In the middle of the night last night, sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning, we woke up to the sound of a couple fighting loudly outside our room.  I think they had at least one teenaged son because I heard him tell his dad that he’d found something.  I almost wondered if he was trying to pacify his dad to get him to stop yelling.  It was rather upsetting.

It was very foggy this morning as we headed across the Columbia River to Oregon.

Mom did a little “Yeah!” when she saw the Welcome to Oregon sign.

The sun started trying to poke through the clouds as we turned toward Portland.

Tucson was as watchful as the rest of us.

Mount Hood as seen from the Dalles Dam

The top of Mount Hood seen from somewhere near the town of Hood River

The Columbia River Gorge is made up of high cliffs, some of which have waterfalls running down them.  (This one doesn’t.)

Beacon Rock on the Washington side of the river as seen from the Bonneville Dam

The Washington side of the Gorge with a cloud bank

Things had cleared up some through the Gorge, but as we got closer to Portland, it began to thicken again.

A freight train entering a tunnel

Power lines bringing power from the dams to the city

We hit rush hour traffic at noon as we approached downtown Portland. I don’t think there’s ever a non-rush-hour time on the highways around Portland. By the way, the half-rounded, half-flat building in the center is the Bonneville Power Administration where Mark and I met in 2006!

Driving through the southwest hills of Portland, they are still in the peak fall season.

We delivered Mom to her home and she was a happy camper!

I want to stop here to say how much I enjoyed these last two weeks with my mother.  For a 90-year-old woman, she has a lot of life in her.  Her health is great, she still runs as needed, and she beat me at most of the Bananagrams games we played.  She hadn’t read any of the blogs I’d written until last night when Mark read the first couple out loud, and she laughed so hard she was nearly crying.  She prefers to stay at home where she has her routines and her friends and her things around her, but out of love for me, she agreed to come for this visit to Door County and she paid for most of the trip.  She tried new things, saw new places, ate different foods, and fell in love with Kimba.  I wasn’t sure how this time with her was going to go, but I had a lot of fun.  I’m glad I had this time with her!

We stopped at a truck wash because our vehicles were so covered with dirt and bugs. I have had to clean up most of my photos, but I left this one untouched so you could see how dirty our windshield was.

All clean!

We reached our final destination, Donald, OR, where my BFF from high school, Wendy Scharich, has invited us to park by her house for a couple of weeks.

We are so grateful to Wendy and her husband, Craig, for giving us a place to stay while we try to get work lined up and find a more permanent place to stay.  Wendy has gone to all the trouble of filing the paperwork with the city of Donald for us to stay here for two weeks.  Mark and I arrived in the late afternoon and Craig helped Mark get the RV in and hooked up.  Wendy had dinner cooking when we arrived.  We sat and visited as we ate dinner and then adjourned to the living room to continue our conversations.  She showed us how her shower works and where the towels are.  She showed me how the washer and dryer work.  She and Craig are such gracious hosts and we are very glad to be here.  It feels good to put out the slideouts and settle in one place for a couple of weeks.  I am just very happy and at peace tonight!