Booking it Back to the Pacific Northwest

06/25/22 – 06/27/22

The Journey West 2022 – The Final Leg

We are almost there! Our journey west is coming to an end and we will settle in Portland for the summer. First, we need to get across Montana, the panhandle of Idaho, thru Washington and then Oregon. Easy, right?

Leaving North Dakota on I-94 we merged onto I-90 just outside of Billings MT. Bill made the comment, we have made a full circle. I thought about this, 10 months ago we drove right through here as we began our journey east. We really have completed our first loop of the US. Hmmm…

Overnight in Billings

Our stop for the night was at Canyon Creek Brewing in Billings. A large gravel parking lot provided our campsite for the night. We headed over to enjoy a few beers and some wings. Again, I must have been so thirsty and hungry that I did not snap a pic of the tasty wings or the cool building. Too bad it was raining because their outside seating area was really cool. Lots of metal sculpture firepits, seating areas and good tunes being played.

Next stop Missoula

I had a little bit of a “lesson learned” moment here. Reading other RVers posts and reviews, Cracker Barrel always seems to be a place to overnight. I’ve been wanting to try their fried chicken for quite some time so I thought this would be a win-win. Well, it was more like a win-lose-win. As we pulled into the parking lot, we quickly realized this was not going to work for an overnight stay. The spot was very small and very unlevel (lose). Time to work on Plan B. We took the jeep and drove around the area little bit and could not find anywhere else we could park for the night. Our stomachs are starting to grumble so we head into Cracker Barrel for fried chicken (this is the win). P.S. their fried chicken is pretty delicious.

As we are waiting for our dinner, I look again at my Harvest Host app and find a farm close by that has 15 spots (unusual for a HH). It is 5:30 and a longshot, but I call the host and ask if they can accommodate us for the night. Sure, he says come on over. (win) After our dinner, we drive the 6 miles to Grass Valley Farms. We are greeted by our host who is busy working with his team baling hay. They park us in the field and we have a lovely view of the fields and mountains. They continue to bale hay until 11:00 at night! Those farmers sure work hard.

The next morning as we are leaving, they are already getting ready to head back out into the fields. Not only do they grow hay but they raise cattle and pigs. We stopped and talked briefly to the owner and thanked him for letting us come in at the last minute. We purchased some veal shanks and bacon. I cannot wait to try them out.

Off to Richland WA

Our last overnight is planned for another Harvest Host in Richland, Kiona Vineyards. We pass thru Walker ID and stop for brunch with a former co-worker of mine. The food at Brook’s Hotel was great and catching up with my friend was even better. Our visit was too short, but we will be making plans to return to this area and do some off-roading. We heard there are a lot of good trails around here.

It is 97° when we pull into the winery at 4:45. WAY too hot to stay in the coach without having to run the AC. Bill starts doing some calculations in his head and figures it will be cheaper to stay at an RV park than to use diesel to run the generator overnight. Okay, 2^nd day of having to institute Plan B. While we are sitting at our table enjoying our wine, I make reservations for a Corp of Engineers Park along the Columbia River. Luckily, they have a spot big enough for us with 50 amps so we can run both AC’s 😉

Final leg into Portland

Staying at the Corp of Engineers Park was a blessing in disguise, not just because we got to have AC but they had a late check-out. This came in very handy as there was an accident on I-84 that morning that closed the freeway down in both directions. We made the decision to wait it out at the park where, 1 we wouldn’t be sitting in traffic, 2 we wouldn’t be detoured and 3 we had the comfort of AC. Well, the clock kept ticking and we kept checking for updates. The freeway was still closed.

Two o’clock came and we had to go. Down the road we go with the hopes that the road opens before we get to Bigg’s Junction which will be our only opportunity to hop off the freeway without taking a major detour around Mt Hood.  No such luck, still closed when we reach the junction. Bill had to decide if we would just pull off and wait for the freeway to open or hop over to WA-14 and continue thru the gorge. I told him, just go with your gut.

Well, we headed over to WA-14. About 20 minutes into our drive, we heard a trucker on the CB say the road had been opened. Ugggg… now we are forced to continue on 14 or cut over in Hood River. Neither of us wanted to drive across the Hood River Bridge in the rig. I had checked 14 on our truckers atlas and there were no low clearances headed west. WRONG! We passed a low clearance sign of 12’3” ahead, plan alternate route. We are 12’6”. Not wanting to chance it, we are forced to drive across the bridge.

This bridge is only 18’ wide, meaning each lane is 9’ wide. Our rig Is 8’ wide, do the math. No wiggle room, pucker factor high. Fortunately there is so much traffic we can only crawl across and there is no wind. We make it across and get on I-84 and have smooth sailing the rest of the way.

We made it to Portland and we are now tucked into our spot at the Fairview RV Park. The Journey East, 2022 will begin in September. In the meantime we are looking forward to an AWESOME summer with our kids and visiting our friends!