Hurtling To Hood River
Car Ride Cogitations
Oh dearest readers! The neglect of my blog has not been intentional; rather I have been busily preparing to leave for my cousin's wedding. When one leaves their abode for any travel reason there are many preparations to consider. Add a farm's worth of things to care for to a getting ready to flee list and you'll watch your to-do's grow exponentially.
John Day Dam
'Tis no matter though! Yesterday we fled Idaho for a cruise through Eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge to a town called Hood River, Oregon. Hood River is a pretty little town full of orchards and vineyards. It sits in the shade of the towering Mount Hood, and dips it's town toes into the mighty Columbia River.
The town itself is perched quite nicely on the banks of the river, and it holds a special place in this Kat's blood pumper as my mom was born here! Somehow we always end up in this burg for special life events in my mom's family: births, funerals, and on today's agenda: a wedding!
This is such a great freeway song, people give you a wide berth once they partake my performance of this bit of "classical music" in the passenger seat😜
One thing my son and I discovered last night when we tried to walk to the local Walmart 1 block away from our hotel is that Hood River has a lack of crosswalks. Maybe they just want their pedestrians to feel like they are in a game of Frogger? My son kept waxing dramatic about how we almost died. Puhlease. That expiration almost occurred later when I took my two Polynesian water sprites to the pool!
Don't get me wrong, I love to swim, but I totally rejoiced when I saw the pool's closing hours posted with glaring authority on wall! All my two children are missing webbed feet and gills. Thank the stars for the whirlpool; after countless laps and pool game competition referring, those jets were a balm for my soul. Well, my back anyway.
This whole little weekend has me thinking about the joy that is derived from the events in life that you circumvent the peripheral of. It's my cousin's magical day, and I so pleased to be here to celebrate the connubial event. At the same time I've been elated to enjoy a mini-break with my own family. There was a six hour drive full of singing and sites, a hotel suite just across the hall from an indoor pool and whirlpool, and the culinary delights of a Taco Bell and Dairy Queen right next door! Tonight after the wedding the consumption of a gimmicky Guardians Of The Galaxy Blizzard will happen after my nightly swim! It has been foretold!
In closing, I hope all of you glorious Steemians are having a marvelous weekend! There's always something to discover, like I am doing so right now, as I just finished typing my first blog post on my phone! YAY!
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's chlorine water infused iPhone.
Also, all of the pictures were snapped as we were hurtling down the road, as my Army husband approaches every drive like we are on a mission. Seriously, I think we are lucky to get a bathroom stop...
Ah, the joys of travel preparation. Why is it that when you are going out of town, 780 new projects jump up that just have to be done, before you leave. It can be a bit maddening. Is it procrastination that catches up to us, or do these things really multiply like 'to do' rodentia?
Sounds like a fun road trip. Love those things. When else do you 'have to' eat at Dairy Queen? Enjoy the wedding, hope you get to dance, and enjoy the fun trip home. Love that, "every drive by hubby is a 'mission'. " "Can we stop for a toidy break"? "Not till 16:43." Please don't tell him I said that, he was in the Army, he could easily pound me.
Also, I expect a full report as to what in the heck is in a Guardian of the Galaxy Blizzard...
"to do" rodentia! LOL!
We made it home. I put the giant Hawaiian Army grunt in the back and drove most of the way. He's on a Civil War reading binge, so while my son and I perused a delightful cultural mix of Spanish, Country, Classic Rock, and Top 40 radio stations; the husband languished in the back and occasionally grumbled about Jeb, Stonewall, and Lee. It was an illuminating journey.
The Guardian's of the Galaxy blizzard contained something called "brookies" mixed in the soft serve. Apparently it is the marriage of a brownie and a cookie in baked form. Upon closer visual inspection it kind of looked like a deposit that would be left in a diaper, so even though DQ tried to make the GOTG blizzard even more tempting with added caramel, I went with the Brownie Royal Blizzard instead, because hot fudge.
Apparently I am the best mom in the world because I got a room two doors down from the indoor pool and hot tub, so guess who swam for hours and hours with my progeny? This Kat! Definitely got my cardio in!
My cousin's wedding was amazing, and there as a few hundred people at the reception. Our Mexican part of the family served us street tacos and homemade tamales of various manifestations. I kinda wanted to stay there if I am honest, yum!
Since I was driving home we stopped to eat and to get fuel! If the combine derby would have been going in Lind Washington, I probably would have stopped for that too, lol!
Wow, I have rambled! Hope you had a very productive, or a least magnificently fun weekend. Or both!!!
No such thing as too much ramble. So very enjoyable and entertaining, as always.
What is a combine derby? Is that a whole bunch of farm equipment dealers getting together in one place? Sounds like fun. As did your wedding. I'm sure the food was divine. Real, homemade tamales and tacos. Nothing like it. I used to work with a guy whose mom made him a whole vest full of burritos every morning. He let me try them once, melted in my mouth. But he never shared any more of them. Yaaargg. Sounds like the entire weekend trip to Oreegon was a lot of fun. Remember those days as a tyke, staying at a motel with a pool. Swam until our little heads were full up. Then swam some more. The simple things of life. Well, I better go mail this, talk to you soon.
PS. the ice cream sounds like it looks bad, but probably is headache decadent as well ( :
LOL! Those are dangerous words, I can ramble without end sometimes!
A combine derby is like a demolition derby, but with combines. I think it sounds marvelous, and I have been driving by the sign that screams of the derby's existence for years and years. Maybe this year I'll actually go witness it!
I have never seen a vest full of burritos, but dang! The imagined visual of that image is beyond delightful! The burrito bogarter should have totally shared the wealth though, not cool.
Got to make this reply a bit shorter than normal, there is marinated London Broil to remove from the oven! Thanks as always for your replies, I do so love them!!!
( : !!
I recognize that bridge. I have been down along that stretch of river several times. I never stayed in Hood River for more time than it takes to fill up the gas tank and grab some grub though. Last time, I was on the other side of the river in Bingen and White Salmon. You might need to check out Doctor Roscoe's Holistic Bicycle Repair over there. I hope he doesn't fix flat tires with acupuncture...
As I don't know where exactly this fine establishment is located, I'll utilize "Zen Navigation" and see where I end up😜.
Thanks for the tip!
Step 1: Cross river.
Step 2: Drive through town.
Bingen isn't very big.
My whole one side of the family hails from Husum, Bingen, White Salmon, Snowden, Hood River, Parkdale, and the The Dalles, so been there done that. Plus, I purposely avoided paying to cross that bridge this trip, for I had to drive across it 10 times (not an exaggeration) last trip. Needed to balance things out, lol!