You could hardly see the mountains in the horizon due to the snow storm going through the mountains.
I took this picture of a flag, to show how strong the wind was blowing!!!
Then about 1pm we rolled into Oregon!!!! The Welcome to Oregon sign was at the end of a bridge, and so we did not feel safe getting out at that location to take a picture....so we stopped at the first rest stop to see what we could find.
While we were at the rest stop we realized that the route that we had taken so far was the actual Oregon Trail route. It was really awesome....I remember playing the Oregon Trail game in Computer Lab when I was in Elementary school. I loved it!!!
Oregon was a really GREEN state as well, and the difference in the mountains was that they seems to be rounded, rolling type mountains. They were still REALLY HUGE, but they seemed to flow and have more rounded curves than the other mountains we had seen so far!!
It was so CRAZY...the wind was blowing really hard, and so there were all these tumble weeds blowing across the road. I had never driven through a tumble weed storm before, but we had these storms from Oregon until Washington!! So of course I had to take a picture....lol!!!
This was kind of scary....we were just driving along through the mountains, and then all of a sudden there is a train coming out you head on! It was really cool to see the trains going through the snow and mountains just like we were!!! Reminded me of my Papa!!!
I thought this was a cool picture to see the clouds shadows on the mountains!!!
Oh know is that the snow storm in the mountains we are heading for???
Yup it is...now we are driving in the snow. Not to bad....we had done it before a time or two, and so as long as there was no ice on the road, we were going to keep trucking!!! The visibility was so low that you can faintly see the mountains in the horizon!
So we were driving along, and then I see all these truckers pulled over on the freeway, and they have CHAINS on there tires. So I called Scott, and asked him why they would have chains on their tires if the road is clear. And I suggested that we exit and see what was going on, because I was NOT going to get stuck on the top of a mountain again with ice and snow. So like a good hubby, we pulled over and asked around at the gas stations and found out that the mountain pass a few miles ahead had been shut down all morning, due to ice and heavy snow, and there had been about 16 car accidents on the pass. The guy at the gas station said that the only problem really with the mountain pass was that the last 6 miles out of the mountain was all down hill, and so the ice was causing a BIG problem and people were losing control and sliding off the road!!! OH NO!!!! That is all I needed to hear, I am not going through that...we will just wait and sit it out!!! The road had just been opened back up, but they were demanding chains on truckers and anyone towing, well Scott was towing the trailer, and we did not have chains (not that if we did have chains my bottom was going through that storm, oh no!!!). So we decided to hang out a while in La Grande, OR and see how things progressed.
So we went to Pizza Hut, and had some lunch...we were pretty hungry!!!
Then after lunch Scott wanted to go to the police station and see if we could get a current road report, but no one was there! Darn!
Scott was thirsty!!!
And I just wanted my picture taken in the snow..lol!
So then we decided to go to Starbucks and use there wireless access so that Scott could check the weather and road reports and try to make a decision on whether we were going to stay the night and wait or if it was clear to go ahead and go!!! So I read book while he was researching!
This is what it looked like outside while we were waiting....I have never seen it snow this much before!!!
Scott could not find much out on the internet in regards to the roads and stuff, so we went back to our gas station to wait and call the 1-800 number that they had given us that give road reports. While we were waiting there was a motor home getting gas at the gas station, and so Scott said that he was going to go and talk to him and see which way he just came from. What a coincidence, he had just driven through the mountain pass, and said that the roads were all clear and that there was no ice, and it really wasn't snowing all that bad; we called the 1-800 number and they had taken the chains restriction off, and said it was clear. So we decide that we were going to go ahead and get on the road!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!! I was freaking out!! I was so nervous, anxious, scared, etc. about what we were about to do, but I had done much worse before, and so I tried to suck it up and go!!! I was hanging on to the steering wheel with a death grip, and I was praying, and praying, and praying X500, that the roads would be clear, and there would not be ice, and that we woudl both make it safely to the other side of the mountains!!! PLEASE JESUS!!! PROTECT US!!!
When we got about 2 miles into the mountain pass, the LORD answered my prayers, all the sudden you could see the sun shining through the trees, and it was melting the snow and ice that was on the roads! Praise you Jesus, you are an awesome God and answer prayer without a doubt!!! Thank you Jesus!!! SO my prayer from then on was; thank you Jesus for the sun, and please let it stay out till we get through the pass!!!
This was the crazy part. When we got to the down hill part, the last 6 miles, this is what we saw coming down, and there was NO snow at all!!! How weird is that....it doesn't even look like anything like what we were just driving through....it was CRAZY!!! But beautiful!!! The last six miles was very stresssful, it was all down hill, and there were several out of control ramps for the big trucks (and we could tell they had been USED a LOT!! SCARY!!), and we were winding and curving through the moutains!!! I was so ready to be on flat ground again. I really wanted to get out and kiss the flat road when we got through it...lol!!! Praise you Jesus, we made it to the other side safely!!!
I have to take a few minutes or lines and brag about my wonderful husband for a minute. He was the most supportive and encouraging man through the whole trip!!! He knows that I am a worry wart, and that I do NOT like storms or bad weather; and through the whole thing he would tell me how proud he is of me, and what a great job I was doing!!! It was awesome. What another wonderful blessing from God, by wonderful husband!!! Thank you Jesus, I could not have done it without you or him! Your the best babe! Love ya!!
Once we got through the mountain pass, it was not long before we saw the first road sign to exit for our destination: Kennewick, Washington!! WOOHOO, we are almost there!!!
Through out our trip we had seen a lot of the field sprinkler systems, and I kept telling Scott that I wanted to see one actually watering, because I have never seen one before, and right before we got to Washington we saw one!!! Had to take a picture!!!LOL!!!
There it is...the bridge that divides Oregon from Washington.....the border between the states is the river!!!
So therefore, the Welcome to Washington sign was in the middle of the bridge, and so we did not get to stop and take a picture in front of it, so I took one as we drove by!!!
Here we are coming over the mountain where we can see our Extened Vacation Destination!!! YEAH!! Almost there!!!
Kennewick, WA
That is the bridge that goes over the river from Kennewick to Pasco!
Yeah, we were finally here!!!! And our back, bottoms, hands, heck our whole bodies were screaming in excitement to get out of the car!!! It was funny though Scott had prepared so much on getting us to Kennewick, that he forgot to get a map for us once we got there to get to our townhouse. So we took a tour of the Tri Cities, until he figured out where he was and remembered how to get there....lol!!! It was a great time to look at the area though!!! It is gorgeous and awesome weather!!! It is going to be a great 8 months! Next I will blog about the town and our townhouse!!! See ya soon! Oh, thank you all so much for your prayers and support, we could not have done it with out yall. It was all greatly needed and appreciated! We love and miss you all already!!!
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