Toppenish, Washington, September 17

After leaving Lake Chelan, we headed towards Quincy, Washington to the Crescent Bar Thousand Trails.  One word for this place, smokey. ...  do to all of the wildfires nearby.  Joel had arranged for his mail to be forwarded to Quincy, and since the Post Office wasn't open on Saturday, we had to stay through Monday. No problem.  It gave me a chance to catch up on laundry and other mundane chores and a chance for Joel to "fix things".  This time it was replacing the awning spring that had broken.

Quincy is a huge agriculture area and reminiscent of some of the little bustling communities in the California Central Valley.  Lots of "hard"fruit is grown here....apples, apples and more apples along with peaches and pears.  We picked up some honey crisp apples which are to die for.They are so juicy you need a bib when eating them. Ymmmm.

I think these are gala apples. They are also delicious. All of the trees are over loaded with apples this year.  The harvest is just beginning and I was told there is a huge crop.

After leaving  the Thousand Trails we headed  south we notice these power wind mills.  Only problem is, that there is no wind, which is highly unusual for this area. I think the wind would be welcome in some areas to blow all of the smoke away, but it wouldn't be helpful for all of the fire fighters.

We stopped at a rest stop near Selah Cliffs and I noticed this sign.  It is so smokey that neither Mt. Adams or Mt. Rainier are visable.  Highly unusual.

But there was a nice view of the Selah Gulch  and this bridge.

Picked up the mail and headed towards The Dalles, Oregon, where we plan to spend two nights with a day trip into Portland to see Joel's new grandson.  On the way we entered the Yakima Nation ad  stopped at the little town of Toppenish, better known as the town of murals, and rightly so.  There are very few building that have been untouched by an artist hand. As we were wandering around we came upon Jim and his nice horses Frank and Jess and Joel arranged a tour of the town and some of the prominent murals.

These horses were amazing.  They responded to voice commands as well as the reins.  

A major portion of the worlds hops are grown in the region and the mural below is located on the Hops Museum.  It was closed so we didn't get to go in.  But the mural is so realistic.  All the brickwork and detail is painted.

This mural depicts the various tribal chiefs on one building and then Pepsi Cola on the other.

Every year, the first weekend in June the town hosts a "Paint a Mural Day".  Artists get together and paint a mural in one day.  The mural below is one of those and depicts a Halloween prank.

This mural is very long.  I had to stitch three pictures to get it all in.  

We continued south and caught highway 84 which follows the Columbia Gorge.  For the first time in almost a week we were out of smoke.  

We camped at Mamaloose State Park which is between the river and the highway.  It is OK for a quick overnighter, but pretty noisey with the highway being so close.

On Tuesday, we drove into Portland to see Joel's new grandson and his daughter and son.  The hospital was releasing Jennie, so we transported all of the baby stuff to Jennie's apartment.  Things have sure changed since I had children.  I remember being released with baby in arms and a diaper bag and had to be wheeled out in a wheel chair per hospital regulations.  Now days, baby has to be in an approved car seat and mom can walk out.  Joel's comment was "kids are sure expensive these days with all of the stuff".

We spent the day visiting as it may be sometime before Joel gets back to Portland.   Tomorrow (Wednesday) we head for Bend, and probably back in smokey territory.  Stay tuned.