Early starts are nice

Last night's camp was near the "town" of Roosevelt, beautiful shade on the Columbia. Photos are sunrise in camp, and looking back at 6:15 to see the wind turbines and camp.

Still with a tailwind we made our 50 mile ride and were in camp by 10:30 this morning. It's blessedly a little bit cooler, did not feel seriously overheated. Camping across the river from Umatilla, still on the Columbia which we'll leave tomorrow, at a Corps of Engineers campground. Turns out both camps have the same ownership and the same facilities, but last night's was free and used mainly by farm workers and wind surfers, today's by RVers gearing up for July 4th weekend.

Pelicans on the river today, saw a flight of 3 before leaving camp, and several more along the way.

Unexpected pleasures Department: on our rest day in The Dalles, Perry and I set out to walk to the library (which had wifi far superior to our off-the-rack motel.) Passed a shop which sold unique clothing and had the word "sewing" in the window. It caught my interest because I was looking for a silk scarf to keep my neck shaded from sun and cool when wet, frustrated to find only polyester at Fred Meyers. Went in and explained what I wanted, and she said she might have something that would work, all her fabrics were in the basement, come on down. On the way down she pointed out the historic features of the building, having to do with window tops visible at floor level in the basement having been first floor window tops, before major flooding prompted downtown to be raised up with fill. I loved that she assumed we were interested and had time, and indeed she did not carry on and bore us. Then she found a handsome remnant of silk which she could hem shortly for a reasonable sum. Loved conversing with her, and so much prefer that form of commerce than impersonal box stores, and I have a lovely scarf to remember her by.

This morning we waved at a train engineer who was just starting up after waiting for Amtrak to pass. We made choo choo signals to him. Quite awhile later he passed us again, and gave us a toot toot and big arm wave to send us on our way.

~ Carol