About a month ago, Ben mentioned we should go somewhere for our year and he kinda wanted to go down to the Columbia Gorge and I said, let's go! I told him the biggest town down that was was probably going to be the Oregon side in Hood River. There was more to do there than the rest of the smaller towns, Washington or Oregon side. Personally, I have never stopped at the Hood River only through it on my many trips along I-84. Our only gamble with this trip during this time of year is the weather. I really hoped that it didn't rain.
We did our research on the bed and breakfasts, breweries, activities, hiking, food options etc., weeks before our trip. Within a few days of our trip, we knew exactly where we were staying and what breweries we were going to hit up. The rest of the time we would fill with geocaching and other random activities...maybe even a hike.
The oil was due in October so I thought I should get it changed before our trip. Dad helped me change it since I had never done it for this vehicle yet.
I got gas the night before so we wouldn't have to stop anywhere.
I got all of my stuff packed and put some of it in the car. The rest of it I packed in the morning on my way out the door towards work. I wanted to immediately leave after work around noon to drive out to Rochester.
I got to work and had a list that kept me busy enough beyond noon but I got as much done as I could. I think I got through five rooms before I asked Kathy for a break. I ate my home made chicken noodle soup as quick as I could as I got my stuff ready out of my locker. I told everyone bye, clocked out and headed west towards Rochester. I called Ben to make sure he was up and got his stuff ready to go.
I got there about a half hour-forty minutes later and he had all of his stuff ready. We packed it in the car. I got paid and so did he. We stopped at Key Bank in Grand Mound so he could cash the check and we drove into Chehalis to deposit mine at WSECU. He didn't eat anything so we stopped at Taco Del Mar so he could feed his face. Lol.
We were on the road again and he ate his tacos, sang songs and talked about weird stuff. We both decided to take Hwy 14 and then cross over to Oregon at Bridge of the Gods. Along Hwy 14, we stopped a few times to grab caches. The first one, A Stone of Testimony (GC1Q0NV) kinda kept us searching for a few minutes. I wasn't sure what a cubit was but Ben found it a few seconds later.
A few miles more down the road we picked up A Gorgeous View (GC2EE79) and a Gorgeous View 2 (GC2EE7F). Both were duct tape wallets attached to the guardrails by a small magnet. When we find duct tape wallets, we know we're near Oregon.
We even got a cool pic of our geomobile along Hwy 14.
Tunnel to the Happy Tree (GC47X7E) was the next one down the road. It sounded fun. We got to the road and turned down a small "park n' ride"/trail head parking. The GPS took us to a huge mangled tree and we started looking. Turns out we were looking at the wrong tree and Ben found some snails (slugs with a camper). I re-read the cache information and found out we were at the wrong tree. I found it as soon as we got to the right area.
It was really nice not to have to be at work but with Ben geocaching and traveling with him to our destination. It felt so nice. I decided to get one more cache before we drove over the Bridge of the Gods. Since we were driving past another portion of the PCT I had to stop and get it. We had about 19 miles of swirly Hwy 14 to go until we got there. When we did arrive, we had to do a U-turn so we could park safely onto the pull out near the trail head. This one was more defined than the one I visited up by White Pass a few weeks back. It's probably because it's welcoming you to Washington.
We followed the path up the hill to Are You Up For the Crest? Start of the PCT Washington (GC1018H) and found the tree the ammo can was laying next to. We signed the log and put it back better than we found it.
We walked back down to the car and flipped back around eastbound towards the beginning of the bridge. I've been past this bridge so many times in the last four years it was now time to cross it. We stopped at the entrance for less than ten seconds to take a picture and the car behind us honked. Like I said, we were there for less than ten seconds. The guy behind us was being a jerk.
We crossed the bridge and made it to the toll at the other side. It cost us $1.00. It varies depending on the size of your vehicle. We made our way into Cascades Locks and parked in a small parking lot to check out the bridge. We took a few pictures of us with the bridge and found a really funny mural of a surprised cougar.
After a bunch of laughs, we got back in the car and drove through Cascade Locks and found our way onto I-84 eastbound. It was about a 20 mile drive to Hood River. We took exit 63 onto the main drag in town. We drove up the roads blindly until we found Oak Street. We parked the car in the back of the building and went to check in. It didn't occur to me that this was the bed and breakfast that Ben had the surprise for me. We checked in with the front desk person and received our key to room 7. We walked in and it was a really cute room. More hotel like than a bed and breakfast and Ben's surprise was a bouquet of flowers, heart shaped cakes and grape sparkling cider. I am really not a flower person but it was the thought that counted.
After scoping out our room, we went back down to the car to bring out stuff up so we didn't have to do it later. It was dinner time so we wandered the town by foot. Coming up the hill when we got here, we saw an awesome building on top of the hill and we wanted to see what it was. It was one of the breweries on our list, Big Horse Brew Pub. We stat down and ordered our drinks and food. Because our weekends are during the week there weren't very many people inside the restaurant/bar. I ordered the Pale Rider IPA and the burger. Ben had the Strictly Rude and then the Nightmare along with his BBQ brisket plate. We watched part of the World Series game San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals battling it out. And then we had a great conversation with the people sitting next to us.
They were roughly our age who had met in the peace corp about ten years ago. She was from Melbourn, Australia, who had just finished up her Master's degree and he was from Duluth, Minnesota in between jobs. They decided to meet up and travel the western US. They had just gotten into The Hood River from hanging out in Canada the previous night. We talked about several other topics as we ate our food. We told them we were going to hit up another brewery in town and if they wanted to join us. We paid and walked down the hill to Full Sail Ale.
We all sat down together at a table and looked at the beer menu. I ordered the Full Sail IPA on Nitro, Ben ordered the Oktoberfest and then the Pilsner. We learned each others names, her name was Sarah and his Sean. We spent the rest of the night with them asking her questions about Australian creatures and lingo. We paid, told them it was a pleasure to meet them and safe travels and went our separate ways. We walked back up to Oak Street and got ready for bed. The bed was very comfy.
Next Adventure: Shopping, the Fruit Loop, Caching, Hwy 35, BnB and More Breweries
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