Once we were out of the mountains and back into rolling flat lands and low hills, the big farming came back into play - many miles of wheat, corn and alfalfa fields. They irrigate the corn and alfalfa, but they do what is called dry-land farming for the wheat. Interesting that they rotate the fields and only plant a particular field every other year.
I-84 had been running mostly northwest since we came into Oregon on Wednesday from Idaho. The Columbia River comes down from Washington at Boardman, OR and makes a turn to the west. At this point, I-84 also makes a turn to the west and starts paralleling the Columbia. What a scenic drive - high bare hills on either side of the river, with the interstate, a railroad track, and lots of power lines jammed in low by the river. Also, all of a sudden it seemed like, Mt. Hood appeared in the distance.
We got a campsite LePage Park - an Army Corps of Engineers campground on the west side of the John Day River just before it empties into the Columbia from the south. From our site, we can see the Columbia off to the left, plus the interstate and railroad track.
On Friday, July 9th, we went a few miles down river to the John Day Dam - just one of several on the Columbia River along the Washington/Oregon border. We went to the dam and rode up and down the service road next to the river looking at the scenery, the river, and for birds.
We also crossed the river bridge at Biggs, OR and rode over on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The views from this side are also spectacular. The best we can figure, Mt. Hood is about 50 miles away, but especially with a clear sky, it looks like it is just right there. We can just imagine what the Oregon Trail emigrants must have thought when they first saw it.
Two of the big sports on the Columbia River are “Wind Surfing” and “Kite Boarding”. The wind surfers basically use a surf board with a sail on it - they stand on the board and manipulate the sail. The kite boarders use a special short board and a kite to propel them along. The kite is a small version of the later model parachutes that the skydivers use these days. They have 3 or 4 lines that run from the kite down to a harness and they manipulate the lines to control the kite. On Saturday we went over to the section of the river below the John Day Dam where the “board heads” were doing their thing and watched them for awhile.
Today is Monday -- would have posted this earlier, but didn’t have internet access at the last campsite. We are on the road today and stopped in The Dalles, OR to take care of e-mail, and ’blog’.
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