Since I only took 1 photo today I'm giving it to you BIG!
Mount Hood.
At one point I could see both Mt Hood and Mt Rainer but there was no place to stop and take a photo!
It seemed like I drove forever! On the map it looks like it takes forever and it's all mostly the same to look at! There were a lot of wind turbines especially in the Columbia River Valley-most on the Washington side as it's elevation above the river is much higher. I didn't cross the river, I headed East until the river turned North. Maybe I should put that the other way around - the Columbia takes a BIG turn from the North to the West. You just have to wait for that turn to head into Washington. Wallawalla is not far north of Oregon and I did manage to get into my hotel in the daylight!
The next day I was off to The Whitman Mission National Historic Site. I know quite a lot about the Oregon Trail after being a docent and Education Director at the National Frontier Trails Museum. I have read many books and have traveled the trail most all of the way from Independence to the Willamette River. Anyway, Two missionary wives were the first to travel the complete trail. With their husbands they established two missions to the First Nations people in the area. The Whitmans to the Cayuse. It's a complicated story of a misguided attempt to bring Christianity to the people by teaching English, Reading, etc in a boarding style school. As the Trail became more and more travelled, they also ministered to the travelers and with that came the measles. Native people had no resistance to the Measles and could not understand why the travelers recovered while they died and so there was a massacre at the Whitman Mission and many people were killed. The historic site tells both sides of the story so I suggest you read the material on the link if you are interested. There isn't much to see there, except footings of the buildings but the interpretation is quite good.
After that excursion I headed to Main Street to a Quilt shop quite appropriately named "STASH." I only had the chance to take a quick peak around as they were closing but I went back the next day! I did indeed add a few things to my stash.
I walked around Main street, went into a book store-well I thought it was a book store but seemed more like a gift shop! There was, however, a Starbucks!
After that I headed back to the hotel. I repacked the suitcase, etc for the morning as I was Off Eastward, once again!
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