Boise to Gresham, OR
Day 8 of Two Dads One Land Yacht
-6:30am Wakeup Call and ready to roll
-7:20am On the road
Here's a view of the Land Yacht's cockpit as we cruised down the Idaho highway, Oregon bound:
-8:06am Welcome to Oregon
When we crossed into Oregon, we also entered the Pacific Timezone, effectively going back in time one hour. Oregon for the first two hours or so was pretty boring to say the least. Nothing but flat roads, big farms, and rolling hills for as far as the eye could see. Eventually we entered a canyon that went along the length of the Columbia River, bordering both Oregon and Washington, and the views down there were pretty cool. I think that is the widest river I have seen thus far in my life, it almost looked like a lake it was that wide.
-12:30pm Hood River, Oregon
After a long morning of driving, and a lot of that being boring, we finally rolled into the town of Hood River, Oregon. Once in town we decided that all parties involved needed some food, me and Slick Rick copped some gross burger king, and Land Yacht drank about 23 gallons of gas, wow my wallet hates getting 15 mpg. I managed to somehow get yelled at by the gas station person, because apparently in Oregon they pump the gas for you like in New Jersey, but I wasn't expecting that, got out of the car, started doing my thing, and got yelled at...
-1:00pm Mout Hood
What Slick Rick and I had been seeing peaking out above the rolling hills for the last couple hours was finally in plain sight, ready for Land Yacht to climb up. Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano, with an elevation of about 11,250 feet. This thing sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of boring Oregon, but we were both excited to drive up it:
-1:30pm Timberline Lodge
This lodge is situated about halfway up the mountain, and serves as a mid-way point for the skiers that call this mountain home. Mount Hood is the only mountain in North America where you can actually ski all 12 months out of the year. Pro Skiers come here to train in the summer due to the large snowpack, and glacier at the top that keeps the temps cool all year round. The lodge was built in 1936, is super fancy on the inside, and is made almost entirely out of mahogany or some other rich old person type of wood on the inside. The lodge was also the filming location for some of the movie "The Shining" back in 1980.
-1:40pm West Lodge
For the regular folk like me and Slick Rick that don't need a lodge made with fancy old wood, there is a normal ski lodge located about 100 feet away from Timberline. This lodge was pretty typical of a ski lodge, smelling like wet dog mixed with sweat, and had a solid gift shop for us tourists to waste our money. Apparently smokey the bear skis out of this lodge too...
-2pm Off Mount Hood
Back on the ground, we drove off to our next waypoint, and along the way had to drive through some pretty dense forests. The trees in here were easily over 250 feet tall, and enormous. This is exactly what I thought Oregon would look like
-3pm Vista House
Slick Rick had found another scenic byway (shocker) that lead us to this place called "Vista House" along a ridge on the Columbia River. The house was made on this cement ledge thing that actually stuck out over the cliff, which allowed for some sweet views. The house had pretty much 360 degree glass, and looked almost like a dome, but regardless was a cool find.
-3:30pm Why do we not listen to signs
Slick Rick mentioned that there was a road that would take us up a nearby mountain called Larch Mountain. We found the road at the base of the mountain, with a huge sign that said "road closed head 10 miles due to snow". We both saw the sign, but chose to ignore it and drove up anyway. Once we had climbed up almost to the top, of course the road was closed, and we had to turn around. We almost intentionally added a 40 minute detour, thats how stubborn we are...
-4:30pm Multnomah Falls
After driving back down the mountain, and passing by the Vista House again, we continued down Slick Rick's scenic byway, and came across a bunch of really big waterfalls on the side of the road. Apparently according to a guy at Mount Hood earlier that day, this is the first sunny day they've had out here in a few weeks. I guess he was telling the truth cause these waterfalls were so crowded we didn't even have room to stop and get out of the car to take pictures.
-5pm Days Inn, Gresham Oregon
After a long day of mostly highway driving, Slick Rick and I rolled into the hotel in Gresham. This is probably the nicest hotel we've been in so far, besides our night in Yellowstone, and by nice I mean I'm not worried my car will be broken into. Tomorrow is our last day on the road, with a final destination of Seattle, Washington. Wish us luck
