Some Camping Time pt. 1

We have made the most of the ever so brief dry season in the Pacific Northwest and did two extended weekend campouts back to back.

July 4th weekend saw us traveling to the tiny town of Fossil, Oregon for the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival with about 20 other VW's from the WetWesties. This was the first time I've been to this part of Oregon and the scenery was fascinating. Lots of rolling hills with just a tint of green, canyons, wheat fields and windmill farms.

This is the view approaching the Columbia. After living on the "green" side of the mountains, this scenery always fascinates me by it's starkness.

We met up with friends at a camping area along the river and then had a 5 bus caravan through a fabulous canyon road, eventually ending up at Fossil.

Central Washington and Oregon, especially the areas along the Columbia have exploded with windmill farms in the last several years. They have an almost "War of the Worlds" feel as you travel along and see these huge blades peeking over the hill tops.

Then, amid all the dry, arid hills, you see something like this surprise river and little oasis of green.

Did I mention that this side of the mountains gets hot? It hit 87 which for those of us on the "wimpy" side of the state is down right cooking. I don't think we've even hit 80 yet this year. Unfortunately the wind was also blowing a lot of dust and there was something that definitely bothered The Bearded One's allergies. We were told it was probably the juniper trees. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that we left a day early so that he would be able to recover in time for our next camping trip to Mt. Rainier in a few days.

Oh yeah, the music was great. Besides stuff going on in town all day long, the entire camping area was filled with lots of people doing impromptu jam sessions. The music literally surrounded us. Saturday there was a great car show which had all the guys drooling. And, true to our tradition, there was a great potluck. VW folks sure know how to eat.

Stay tuned for pt. 2 -- Mt. Rainier.