K and P's Road Trip

Road trip journal from K....

Last week I went on vacation with my best friend, "P". It was a weeklong adventure back to my old hometown and surrounding areas, a roadtrip we'd planned for months.

We drove over a thousand miles across our state, adventuring into the NE corner of Oregon, then circling back through central Oregon on our journey back home. We spent our first few days in a little cottage we rented near Wallowa Lake, a beautiful "Little Alps" area with high, rugged mountains and a crystal blue lake. These first vacation days doubled as "recovery days" for both of us, healing from our various stages of pneumonia, and we limited our activities accordingly. We appreciated the slow pace of life and were able to rejuvenate enough to take the Tram to the top of Mt Howard (elev. 8150') and enjoy lunch at the Summit Grill before leaving Wallowa Lake for the rest of our trip. We got some video of the cute chipmunks near the Grill, begging for food from children who had purchased bags of seeds, including footage of a chipmunk who sat on "P"'s lap, then suddenly ran up over her shoulder! That was quite the show!

The night before we left, we had a great dinner at Russell's, near the lake. "P" had delicious juniper trout and I had a tender steak, with a yummy house steak sauce. The meal tasted especially good to me since I hadn't been eating much for several days.

After we left Wallowa Lake, we stopped by a Nez Perce Native American festival. It was unseasonably hot, so we didn't stay long, but "P" was able to do a bit of shopping while I mostly sat and rested in the shade. There were pow-wows during the day, but unfortunately, the next one was not scheduled to begin until 7 pm and we had some miles to travel to get to our next stop, Baker City.

We continued to adjust our trip to accommodate the energy levels we had as we continued our recoveries, and we took it easy the next day in Baker. (We continued to have unseasonably hot days, which zapped our energy, and heard that Hillsboro was 108....with high humidity! All of Oregon was in heatwave mode.) We went to a Quilt Show at BHS, and also drove around my little hometown where I gave a little tour of former homes, schools and other places of interest. We drove out of town on Pocahontas Road, past our old family farm, then drove to Haines for a nice dinner at the Haines Steakhouse before returning to Baker for the evening. After two nights at the Sunridge Inn at Baker City, we packed the car.

Before leaving Baker, we stopped by the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and enjoyed the exhibits. There are also old wagon wheel ruts that can be seen from the Interpretive Center. I also spent time finding our family "brick" on the floor of the Center.

My friend "P" was born in Oregon City, at the end of the Oregon Trail, and I was born here in Baker City, along the Oregon Trail. We both consider ourselves to have pioneer blood and spirit!

Leaving the Interpretive Center, we drove back through Baker on our way to Sumpter. We drove past Phillips Lake, then drove through Union Creek Campground at the upper end of the lake, then onward to the Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge. They are in the process of refurbishing the dredge, to make it available for tours, and I hope someday to be able to go inside this monstrous machine that I remember from childhood. We didn't get to see the Sumpter Valley Railroad train, which only runs on weekends. That is another adventure I'd like to take sometime when it works out. We drove through Sumpter, but with the heat, we didn't do much exploring. There were four deer near the main street that provided some entertainment for us before we headed to John Day. "P" got some video of the deer before they disappeared down a ghost town alley.

It was a beautiful drive through mountain valleys to John Day, just over an hour from Sumpter. We had a delicious dinner at a little restaurant where our highway connected with Highway 26. I had a lemon-pepper chicken dinner, which was very good, and "P" had a seafood combo dinner that she really enjoyed! Amazing to find good seafood miles and miles away from the beach.

After dinner, we headed west on Highway 26 in the dusk, commenting about how this same Highway 26 stretched across the state, passing near our homes, and onward towards our favorite Cannon Beach.

After spending the night in John Day, we had a continental breakfast at the Best Western before heading to the John Day Fossil Beds. "P" wrote her last reflection paper for her PSU English class that was due that morning, sending it off across the state to her professor. Technology still amazes me.

The Visitor Center at the Fossil Beds was really interesting. It is hard to believe that this area of Oregon was semi-tropical millions of years ago, with many animals and plants that are now extinct. The plant and animal fossils on display were well-preserved and laid out with a lot of interesting information. There was also a working fossil lab onsite that we could view through a window. After leaving the Visitor Center, we stopped by several roadside viewpoints, including the Painted Hills area, which was beautiful with its reddish-striped hills. Wild sunflowers lined the roads, growing in cracked dry red soil, which provided quite a contrast to the colorful hills.

We enjoyed a tasty lunch and interesting conversation with the locals at the Bridge Creek Cafe at Mitchell, not far from the Painted Hills. Back on the road again.....we headed through Prineville and Redmond, to our final overnight destination in Bend. Prineville looked like a great little place to live, and wasn't far from several nice lakes and recreation areas. Once we arrived in Bend, we stopped by the Made In Hawaii store and enjoyed shopping in our favorite store. Both of us found a number of items to purchase, which is not unusual for either of us! The store has new owners, and we were glad to find Made In Hawaii was still open -- the last time we were in Bend, the business was "for sale". Our stop at Made In Hawaii was the main reason we spent the night in Bend at "our" Comfort Inn instead of staying in Sisters. We enjoyed a good dinner at a Roadhouse restaurant near our motel, our last dinner before heading back home from our adventure. My prime rib was excellent! I think "P" had more seafood, along with a steak.

On the way home from Bend, we stopped at Sisters and did a little shopping at our $12.99 T-shirt store, Hen's Tooth and The White Rabbit, as well as a few other places. Lunch was a bit slow in preparation at the little Depot-Stop Cafe in Sisters, but fortunately worth the wait.

We enjoyed the beautiful drive home and couldn't believe our trip was coming to an end....it seemed we'd just begun our vacation! Both of us were feeling better after being sick and recovering, had seen some new places on our adventure, and most of all, enjoyed spending our vacation time together.

What was there to do but start talking about places we might like to go next summer?!

I can't wait!!