Mile Marker Post: Mt. Hood Village Rv

4/17

Leaving Columbia Sun RV just before 10am we head for our first stop on this southbound adventure,

Mt. Hood Village RV.

The NOAA weather forcast for Welches - Mt. Hood RV is rain/snow.

Really? How does heading south make snow possible?

We used OnStar to get directions to Mt. Hood Village RV resort. This is a Thousand Trails resort

so we will be staying free because we have joined Thousand Trails Pass. You more or less pay up

front for your stay at these resorts.

We are directed to head south on I-82 / I-395  for 34 miles to connect to I-84 E on the Oregon side

of the Columbia River. I-82 / I-395  is uphill for what seems to be miles and miles. The truck seems

to take this in stride.

Wind! I forgot the wind that came out of the west. We would be heading straight into it when on 84.  

The drive east on I-84, was windy still but the drive down the Columbia Gorge was comfortable and

very very scenic.

Cue:

‘Roll on, Columbia, roll on

Your power is turning our darkness to dawn

So roll on, Columbia, roll on’ (Woody Guthrie).

This being April, the gorge is greening up beautifully. The cliffs both north side and south side of the

Columbia have smatterings of greens on their anceint weather worn faces. The southern side cliff

faces being close to us on our left,  are simply springtime beautiful. The scenery changes second

by second, constantly envoking an internal dialogue of Ohhs, Ahhs and Wows.

I feel that anytime you mix river, road and canyons you have beauty that cannot be described by

words only and incompletely by photos.

We stop at the Memaloose rest stop about 9 miles from our turnoff south on SR-35. Very much needed

stop. Dogs and humans took advantage of grounds and facilities. Beautiful rest stop, which is really not

saying much as every vantage point along this drive down the Columbia Gorge has been beautiful.

At the junction of 84 and 35 we head south on 35, OnStar says we have 37 mile to the junction with 26 E.

Again we gain altitude, I set the cruise at 55 and again the truck and trailer handle great with no sign of

struggle.

Pear orchards are in bloom along 35 and we keep climbing.

About 20 minutes into the drive south we pull to the shoulder to let an ambulance go blaring by. Its

destination was revealed a couple minutes down the road. Looked like a collision at an intersection.

Hope for the best to all involved.

The shoulders of the road start turning white with skiffs of snow. At times snowflakes are visible falling

from the lead grey sky. I am getting grumpy and white knuckled. Warning Signs keep appearing to telling

me to be sure I  have chains or traction tires. The truck is 4WD but the 16000 lbs of trailer behind me

will not care, if conditions get to ‘must have chains’ point. The snow on the shoulders get deeper and the

now rain is now visibly laced with snow. We keep climbing and I keep getting grumpier and more white

knuckled. About 5 miles before the junction with 26W we start down and patches of slush are disapearing.

We take 26W and OnStar tells us there is 17 more miles to go and we start climbing again. My internal

dialogue is laced with blue colored words about snow in April and RV resorts in the middle of nowhere.

We did not climb for long before the desent began.

Did I say steep desent?

I had to use the exhaust braking quite a lot on the way down. The whole save your brakes theory in

action.

Anyway, we found our RV resort around 2:30 and got checked in. Our site, #83, was a backin site and we

finagled ourselves into the site and set up with little trouble.

Later in the evening we go to the Lodge because all wifi is in the lodge and Connie sets up the rest of the

trip down 101.

Below is our scheduled stops so far :

State	Arrive/Leave	Date	RV park
Washington	L	4/17	Columbia Sun RV resort
Oregon	A	4/17	Mt. Hood Village RV
Oregon		4/18	Mt. Hood Village RV
Oregon	L	4/19	Mt. Hood Village RV
Oregon	A	4/19	Whalers Rest Rv, South Beach
Oregon		4/20	Whalers Rest Rv, South Beach
Oregon		4/21	Whalers Rest Rv, South Beach
Oregon		4/22	Whalers Rest Rv, South Beach
Oregon	L	4/23	Whalers Rest Rv, South Beach
Oregon	A	4/23	Mill Casino, Coos Bay
Oregon	L	4/24	Mill Casino, Coos Bay
Cali	A	4/24	Kamp Klamath, Klamath
Cali		4/25	Kamp Klamath, Klamath
Cali	L	4/26	Kamp Klamath, Klamath
Cali	A	4/26	Russian River, Cloverdale
Cali		4/27	Russian River, Cloverdale
Cali		4/28	Russian River, Cloverdale
Cali	L	4/29	Russian River, Cloverdale
Cali	A	4/29	Morgan Hill RV, Morgan Hill
Cali		4/30	Morgan Hill RV, Morgan Hill
Cali	L	5/1	Morgan Hill RV, Morgan Hill
Cali	L	5/2	Morgan Hill RV, Morgan Hill
Cali	A	5/2	Rancho Oso, Santa Barbara
Cali		5/3	Rancho Oso, Santa Barbara
Cali	L	5/4	Rancho Oso, Santa Barbara

It was a good day.