To continue our Eastern Oregon Trip: day three we traveled from John Day to Pendleton, a two and a half hour drive that we extended to four hours with photo stops.
The trip was over four passes, the highest a little over 5200 feet, with snow piled on the side of the road much of the way. Most of the photo stops were either of abandoned farmsteads
or near ghost towns such as Fox,
with its church and school which both still have their outhouses. We did see two pronghorn antelope on the side of the road, but not where I could get any photos.
In Pendleton we bought tickets to take the Underground Pendleton tour at 1:00 and had time for an interesting lunch at the Main Street Diner,
a spot which should be on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The hour and a half tour, led by Brad, ended up being a fascinating 2 1/2 hours.
We learned so much about the downtown Pendleton entertainment district developed in the 1890s, its underground city connections, and the Chinese who lived in the underground city.
The tour (which have been conducted since 1989) included a visit a Pendleton brothel which operated into the 1970s.
We would definitely recommend a visit to Pendleton’s underground as both informational and entertaining--it’s definitely big bang for your bucks.
That night we tried to listen to one of our favorite celtic/bluegrass groups, Tiller’s Folly, at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino. Check them out at www.tillersfolly.com. The venue was loud, the crowd was young and drunk, and the acoustics poor--but otherwise we enjoyed the show.
Saturday we had a tee time at Wildhorse GC, one of our favorite courses, at 12:30. We played in what can only be termed brutal conditions: 40-45° with 30-40 mile an hour winds. It got colder as we played and the snow accumulating on the surrounding hills got lower and lower. The only interesting thing about our golf, other than surviving, was that we played with a couple we didn’t know from across town in Canby, a first for us.
Our last day was the long drive home fighting the high winds in the Columbia River gorge. Besides some good photos and good memories, we come away from the trip with a renewed commitment to see more of Oregon.
Next Post will be from our spring trip to Scotland and England. Until then, Cheers!
