On the Road Again and Again and Again

April 8

Up and at 'em at 7:15!  Got packed up, had some breakfast and walked to Starbuck's for coffee, packed Matt's car with our stuff and at 9 headed to Avis in Beaverton to pick up our convertible. Arrived there at 9:30 to NO CONVERTIBLE even though we'd reserved one a couple of months ago and Peter had checked with the Avis rep in Beaverton a couple of times this week!

After a half hour on the phone (9:45-10:15) with Hotline, our booking agent, a convertible was found for us at the airport. Back on the road!  Arrived at the airport a little after 11.  Left at 11:45 with a brand new white Mustang and drove back to Matt's to leave his car!!  It took me a lot longer than Peter because I had my GPS set on AVOID HIGHWAYS for the road trip!!!  What a total fiasco!! Oh, well!  Onward!!

Back on the road AGAIN about 1 PM (4 hours later!) to head on Rt.84 to Baker City OR, our destination for today. It was sunny and 83 degrees!  The top was down and we were in shirtsleeves!  We drove most of the way along the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, past snow capped Mt. Hood to the south, Multnomah Falls, the Dalles Dam, miles-long wind farms, the John Day Dam, the fleeting scent of wildflowers, forested hills replaced by forestless, green, rockyhills, then fairly flat land on the Oregon side of the Columbia,  cattle grazing, farmland and an enormous tree farm right next to the highway

At Boardman, Rt.84 turned SE away from the Columbia River. 

Temp 77 degrees at 5 PM. The landscape is flat, then rolling green hills approaching Pendleton with the Umatilla National Forest in the distance. We drove on the Blue Mountain Forest State Scenic Corridor or the Old Oregon Trail through the Umatilla Indian Reservation where the temp was 69 at 3400 feet at 5:30. At one point a big pick-up truck gave Peter a thumbs-up!  Coming down from the Blue Mountains, we could see the snow-capped Wallowa Mountains in the distance. 

The foothills to the mountains are beautifully tree-covered on the way to LaGrande where we stopped for gas and where our itinerary indicated we would stop for the night. But, we decided to push on a little further to Baker City. Approaching Baker City with the temp 73 degrees, we could see some snow on the tops of hills. We were driving on a high plane at an altitude of 3370 feet. 

We arrived in Baker City, did some grocery shopping and were in our Best Western r

room about 8. After a delicious dinner of salad with cheddar cheese, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese and roasted chicken, we perused our itinerary for tomorrow and retired. But, first we congratulated ourselves for struggling through our fiasco. The Mustang is awesome!