Day 9 already! We left Twin Falls at 7:15am and headed up I-84 toward Boise and ultimately, Pendelton, OR. Not initially a very stimulating drive - flat, high speed interstate. Then after Boise, "Road Work" and a long stretch of single lane.
Things got more interesting when we crossed into Oregon near Payette, ID. We stopped for lunch at Durkee, OR at an interesting little restaurant called "The Hungry Redneck Cafe." The restaurant is small and isolated. It was started a few years back by an immigrant from Croatia. A chef by training, Bozcho "Bo" Luttunich speaks 4 languages and has made it his life to serve good food, and lots of it, to Redneck truck drivers, to whom he confers a 10% discount if they have a Redneck Cafe Card - which is free to truckers. After our lunch, we agreed that "Bo" has succeeded completely.
From there to Baker City, climbing into the rolling hills of Eastern Oregon (pictures). Then into the Wallowa - Whitman National Forrest before La Grande. Until now, mostly sage brush and dry prairie grasses, but after La Grande, we climbed into the Blue Mountain Forest Scenic Corridor and to the summit at 4,193 feet. Here the hills became increasingly, for the first time, covered with a variety of conifers - mostly Pine, Douglas Fir and Hemlock (picture). The drop down to Pendelton was full of high speed sweeping curves as we dropped down 3,00 or so feet in only a few miles - a 6% grade with truck runoff lanes. Pendelton is in the Columbia River basin and is a major wheat producing area (picture).
The high temperature for the day was 96 under a hazy sky. We checked into the Best Western at 2:30pm, ready for a clean up and later for a beer or two! We are now into an area I knew as a child and young adult, and the territory will become increasingly familiar - we are looking forward to it.
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