The weather was extremely cooperative\ntoday. We departed from our RV spot for the last week in Seaside and\nheaded out for points inland. We had two options. The shorter OR-26\nroute on skinny mountain roads that subsequently required a dreaded\ncrosstown west-to-east drive on Portland city streets. Or the much\nlonger route on OR-30 along the Columbia, into Washington at Kelso,\ndown I-5 to the Oregon border, across the Columbia a second time and\nonto I-84 east of Portland. Our destination was up the side of Mount\nHood, another stratovolcano east of and visible from Portland. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe chose the longer route and are\nhappy about it. Even with the roundabout route, we were still\nrequired to exit the freeway and drive for a while on city streets in\nGresham, a Portland suburb. The traffic signals in Gresham apparently\nuse the same traffic flow program used in San Diego, namely that\nevery car will be required to stop at every signal, even when no cars\nare driving on intersecting streets. We had ample time to see long\nsections of 182nd<\/sup> Avenue, Burnside St. and Powell St.\nbefore ultimately getting to OR-26 near Sandy, OR, where we turned\neast and escaped from the hellish, closely-spaced and always red\ntraffic lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tWe started climbing out of the\nlowlands and up the side of Mount Hood for about 20 miles before\npulling off at the Mount Hood Village RV Resort in the town of\nWelches. Due to our membership in Resort Parks International, we got\nto enjoy access to the park for $15 a night, a substantial discount\nfrom their lowest access fee of $55+ for ordinary mortals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were assigned a pretty good spot with full hookups, including cable TV. Unfortunately, there is no park-wide WiFi but we can probably go to a nearby McDonalds or public library for some internet access. By evening, the rain had started again but by that time, we were all set up and cozy inside the Barbarian Invader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To see a Portland Mohawk light rail station, click the link. https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/eYnmPM4NbtkfznSo7<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The weather was extremely cooperative today. We departed from our RV spot for the last week in Seaside and headed out for points inland. We had two options. The shorter OR-26 route on skinny mountain roads that subsequently required a … Continue reading