Pendleton, OR

Yesterday we left Lake Oswego in the morning heading for Pendelton, OR.  Pendleton is about halfway to our destination of Boise, ID.  We are meeting our friends, Bob and Sue there to experience the Jaialdi, which is a Basque Festival held every five years there.  There will be street fairs, a Basque sports night, a show called Fest a'ra and other events and foods all highlighting Basque culture. Many thousands of people come from all over the world to take part.  Usually I avoid crowded events but this sounds fun and different.

We drove the Bays Bus in the rain for the first time today.  Gary didn't like it and had to slow down quite a bit.  We took I-84 which runs along the Columbia River Gorge from Portland to Pendleton.  We passed by the famous gorge waterfalls and the parking lot at Multnomah Falls was completely full.  It was a beautiful day for tourists to visit there.  We passed the usual spots where we take our visitors, Crown Point, Bonneville Dam and Hood River and went beyond those to pass The Dalles Dam and fish hatcheries. There were several areas along the highway that were black from recent brush fires.  One was about 3 miles long. To be perfectly honest, we probably passed more things I could mention but I tend to fall asleep easily on these trips.

We are staying for three nights at Wildhorse Casino and RV Park.  This is a nice park with plenty of grassy room between parking spots, flat spaces and easy walking paths for the dogs.  The view from our site is of the prairie and the Blue Mountains. Because of the drought everything is the color of wheat.  We had dinner at the casino buffet which wasn't very good but we didn't leave hungry.  There must be a motorcycle gathering here because we have seen so many.  One three wheeled cycle had been modified to look like a 1957 Chevy.  I will post the picture of it when I get home.

We visited Pendleton Woolen Mills and the blankets and clothes are so expensive but very vibrant and inspired by the Native Americans.  They had a small museum containing Native artifacts, which was great to see.