From conestogas to the mighty Columbia

Click the wagon to see our slide show for the day. The old timey buildings and such were at our RV Park in Baker City. There are several photos that Jill took along our way today.


This will be our last night on the road. We are currently parked in the Rufus (OR) RV Park. Now, if there was ever a fly-by-night operation... We pulled in and went to the office, only to learn that this is a do-it-yourself park. You pick out your campsite, put the money in an envelope and drop it in the slot provided. Having done that, we wondered how to get WiFi, so I could post yesterday's blog post. If you read the previous entry, you will know that I did not post yesterday, due to the inability to upload Jill's photos from the previous park.

Once we got settled here, I tried to log on to the WiFi network. I was able to get as far as the log on page, but then I needed password and user name. There was a phone number for the park host, so I called and got the necessary credentials and logged right on. So did Jill. This rather podunky-looking park has far superior WiFi to the park we stayed in last night. So, don't judge a book by it's cover, you know!!

We had a lovely drive today from Baker City. We climbed to 4,600 feet from the 4,000 foot elevation of Baker City and then descended to our current elevation of about 500 feet. Rufus is situated across I 84 from the Columbia River. If we crane our necks we have a view of the river from the campground, but not from our site.

The most interesting part of today's drive was crossing the Blue Mountains. The road is not as steep as the hills we found in the Rockies. That fact coupled with the lower elevation helped Sadie actually to pass several semis today, both going up and coming down from the summit. She just purred along. The climax of the Blue Mountain crossing was coming down the 6 mile 6% grade of Cabbage Hill, just east of Pendleton. That required downshifting and running on compression most of the way.

It seemed good to catch up with the Columbia River again at Boardman. It really is an impressive sight. We have thoroughly enjoyed the scenery on every inch of this trip, but there is something pretty exciting about seeing familiar terrain. So, tomorrow, we will drive the Columbia River Gorge highway on into Portland and then home to Clackamas.