Final Days in Oregon

How often have you heard the saying ‘Be careful what you wish for’? For the last three weeks we had max temperatures averaging around the 58 F (15C) mark and you may recall I was thrilled to get a day where I could wear shorts at last. Well, yesterday at noon we checked into a park at Irrigon, a little town near the border of Oregon and Washington and it was 97F (36C). We got on our bikes and rode to the marina where Murray fished for a few hours, and we wondered why we were a bit listless that evening! Dehydrated more likely! But I did get to wear my shorts, which is what I asked for…so no complaints.

From where I left off in the last blog entry, we drove to lovely Lincoln City which was our last port of call on the Oregon coast before heading east and inland. We drove through Oregon’s capital city of Salem, which was looking glorious with hanging baskets of flowers in the main streets. Almost everywhere we have been driving for the last 3 weeks has been blooming with roses, azaleas and rhododendrons – so pretty. From there it was an hour north to Portland, Oregon’s largest city, also known as the City of Roses. This photo gives you a view from the bridge over the Columbia River. The Columbia River borders Oregon and Washington, and as Portland is right on the river, we simply drove over the bridge and entered the state of Washington. Once over the bridge we turned East and saw a huge snow capped mountain that we thought at first was Mount St Helen, but now realise it was Mt Rainier. We then look back and also saw Mt St Helen, not so high and without a point. We crossed back into Oregon and continued east on Hwy 84. This is a very scenic drive along the edge of the Columbia River, but there is also beautiful scenery and an amazing waterfall on the other side of the road. It was hard to know where to look – I had to keep reminding Murray to watch the road! There were numerous State Parks dotted along this route, and I daresay each one of them would have been beautiful to explore. It was Father’s Day here in the US and the parks were filled with families making the most of the day. We settled for a county park campsite that was in a line from snowcapped Mt Hood behind us and snowcapped Mt Rainier in front. The Hood River rushed along the edge of the campground – the melting snow adding to its fury. After a bike ride to explore the park, it was very tranquil just sitting in the afternoon sun with a chilled beer watching the blue Jays darting around. Their blue is so pretty when the sun is shining on their feathers.

Our present location of Irrigon on the Columbia River is surrounded by Alfalfa fields. Our campground backs onto a field with a few cattle grazing. Murray called me over to see the lovely black and white cows, and as we ambled to the fence, one of the ‘cows’ charged at us. We then noticed the two small horns and realized our cow was a bull. Murray took great comfort in the fence, but I didn’t like the way the young bull was looking at me in particular, so I retreated back to the safety of our RV and got my binoculars out instead! These young bulls seem scarier than the longhorn we had our photo taken with on a ranch in Texas!