Day 1
Just before we left our home today, Alisa and Joe came over for hugs, prayer, and photos. We gave our last bag of garbage to our neighbors, for them to put out tomorrow night, and we took off with a mixture of sadness at leaving our home and friends here, but excitement about the next few months.
Today we traveled through one of our favorite places, the Columbia River Gorge, where the river cuts through mountains in both Oregon and Washington. (Sorry about the pixelated line on the photos. Something was malfunctioning with my camera today.)
Highway 84 hugs the river, offering views of the river traffic, bridges, and dams, as well as the trains that snake along the river's edge. In a three-hour period we counted nearly a dozen trains, each with more than 100 cars.
The many Lewis and Clark signs along the highway remind us of their trip down the river 209 years ago. They were bloggers way back then. They might not have had iPhone cameras or blogger apps, but they kept meticulous daily journals.
As Woodie Guthrie sang,
Tom Jefferson's vision would not let him rest,
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest.
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest;
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
By the end of the day we were in Oregon Trail country, the golden grain fields stretching as far as the eye could see.
We're camping tonight in Baker City, Oregon, in the shadow of the Blue Mountains.
Tomorrow on to Boise, Idaho.
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