We had a leisurely morning in Yakima as this was one of our shorter drives to Boardman, Oregon, only 127 miles, but we crossed over the Columbia River to end up in Oregon. The desolate landscape of this area was not what I expected. It was hot, dry, and not very hospitable looking.
However, as we exited the highway into Boardman Marina and RV Park , the campground was a little oasis for locals to enjoy a nice park, boat ramp and beach area on the Columbia River. As we rolled Ruth up to her camping site for the week, we were greeted by two large trees on either side that had not been trimmed up for our 13'+ height. We carefully tucked her underneath the branches and Mike promptly got some loppers from the maintenance guy to do some tree trimming on the roof. While this park is older and clearly not set up for big rigs like ours, once those branches were trimmed up, we were thrilled to have huge shade trees to protect us from the 100 + degree temperatures forecasted for our stay.
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| Ruth's shady spot |
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| Hazy sunset on our first night. |
Upon our arrival, Mike noticed that I had not fully disengaged the emergency brake on the Jeep on our trip from Yakima. Not a good situation. We have a checklist for all our departure day activities and I thought I had followed it like every other time. The Jeep did not appear, upon visual inspection, to have any ill effects from this oversight. But I made an appointment for a Les Schwab brake inspection for the next day, 30 minutes away in Hermiston. We were both sick to our stomachs about any damage that would need to be repaired.
There was a really nice bike path throughout the park along the river which we rode around in the early hours before the heat got too bad. Unfortunately, my bike trip ended with a flat front tire from a bunch of little burrs I had picked up somewhere. Our Les Schwab appointment would also put us right near a Walmart, so we could pick up a patch kit/tube for my tire.
Our visit to Les Schwab revealed no damage to the brakes or the Jeep itself from my mental lapse. I was sweating bullets wondering how much that little incident was going to cost. It appears that maybe I just didn't fully disengage the emergency brake so it looked engaged but did not drag the brake pads or the Jeep. Whew! Always use the checklist and double check the checklist.
We stopped for dinner at Hale's Tavern (circa 1906) in Hermiston. It had good reviews but our experience was just OK. The little town seemed to have been hit pretty hard economically. It is the home of Hermiston watermelons though and we experienced some very delicious melon while in the area.
We had a couple of lazy days at this stop. Even though it was 102 to 105 degrees for a couple of the days, Ruth's A/C was able to keep the inside relatively cool with the help of the surrounding trees. It was nice to have some down time catching up on blog posts, getting some guitar time in and doing some small maintenance items.
Mike fixed my flat tire, we took a longer bike ride and I got another flat about halfway back. Wherever I was picking up the burrs, it was doing serious damage. He patched 7 pinholes total, then had a flat on his bike.
With bike riding being hazardous to our tires, we decided to drive to Echo, Oregon and explore a couple of local wineries. We enjoyed tasting some very good wines at Sno Road Vineyards and Echo Winery. We also enjoyed a killer patty melt at H&P Cafe in the little town of 750 people. We only saw about 5 people, but I am sure the others were there somewhere.
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This would not be a stop I would include again as it was a little too remote and hot, but am glad to have experienced it once.
Looking forward to our next stop to visit Crater Lake National Park.
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