Friday, March 1: It rained quite hard overnight but the wind died down in the evening. I did hear the wind a bit around 5:00 in the morning but not as bad as it had been. Around the same time, I also heard the garbage truck and a couple of RVs leaving.

As I was drinking my coffee I saw the tumbleweed roundup! The workers had a cart they pulled behind their utility vehicle and went around and picked up all the tumbleweeds I had seen tumbling yesterday. They then filled the big trash receptacle that had just been emptied earlier.

I checked the weather along my route and saw that it shouldn’t be too bad, winds only around 15 mph and small chance of snow. It was snowing a little bit by the time I was ready to leave and a bit breezy but nothing I couldn’t handle after yesterday.

I gathered up my garbage, turned on the power to the jacks, grabbed the remote control for the jacks and went to the tumbleweed filled trash receptacle. I threw my stuff in and went back to the camper and stuck my hand in my sweatshirt pocket for the remote control and it wasn’t there. Uh, oh. I had a sneaky suspicion I might have had it in my hand along with a plastic box that I threw into the trash.

I searched all over the camper and didn’t find it. I got my little stool and went to see if I could see it in the trash. I saw the garbage bag but couldn’t see the remote. I had courteously thrown my garbage to the back so that the birds wouldn’t get it and now neither could I.

I sheepishly went to the office and told them what I had done. The four maintenance men were sitting at a table having their coffee break and the two women that I told laughingly called to Chris to help. One of the men asked which dumpster and I told him and he said, “We just filled that with tumbleweeds!” I said, “I know, I watched you!” I told them if they got me a ladder I would get it myself. But all four of them got up and after giving each other a hard time about who was going into the dumpster, they headed for their utility vehicles.

Two of them got there about the time I did and I showed them which corner I had thrown it into. They backed their vehicle up a bit and one of them stood on it and saw the remote. He leaned over the side and reached back and was able to get it without too much trouble! I asked him what his name was and said I would make him famous in my blog. So, Philip, thank you very much for your assistance.

After that I quickly left.

The drive was a bit windy but not too bad. I went through several hail showers but there was no ice or snow on the road. A lot of snow all around, especially in the hills and mountains that I went through. I could see some great looking thunderclouds and also darks ones that were probably dumping snow. But for the most part my drive was in the sun.

I pulled into La Grande and got gas and went to the bathroom. I had planned on staying at the Grande Hot Springs RV Resort but was kind of thinking of going further. Misty had been a perfect little kitty today and hadn’t done any bathroom door acrobatics or even meowed when I put her in the truck so figured she would handle a bit longer.

Pendleton was about 40 miles down the road and I had never been there before. Well, I have never been to any of the areas I have been driving through so I guess that didn’t matter. I looked up RV parks and didn’t find anything that looked all that great so decided to stick with my original plan and went back a few miles to the RV park.

There is a hot springs further up the road from where the park is but not in the park. It is a pretty big park with about 100 sites but no more than around 7 sites filled. The office was closed but they had a very efficient self check-in process.

Views from my campsite in La Grande, Oregon

The ground was a bit damp but grassy and Misty appreciated the chance to be on her leash for a while as I was setting up the camper. I hadn’t let her out the night before because it was really wet and muddy around the cement pad and I didn’t want to clean up after her again.

The freeway I was on went along parts of the Oregon Trail. After getting set up, I sat and read a long National Park Service auto tour guide to the Oregon Trail since I didn’t really know much about it. It was interesting and made me think I might have to follow it one of these days in the camper.

There have been intermittent snow/ice pellets falling as I have been sitting here and there are some pretty good wind gusts every once in awhile. But I think the really bad wind and weather is behind me now. I am sure I will hit rain heading into Western Oregon and Washington, though. Maybe I should knock on wood!

The route I am taking should get me back home by Sunday but I have an extra day built in before my appointment just in case something happens.