It was a lovely day at Rowena Crest, the sun was shining bright, and it was good to be able to get out of the car and walk around. But ho, da wind! Which really isn’t unusual in the Gorge, but this makani was unusual in that it was blowing from makai (west) instead of mauka like it usually does. It was a warm wind, but still pretty strong.
We could see Mt Adams across the river. Well, okay, its top.
I switched over to Gmail in 2008, and last week I got a notice from them saying that I was running outa email space. Hah? U mean I no get unlimited space? Ack! K’den, time foa do some deleting, right? And yeah, I admit it…I’m not really great about keeping my inbox cleaned out. I get busy, and don’t put emails I want to keep in their proper folders (of which I get plenny). These aren’t emails that I’ve instigated…they’re either replies to me or people contacting me for one reason or another.
Continue readingOn April 18th, Nolemana and I decided, since the weather had been so gorgeous, to leave town for a day and head up to Rowena Crest. The wildflowers were blooming, and it wasn’t raining, so after delivering firewood to a friend, we got gas, then coffee at Bow and Arrow Coffeehouse, and off we went. I must admit that it felt a bit weird to be going somewhere after so long at home, but we sure didn’t let that hold us back.
We caught I-84 in Troutdale while admiring the snow till on the peaks of the Silver Star Mountains.
Ack! The last time I posted about our Montana road trip was in January 2020! And I left you folks out in da boonies of the Palouse Country. We gotta get home before we start our next road trip, yeah? If you wanna backtrack a bit, try go here.
This is where I left off last time, in the Palouse Country of Washington State.
Before we head down the mountain, here’s a video showing how windy it can get in the Columbia River Gorge. And really, this is nothing compared to the wild East wind days that we get, especially during the winter. I’m amazed that the wildflowers are still standing after getting this blown!
I know I’m posting a bunch of photos of the wildflowers, but gosh, they’re so pretty! Nolemana and I get our second vaccines this Saturday, April 3rd, and after two weeks, I’d love for us to be able to take an overnight road trip. We can get someone to feed the kitties, and it’d be wonderful to see the wildflowers in person, maybe a bit further away this time. We’ll see.
I thought I’d post more photos (and even videos!) of our Dalles Mountain Road trip. I’d like to make that drive again this year; after being cooped up for so long, it’d be wonderful to see those wildflowers again. So to whet my appetite, here goes. (We get our second Covid vaccinations in just five days, so more road trips would be fabulous…still staying safe and maintaining protocols, of course.)
We headed up the Columbia River Gorge, heading mauka (towards the mountains).
To keep myself busy during this time of grieving for my Noelani girl, I’ve been downloading all my photos from PictureTrail. Now I have plenty of food for my posts. Here’s the continuation of our trip up and down Dalles Mountain Road, which I’d mostly finished before Noelani went over the Rainbow Bridge.
After we drove down to Horsethief Lake and were astounded to learn that there were many ancient Indian petroglyphs set up in a long, walk-through display. The stones were brought here from an island that was being covered by water, so this is not their original site. I found out that Horsethief Lake is part of Columbia Hills State Park. It’s a 3,338-acre camping park with 7,500 feet of freshwater shoreline on the Columbia River. Horsethief Butte dominates the skyline. It stands over the lake like an ancient castle. The lake itself is about 90 acres in size and is actually an impoundment of the Columbia River. The lake was flooded into existence by the reservoir created by The Dalles Dam.
Continue readingLast Wednesday I had to say goodbye to my special girl, Noelani, whose name means ‘heavenly mist’ in Hawaiian. She’d been diagnosed with yet another mammary tumor and as she’d already had two cancer surgeries, I opted against a complete mastectomy. At age 13 I felt it’d just be too much for her. Our wonderful vet, Cinda Scott, DVM, at Springwater Veterinary Wellness Center put Noelani on some natural, herbal, supplements, and by doing so, I really feel she was able to extend my girl’s life by three months past the cancer specialist’s worst case scenario prognosis.
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