Road Trips

What is it about a road trip that makes us long to collect our favorite tunes, our favorite snacks, get behind the wheel and take off for parts unknown? This summer NPR featured a number of stories about this quintessential American automotive adventure.

"A Cross Country Road Trip Back in Time"

"Songs for the Gas-Guzzling Blues"

"Take Me To Your Leader: The Road Trip

The siren song of the open road strongly appeals to me even when it's over a route I've made so many times I could probably do it in my sleep (NOT RECOMMENDED).

The journey from the
Palouse


to Portland





is one that I know by heart. Over the years I've become rather fond of a series of landmarks, mostly geopgraphical, that mark the passing of time, climate and red vines reduction on a typical trip to my home town.

1.) Pepto Pig: If you travel on 26 between Colfax and Washtucna you know Pepto Pig!




With a face this attractive a close up is surely called for!





2.) Red Rocks!




3.) Connell National Forest It must be seen to be believed! A few years ago I met a native of the area who told me that the tree was once much bigger. A vandal cut it down in the middle of the night. Fortunately, the resilience of nature overcame the destructive qualities of humankind and out of the stump grew a shoot!



4.) Sundale Park






5.) Amazing Rock Formations Also found along the Lewis Clark Highway.







6.) Corral



7.) The Dalles Fish Bridge






8.) Meredith Gorge Hotel Sign
Sadly, to my shock and dismay I discovered that the hotel went out of business. The big sign that sat on the bluff above the river just outside of Hood River was like the final lap bell in a track meet! I'll miss you.


9.) Wind Surfers
The Columbia River Gorge is known to many as the "windsurfing capital of the world."






10.) View from Starvation Creek rest stop



11.) Hill And now I'm only about 18 miles from Portland.