Spokane, WA

2021-09-01 to 2021-09-03 – Bellingham, WA

Wednesday, September 1:

We left Riverside State Park in Spokane at 6:45 am. We have a long drive today to reach Bellingham this afternoon. Most of today we will be westbound on the 90, then north on the 5…

We passed a few lovely farms…

And we stopped where there was nothing green as far as the eye could see…

This area was designated as a solar and wind energy conservation area, but we didn’t see any solar installations…

We did see the Columbia River cutting through a deep gorge…

At the bottom of the gorge we crossed over a marvelous bridge…

We were shortly back into the green forests…

We arrived in Bellingham at the home of my brother…

My brother and his wife are big fans of our cocktail book. In fact, they presented us with the gift of two commemorative copies of the book…

They demonstrated that they have all the proper equipment to use the book…

We enjoyed happy hours and dinner on the view deck…

And we watched the sunset over the Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island…

Thursday, September 2:

We took a drive today to enjoy a short walk in the woods…

We soon found ourselves on a rocky beach at Point Whitehorn Park…

The walk back up the bluff looked just like the walk down…

We drove into Birch Bay and stopped for a lunch of grilled oysters. (Lynda had fish tacos…)

After lunch we returned home and again enjoyed happy hours and dinner on the deck…

Friday, September 3:

We had time for one quick walk along the boardwalk in Fairhaven…

Then it was time to head south again…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

September 10, 2021 1

2021-08-30 to 2021-09-01 – Leaving The Oregon Trail caravan … Traveling to Riverside State Park, Spokane, WA

Monday, 8/30:

We left Wilsonville, OR at 5:45 am and headed north through Portland and then east…

The Columbia River never disappoints…

Nor does the Columbia River Gorge…

We crossed over “Twin Bridges”… Indeed…

And then we were officially in Eastern Washington… Or, as the locals call it, “The East Side”…

Great suspension bridge…

And vineyards…

And more typical eastern Washington…

We stopped in Ritzville for lunch…

This lunch stop was ill-advised and clearly sub-optimal…

We arrived mid afternoon at Riverside State Park, outside Spokane. THis is the Equestrian campground, where my brother is a camp host… However, the campground was closed two weeks ago due to fire danger, so we were there alone…

John’s wife was off marking trails on her horse, so we three had lovely happy hours sitting around the picnic table, and turned in early…

Tuesday, 8/31:

My brother and his wife took us to breakfast at Wolfy’s…

They showed us around the area, then we returned to the campground for a walk. A long walk. A fast walk…

I think this is the last my brother and I saw of our wives until they stopped mid day…

We walked along the Spokane River…

After our walk we met the horsewomen as they prepared to ride and mark trails for an upcoming trail meet…

After the horse women left we drove toward Spokane…

We soon were downtown, where we found the Leatherbeard Brewery…

Here I am with the co-owner and father of the brewmaster…

We found a table and sampled some beer… these are folks we know from Irvine; they moved here a few years ago to open the brewery… They seem to be doing well…

We returned the State Park, where we had some visitors…

We had another lovely happy hours. It was good to catch up. We don’t see each other very often…

Wednesday, 9/1:

We have a long drive today. We left at 6:45 and heated west towards Seattle and points north…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

September 9, 2021 0

2021-08-28 to 2021-08-30 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Day 31, 32, 33 – The end of the trail – Oregon City, OR

It’s the end of the trail. The emigrants who made it past The Dalles or who took the Barlow Cutoff ended their trip here in Oregon City. We are actually camping in Wilsonville, OR, right next door…It is a beautiful RV park – concrete pads, grass, blue skies, and even a few trees…

The emigrants sold their wagons and oxen and headed out to find land that they could homestead. We will do some grocery shopping, visit with old friends, celebrate at a final banquet, and travel on to 20 different destinations. On August 30 we will head northeast and travel to Spokane, WA.

August 28: We traveled from Welches to Wilsonville. As is normal, we followed the printed driving directions provided in the Caravan Manual. Big mistake. The directions took us in the wrong direction, forcing us to drive through tiny roads with sharp turns and corners, until we were back on the correct route. Then the directions took us over about five miles of narrow, windy, back country roads. We don’t normally mind small roads, but when we arrived at the RV Park we could see the off-ramp at the Interstate about 1/4 mile away. We had just wasted a lot of time and frustration for no reason…

But we are here… And it is nice…

August 29:

We had an uneventful stay here. Most of us spent the time preparing for our post-caravan travels. Some are heading home to Virginia, Texas, and New York. Some are heading out for extended travels here in the west. We did some shopping and prepared to head northeast to Spokane, Washington…

On our last night we visited the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, in nearby Oregon City… The buildings were simple boxes, but they are all outlined above with the skeleton of the covered wagons. It was impressive – it made it seem like we were under the ghosts of the wagon trains…