Day Five- Wanna Trade Smoke for Wind and Rain?

Yes, yes we do.

We awoke to smoke and overcast skies in Grangeville. We treated ourselves to two cups of Tom’s “handcrafted artisan” AeroPress coffee and then geared up to leave for Umatilla, Oregon.

As we headed toward Lewiston, we quickly left the smoke behind us and were greeted by rain.

That was okay by us. The area needed a good cleanse and it was a light rain that wasn’t too cold. We stopped and Tom geared up for rain. Cathy is pretty well protected behind Tom so as long as it didn’t start pouring, she was fine. We jumped back on the road and continued toward the beautiful Snake River.

We entered Washington on the bridge!

We rose into high desert where there were fields of grain being harvested leaving artistic patterns left by the harvesters.

We stopped for lunch in Dayton, WA and ordered too much pizza. We squeezed the leftovers into the trunk and planned on that being our dinner as well.

We traveled through several picturesque small towns with beautiful buildings like this one.

It soon became very windy. That must be why these contraptions are located here.

Even with the wind and rain, it’s so much better than the smoke. We hope the rain helps the firefighting efforts.

We turned onto Highway 12 and met the mighty Columbia River which is not the most interesting river but it is an important mode for commerce.

Once we arrived in Umatilla, we cleaned up, did laundry and explored some options for tomorrow’s ride. We got dressed to go to the restaurant in the hotel. Our plan was to purchase a salad to supplement our leftover pizza only to discover that the hotel’s restaurant had closed. We walked a block down the road to a “restaurant and lounge” which turned out to be a dive bar. We ordered two dinner salads to go and enjoyed a beer while we waited (Chris, they had Pallet Jack!).

Tomorrow we head to Mt. Rainier. The forecast is cloudy and cool but it is not expected to rain.

Tom’s niece who lives in Eugene, reached out to us once she saw our change in plans. We’re going to stop for a visit with her on Saturday. This turning out to be a very nice trip!

Cathy’s Barn of the Day Pic…