Kit and Carol on the Road

We got back to Anacortes late Tuesday afternoon and as the tide was low we stayed overnight in town (at Fidalgo Bay RV Resort). Next morning the ferry was down for awhile but luckily it was back in service by 11 am high tide. We are now back at home on the island.

Kate and Cristman's wedding. The horses (Gus and Sisco) are best man and maid of honor and Kai (the dog) is ring bearer. 

My aunt Marian lives in Prineville just a few blocks from the RV Park so we had dinner and a nice visit with her. Then on Saturday it was our niece Kate's wedding at Milli's new house in Powell Butte. It was a fun wedding with a Western/ Luau theme. Kate and Cristman were married on horseback. Stayed to watch the weather and the sun going down. Sunday it was back to the west side to visit my mom in Sweet Home. We have our camp spot on the street near a soon to be housing development.

Courthouse in Heppner, Oregon 

Thursday we had planned to go to Kah-nee-ta, but the RV park was booked so we headed straight to Prineville instead. It was a long day on the road—many country roads—curves and hills and small towns and slow going. These are the highways we traveled: 82, 84, 207, 206, 19, 218, 293, 97, 26. These are the counties we passed through: Benton (WA) Umatilla (OR), Morrow, Gilliam, Wheeler, Wasco, Jefferson, Crook. Heppner is county seat of Morrow country. It was nearly wiped out by a flood in 1901 but is now a pleasant little town. The library and museum were closed. We stopped to walk the streets. Kit visited the True Value hardware and I found a Wonderful fabric shop. Other small county seats: Condon and Fossil were towns of less than 600 people. Stopped for lunch and a nap beside a road—in 45 minutes only one car went past. The GPS data indicates that we climbed a total of 13,000 feet today. (and went down about the same amount)
Add one more country seat—Prineville. (Plus Madras which we snuck through) Some chaos reigns here. Not only is there a large group in the RV park but there is a rock show and rodeo in town this weekend.

Wednesday we head out to bike to some wineries. Someone at the RV park mentions a bike trail which supposedly heads north paralleling the freeway to Sunnyside—we never find it. But the roads in this part of the world are smooth and relatively flat and traffic free and we had a great time riding through vineyards, hops, and orchards: farm country. With the help of an inferior wine country map and Kit’s GPS we don’t get too lost and eventually end up at a wonderful little winery (Pontin del Roza) where we are served by a real farmer. (His son was the winemaker). We have good conversation about farming and wine. Leaving the winery and heading back to town I have the first flat tire. There are little thorny things that kill bike tires. Luckily I have a spare tube and Kit fixes my tire. We head on back to Prosser and out to winery row. My back tire goes flat. I no longer have a spare tube and Kit’s tube repair kit is out of glue—so here I am stranded at the Hogue tasting room. Oh woe! Kit bikes back to get the truck and I hang around tasting wine. No intelligent conversation with the young server but we have fun.

On Tuesday, after a lakeside walk, we head south through Yakima to wine country. We make one stop at an RV friendly winery in Zillah. (yes, it’s a real place) Then we continue to Prosser where we are staying at the Wine Country RV Park. Have plans to eat outdoors and enjoy the pool. But around dinner time the wind begins to blow in gusts and there is lightning off in the distance. Though there are a few drops the heavy rain doesn’t come. It does however rain on us in the hot tub on Wednesday evening.

Moon rise over Lake Easton 

Now that we have Alice on the island, our trips are subject to the rise and fall of the tide. (The ferry ramp is too steep for us at low tide) So it was late Monday afternoon (6/21) when we left on this mini vacation. Took some sandwiches from the store for a quick dinner at a rest area before heading into rush hour Seattle. Only a short slowdown before we headed east on I 90. Our goal was Lake Easton State Park where we had reservations. We arrived around 8pm—earlier than we had expected. Our site is lovely, with a view of the lake through trees. Though this park is quite close to the freeway, it’s a quiet crowd here thus a quiet place.

Kit has been quite busy getting ready for our big trip around the USA. Lots of time on things like brakes... and other vehicle things that are outside of my realm. He's also put in a new CD stereo system and a flat screen TV (about which I am excited). I have been doing lists of all the drawers and cupboards and what needs to be in them.

In the meantime we are off on a small practice trip --we are leaving this afternoon and heading east to Yakima and down to Redmond/Prineville/Powell Butte for Kate's wedding.

Getting ready for the big trip. Kit is working on the trailer brakes.