The End Of The Trail. Lewis & Clark. (OR)

About 4 hours Travel Day drive today. As we crossed over Columbia River (Pasco, WA,) and into Oregon we remembered this entire road from travels in the past. We saw several large barges and towboats. The landscape changes from dried arid to a few green grass and some trees with great views. And then to the thick trees so thick that you can’t even see the river that is right there. Passed several dams. It got dark, damp, and rainy. Went through Portland then up to our campground at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park. This is the perfect and definitely best site in the campground for HOWE (footnote 1) . We have fully open sky and open area around us. Starlink (footnote 2) will definitely work at our site.

Happy Labor Day & End of Lewis & Clark Trail Travels!

We headed north on Hwy 47 until we came to Hwy 30 along the Columbia River. 47 was very twisty turny – don’t go over the white line because it drops straight down. Occasionally we would see some good views through the thick trees. Along the Columbia River we only got a few glimpses. Got to Astoria; we passed the LightShip Columbia and great museum we visited back in 2023. We highly recommend it. Over the bridge to Washington. We turned right and went about a mile to Dismal Nitch. This has been made into a nice rest stop with signs telling about Lewis & Clark and their experience here. They got here and got stuck in storms that lasted 6 days. As we see, there was no place to go inland because it is a steep slope. They were miserable here and I can see why. You can see in the pictures where Seaman (footnote 3) fell over from the memories! HA We drove past Station Camp and on to Cape Disappointment and to Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. The parking is only about 12 spots and thankfully, like in 2023, we found the last spot. Then you walk up a path to the views of the Pacific Ocean and the visitor center. 

WOW! What are our feelings here? It was amazing to have traveled along the Lewis & Clark and Corps of Discovery Expedition! To see the Pacific Ocean was the feeling of “ah, they made it.”

The visitor center does an overview of the entire journey. It was a fun way for us to review every place along the way. We stopped at the gift shop and I bought a Lewis & Clark Washington ornament and Kevin got a peace coin. He had looked for one all along the way and only found it here. 

From here we drove over the bridge again and to Fort Clatsop. When we were here in 2023, they were building the visitor center. After showing my park pass to the ranger inside, he looked over Seaman (footnote 3) and asked if he was real. HA No animals allowed except for ADA. 

Down to Seaside, OR, and oh, it was packed. No parking. We had a feeling it would be that way. Since we have already seen the salt works and statues and the beach, lighthouse, and ocean here, we didn’t need to do it again since it was so busy.

Sourdough Starter: The new food-grade gloves, Naturalfit Nitrile Gloves by Handgards, size small, are very perfect for hand mixing my Sourdough dough! I like the band at the wrist that holds the gloves from slipping and the size small is a perfect fit. It was so nice to not only have them for Sourdough but also for touching hamburger while making meatloaf! And plus, my Gelish (nail polish) nails are loving the glove protection! 

I got my iPad out to do some reading and I notice the time was 3:03 p.m. Wow, this day went fast! No, the time here is 11:03 a.m. What? I went to the date and time setting on the iPad and it showed I am in “Cordoba time zone.” Hum, that is in Spain! LOL I switched it over to not change to local time zone. That was pretty funny. 

Sourdough Starter: I made Italian Herb Sourdough Bread for our friend. We will visit her tomorrow.

Today we went 52 miles to see our friend in Portland. Her front and side yards are beautiful. The roads are very tight here; often only one vehicle and get through at a time. The thing we noticed…everyone was so nice and chill and let you go first and let you over in a lane on the highway if you wanted. Kevin said the traffic reminded him of California (turn your signal on and they back off right away). 

Flower pictures above are from her yard. We got to meet her big dog and he is so sweet. I gave her the Sourdough bread and she gave me a gift bag. In it are taco seasonings since she and I used to text about how hard it was to find good taco seasoning. So sweet of her. She had fresh cantaloupe, Tillamook cheese packs, and lemon tea scones for us to eat when we got there. After visiting for a bit, we got in our truck and went to Sellwood Riverfront Park. This is along the Willamette (will-AM-it) River. It was neat to walk down to the river and see a few people on a beach and two small boats. The views are pretty of downtown Portland from here. Lunch was at The Old Spaghetti Factory. The first Old Spaghetti Factory was here in Portland. We had a wonderful day visiting with our friend. So thankful for her. 

Several people have asked if we are done with our full-time traveling around the country. Nope, we are still enjoying it and continuing on. So much to see, experience, and do. Very grateful.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country. HOWE has stayed at least one night in all 48 continuous U.S. states.

2. Starlink is satellite internet. It works even when you are out of cell coverage area. You can make phone call through it, too. The company named the user terminal “Dishy McFlatface” and every calls it “Dishy” for short. 🙂

3. Seaman – this is a toy dog we bought at the start of Lewis & Clark Trail. He is like the real dog that Meriwether Lewis had and took on the Trail with him. We thought it would be fun to take pictures of our Seaman as we travel along the Lewis & Clark Trail.