January 28 - 31, 2014 --- 2135 miles from Rockwall, TX to Portland, OR
Timarie Mikolasek and Lee Zebold
Tuesday, January 28, we started off at 6:20 AM from
Rockwall - Still dark. Drove the George Bush Fwy - I-35E, US
380 - US 287 - I-40 to Amarillo, TX. Below we were standing at the vista point, and on our way out we took pic of T am me in the field. |
|
|
|
Now off to Albuquerque, NM where we would stay the night at friends house - George and Ginny Baca |
|
|
|
The next day we got underway about 7:45 AM to head toward Salt Lake City going up Hwy 41 from Gallup, NM. Going up Hwy 491, we had to stop at Shiprock, NM because of the interesting name. We had our photos with the Shiprock in the background. | |
|
|
Leaving New Mexico
we had a short run through Colorado, fueled up in Dove Creek, CO,
and then UTAH.
|
|
I had to post this - I'm not used to seeing a speed limit of 80 mph posted here in Utah. I understand Texas is the only other state that allows that speed limit. This is the first I have seen it.
|
|
Still on 491, we
stopped in Montecello, UT for fuel and took 2 pictures with an
interesting church with a statue on it in background.
|
|
We went through Moab, UT....a most interesting
town of off-roading fame...many many cool looking places to eat and
stay,
|
|
We then got on Hwy 191 - The Grand Army of the Republic Hwy toward Price, UT. It was getting to be about 4 PM. We stopped at Arby's to get stuff to go and were warned about going over Soldiers Summit where there was snow and a lot of weather closing in. We went over the Summit and it was snowing and it was dark. Unfortunately we got no pictures of that. Timarie was driving and she did a great job....sometimes following a Semi for safety. |
|
We drove through Salt Lake
on I-84, in the dark, and
stopped in Layton, UT, a surburb, for the night. We had a nice
dinner at the Brick Oven. |
|
|
|
Thursday,
January 30, we headed out toward
Idaho along I 84. We would encounter Tule Fog all of a sudden,
and had to deal with that for several miles.
|
|
|
|
After traveling
through Boise we stopped for lunch in Meridian, ID....at the Souper
Salad. Then off again to cross into Oregon, and stay the night in La Grande, OR
Weather was coming in and
when we got up Friday morning there was snow all over the place that
hadn't been there the night before. We waited until 10
AM to leave as the weather was pretty bad, and we were warned by the
hotel staff that the mountains we were going to go through had snow
and ice. They were named the Blue Mountains, and indeed, even
though it was a federal highway - I 84 - it was covered with snow
and ice. There were times Timarie could drive only 10 mph.
|
|
Trucks were required to put on their chains.
As we reached the top of the Mountain (4039 ft) we saw on the other
side the Highway Patrol
I just had to take this pic of Deadman Pass as we were driving through some pretty precarious stuff - ICE and SNOW |
|
We cleared the Blue Mountains, and it was smooth
sailing from then on. After many miles we stopped in
The Dalles for lunch at Burgerville.
|
|
Passing by the Columbia River on right. We got to Timarie's rental Condo a little after 3 PM.
|
|
Above left - view of the street from Condo on 5th floor - plus views of inside of Condo
|
|
After
getting settled in a little bit, we took a drive around to see
Portland.
|
|
Saturday morning,
February 1,
we met a real estate lady - Sharon and her son Colton - who took us
around to see 6 houses for sale.
Timarie and Rick plan to eventually buy a house, but will rent for the time being. This was the final picture....T and Me at one
of the houses with the beautiful woods behind us.
That's all Folks - it was a great 6 day experience for me - oh that would be Lee doing this website.
|