Day 32-April 21, 2018-Washington State side of Columbia River Gorge
Sunny, windy and warm (for here) 63 degrees
In the morning I made some more phone calls and looked at maps to plot a course for the next few days. We made some decisions and reservations and feel good about our plan. We packed a lunch and drove back to Hood River. There’s more wind today with lots of white caps on the river. We saw two parasailers who were enjoying the wind but probably not the cold water. Drove over the Hood River Bridge ($2.00 toll) where the toll taker said “How can you not be OK today with the sun shining, we should put a sign up saying ‘Closed because of Sunshine’”. That’s how lousy the weather has been here. Went through White Salmon, WA, then east on route 14, the Lewis and Clark Trail Highway. The views on this side of the gorge are just as beautiful as on the Oregon side. It’s definitely Spring with lots of orange, purple, white and yellow wildflowers on and around the mountains. We drove up one mountain to get to Memaloose Winery only to find out it had moved down to the main road. It was worth the drive, though, the scenery is wonderful. Stopped at Marshal’s Winery, way out of the way, in a tiny garage but the wines were great. Then to Cascade Cliffs, one of our favorite places here. A great view of Mt. Hood, the wines are good and it’s always busy with friendly people. We met Mark and Nicole from Bend, OR who gave us some good ideas about where to go in Oregon. We ate lunch at a scenic overlook watching a barge slowly move on up the river. Only a mile down the road is Jacob Williams Winery, their house wine is Sadie Red, named after their black lab, Sadie. We remembered her from when we were before, but she’s 11 now and doesn’t come to work all the time so we missed her. But they have a cat, Rose, (like the wine, not the flower, my keyboard doesn’t have French accent marks). She just sat in the windowsill in the sun and let everybody pet her. On to Maryhill Winery, one of the largest ones around here. The views are great but we feel the wine is overpriced and it’s too big and busy. Back to Oregon over the Maryhill Bridge (no toll this time) even though it’s a nicer, wider bridge. After driving a big loop we got back to the campground about 5PM. It’s really busy now, every site seems filled.