Today we managed to leave town at 12:45pm, which should really be considered record time, considering I didn't get home until noon. The weather was cloudy and sort of raining sometimes and the hills were topped off in mist as we climbed towards Snoqualmie Pass. We hit the pass at 1:30, and the temperature sign said it was 55 degrees. I kept putting my sunglasses on, then taking them off, as it was not really bright enough to wear them, but a little too bright to be without them.
After we went over the pass, the weather changed dramatically. The sunglasses went on for good, and so did the air conditioning. We arrived in Ellensburg at around 2:30, and stopped for a late lunch of pizza. The kids had slept for most of the drive over, as I'd kept them up late last night burning music CDs for the trip. You know, important stuff.
I loved the drive from Ellensburg to the Oregon border. It was all gorgeous hills and farmland stretching out, and it made me remember the endless rounds of The Farming Game that Debbie and I played during summers when we were 12 and 13. The game was invented by an Eastern Washington farmer, and as we drove by the places that parts of the game had been named after, like Yakima and Wapato and Toppenish, I could almost see the acres of fruit trees as the little red stickers that signified fruit in the game, and the herds of cattle as the white '10 cow' stickers.
We got to Pendleton, Oregon around 5:30, and drove around for a very long time looking for a grocery store. We might have been a little bit faster if I hadn't been so entranced with all of the old houses and neat old buildings that we saw as we drove. The town is sort of run down, but in a charming kind of way, and the architecture on so many of the houses and other buildings was so cool.
Eventually we found an Albertson's, and I was so grateful that I signed up for an Albertson's card. There, we bought hot dogs and buns and chips for dinner, then we hit the road for the Emigrant Springs Campground, and arrived 7ish. Abby set to work building the fire, and Katrina and I got the tent up, and then we roasted hot dogs and made smores.
After dinner (and after putting out the fire!) we went for a walk, and checked out some of the Oregon Trail information and displays in the park. At one point, I spotted a historic sign, and encouraged the girls to come look at it. For a few seconds, Abby thought I was talking about the 'No Parking' sign across the parking lot, and she thought I'd completely gone round the bend. And on the first day even. She probably thought the next three weeks were going to be quite a trial.
The drive from Pendleton to the campground was up, up, up. In several places they'd blasted through hills to make the road not quite as steep, and it was pretty amazing to think about the pioneers with their covered wagons traveling on that same path. The pass just before the park is called Deadman's Pass, but we haven't gotten the full story on why it was named that.
Today's distance: About 300 miles.
Posted by Rachel at June 24, 2004 09:26 PM