On to John Day…

I really need to find a different route to Milton Freewater, just for the adventure. But I do enjoy visiting in John Day, which is where I headed when leaving Winnemucca.

So here is the river that passes through downtown Winnemucca I mentioned last article. There is a homeless encampment off in that direction under the bridge I cross after this one. Encampment is kind of a mess, even has an older RV sitting there.

And there’s the ‘W’ for Winnemucca. It’s got some interesting buildings way up on top of those hills over there that I wonder about. Probably some commie secret spy ring put them up there. Or the local Boy Scouts. Ya just never know.

And just 45 minutes later, back in the wilderness of the American SW on another lonely road heading north.

It’s a 5 hour trip from Winnemucca to John Day and I pass through Burns on the way. If the weather is bad, I can bail out there at Burns as it has a couple RV parks, shopping, and services if needed. But as the first pictures above show, the weather was fine. When I got to the valley near Burns though, it was interesting to say the least. Lots of water from the recent storms. I don’t usually see this much water when I pass by Burns.

It was a bit difficult to capture a shot that showed how much water was in the valley this year but entire fields that were usually dry over the years when I’d pass by, this year were small lakes instead of growing crops.

Well, anyway, what I heard later is that this is kind of a typical event for this area of Burns and the farmers are used to dealing with it. I’ve lived in Burns for months at a time over the last 19 years of RV’ing, even made it my home base one year for VA reasons and it was never this wet before. Water is good though. Not complaining.

I was driving along and every 2-3 minutes there was more standing water on farmers fields. Way off in the distance on the drivers side of the RV was the same thing, but the sun was over there so didn’t take many pictures of that side.

Passed on through Burns without stopping where the old downtown was about the same as always. Soon in the foothills on the way to John Day. I enjoy this section of the trip. And since there was an abundance of water in the valley, I noticed it here too where there seemed to be more water in the creeks along the route.

But that’s not all that I liked the looks of.

From last years wild fires. Or perhaps the year before.

And here I am all snuggled into my space at the County Fairgrounds in John Day. It is really one of my favorite RV parks. I’ve stayed here many times over the years and the problem for me is that I rarely make a reservation at any RV park but with this one, you pretty much must or you won’t get to stay long. I try to get here early in the week so there’s likely going to be a space to park, and avoid the weekend as they’re usually booked solid.

And here’s the John Day river right behind the RV park. Which has 50 amp, water and sewer in case you’re wondering. Fairly new services too so you’re not struggling with old equipment when hooking up.

Nice trail and dog walk along the river and around the RV parks grounds.

Overflow area here is usually dry. More evidence of the heavy rain and snow they got in and on nearby foothills this past winter.

And whenever I’m in John Day, I always go to dinner at the Outpost Pizza Pub & Cafe for a great bacon wrapped meatloaf dinner. It runs $22 for this big dinner including an IPA from the bar. And there’s enough that I can make two dinners out of it. This time I felt like some chowder so I added that to the meal. Also very good.

This is just half of the cafe’s seating area.

Next day I was looking for something…I forget what, and strolled around downtown for a couple hours.

This bar had a big fire that closed them down but the owner was there standing outside talking about the ruins inside (tried but couldn’t get a good picture through the windows as the sun was at a bad angle) talking to an architect about the restoration and remodeling. I could overhear them and it was interesting to be eavesdropping on the conversation. They knew I was there and it wasn’t exactly a secret.

I did drive around town in the car but couldn’t find the museum. There’s a sign for it along the road, but driving back and forth along that highway and then up and down a few streets I never found it. Got bored with that and just went home and hung out.

And then the next day headed north to Milton Freewater and my next article will begin with that trip.

Thanks for reading!

See ya on the road!