Monday April 25, 2011
We decided to just suck it up and move today even though the weather over Lime and Cabbage Hill didn’t look very promising. Once again there was that possibility of snow showers. It had started to rain when we went to bed last night and then started up again early this morning. At least it wasn’t snow. In the end the rain and snow threat wasn’t the big issue. We left at 7:15am this morning and decided to have breakfast at our first fuel stop. This has been a new plan for us but seems to be working as it saves us time because we don’t dawdle over breakfast and don’t need to stop for lunch.
As we were travelling along I had another head ache crop up. Windows on my lap top decided that there was an issue with my Map Point navigation software coupled with my plug in GPS and decided to shut down. Great! I started it a few times but no luck. I could run Map Point without the GPS but that meant I didn’t know exactly where we were. Not a good thing. I left it alone for an hour or more and tried again and no …..problemo! Who knows what that was all about but having it shut down in the middle of a city would be a huge problem. Windows can be a giant pain in the ass sometimes!
We made it to La Grande, Oregon and stopped for a 10am breakfast and then up over the Cabbage Hill. This time we were going down, and not up, so not as hard and although there was a really brisk wind it was behind us.
When we got to Pendleton at the bottom of the hill it got ugly. The wind really picked up and was hitting us broadside. Big, big wind!!! Nasty and I was really hanging on. This was by far the worst wind we have hit yet and it was not in any forecast that we had looked at. Tumbleweeds were rolling by and Eric was worried one would go through the radiator and that of course would be a huge issue. It was a nerve wracking drive until we made our turn up to the Tri Cities. Even there the wind was blowing like hell but at least it was now slightly behind us. We made it through the Tri Cities and you really have to pay attention to the exits so you end up where you want to be. I didn’t screw up which was a good thing as that would have been ugly when we were so stressed from all the wind. It’s a good thing we had two big Harley’s in the garage to hold us down or we could have been like Dorothy and ended up in Kansas!
We found fuel at the north end of the Tri Cities (Richland, Kenniwick and Pasco) and then on to Othello. Again more wind and rain and not a fun drive.
We rolled into the Wal Mart parking lot in Othello around 3:00pm and tucked ourselves out behind in a quiet area. The main parking lot was really full and there were a bunch of construction trailers parked in front as well as circus trailers from Washington ahead of the parking lot. Usually there is no one here when we stop going south but this is our first time stopping here going north.
Our view from the Wal-Mart parking lot.
The portable propane fireplace is going, (love the Glow Warm) we’ve had a couple of beers, supper is prepped and tomorrow is another day. Hopefully the bike importing will go okay and we will be in Kelowna tomorrow night.
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