Thursday, June 27
Dinner at Chuck and Rita’s was the highlight of this day! Wonderful appetizers, small slider grilled chicken sandwiches with grilled poblano peppers and aioli. Great special baked beans, and potato salad added to the feast! Wow. Dessert was Marilyn’s berry cobbler with ice cream. Egads! Great visit out in Chuck’s beautiful back yard full of flowers and birds.
On Friday, Chuck came around 11 bearing wonderful cinnamon rolls from his neighborhood bakery. Lunch! Had another great visit. For supper, went to the Elk’s RV Park Hamburger Fry. Good goopy burgers.
Saturday was a rest day and then to a local bar and grill, The Horseshoe, for a beer and handmade pizza. While sitting on the patio on a beautiful warmish evening, in came a PGR couple, Mike and Leann. They sat with us and we had a great time sharing stories and getting acquainted. They invited us to go with them on Sunday for a ride to Multnomah Falls. Yes! They mentioned at in Mollalla, a nearby town was a flag display, so we went to see it. Two 100% disabled vets, one an Iraqi vet who is the OR State chaplain and Vietnam vet, travel the state of OR putting up around 1000 US flags and give out personalized medals for the OR vets. Was very moving…they had 812 flags up for this display as they didn’t have enough lighting for all 1000.
Sunday, June 30 started bright and sunny and hot. Here’s a picture of the Mulita River flowing by our campsite. And a huge geese family walking/swimming up-river.
Met our new friends and two other couples at the Stagecoach Saloon near the intersection of I-205 and I-84. Mike and Leann introduced us to their friends, Bob and Cat, and Bill and Trudy. Had breakfast special, a feast for $6.99. Off to see the Columbia River Gorge about 11 AM. Already hot! Took the scenic, shady Historic Route 30 which parallels I-84 along the Gorge to Multnomah Falls
Stopped at beautiful Vista Point, the Gorge Visitor’s Center, probably built in the 1930’s when this area was developed by lumber barons. Much of the Historic Rte 30 bridges were built by the CCC. The interior is all marble and has a gorgeous dome.
Looking East, North and West below:
At Vista Point, we met Britishers Trudy and Andy who live near Lewes, our ancestor’s hometown in England! It’s a small world! Mike and Leann invited them to go see the Falls with us.
Working our way East on Historic Route 30.
One of the beautiful guardrails built in the 30’s
Multnomah Falls! Visitor’s Center and the Magnificent Falls! They rank about 4th in the nation in height but you are able to get so close that they really are an awesome work of nature!
Leann’s parents have a huge bing and rainier cherry operation in Mosier, just East of Hood River which is further East from the Falls on I-84, so we headed there after the Falls. Bought some Rainier cherries since we had the bing Cherries all up the CA coast.
We were going to cross the bridge and return via the river road in WA, but Mike and Leann and their friends had to go rescue a friend and we got a call to come to Marilyn and Emerson’s home for Sunday night dinner. So we split up and went our own ways. Back south and 1-1/2 hr later, pulled into their driveway at 5 PM, very hot and thirsty. Temps were 93 at that time of day but the asphalt was radiating that sun and it was over 100 degrees on the bike… took me quite a while to cool down and after 4 glasses of water each, got re-hydrated.
Dinner was awesome with cousin Carolyn there along with her daughter, Kimberly, son in law, Todd and grandson, Logan – 4 yrs old and adorable! Also there were cousin Chuck and Rita and son Alex, 18 and ready to go to college in Corvallis in the fall. Got to see Marilyn and Emerson’s daughter Rebecca, too! Rita’s Mom was there, too so there were 11 for dinner… Emerson grilled huge boneless pork loins and we had a lovely salad and Carolyn’s wonderful Gazpacho. Then, as if we needed more, Carolyn had made a wonderful red raspberry pie with graham cracker crust and cream cheese/powdered sugar/lemon juice filling. Oh my! We were fortunate to bring home the two last pieces!
Home by 8:30 and fell into bed! What a wonderful, full day!
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