Traveling Along Side of the Columbia River

Monday, June 15
We woke to another beautiful day and the chance to peak through the trees at the Columbia River that runs along the front of the campground where we stayed last night in Broadman, Oregon.

When we started on our journey toward Portland, the land was quite dry and deserty

Windmills could be seen often along the way

The drive involved lots of ups and downs

There were several dams along the way

and barges like this

Then all of sudden this popped up on the horizon - Mt Hood

And we began to see far more greenery

Then we took a small detour to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center where we enjoyed watching the National Geographic film about the Lewis and Clark Expedition from St. Charles all the way to the Pacific.  They also had an area devoted to the expedition primarily focusing on the "luggage" they took with them to survive their very long trip.

Since we live "on the road" in our RV we had a little sense of what they experienced in that we have to be sure and have along with us items we need for day to day living.  Of course, we have decent roads, an enclosed vehicle, a refrigerator and stove, a bed and closets to hold our clothing and even heat or air conditioning depending on the temperatures we run into.  But our many set ups and tear downs while we travel can get a bit tiresome - course theirs were far more involved.  It will take us fourteen moves to make the trip from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.  It took them over 600 moves!!!!!  It is taking us 35 days as opposed to their 863 days (course that was there and back).  We can run to the store for food or go out to eat at a restaurant.  They had to hunt for theirs and hope they would find some.  It took one buffalo to provide a decent meal for the 31 men, one woman and one child.

After our visit at the museum, we returned to our RV's to fix some lunch before going back on the road.  This is what a parking lot can look like when a caravan like ours passes through. :-)

And we enjoyed some more beautiful views of the Columbia River Gorge as we completed our trip to  a suburb of Portland called Fairview.

We got in in the late afternoon.  Once we were set up, we all gathered for Happy Hour in the large shaded spot near one of the RVs and shared stories of what we'd seen and done.  After that we joined our friends the Foulkes and Christians and our leaders, Don and Merith for dinner at the local Olive Garden.  Now that is definitely something those guys didn't do in 1804 or 1805 or 1806!!!