When the ranchers and gold miners were looking for somewhere more cosmopolitan to go one of the first places they found was Baker City. Because of the many historic buildings Baker City is one of the prettiest cities in Oregon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_City,_Oregon

The most impressive building is the Geiser Grand Hotel. It opened in 1889.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiser_Grand_Hotel

We stopped to take a peak at the Geiser Grand Hotel and were surprised by large metal sculptures scattered around downtown.

https://www.artroamers.com/

We’re starting to see more signs of 2023 here. There were posters around downtown advertising the upcoming Pride Walk. Interstate 84 is nearby. And the median age has dropped to 44.

We stopped in Pendleton for a tour of the historic woolen mill. They figure there used to be around 2,000 woolen mills in the United States. Now there are four, and they own two of them. Their other mill is in Washougal WA.

https://www.pendleton-usa.com/company-history.html https://www.pendleton-usa.com/mill-tours.html

They are still using a lot of the old equipment to turn the wool into yarn. This makes it one of the best museums in Oregon. Their store sells seconds. We picked up a nice wool blanket with a small stain for about half of what it would cost if perfect.
It’s ivory now, but I’ll dye it a dark purple. They use American wool for blankets, but they have to import wool for lighter fabrics.

In Pendleton there were posters for an upcoming Pride parade. The median age has dropped to 36.9, which is below the statewide average of 40.

From here we’re headed to the Horsethief Lake campground in Washington, but we had to make a small detour for the Saint John’s Greek Orthodox Monastery.

https://stjohnmonastery.org/

We were there for their delightfully decadent pastries and coffee. The sisters start their day at 2AM with prayer and meditation. They need some of that prayer to atone for the gluttony they encourage. To be fair they also sell more or less healthy
traditional Greek food. We didn’t buy any of that.

https://bakery.stjohnmonastery.org/

When we got back down by the Columbia river we say a large portable reader board with a simple messgae: “Plane wreck, we know”. Sure enough a little further down the road, upside down and nose first, a small plane was sitting in a small ravine. The
engine had died. The pilot walked away without any injuries.

https://www.goldendalesentinel.com/news/airplane-crashes-upside-down/article_4cdba3ae-0acc-11ee-980c-33335e286f3f.html

Horsethief Lake State Campground is another example of job creation. The campground is only lightly used and with good reason. There is almost always a stiff breeze blowing through there. They have a wheelbarrow to help the tent campers haul their stuff
to an open area away from the parking lot. This also puts them a good distance from the restrooms and showers. The RV spaces are closer to the restrooms. The have a couple of sad little cabins with a couple of cots and chairs. The one we looked at had a
big rock to hold the door closed. Basically the unpaid camp hosts was running the campground and you can buy ice from them. There were a couple of college girls manicuring the lawns. There was another kid doing chores around the headquarters and it
looked like they had 4 or 5 full time paid staff to hold the office down.

We were there for the petroglyphs.

http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/horsethief_butte_petroglyphs.html

We had one last stop on our way back home. The Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum. I had seen the museum previously. My wife hadn’t. The museum hasn’t changed much over the years and it looks like they aren’t getting a lot of visitors. We
only saw one person working in the museum and a few other visitors. This one one of several museums I’ve seen lately that look like they’ve seen better days.

http://www.columbiagorge.org/

From here we drove over the Bridge of the Gods and returned home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_the_Gods_(modern_structure)

TB

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)