The Dalles, Oregon

  Another beautiful day on the Columbia Gorge.  We headed back east along the river today and drove a bit more of the reconstructed old Columbia River Road.  Our destination was the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center at The Dalles.  This town was the spot where pioneers loaded their wagons onto barges on the river to complete their trip to the lush farmland in Western Oregon.   The area around The Dalles is still pretty arid so it must have been a relief to the pioneers as they drifted down the river to see much greener landscape as they headed west.

   The old road took us high above the river into rolling fields of fruit and flowers.  The batchelor buttons were so thick that some of the hillsides were almost completely blue.  What a perfect time to visit this area.  The Discovery Center was new and included many old films and photos of the area.  Dams on the river have certainly changed its topography.  One of the exhibits showed a family with their covered wagon lashed to a raft going down the river.  The exhibit included readings from diaries of pioneers who had made the trip on the river - how fast the water was and how scary it was to have small children on the very fragile craft.  The display certainly brought home the challenges faced by the early Americans.

    Today was also our day to buy groceries, clean the RV and do laundry.  Except for having to replace the broken vacuum cleaner it all went quite smoothly.  Previous blog followers have certainly known me to be pretty crabby when doing laundry on the road, but today was great.  We had some grilled chicken tonight thanks to Chef Rick and now have only to remake our bed for another quiet (?) night.