A Graveyard, a Stubble-field, and a Wild Horse

We woke up to rain this morning so we did what every good vagabonder would do – our house has wheels so we moved it.  A quick run into town for breakfast and we headed out from the Oregon coast to the northeast corner of the state.

Couldn’t leave Fort Stevens without mentioning one more restaurant.  This one was in Warrenton and is called Serendipity.  I had to try it as it was housed in an old bank building.  The vault is still there and it just made me feel like I was back in my element!

HOWEVER, I would caution you about the food.  It wasn’t that bad is the best I can say about it.  If you like burned toast and warmed up coffee, then it’s okay.  And don’t even think of asking for crispy hash browns – apparently the cook doesn’t know the difference between “crispy” and “burned on both sides and raw in the middle”!!



It was NOT a serendipitous find!

Heading east on I-84, the rain disappeared and we had partly cloudy skies and cool temperatures.  A perfect day for driving.  The gorge was beautiful as always but we didn’t stop for picture opportunities.  Our goal was an overnight at Cascade Locks and we made it there  and spent the night in the KOA.  This proved to be a nice stop – the campground was forested and cool and they had a bunch of used books for sale!!  Now that was serendipitous!  As elsewhere along the gorge, the whistles and chug of the trains were never far away but it was snug and quiet inside of Therapy and we had a restful night.



We had in mind to spend the next night in Pendleton, and visit the woolen mill there.  Every KOA we have stayed in lately has been quiet and semi-empty and so we headed for the KOA in Pendleton.  We made a brief rest stop in Arlington and inside the small market we picked up a local magazine.  Would you believe we had timed our trip to Pendleton to coincide with the Pendleton Round-up?  That’s only the biggest rodeo in several western states and we had no idea it was happening this weekend.

A quick call to the KOA confirmed our worst fears – they were full and the nice lady on the phone said it was pretty much the same story everywhere in town.  However, the stop in Arlington was not without its benefits as we were treated to a local art show in the parking lot and saw this wonderful piece of modern art.


It was titled “Purple Splat” and we have never seen anything like it.  Isn’t it wonderful?

We made a quick stop in The Dalles for groceries, gas, and lunch.  We have stopped at Cousins before for lunch and it certainly did not disappoint today. 



There is a gas station right next door, plenty of parking along the street and the food was wonderful.



I don’t know what was in that tea Russ was drinking but it certainly made him happy!  Outside and inside there are whimsical decorations and fun stuff to look at.  Russ even found a like-minded compadre outside the restaurant.

  
On to Pendleton. Not to worry says my intrepid driver and fellow adventurer…there is bound to be a place to stay.  One of our goals in reaching Pendleton was to visit friends in Milton-Freewater.  (Jan, if you happen to read this you’ll find out why we didn’t find you!)  Pendleton was indeed a ZOO – there were all manner of RVs in every parking lot or wide spot in the road in town.  We could tell this was NOT going to be a place to park for the night so we headed over to Milton-Freewater.  On the Hwy there we passed the small town of Athena and saw a sign for Centerville RV Park.  It was only 11 miles from our goal so we decided to keep it in mind if we couldn’t find anything in Milton-Freewater.

I had checked online before we left the KOA that morning and it appeared there were several RV parks in Milton-Freewater (MF from now on, I’m tired of typing the whole name!).  The first one we came to was on a steep hill which we would NEVER be able to navigate pulling the Fit.  The second one we came to…well, we never found a second one!  Nowhere!  We drove through town, saw a couple of gravel parking lots that might have worked but didn’t feel good about the neighborhoods.  Besides the place is covered in FROGS! 

Now I happen to like frogs but these were questionable and sometimes downright ugly frogs…ceramic frogs, paper Mache frogs, concrete frogs…I have no idea why but I think there was a plague of frogs in MF.  The main street into town was a mess of construction and after having driven from one end of town to the other we knew this was NOT an overnight stop.  We decided to get the heck out of Dodge and go back to Athena.  Jan and Duane, we’re still in the same house – call us next time you get to Eugene!

Tired and hungry we decided the Centerville RV park was where we were staying no matter what.  We looked for the sign as there are many small country roads off the highway and we didn’t want to take the wrong one.  We were almost 15 miles from MF when we decided we had missed the turn.  We found a place to turn around in Adams and headed back the way we had come.  There we saw the sign “Centerville RV Park.”  Seems like they only have a sign on one side of the highway.

The sign indicated the park was less than 2 miles so off we went.  We followed the tiny, tiny signs towards the park.  The last sign indicated a turn down a narrow residential street with a large “No Trucks” sign.  You would think we had learned our lesson from our last encounter with a no trucks sign but we ventured onward.

Our road dead ended onto another smaller street with one more tiny sign saying “Centerville RV Park” with a left arrow.  One more turn – it couldn’t be much farther as we had already gone 2 miles.  We saw nothing but an industrial building surrounded by chain link fence and then we saw some green grass and trees up ahead.  A mowed down hay field across from the grass insured this would be a quiet and restful stop.  WHEW!  We made it! 

Just a little closer and we could see beyond the trees.  Oh there was LOTS of grass alright – but it was not a parking place for RVs – it was the LAST parking place you would ever need.  That’s right, it was a graveyard! 



Wary of what might lie beyond, Russ stopped in the road and I walked on ahead to reconnoiter.  The road went down a small hill and stopped at a cross street of gravel.  No RV park as far as the eye could see.  Nothing to do but try to turn around and go back the way we had come.

Now, turning around with a toad on is always iffy.  Gotta have a fairly wide radius to make it work.  Russ looked around and saw a slope on the edge of the field where we could access the field and make a big circle and head back towards town.  This “driveway”, where the farm equipment got into the field, was not very wide and if he missed it we were facing a 12” drop- off that would have us high-centered and stuck good and proper.

I walked around in the field and pronounced it solid, if somewhat lumpy and we decided to go for it.  Russ made it up the slope into the field and started his turn.  He made a complete circle over the lumpy, bumpy stubble, only to find he could not make the turn to exit going the opposite way.  To do so would have taken him over the edge.  So he circled the wagons only to return to the street headed the same way we were originally headed! 



I wish I had taken a picture while Therapy was going around in circles in the field, but I was too concerned with watching the edge and making sure Russ didn’t go over it.  Wasn’t really thinking about pictures at the moment.

There was a verge of dry grass at the edge of the graveyard so he pulled over there and we did the sensible thing and unhitched! 



I was able to turn the toad and Russ drove Therapy down to the end of the street and made a “K” turn on the gravel. 



As we were headed back towards town – each driving a vehicle – I finally spotted the “RV Park".”  Remember that industrial building we saw on the way in?  The one surrounded by chain link fence and covered in gravel?  I saw there were about 6 hook-up posts along one edge of the fence and one camper parked there!  A couple of guys were standing out by the road, no doubt having seen us go by the first time and having a good laugh over the dumb tourists.  Welcome to Amityville…er … I mean Centerville.  I honked at Russ and pulled alongside and told him what I had seen.  He had missed it completely.  NO THANKS was his response when I asked if he wanted to turn around and try it again.  He said we were going to the casino.  We didn’t rehitch the toad as it was only a short drive so off we went – REALLY tired and hungry by now.

And so we drove back towards Pendleton.  If you are keeping track you will see that by now we have driven Hwy.11 from Pendleton to MF, then back towards the RV park, missed the turn and driven BACK on Hwy.11 towards the RV park and now we are driving Hwy. 11 AGAIN back towards Pendleton and the casino.  I hope NEVER to see HWY. 11 EVER AGAIN!!

The Casino is called the Wild Horse – see I promised you a wild horse and I never disappoint!!



They have a very nice campground there with full hook-ups for $25.  I took one look and thought this is gonna be good.  They have a golf course adjacent to the campground and lots of grass and trees.



And they have personality.



Tired, hungry and just wanting to settle in for the night, I went to the office to secure a spot for he night.  To her credit, the lady behind the desk did not laugh out loud but I did see her try to hold back a smirk when I asked for a one night stay.  “It’s the Pendleton Round-up this weekend and we are full-up.”  NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

What do we do now?  This is already too long so it will be continued tomorrow.  Stay tuned.