We’ve been on the road a little over a week now, and for some reason, it seems like a month. There was a little bit of a rocky start with finding out we needed new trailer brakes, having some unexpected truck transmission issues, and having a new installation of a King Dome that we couldn’t get to work. We got new brakes, the transmission was fixed and we stopped at Camping World and got the satellite system tuned to the right place and we took off on a three day drive to reach Portland, Oregon.
Along the way we blew a tire on the RV. For some reason we didn’t even know it had happened until we were getting gas in a Flying J and just happened to spot it. At that point, we decided to call this our “Disaster Tour 07″. Fortunately our spare got us the remaining 250 miles. The tire diagnosis was “dry rot” at the valve stem. This was something new to us, but Les Schwab Tires has now placed metal stems on all our tires. The good news is that the black marks on the RV fender all came off and there was no damage.
We have found lots to see and do in Portland. We drove in to the city the first day and had trouble parking, but when we found out that “honored citizens” only cost 85 cents to ride the light rail, we became MAX riders. Our first outing was to visit the Rose Gardens. Portland is the Rose City. They have the climate to grow beautiful flowers and the garden is a test garden that has hundreds of different beautiful roses. If we could only get our roses to grow half as well… Right next to the garden was the Japanese Garden which is quite exceptional.
The historic Columbia River Highway, which is the original road prior to I-84 has a lot of great scenery. We stopped at several waterfalls and hiked up for the views. The tallest was Multnomah. We visited the Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery. We had always heard about the fish ladders which allow the salmon to go upstream to spawn, but it becomes clearer how it works when you see it. Following along the loop around Mt. Hood, we stopped at Timberline Lodge (a WPA project) and looked around. They are still skiing, but the snow looks really mushy.
Thursday we went back into town to see the Chinese Gardens. It covers a city block and is walled in. It’s quite different from the Japanese Garden, but very serene. We had “lunch” in the teahouse, another unique experience. Of course there is always the serendipity that comes along, and we had a bit when we ran into the Portland Maritime Museum on our walk along the river. It’s a paddlewheel steamboat museum that is run by a private group of mostly retired Coast Guard and Navy types. We got a personal tour.
Portland is a beer town which suits us. We have found a place we would highly recommend. It’s Henry’s Tavern, located in a building that used to house the Henry Weinhard Brewing Company. They have 100 beers on tap!! They also have a great happy hour menu too. There’s not much more to our criteria list.
Tomorrow we head to Redmond, OR for the RV Rally. We’re volunteers again this year. It should be lots of fun.