To Ida Ho Ho Ho via the Painted Hills

 After a delightful breakfast and plenty of talk about Jan’s next trip and what we should try and see and do during our day’s travels we headed off with plenty of plans. One of those plans was to use Jan’s discount voucher to fuel up and we were able to have our petrol (gas) pumped for us, as Oregon doesn’t allow you to use the pump. Would be a good job creator at home!

Two more stops first at Big 5 for new hiking shoes for our upcoming Yellowstone and Glacier National Park adventures and then at a Goodwill thrift store where we bought some items we hadn’t packed due to trying to limit our luggage weight flying over.

Those necessary stops completed we headed east on the 2 lane rural Highway 26 which by the way is in much better condition than most of Australia’s major highways. Oh well the United States does lay claim to being the home of the Road Trip!

Timberlake Lodge on Mount Hood was our next stop and we were amazed to see skiers and snowboarders boarding the gondolier on what was a very warm morning. I guess if you have snow, (Mt Hood) is 3427 metres (11245 feet), you will find skiers. Timberlake Lodge is fabulous! How they afforded to build it in the 1930s is amazing. The stone fireplace itself is stunning and immense.

After looking at the opulent restaurant we chose to get back on the road and to search for a much more affordable picnic place. Five minutes off the main road we found what we were looking for at Frog Lake where we enjoyed avocado, lettuce and tomato wraps on the shady picnic table right next to the very popular lake.

Mitchell, tonight’s destination, was still quite few hours away so we decided to keep on keeping on. For some time the air was becoming more and more smoky and there had been signs that very hot fires had been recent in the area. We didn’t actually see any that were burning but Smoky the Bear fire danger signs were all over the place.

Shortly after this we entered the town of Mitchell and booked into our quaint accommodation, The Oregon Hotel, where we were greeted very warmly in a hotel that is reputedly haunted. No doubt we’ll see, feel or hear later whether that’s true! We did find out that the fires we’d passed through were two weeks old!! But there were more burning further on.http://theoregonhotel.net/

After we unloaded what we needed for the night we headed back about 6 kilometres (4 miles) to the Painted Hills. Sunset on the cloud free but smoky skies was accentuating the stripes of colour that give the “Painted Hills” their name. Keen photographers complete with numerous (and probably) expensive lenses of all shapes and sizes were jockeying to set up their tripods in the most advantageous place.

Wisdom prevailed and we chose to set up where there was a seat (to rest us) and a table (to rest our drinks and snacks)! True professionals!!! However using the combination Olympus, the I Phone and the Aldicam we managed OK and the glass of red wine and the black pepper popcorn we enjoyed...were our tripod!!

Sunset and hunger coincided and we returned to the front porch of the Oregon Hotel where we prepared and ate a delightful tuna salad washed down with the last of the red wine and watched a deer nibbling the green shoots across the road. Not much to Mitchell except a couple of cafes and some faded glory but the Painted Hills section of the John Day Fossil Beds made it worth the stop. Mind you The Oregon Hotel room complete with cast iron bath was a great find!  A full nights sleep followed!

Although we woke early we took a while getting going due to having to make a change to a booking we had made earlier for our stay in Yellowstone. Had to add a day at Grand Teton and cancel a Couchsurf at Billings which was a pity.  The other holdup was a computer/ camera/ Apiarist issue. Oh well!! All was resolved and we got away after breakfast on the verandah, passing the time between mouthfuls while we gained tourist info from a couple of 60+ Harley Riders!!! There are lots of people taking advantage of the great roads on motorbikes here and 90% are on Harleys!

First stop was at the John Day Fossil Centre, another attraction we didn’t expect. It was an excellent museum that detailed the history of the last 45 million years. We weren’t aware that such a great museum existed and nor were we aware of the importance of this area's fossil history! We left with far greater knowledge than we walked in with! http://www.nps.gov/joda/index.htm 

The next part of the very scenic drive took us through a series of mesa like formations and we now knew how they were formed. Before long the area had flattened and farmland displayed lots of irrigated alfalfa, with haymaking being the order of the day, and interspersed with crops of wheat. We wondered of the practice of irrigation being carried out during what was a very hot day - couldn’t it take place at night? But it sure does make hay!

Boise (pronounced Boysee) Idaho was the destination we were seeking and even though we arrived later than we expected with a time zone change partly the problem and too much to see being the main reason! Shopped at a great Co Op food store with lots of interesting vegetarian/ vegan ideas and roamed around the centre of Idaho’s Capital city.

We used a hotels.com bonus night to enjoy some luxury and stayed at the Boise Guest House. Very, very NICE!