Road Trip

[ed. I've always thought a good road trip should have elements of transcendence and disaster (or, potential disaster) to make for a really great trip. Well, this one presented none of the latter (thankfully), and much of former, and it turned out great anyway. So now I've been wrong at least once....



Down the coasts of Washington and Oregon, over to Portland, up the towering slopes of Mt. Hood and across the high deserts of Madras and Bend, over the rolling wheat fields of Shaniko, to the sparkling waters of the Deschutes River, on to The Dalles and the Columbia River Gorge, then Yakima and its abundant fruit orchards, finally crossing the Cascades at Levenworth to come home.




I'll spare you the travelogue and just say this is some truly magnificent country. And to think the most beautiful segment of the trip started in a town called Boring. (sorry about the blurry picture, my camera was malfunctioning and I had to bash it a couple times before it would work).



Wait, I take that back. Let me just tell you about one experience:



There's something about morning light, especially between the hours of 8-9. After being up a couple hours, the sun starts to stretch and get ready for the day -- light washes over the countryside and everything seems super vivid and alive. Anyway, as the road ascended up from Boring through the town of Sandy, climbing toward the summit of Mt. Hood Pass, the sun broke through two layers of clouds: one in a deep river gorge below, the other high in the surrounding hills. I stopped at a wayside to take in the view when a rising thermal suddenly pulled a tendril of cloud up from the valley, shooting it skyward like an upside-down waterfall. It tumbled over the railing in front of me and swirled down the road, a torrential upwelling that kept increasing by the minute. Then as quickly as it started it was gone, and the clouds above me dissolved into a massive rock wall covering half the sky. I wish I had a picture but my camera was in the truck and I just kind of stared dumbstruck. These things go on every day and we only get to experience them once if we're lucky. Transcendence.]
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