel room. While Dave was checking in I waited in the car. The first thing I heard was a freight train speeding by about a block away and it brought back the memory when we stayed in Barstow, California - a major cross-roads for the freight trains going East and West and we listened to them all night as they were speeding by our room. I thought, "Oh no, do we get to listen to that all night?" As it turned out, the room we had was on the other side away from the tracks and we didn't hear a thing all night.
The next morning we headed to the radio station as we were to meet Rodger for the interview. This was a nice old fashioned station with actual people talking on the air! So many stations now are completely automated, so it was good to see people actually working at a radio station! After a small tour, Rodger and Dave did their thing while I listened to them and took pictures. It runs about 23 minutes but if you like, you can hear it here. My thanks to the good people at Haystack Broadcasting in The Dalles for letting us use the interview. We later met Rodger and his wife, Julie for lunch at a popular saloon in town and had this huge sandwich. I'm glad we had that time because both Julie and Rodger had a lot on their plate that day and had to leave after lunch. Please don't notice that we completely forgot to take any pictures of them.
As I said, Rodger had to get back to the radio station after lunch, but before he did, he took us to see the first courthouse & jail in Wasco County. It was just a couple of blocks away from where we had lunch, so we were able to make a quick trip of it. Rodger is on the preservation board and had his own key to the place, so we got a personal tour. It was a small place and very interesting. I learned that while Oregon was still a territory, Wasco County was the largest county in the country. It ran from the The Dalles and the Columbia River all the way over to Wyoming and Montana. There is a long-standing story about the sheriff who had to leave The Dalles to go after a crook on the other side of the county, by the time he returned they had elected a new sheriff!
Our next stop was up the hill to the Fort Dalles Museum - one of Oregon's oldest museums (1856). The fort used to occupy the entire neighborhood where the museum is located and the only things left are the building where the infirmary was located and an adjacent barn that now houses some antique vehicles. There were two stories of pioneer memorabilia, historic photographs and Native American artifacts in the infirmary. It did not appear to be one of the more popular exhibits in town as we were the only visitors and had the place to ourselves. Dave was a little disappointed that they didn't seem to be caring much for the old cars and wagons. They were in pretty bad shape in the out-building. Still, where else are you going to see an electric 1904 Studebaker?
Then it was off to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center which is the official interpretive center of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. We learned about the ice age theories, mega-mammals and the geological formation of the Columbia Gorge during the catastrophic Missoula Floods. They also had a display of birds of prey of the Columbia River Gorge and we got to see live raptors up close. We learned about 10,000 years of Native American history, the Cargo of Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail. On the right, this is the view of the river and the gorge out the rear of the building. The center is laid out so that we were zig-zagging back and forth to see everything. By the time we finished all of this, we were ready for a little nap back at the hotel.
A couple of hours later, we were getting hungry. When we came back from the Discovery Center, we noticed a family restaurant called "Cousins" that looked like it might be a good place to eat, so we jumped back in the car and drove over there. Whenever we're in Phoenix, we like to eat at a place called "The Cracker Barrel". This place reminded us a lot of that. It's like a small museum all by itself. They had all sorts of memorabilia hanging from the walls and had electric trains running along the walls. Anyway, they have real home cooked meals and there was plenty of food. After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to the hotel but before we turned in, we decided we needed to walk off some of that dinner. We took a little stroll around the historic downtown area and were impressed by the "famous moments in history" murals painted on several of the buildings. According to the brochure, there were sixteen murals but we didn't see all of them. I'd love it if we could do something like that in our little town, but I'm sure it takes a lot of time and effort to get those completed.
The next morning, we decided to stop by Cousins again for breakfast. With each order, we were given a part of a salad-size homemade cinnamon roll! After breakfast we said good-bye to The Dalles. We are really glad we were able to take in the sites of this historic town. We then ventured crossed the Columbia River at Hood River to go up to Husum to visit with Dave's cousin, Connie and Gene. They live on a small horse ranch up above White Salmon. A two-hour visit went way too fast and since we both had other places to go that day, we said our goodbyes and headed for Oregon. (Again, we were so busy talking that we forgot to take a picture).
We headed back to West Linn after that and visited with Lara and her family for awhile before we headed home. Lara's two youngest were busy and we didn't get a chance to see much of them, but Jadyn - the oldest - spent time with us. Among other things, she was showing off a bubble-maker that allowed her to hold them in her hand as long as she was wearing these special gloves!
On Tuesday, Dave got a phone call from one his friends who has a fishing boat and he wanted to take him out Salmon fishing with him. Dave was so ready for this trip. He has had his license and tag and has been hoping for an invitation. Loren and he left the Wheeler dock around noon and fished in front of our place for awhile and they ventured out in the bay further where Dave caught a 14 pound Coho. He had a really nice day. We have been watching fishermen catching fish in front of our place all week and the fish have been jumping out of the water almost teasing the fishermen to catch them!
Wednesday was not a good day for me. It was our parks work party day and we were making plans to paint the restroom trim and doors. I was up there putting my paint supplies out when I tripped over a large rock and did a face plant in the gravel. I cut the inside of my lip and bruised my leg pretty bad. Well, needless to say, that ended my painting day! I gathered myself and stuff up and headed back home to pick the gravel out of my teeth and put an ice bag on my leg and lips. I consider myself lucky that I didn't break anything like my glasses, teeth or even a limb! It was a pretty hard fall and I felt like I had been drug through a knot hole backwards the next day!
We are expecting company this weekend. My nephew, Brian and his wife Tonya will be coming down on Saturday and spending the night. They are going to go kayaking in the bay while they are here. The weather looks like it is going to be perfect!
