HagaFinn's BlogSpot: Into Beautiful Oregon

We survived another chilly night in Mountain Home, Idaho (29 degrees) and awoke to cool sunshine. Today was a pretty easy day driving as the wind had died down and it was sunny again. We followed in the path of the Oregon Trail pioneers for most of the day and could even see the old wagon road in a couple of spots. Baker City has an excellent museum on the Oregon Trail that really helps you understand choices of what to take and leave behind, meals along the trail, and why they came at all.

The green mountains of the Little Alps in Umatilla National Forest

Traffic around us today was hunters hauling the ATV's and coolers, RV's heading home to Oregon and Washington and it was not too busy. We knew we were in Oregon as we began to see more and more green trees. And, yes, we had seen junipers in Utah and southern Idaho, but Pamela doesn't count that as forest. So, to finally behold the Ponderosa pine trees ahead was quite welcoming! Even more surprising was to the the larch trees turning golden at about 3,500 feet in elevation. This is the only conifer that loses its needles in autumn.

We stopped at the Oregon Welcome Center, where there were still roses blooming! Talked to the volunteers and picked up some post cards of the new Oregon Travel campaign. Also, chose several brochures of guides to places in Oregon we have not been, so Pamela can begin planning the next adventure, though much shorter! The postcards showcase some very nice artwork of seven iconic Oregon locations such as these:

Definitely Worth a Late Spring Visit

After the long six mile winding downgrade off the pass, we arrived at the Umatilla Native Wildhorse Casino hotel and RV Park east of Pendleton. This is a larger complex than others close to home. There is a eight-story hotel, museum and discovery center, casino with three restaurants, six theater complex with new movies and large campground at the back. This means it is quiet!

The bottom of Emigrant Pass with three trucks coming down

Pamela captured the sun shining through the maple and aspen trees before dinner. It is a very nice RV park with a free shuttle to the casino and restaurants. We do not gamble, so it is a pain to have to walk through smoky slot machine areas to get to the restaurant. But we did and had dinner at the buffet where the food was OK, but not as good as we get at home. It was cool just before sunset and we decided to walk back to the RV park, partly just to stretch our legs after several days of long driving to beat the snow and freezing weather. We enjoyed a good walk in the setting sun, getting used to being on the eastern edge of Pacific time zone. This means the sun sets a hour earlier than it did last night on the western edge of the Mountain time zone. We definitely do not get enough exercise when we are traveling--especially when we are driving several hundred miles every day.

Tonight's campsite is hopefully the LAST ONE for this 76 Days around the USA trip. We will post at least one more blog when we arrive home, as we have been saving the: weirdest things seen, best and not worth it sights, and top things to travel with and what we could have (and will ) left behind as we never used them.

Our Wildhorse Casino Campsite

We are in site of Emigrant Pass coming down I-84 into Pendleton, but far enough away to be quiet. Have we said how much we appreciate a quiet campground. It will be one of the points Pamela will make as she reviews all the places we have stayed in RV Park Reviews. She has saved every campground brochure received at check-in with notes on them to write up reviews for those who travel after us. Below is one of the camping options here next to campground.

We Are Glad We Are Not Staying in This Tonight (or any night)

We look forward to home, not because we are tired of traveling, but because of the cool weather. Our 30-foot Winnebago is very comfortable, certainly more so than the trip we took in 2013 in our Winnebago VIA, which was only 25 feet long. Having an oven, couch to nap on, dinette already set up and one long slide that goes out with the push of a button, along with self-levelers has really made this long trip a joy. So, has the family and friends we have visited along the journey.

We look forward to discoveries in and around our home this autumn and winter. There are museums, waterfalls, sand beaches, and restaurants to explore in our own backyard, to paraphrase Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz." And, more importantly, family and friends we have missed in our odyssey across America. Wish us luck for our final push home.