Day 19

Sunday, September 28

Had to say farewell to brother Joe at the campsite in Hammond.   Sure was great to see him and spend a little time together!

Drove through Portland and continued east on I-84.   Managed to glimpse Mount Hood twice through the large patches of fog, once from the west and once from the east in the rear view mirrors.   Extraordinary mountain.    Thumbnail photo from Wikipedia.  Please read the full article there and see larger photos.

Many more wind turbines along the Columbia Gorge.    We've now seen over a thousand, by estimate.   Your tax money at work...

I-84 leaves the Columbia Gorge out near Umatilla and turns SE toward Pendleton.   The area in between is flat and arid.   Almost no crops.   Mostly plains covered by grass.

At Pendleton, we crossed the Umatilla River and the terrain changes again.

Across the river is the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Blue Mountains.    Trees again appear.

Some of the Blue Mountains are over 8000 feet.

We settled into our campsite near the Powder River and watched an excellent sunset.   God does incredible work with color!

I believe Mt Ireland is the peak on the left.  8321 ft.

As we left the west coast we psyched ourselves up to return to the Blue Ridge by listening to our western NC David Holt's rendition of "Dixie" and then "Whistling Asheville Blues".    As we moved onto the plains, Dido added her original "This Land is Mine".