Wednesday - We all headed out of the campground about 10:30 to begin our drive of the Oregon Fruit Loop. The directions Joe got were a little misleading and we had a hard time finding our way out of the campground and to the right highway, but we finally did -- after a couple of turnarounds. Shortly down the road, we came upon a herd of horses (domestic) right beside the road, behind a fence. I missed taking a picture and didn't see them on our way back. But we did see some more geese.
We headed west on State Road 48, then north on Hwy 35. We went through Wamic so apparently that was not one of the little towns we drove through yesterday on the way in to the campground. After about an hour, we made our first stop -- a walk-stop instead of a rest-stop, so Collins could stretch his legs. There were some wild flowers along here.
We wondered if this was lavendar (above) but Marilyn thought it might be lupine. We saw lavendar later, so this is definitely not.
Everybody walked. We also saw a little river, probably the East Fork of the Hood River, and some art work under the overpass here.
We took 35 North to the turnoff to Parkdale, which is where we picked up the Fruit Loop. As we entered town, we passed some lavendar growing in front of a house, and some other flowers along a bank.
We actually turned around to come back to this little town for lunch, which was very good, at Apple Valley BBQ. While we were eating, we watched a lady carrying in stack of boxes. Marilyn asked what they were, and they were boxes of pies! Marilyn then asked where they came from, and she replied, from their country store on up the road a little ways in Hood River. So we put that on our agenda for a stop.
We just about circled Mt. Hood today. We kept seeing it, but Joe said "that mountain keeps moving. You never know which window you are going to see it out of." And that was certainly true. I even lost it a few times, but it showed back up.
We "shopped" Parkdale, then drove to our first Fruit Loop destination, #15 on the map, Kiyokawa Family Orchards & Fruit Stand. Unfortunately, they are only open weekends right now, so that was a bust. But along the way, we passed a neat statute of a big old draft horse and a little girl.
We saw cherry trees along here, as well as pear and apple trees, and some grape arbors. The cherries seem to be ready to pick, and we did get some later on. Blueberries are also ripe here, and Marilyn bought some of them, and some Marionberries.
Our next stop was #17, Lavendar Valley. This was a very pretty stop, and I even bought a small picture here.
She had some cute painted rocks on her windowsill -- I thought I could do something like that!
Life is good -- surrounded by purple
And here's that mountain again.
The picture I bought, it's probably a 4 x 6, or maybe 5 x 7, is a lavender field in the foreground and the mountain in the background. I hoped just to be able to walk out and take my own picture, but at the very least I would have had to walk to the far end of the lavender field. And I think the trees would have blocked the mountain. It was probably taken across the road when that field was in bloom. So I went back inside and bought her picture for $5.00.
We headed on up the road, our next stop was Browning Blueberries but it was "U-Pick," and none of us wanted to do that so we didn't stop. Then we stopped at The Old Trunk, an antique and junk shop (#20). This is where Marilyn bought her blueberries. They had a really neat landscape of the mountain at night, on a saw blade, that I would have liked to come away with, but I didn't even ask the price. We had one more stop to make, #21, Apple Valley Country Store and Bakery, where the lunch lady got her pies from. But it was a disappointment. Few pies, highly priced; 2 blueberry scones that Marilyn considered but was afraid they might have been yesterday's; and I think some cinnamon rolls, as well as jams and jellies and some pie filling in jars. We expected a lot more baked goods. However, Joe did get an ice cream cone here, that was really good (he shared a couple of bites with me). It was Marionberry, very good.
From here, we headed back home. As we came through Odell, we past several fruit processing plants. I caught a photo of some stacks of shipping crates. Fruit and nuts appeared to be a big industry here.
Just before we got back to our campground, we came upon another interesting sight -- you just never know what you are going to see when you travel the countryside. There were signs on the road, "Pedestrians on Roadway," which seemed odd to me -- why not just ask them to get off the roadway instead of putting up a sign.
Anyway, we did come upon them, although they were down a side road. I thought maybe they were a band of gyspies, but Joe thought they were "pilgrims." Anyway, it was an oddity.
I think we wore Collins out today. We got back to camp about 5:00, and never saw him come out of his RV again. Joe and I walked down to the lake and around the campground a little, just had snacks for dinner since we had a big lunch.
Mazie called Marilyn while we were on our drive. They had made it to Bordertown Casino and RV Resort, just inside the Nevada state line on 395. She said she had not slept well last night, woke up with a headache, but otherwise she was ok, and her blood pressure was coming down. She also reported fires in Reno (which they are near), which had closed down I-80. Not good.
Tomorrow Joe wants to drive back to the White Rivers Falls east over on 197, and we still have the north half of the Fruit Loop to finish, if not from here, then from our next stop. This is really pretty country, and the temperature stayed in the 70s all day, even though our elevation is only about 1,300 feet. Mt. Hood must be keeping us cool.
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