Saturday, September 12, 2015

After getting to Boise, Idaho late in the night and finding our parking spot at the local WalMart, we work up early as the employees for the nearby Burger King were arriving for work.  We really need to have more appreciation for a Croissan’wich as they get there quite early!  We hit the road with our destination being Portland, Oregon for the day.  As you’ll see as we entered Oregon, the RV was at max speed (about 68 miles per hour).

As the kids were all still sleeping Rachael and I were able to enjoy the sunrise over the distant hills.  Then as we climbed out of the valley and went over a large pass we had a 6 mile 6% decline.   We discussed if anyone ever has to use the “run away” truck ramps and if they apply to RV’s as well.  I told Rachael my plan was that if the brakes went out we were just going to ride the bumper of the semi in front of us all the way down, however that would have proved to be a bad plan.  Shortly after that we could see his brakes were starting to fail as blue smoke was starting to come out from under his truck.  The semi was able to stop and pull over to the side so it did not go completely out of control but did make me think that steep inclines need to be taken seriously!  This brought us down to drive along the Columbia River which we were able to enjoy for a few hours.  The pictures below will not do it justice.  It was truly beautiful!

When we got to Portland the kids were starving so we decided to try out a Burgerville.  We heard they were known for their milkshakes but after being there we are still fans of Culvers.

After leaving Burgerville and feeling that the kids were content we opted for a “mom” activity and went to the Portland Saturday Market.  It was a very cool market that happens every Saturday and Sunday;  March – Christmas Eve.   There was a booth for every interest from shirts to wood carved utensils, pottery and many types of artwork so unique I have no clue what it was.

After the market we wanted to go to Washington to get a picture by the state sign. Unfortunately where you cross from Portland  into Washington it has multiple lanes of traffic on a bridge so it seemed it might be too dangerous for our family to climb the bridge and use our selfie stick to take the photo.  We only have the one below.

For the few hours we had to spend in Washington State we had to choose what to do.  Some of the places we discussed were Mt. Rainer, the Space Needle, Pungent Sound, Mt. Saint Helens or visit the only rainforest in the continental US on the Olympic Peninsula.  BUT, we unanimously decided (or maybe just me) we should drive 5 hours round trip visit McCleary, Washington!  We have pictures of our adventure below.  The hospitality at the local diner was amazing once they were awe struck with meeting “real” McCleary’s.  After being a celebrity for an hour, meeting the mayor and signing the guestbook we left the BEST named small town in America and the kids and I slept while Rachael drove us back to the RV park.

Trucker in training,  Ryan