Day four...saying goodbye to the Snake River

When the Oregon-bound pioneers crossed the Snake River for the final time in eastern Oregon (we crossed at least six times today) they established a monument, now preserved as Farewell State Park in Oregon, which is now about 70 miles behind us. Three hundred miles to go...yes. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We woke up early in our Super 8 in Green River, WY because our neighbor decided it was time to load his car and banged the doors going back and forth in doing so. We proceeded to make "all preperations for getting underway." Just as I was loading the first items, a clap of thunder roared out and it began to hail...and hail...and hail unitl about 3 inches fell where it could collect. That was followed by pure driven snow...on May 3.

I mentioned yesterday I was afraid of that and it happend. But undaunted, we pressed on. The road was not accumulating, but the windshield did and so did the roof of the cab and the truck. We drove for 50 miles between 6:30 and 7:30 in an almost blinding snow storm. As we passed from Wyoming into Utah the road decends from 5000 to 2500 feet and, well, the precip left us. By the time we were north of Ogden the sun came out and, by golly, we had to put on our sun glasses. It stayed that way for the remaining 500 miles.

We are in Baker City, OR for our last night on the road. We are now on Pacific Daylight Time and are beginning to feel like Oregonians. There is a Pioneer museum here, which will have to wait for another visit...we are in a hurry to get "home." So with 300 miles to go, we called Amy to hear about Rose's visit to the vet. Once on the ground in Baker City, I talked to the vet personally to bring her up to date on the past. Brendon had delivered the "records" from Dr. Fred this morning, but there were some unanswered questions. To make a long story shorter...Her Dogness...has a pretty hefty urinary tract infection. Amy will nurse her until we get in tomorrow afternoon.

BTW, we caught Rod Hill (formerly from WKZO-TV) on the weather tonight in Portland and he reported that they have not had rain here since April 17 and none is in sight at least until May 15. So for those of you who believe the stuff you hear about it raining in Oregon all the time...well, think again. It is in the 75 degree range and beautiful. I will let you know when we get too much rain...I think we experienced a close limit just before we left on April 4 :-)

I AM TIRED....two days in a row of driving 12 hours has me pooped, but alas dear friends, I have time to report our saga as we move forward. BTW I love the truck. Drives like a charm and is fun to boot. As for the Snake River...it is amazing. It starts in the vacinity of Yellowstone Park, flows south through Jackson Hole, around the mountains (Grand Tetons) and finds its way north to the Columbia. Today, it was full.