Chaos Leaves Town

November 1st, 2023 was a travel day heading south towards Winnemucca.

First have to climb the very steep hill on I-84 outside of Pendleton. Known as Deadman’s Pass. Can be really dangerous in the winter so I always try to time my travel through here when it’s safe. There are several Webcams showing conditions. Usually, even after a snow event the roads melt the snow so by 10 AM it’s safe. Of course in the summer, overheated vehicles can end up stuck on the side apron. Coming down is as dangerous if you don’t downshift or have an exhaust brake and overuse your regular brakes.

Several hours later, the Winnemucca valley.

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————————Sept. 2023——————————–

I have created some of my own recipes over the years, and this cottage cheese salad is one of them. Diced onion, peppers (red and green), diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and the cottage cheese. Very refreshing and an excellent foil to the spicy, garlic heavy spaghetti sauce I make. Cleans the palate.

I don’t eat pasta unless it’s angel hair pasta in soup so I just make a pot of spaghetti sauce and eat it from a bowl along with the salad and some garlic bread.

And of course, the meal isn’t complete without French Vanilla and Orange Sherbet ice cream swimming in ginger ale.

On rare occasions, if I have a bottle of Burgundy, I’ll have a glass to go along with the meal.

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Yes, I’m still around, still RV’ing. Nothing terrible to report about my absence, just run-of-the-mill laziness.

Anyway, I’m back to posting and this post will cover from the end of July after I returned from my visit to Troutdale, through December to finish out the year. In a few days, I’ll post from 2024.

—————–July 2023—————-Brunch with the family in Walla Walla——————-

So my sister Teri and Gary invited us over for brunch. Daughter Mush came with me but my son James decided to skip. I’ve always enjoyed their back yard. But I’m beyond enjoying yardwork.

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After that 4 day visit with my Troutdale friends, headed back east along I-84 that travels alongside the Columbia. Which is now just a series of lakes as the backup from each dam reaches within a mile or three of the base of the next upstream dam.

Cruising along the divided highway, drivers pass through this nice long tunnel. Just past this tunnel heading east is the Eagle Creek Trail, one of the most popular and spectacular trails in the entire USA. Gets around 3,000,000 hikers per year. Well worth the hike. I’ve been several times. You really only need to get around 3 miles up the trail and most of the day hikers have turned back.

And then further on, is the Bridge of the Gods. And nestled practically underneath is my favorite restaurant in the gorge…the Bridgeside Inn. I’ve been coming here when I wanted to get away from the Portland/Gresham/Troutdale area since the early ’70’s. Often for breakfast or lunch, and just as often just to sit and take in the grandeur.

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It’s been over a month since my last post. Sorry about the delay, no excuse, I’ve just been a bit lazy lately. 

One thing that happened was I had a 10 day cold! This is rare for me and my immune system is rather strong and I wasn’t laid up really, but I did wear my mask when out, and tended to stay home so as not to infect anyone else. I haven’t had a cold for several years now, but this one reset that clock. Ha. I did take the Covid test and that came up negative.

And then, here at the RV park, we all got notice that the park has been sold. Sort of expected it as the owner Darrell is 97 years old. He has family but I guess none of them wanted to take over all the lands and projects Darrell had going on. I was willing to help him on one of the bigger developments he had going nearby which would have been managing the creation of 100 home sites, but he may have dropped that project, but I haven’t gone to visit him since the sale in late May either.

Shortly after I arrived in Milton Freewater and got set up, I started work on the heat pump (HP) which I mentioned back in Winnemucca as not cooling anymore. I bought 2x 5 gallon buckets from Walmart and an 8 foot length of 2X6 and had it cut in half. Made a bench out of it like I did years ago for work on the HP. There’s a picture later on.

Had the young men from next door help me pull it out of it’s basement compartment, opened the top and found that the outside motor had gone bad. Pulled that out, went to a motor repair shop in Pasco (55 miles away), they determined it wasn’t worth fixing, so I decided to just forget it and buy new. Sadly it was during the height of the inflationary period we had so I paid 48% more then if I’d purchased a few months previous. Gouging by Coleman. Cost me $4,000. If you’re interested in the entire story, click HERE. I see that Hebron no longer has stock of that model.

But I did make that trip to Pasco so I’ll post a few pictures. I must have driven this route more than 1,000 times over the years. And here I’ve already reached the Columbia River after following the Walla Walla river 30 miles or so due West. This section of the road is heading due North.

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