Hood Campground, USACE, Pasco, Washington: July 20 to 27, 2015

 The drive from Idaho to Washington started out very well – we stopped at the Country Coffee Cabin and I got fantastic sweet roll and Rich had the cowboy breakfast. It's reason enough to travel that way the next time we're anywhere near! We traveled through some wild mountainous country, dry high desert, and lush irrigated fields with cattle, and my first view of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

Hood Campground is a beautifully manicured park on Lake Wallula and extremely popular with the locals, but the restrooms weren't much to brag about. We camped beneath huge spruce and fir trees, and the weather was beautiful – a little warm, but not uncomfortable. The campground boating families. Across from the park is a grain elevator and, as is common in the dry area during years of exceptionally high grain production, the extra grain is stored on the ground outside in huge piles. Presumably they load it onto the barges before that of the grain stored in the silos. A short way beyond the grain elevators was a large rail yard with 20 or more tracks that was busy no matter what time we drove past. 

We spent our first day straightening the truck and RV, and getting to know the campground. We learned of a farmers market nearby that was open Wednesdays and Saturdays, so decided to go by. We bought some wonderful peaches – one variety called a “donut” peach was off the charts – as well as chard, peppers, tomatoes, and I don't remember what else. I checked TripAdvisor and found a highly rated bakery right next to the market, so of course, had to stop. We got some wonderful sweets, including a delight called 

1,000 layer caramel dessert which is like a Napoleon on steroids – awesome! We found a Mexican restaurant, El Mirador, that made our 10 worst restaurants list although it ranked high on the foodie apps. After lunch, we went to a large Mexican grocery store (should have eaten here, from the number of folks at the lunch counter) and picked up limes for a nickle each and four avocados for a buck, and some very good chorizo.

From there we headed over to Sacagawea Park and learned lots of things – foremost being we

have been misspelling and -pronouncing Sacagawea all these years. (Seven spellings are used in the Lewis & Clark Journals.) Pronounciation is Sah-Kah-Gah-WEE-ah. Of course, give it a few more years of research and there will probably be another “correct” way.

The small but informative museum at the park took us about an hour to go through although we could have easily spent longer. Much of the museum was dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition and the American Indian tribes of the Columbia Plateau. The signage was well done

and the two docents were friendly and helpful.

The next day we crossed the Columbia River and drove west in Oregon along the Columbia River Gorge, then crossed back into Washington and returned to camp along the river. The scenery was breathtaking and underscores the difference irrigation makes in this high desert country. With no irrigation, the land is covered by a wiry, golden grass and not much else, whereas with water? Lush green fields of grapes, apples, maraschino cherry trees, wheat, and other crops abound.

Saturday saw us back to the farmer's market for fresh produce and fruit and back to the SuperMex El Pueblo Market for more avocados, limes, and chorizo. We decided to try their lunch, and this time, were not disappointed with lunch. Authentic Mexican food as good as we've ever found.

Upon our return to camp we noticed an airstream across from us; Rich noticed the tow vehicle and I noticed the small herb garden growing in a planter atop their gas bottle cover. Turns out, it was Tom and Barb, folks we had met in Michigan two years ago. We had a good chat and caught up with all their travels and shared some of

our experiences – it's always fun to come across folks we've connected with in another part of the country.

We learned that Charbonneau campground and Ice Harbor Dam, another Corps park was not far from us - just east along the river so we decided to take a look. The dam was interesting, with fish ladders, which we'd never seen before, but they didn't allow cameras, sadly. We spent some time in the visitor's center and then drove around the nearby campground. It wasn't our style – sites very close together and not much buffer between.

The next day, we headed out to Rock Creek Reservoir Campground in the Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon.