5 July - Columbia Gorge / Mount Hood Loop and Ed's Close Call!!

5 July
Today we traveled north and east about 1-1/2 hours to Gresham OR to seek out a long lost cousin of mine.  Larry Callahan is a cousin on my dad's side and his last known address was Gresham OR.  I scoured the Internet for a current phone number or address, but short of purchasing some sort of plan, I ran out of options.  The last known phone number has apparently been disconnected.  We tried Facebook, etc and still no luck.  I sent an email to his last known email address and also a message in Linked In, but no response so we took a chance and drove to the address.  Well we got there and the numeric does not exist.  We drove around the neighborhoods and even talked with some of the residents, but nada.  We gave it our best shot.

My cousin, Larry Callahan is in the middle, between my mom and dad.  His parents are on the outside.  His mom is my dad's sister. 

Larry's graduation picture

Then we headed east and drove the historic US 30, the Columbia River Highway which parallels I-84 and obviously the Columbia River.

Along this route are several water falls and it is very scenic.  It was also carved out of the mountains back in the days of Model T Fords, not RAM 3500 dually pickups.  More on that later...

Our first stop was the Vista House.  They explain the Vista House as a "comfort station for traveler's" back in the 1918's when it was opened.

The Vista House

Looking east up the Columbia River from the Vista House.  The fog block the view of the Bonneville Dam.

 

Looking west along the Columbia River from the Vista House.  Very foggy today.

Heading east on Highway 30, as we approached the waterfalls traffic was bumper to bumper and parking was nonexistent.  There was gridlock in the paring lots and Highway 30 was at a dead stop.

 The road narrowed and then narrowed again.  Some of the smaller sedans could turn around and head back, but for the rest of us, we were committed to eastbound travel.  We did find some nice scenery as we waiting for traffic to move.

Things really ground to a halt west of Multnomah Falls, the main attraction along this route.  So as we did a stop and go,  we snapped a few photos.

A couple genius's ahead of us decided to drive their motorhomes along this route which compounded the traffic problems.  The big ol' RAM took up it's share of the roadway, and at one point I am not sure you could have put a piece of paper between my right rear quarter panel and the rock wall beside the road.  I thought for sure we made contact at one point, but someone was looking out for the ol' Chief today and the RAM emerged unscathed.

We passed the falls and traffic improved.  At Highway 35 we turned south towards Mount Hood and we stopped at Tamanawas Falls and photographed a beautiful babbling brook.

We continued south admiring the view of Mount Hood to our right, and then turned back west towards Silverton.

We stopped at the White River West Snow Park to have a look at a huge dry riverbed where melted snow created a raging river in the Spring.

This was on the west side of Mount Hood and the snow cover had a different look.

Tomorrow we are headed east from the RV park to Madras OR to visit another long lost cousin but this time on my mom's side.  Nancy Linch Hindman is the daughter of my mom's brother, hence my cousin.

I have not seen Nancy since I rode to the east coast with her family in 1970 to visit her brother Jess who was in the US Navy during Vietnam and was at port in Philidelphia.  We also plan to drive south from Madras and follow a different route back to the RV park via Highway 22.  On 8 July we will have a chance to see Nancy's brother Jim, another cousin of mine that I have not seen in approximately 50 years!

Cousin Jim is pictured to the left with the beard.