We always have so much fun when we are together. We will miss Kit and Mike until the next time.
We are on the road HOME about 7:30. 25 degrees and clear as a bell. Just as we got settled in and thought we had seen everything in the area worth seeing, we saw the cutest old town that was so picturesque. Some of the old signs just gave the little town character. You know that I can see myself trying to paint some of the scenes with watercolors some day in the future. Wistful thinking probably.
We had a nice lunch picnic at Blue Mountain National Park on Scenic Route 244. Of course we traveled way off the beaten path and saw lots of old family farm sites. Don't ever believe that trains are going the way of the horse and buggy. We saw more trains on this trip than we have seen in the last forty years all added together. There were more than 25 miles worth of train cars that are used to transport lumber just parked along the highway on an extra train spur. They looked like they may have been there for many months. Not much construction going on nationwide and the price of timber is not very good right now - the recession and all that entails I guess.
Near LaGrande we took Hwy 82 toward Enterprise, Oregon and entered Hell's Canyon Scenic Highway!! They were not teasing when they named that place!! The mountains were huge, bare of much vegetation and looked uninhabitable. Scary drive - curves, hairpin turns, narrow roads, no shoulder on the road, deer leaping across the road and dark closing in on us. Yikes <;{ There are still finger prints in the arm rests of the car. One time two deer just jumped off the side of a sheer cliff into the road, took one more step and jumped off the road over the metal railing into the clear blue yonder where the mountain just dropped off into a deep gorge. Scared us almost to death. As we wound around the hairpin curve, I saw them several hundred feet down the sheer rock wall still running down toward the gorge. Unbelievable.
As we neared the bottom of the gorge and the end of the Hell's Canyon drive and our destination of Clarkston, Oregon, there was a beautiful sunset waiting for us. What a reward! Thinking about the sunset reminds me of the beginning of the day and the unusual, beautiful break in the clouds where there appeared a strip of rainbow color and then another little ball of color. I have never seen anything quite like it.
Marmalade's Side of the Story
Sidney, I hope you haven't forgotten how to snuggle. I am coming home to take my place back from that blankie you keep in your bed. We saw lots of great cows and horses and other animals, but no moose and bear. You know Nonnie still wants to get a picture of a moose and a bear. I think she is making too much of those things. She is already riding with a giraffe. How much better can it get?
Nonnie liked some cows we saw that were playing with five of the neighborhood deer. Those deer were watching us drive down the road. Look at their big ears. Baker, I bet daddy would like the deer, too.
Nap time for me. (I said nap not map!!)
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