Eventually decided I’d finally go visit my friends over in the Portland area. It’s been 7 years since I’ve seen them but I do keep in touch with Facebook. With my newer travel route putting me here in the Walla Walla valley for both convenience and savings, I’ve slacked off heading to the Troutdale area. I used to spend most of the summers over there.
I found a used Dell 15″ laptop for sale on FB Marketplace that is one of Dell’s prime, top-of-the-line devices. Or it was back in 2006 when it was made. Still quite useful and had very few hours on it. The owners paid around $999 for it back then and it just sort of sat on a shelf most of the intervening years. Or so the seller said. I paid the seller $125 for it. Dell still makes that model, updated of course. This one has all the goodies, touch screen with very thin screen surround (more screen, less plastic case), multiple cores for seamless video watching, Bluetooth and Wifi, tough metal case in a slim design, all designed for heavy use. I plan on using it when traveling.
I don’t know if my readers remember but last time I mentioned how some guy sat next to me on the plane on the flight back from Costa Rica with a 15″ screen watching movies on the onboard Wifi and my little 10.5″ screen just didn’t compare. I was jealous. So that’s why I bought this Dell. It’s lightweight and has a much larger keyboard then my 10.5″ unit. Which I just sent to my friend over in Iowa so she’d have something to use since her’s broke. But the Dell is fine for travel, and if it gets stolen, or dropped in the ocean or something, I’m not out much. I do keep my receipts when I travel and enter them into a spreadsheet and this bigger keyboard will be very handy.
Anyway, here we go on the way to Troutdale from Milton Freewater taking the Walla Walla River road that connects to I-5 a few miles just past Irrigon, Oregon. I only took this route because it’s scenic and I get tired of freeways. If I’d headed due south instead I would have gotten onto I-5 just outside of Pendelton, Oregon. Here I’m heading west towards the Columbia at Wallula Junction.
Here’s a shot of the Walla Walla river just before it dumps into the Columbia.
And there it is. One of the world’s largest rivers, the Mighty Columbia. Here’s a map of the region. It’s kinda cool. Wallula Gap.
Here’s the actual gap. Imagine the water from the ancient Missoula floods rushing through this gap. Of course the downstream dams from here have made this more of a series of lakes.
Now on I-5 traveling alongside the river.
Ol’ timey steel railroad bridge with the center lifted to let passing grain barges pass under. There’s now a paddle-wheel that may come up this far. Not sure.
There’s Mt. Hood in the distance. Often can’t see it that well from here.
There’s the Dalles dam I think.
This hill is just waiting for another earthquake to shed some of it’s loose soil.
Here I’ve tracked down my friend TJ and her SO on her right, Lee.
I drove my car over to Troutdale to visit while I left my RV and cat back in Milton Freewater so I won’t have any pictures of the RV parking in some resort this article. With the fuel prices and the region around Portland being so crowded, AND with the RV parks instituting a 10 year RV age rule, I just thought it best to drive my car and stay with friends.
I just didn’t take many pictures while I was over there. So I guess I’ll stop here for now. I stayed 4 nights, had fun, spent $300 taking my friends out to dinner and drinks several times over a long weekend. That’s about all. Stayed with Jackie in their spare room.
Anyway, that’s it for this time. Thanks for reading!
We just did a road trip from Vancouver, WA to Spokane to visit with some “old” friends. Cheaper to take our PHEV Escape and stay in Hotels than pay for Diesel for our Journey and pay for campgrounds. Escape gets 36mpg cruising 75-80. Took 2 days coming back with an overnight in Pendleton, so we drove through Walla Walla and MF. Nice area.
Not surprised you opted for the Escape. I just calculated what it’ll cost me to head to Yuma this winter and at $4/gal of Diesel, it’ll be over $600. But, I have an RV park I stay at in Pahrump that only costs me $14/night because I bought into their timeshare program. I already spent the better part of a month there earlier this year. But I’ll save so much on the dental work I need in Los Algodones Mexico that what I save will pay for the fuel. Just got a quote of $1500 for a possible root canal I need done. Yikes!
That is one of our favorite drives. I love your posts but please! Stop staring semtences with “so”. “So” is a conjunction used to connect two phrases or so causation. as an example, there is rain in the forcast so I’ll bring my umbrella. Or the beer was too expensive so I ordered a soda! Do t be offended I’m just a grammatarian at heart.
Fixed the over use of both “so” and “and” to start sentences. In your case, I’d point out ‘grammarian’ is the correct spelling. As is ‘starting’, ‘sentences’, ‘forecast’, and ‘don’t’. Snort. (Of course I’m aware you probably typed that on a phone, Liane 🙂 )
👍🏻
Back to school, Jim? LOL. Not as bad as my gritting my teeth when hearing today’s generations saying, “me and Joe” constantly instead of the proper (and more respectful) “Joe and I”.
It’s a constant learning curve writing is. I was aware of my overuse of things like ‘so’ but I was typing in a hurry because I had somewhere to go and planned on coming back to clean up, but didn’t make it until after it had been noticed.
Yup, that’s The Dalles Dam, sometimes confused with the John Day. The Dalles Dam is unique in its “L” shape, with spillways north to south and powerhouse east to west, all enabled by mid-river solid islands.
Aww, the ‘L’ shape. Yes, I remember now. I used to know the names and order of all the dams on the Columbia and many on the Snake but over the years, that arcane knowledge turned out to be unneeded so I forgot.
We took our live-aboard 25’ sport cruiser through the Bonneville locks once, up to Ruthton and an overnight anchorage off the Little Hood River and back, decades ago. We were in the lock with a Tidewater tug and during the water transition we were given a tour of it… they’re much bigger in person than they appear out on the crick. My stepfather used to work on one, and had stories aplenty. There was another day trip, from a boat ramp at the Tri-Cities, up and down through Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake: great fun, especially for 6 family members who had never done such a thing.
That is so cool, Joel. You’ve had quite the adventures. I’ve had my share but I’m sort of jealous of the types you’ve had!
Before I came along, my family lived at Ariel where Dad built and maintained the powerhouse controls as a station wireman for PP&L’s Merwin Dam on the Lewis. A fellow worker, Walter, was a good friend and his future wife, Avis’, family owned the little cottage at Ruthton, near West Hood River. As a child and teen I spent weekends there often; it was a wonderful, peaceful respite (except for the noisy trains at night!) for adults and -with two bays/beaches – their exploring, adventurous kids. My older brother found arrowheads and beads galore on the “spit” and beaches, and a beautiful heavy black stone pestle used for grinding grain, etc., that was handed down to me. Obviously it had been a great place for Native Americans to camp.
The Ruthton place may still be in Auntie Avis’ family, but I don’t know them and haven’t been there for 60 years. Many times while driving a car on I-84 I was tempted to take the rebuilt exit, drive down the lane, cross the high bridge over the tracks in the gully, and check the old place out – maybe the family, if still there, would have memories too to share. But I’m sure there’s a gate and no trespassing signs. Anchoring the boat in the tranquil, beguiling small cove off the west beach ca. 1979 was as close as I could ever get.
If you ever are westbound on I-84 in your car travels and get a chance, take the exit and let me know what you find. Things change, and too often precious memories (and a pestle 😉) are all we have left.
Very interesting! I have visited that park a couple three times near Ruth Cove but which exit are you talking about? Maybe the next time I drive over that way I’ll drop by and check that area for ya.
Yup, I forgot that a County park had been built there some years after my visits, and the fruit orchards are much bigger.
http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/ruthton_point.html
Thanks for the link…I’ve visited that park because I’ve been to the Columbia Gorge hotel and the entrance is in or very close to their parking lot. So I’ve sat there enjoying the view a couple three times over the years when I wanted to get out of Troutdale and drove east on I-5. Neat little park. I’ve seen that plaque of course but this link fills in my missing knowledge about that cove.
Curious Jim, as you know we both have the same RV and they could be twins, have you ever been rejected because of the 10 year rule? I never have been rejected but a few times they wanted photos and then took my reservations.
I was once rejected by an RV park in Troutdale in my repainted ’94 Bounder, but they accepted my ’02 Journey even though it was 15 years old at the time. They did ask it’s age when I got there, but I said 10 years old and it looked good so they allowed it.
I did have a high end place near St. Augustine that asked an innocuous question about my Journey and never called me back (3x). I would not have stayed anyway since the price was $125+ per day.
Whoa. $125/day. Yeah, I’ve seen places like that but I’m with you, wouldn’t stay there. I seldom use the fancy facilities anyway even if a park has them…other then checking out books in the library.
Touch screen on a 2006 Dell? Dvd burner? Also a metal case? My 2010 and 2011 Have/had, dual core or core 2 duo processors. 2006 had those that early? How much storage and ram. Probably easy to increase if more needed. It’s a shame Microsoft quit Streets and Trips after 2013. Uses a gps receiver and works for navigation. Beats using a phone. And my 10″ fire tablet (Amazon had a refurbished 2019 model for $50/60 dollars, like new) is good to watch video. Also has a usb-c connector for connecting drives.
During the ’80s drove the west part of the Columbia several times on the way to Portland. Beautiful. Mt. saint Helens had blown up one time? Have a great Halloween.
Yes, it does have the touch screen. Which I believe was a new thing in laptops back then. Works great. I like it better then the mouse pad. Yes, metal case. And it’s very thin. Not as lightweight as my 10.5″ Android but I usually carry that and now this device in my computer satchel anyway and slung over my shoulder it’s not that heavy. The drive is 500 GB, more than enough for a travel computer only used occasionally, with 8 GB of RAM. I’ve already bought the plug in expansion devices I might need to expand the drive size or connect to a TV using HDMI.
You have a great Halloween too!
My ‘07 state-of-the-art Vista Dell laptop was great, until the disk drive went belly-up. It was a real pain during a time when disks were still a main way to load software. And turns out no one could repair it cuz the part was discontinued. So beware. Vista unsupported and such, it’s now just a storage unit for old pix and family tree data.
I ran the drive tests on this SSD drive when I installed Ubuntu Linux and it passed them all. This one is no longer supported by Dell, but I’m a skilled computer hardware tech so if it needs something, I imagine I can deal with it. If not, I’ll just toss it.
SO……Ha-ha…
You folks brought back dam memories. When I got out of the Army in 1971, I was hired with the Seattle District C.O.E. I was a driver: Heavy trucks station wagons and the Col. in charge of the whole shebang.
Visited all of our facilities from Troutdale to Libby Montana.
What a swell job.
Later I was to find out the lady I married’s father worked on the construction of many including the Grand Coulee.
People using like-like 20X in a paragraph drive me nutz………
Ha! Another interesting story. My dad worked on the Grand Coulee. He used to tell us kids that he actually saw someone fall into a cement pour and was never fished out. But the experts tell us that never happened.
As far as correcting someones grammar, I do it when I’m bored. And the ‘like’ thing I haven’t really noticed in writings, it’s during speech that it bugs me. Along with ‘How come’. Just doesn’t mean anything and people use it instead of ‘Why’. That I find super annoying. But that’s my problem.
Drives me nuts too… Like it seems to be the “in” thing today, David. 😵💫