Day One! Seattle to Baker City, OR

Day One!

Seattle to Baker City, Or. We both think yesterday went well. Tanner felt like it was really nice to see me more, we have been so busy with packing and errands, this trip is some nice quality time together.

We didn’t take many pictures until we got farther away, since we have been over I-5 so many times.

At Ellensburg we took Canyon Road to Yakima, at Jon and Cheryl’s suggestion. It was pretty, it follows the Yakima river. It was nice to see something new in Washington on our way out. They did have the road closed to one lane so we sat in the truck for twenty minutes waiting for them to let us through.

A BNSF train was going slower than we were, along the Yakima. It was a super long train with cargo cars. We couldn't figure out what was in it. But it made the photo very atmospheric. Feels like we live out in the wild west. 

We stopped in Prosser for lunch, we sat in the grass at a rest stop. Tanner’s parents packed us a HUGE bento lunch. Grilled salmon, spam musubi, Mary’s sweet and sour chicken, tsukemono, squash, Asian pasta, cut fruit, carrots, cookies!

The truck is not very comfortable, but not so bad either. I drove for an hour after Prosser, which was terrifying! The truck drives a lot like my old Chevy, so it’s not like I don’t know how to drive it. It is more the idea that if it crashes for any reason it will be catastrophic.

There is room between us for the cooler, hermit crabs and other car things. So we have a ton of junk up in the cab with us.

It is very dry in eastern Washington and Oregon. We took some photos when we got to the top of Cabbage Hill pass outside Pendleton because we saw trees again for the first time in hours!

Also in Eastern Oregon we saw lots of HOPS! They looked more green and impressive in real life, only got poor photos.

We stopped for the night in Baker City. We stayed in a trailer park and camped in the tent. We actually got off on our exit right before a huge backup. There was a fire near the highway and they closed it in both directions. We spend the whole evening checking our phones or calling 511, to see if they were going to be able to open the highway. If we had to take alternate roads this morning it would have added at least an extra hour to our drive today. But this morning it is open, save for a few on ramps.

Tanner is really good at ordering beer that they are either out of or needs to be tapped. So they brought him a sample size of a different beer first. Funny little glass. We did not get a good photo of the outside of the restaurant or our food, we were tired at this point. We will do better!

Where's Callista?

We went out to dinner at Barley Brown’s Brewpup, which was recommended to us by Julia’s friends Mandy and Kevin, they live in Baker. It was very yummy. We both only had one beer but were totally buzzed. The restaurant was fun, lots of families and people who were greeting their neighbors. It was so crowded for a Wednesday evening.

Then we went back to camp, and fell asleep before 9. 

Also, we saw more than one truck full of onions, you could smell the onions. Walla Walla  Sweet Onions perhaps?