Driving across Oregon

After our fun filled time with friends and family in western Oregon, it was time to head east towards Yellowstone National Park. We had made the decision to make the drive in 2 LONG drives so we could maximize our time with friends and our time in the park. So, off we drove along I-84. There was a slight navigational error as we somehow ended up driving through downtown Portland (although we luckily hit that at about 9:30 am, so there wasn't much traffic on a Wednesday). 

The drive was beautiful - I decided too late to get my camera out to try and capture a picture of Mt. Hood, but I did manage to get this super crappy picture of Multnomah Falls through the car window. 

The best picture of Multnomah falls you have ever seen! 

The Gorge 

The Gorge was absolutely beautiful for our entire drive. After living in Arizona and then Oklahoma for so many years, I forget what a "real" river can look like. So pretty, so big, and SO BLUE! 

One of the things that we are trying to do now for the mental health of all of us is to take a break about halfway through the drive. The idea is for the cats to be able to get a drink, eat a bit, use the litter box, and run around to stretch and get some energy out. So, we used my rest area app on my phone and picked out the hopefully ideal rest area. 

This rest area was actually really nice. Although it was hot and windy, it was clean, had free coffee, and a nice vending machine selection. It had a nice oversize rig parking area too, which was good since it was so busy with trucks. 

We had semis on both sides of us at one point. In this picture we are next to a Bi-Mart truck. 

The human travelers also got to take a bit of a break as well! 

Time for a short cat nap. 

After a LONG day, we finally arrived at our stop for the night. We stayed at Farewell Bend State Park (in Oregon on the border of Idaho).  The park is on the Brownlee Reservoir on the Snake river. 

The river/lake thing

Our site (#119 in loop C) was nice. It was level and big enough for us to easily to fit in. It also backed up on the lake/river so there was a nice view. 

Our site was nice and large with a path to the lake/river thing. 

HOWEVER, it was stupid hot there. At the hottest it registered as 110 outside. Now, it is true that we have air conditioning, which is fantastic, but when you have been driving all day, the trailer gets awfully warm when you drive through hot areas. So that means that it takes a long time for our 1 A/C to get us cooled down. Even if we had a second A/C we couldn't run it at Farewell Bend because the electricity was only 30 amp. The other issue was that it was amazingly windy. I have no idea if this weather is common here, but it was definitely not a selling point for us. The campground itself was very cute, but the weather was a huge disappointment. Luckily we were only there for one night, so it wasn't too much of a big deal for us. 

That's hot!

After our one night we took off for our week long destination in Yellowstone! Speaking of Yellowstone, that is where I am writing this. It took me 2 days and HOURS of time dealing with the internet here to get these few pictures uploaded for this blog post.  So...it will be a bit before I can do some Yellowstone updates. Hopefully in Colorado (our next stop) I can get better internet! And, I will try to remember to come back and put in all the links I wanted to in this post!