Oregon, West to East

 

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

When I entered Oregon on Saturday I drove across the state from the east to the west, mostly along the Columbia River which forms the state's northern border and separates it from the state of Washington.  (I have to identify Washington as a state, because if one just throws the word "Washington" out without that disclaimer, people in these parts begin reaching for their guns!)   Today I crossed the state again, but from the west to the east,  primarily two-lane roads through the middle of the state.

I spent a couple of hours early on slowly winding through the Cascades which are cool and beautiful.  I drove through the town of "Sisters" on Highway 20, which is a very well-kept community with lots of greenery and  modern contrivances like traffic wheels or "round-abouts," and about sixty miles later on the same highway passed through "Brothers" which has only a handful of rundown buildings including a gas station that I remembered stopping at forty years ago, and a very dilapidated roadside rest area.  The contrast between the sibling communities was stark and almost scary.  Martha Stewart could have been the city planner for Sisters, but Brothers was more likely the work of Stephen King.

Part of the day was spent crossing the Oregon High Desert, which has nice long, straight stretches of highway that let me make up the time spent winding through the Cascades.  As the desert was ending the landscape turned into large brown hills and deep valleys which were as beautiful in their own way as the richly green Cascades had been.   Malheur County, where one of the Bundy's staged an insurrection at the National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago, seemed to be covered with the brown hills, and (for now at least) particularly serene.

Then I crossed into Idaho where the speed limit on the Interstates is 80 mph, just as it is in South Dakota.  Obviously their redneck GOP legislatures think that driving fast is somehow sticking it to the Deep State.   This evening I am in a reasonably priced room in Boise with a window overlooking Interstate 80 - and I know that I will be dreaming at 80 mph!

I hope to drive through Yellowstone tomorrow, but will not be stopping to pet the bears or take selfies with the buffalo!