West 2021:
Day 16 - Farewell Bend State Park, OR

	Tuesday, May 18, 2021: Sunrise also arrives a little later when you're camping in a canyon.
	The sun hadn't quite reached the riverbed by the time we hit the road around 7:45 AM.
	We passed more orchards but were especially impressed by this grove of espaliered fruit trees. Espalier - look it up. It's a cool word and a cool technique.
	We treated ourselves to breakfast at McDonald's in Yakima and it was so decadent.
	We often consulted Roadside America to see what interesting things there were to see on our route. We were visiting Zillah, Washington, anyway, so why not go a little further out of our way to see the mascot of the Church of God - Zillah? Sure enough, at the edge of the parking lot of a church is a wire-framed Godzilla, mounted on a trailer, ready to pull in any parade.
	Next, we visited the Teapot Dome Service Station, named after the Teapot Dome Scandal of 1921-1923. This used to be a working gas station, but now it is part of a well-maintained city park. The unique building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
	Before leaving, we watched a killdeer hopping on the grass.
	On our way out of town, we finally saw the Maersk container that we hadn't noticed on our way in.
	Our route took us into the town of Prosser, along the attractively named Wine Country Road, ...
	On our way into town, we noticed a sign for the Chukar Cherries headquarters, so we made a little detour across the Yakima River ...
	... to the mothership of tasty goodness. Doug and Susan occasionally send us Chukar Cherries goodies for Christmas, but we don't have these delights in Indiana.
	We had a short but fun visit to the gift shop where the clerk offered us a few samples.
	In a remarkable show of restraint, we left with only a bag each of Classic Milk Cherries and Cherry Bings, plus ...
	... a headquarters-gift-shop-exclusive product, Cherry Bombs, which consists of candy pieces that are too small, too large, or second quality in some other way, so they are sold at nearly half-price. We should have loaded up on this product. Big mistake buying only one bag.
	After tucking our purchases into the refrigerator, we crossed back over the Yakima River ...
	... to start hunting down the statues we had started to find on our drive in. They were created in 2019 as Prosser's Parade of Ponies. Here's one, ...
	... and another ...
	... and another (Starry Night!) ...
	... and another ...
	... and another ...
	... and our favorite ONE. Hahaha, we are hilarious.
	Prosser's downtown has a cool old theater building, the Princess.
	Our route took us through wide open rolling hills. Near here, Tom noticed some sweet onions on side of the road that had fallen off a truck, and we realized that we were near Walla Walla for which a type of sweet onion is named.
	More driving.
	We crossed the Columbia River ...
	... at the Oregon border. Welcome to your 28th state, The Ocho!
	We drove to Hat Rock State Park, ...
	... where this hat-shaped butte just south of the Columbia River was given its name by a member of the Lewis and Clark party. The rock formation resembled Devil's Tower in shape and geological makeup.
	Hey, the Cold Springs National Wildlife Refuge is next left! And that's the way our route is going anyway! We followed these signs for several miles, but eventually our route diverged. Upon checking the map, we learned that we would have had to drive at least another five miles out of our way to get there, no matter how many of these enticing signs we saw.
	Instead, we enjoyed the not-so-wildlife we drove past, such as these cows with very impressive horns.
	Tom was resigned to having to get gas in the last state in the union that doesn't allow self-serve gas. However, the pandemic giveth and the pandemic taketh away, and in this case, the pandemic giveth: a sign announced that the gas was temporarily self-serve! Hooray! Perhaps the next time we visit Oregon, they will have modernized like EVERY SINGLE OTHER STATE.
	A fellow class B owner was also filling up at the time, and he came by to compare rigs with Tom. For the record, his Travato and our Sequence are very similar, except that Travatos have been around much longer, cost a little more, and are one of the rigs that our rig's product line was specifically trying to compete with. But it's all good because all class B owners are friends on the road. (Except those Sprinter owners! They rarely wave back at us!)
	Our next stop was outside the City of Echo, ...
	... where we were heading to an Oregon Trail site, ...
	... Echo Meadows.
	Out in the middle of nowhere is a small shelter with three interpretive signs.
	A short walk takes you to the gate that takes you to a longer walk to see Oregon Trail wagon ruts.
	Off we go! It's a half-mile each way, and the Eurovision semi-finals started in 35 minutes, so we had to get moving.
	Eww! Fire ants! Having encountered these a few months earlier in south Texas, we photographed and then kept moving quickly.
	There was a small trail and what appeared to be a sign at the top of this hill, but we didn't want to add more time and distance to our trip so we will never, ever know what was up there.
	After a brisk 10-minute walk, we arrived at the site.
	Here's the view to the east ...
	... and to the west.
	Here's a pretty plant.
	No time to dawdle - it's time for the brisk hike back!
	But wait, here's a gigantic beetle. Let's use Debbie's hand as a size reference.
	We had exactly 13 minutes to spare before noon, so Debbie made sandwiches for lunch ...
	... and fired up Eurovision on her phone while Tom drove as fast as he could to get us anywhere at all with better cell service than one bar.
	The city of Echo had other charms, like this pretty old church, ...
	... this Standard Oil station-turned-boutique, ...
	... and this regal Bank of Echo.
	Back on a freeway, Debbie kept an eye on Eurovision and the scenery simultaneously.
	A sign up the road read: "Warning: Solar Glare," and when we got to this solar farm, we understood why. Hooray for partly cloudy skies and good timing on the cloud cover!
	We passed this Stonehenge of beehives as we headed up the side of a hill ...
	... to a scenic overlook.
	But we got a better photo on the road up than at the actual overlook, so here it is.
	Pretty scenery.
	We drove through Wallowa-Whitman National Forest but didn't get a picture of the sign.
	Maersk!
	We spotted a silver Tellaro passing us on the other side of the freeway along this scenic stretch of highway.
	It took a while, but we finally got to the judging portion of the first Eurovision semi-finals. Europe, your taste in music is baffling sometimes.
	Our next destination was the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center ...
	... but it was closed. We did get a picture of the beautiful gate though.
	We were on Oregon Scenic Byway for the short period of time that it took to get to the interpretive center and then back on the highway.
	We thought this was a very pretty factory or refinery or utility or something. Domes are cool.
	So are tunnels.
	Sometimes, rocks just randomly appeared along the hills.
	What's this thing? Something mine-related? We may never know.
	Having crossed back into Mountain Time Zone, it was 3:00 PM when we arrived at Farewell Bend State Park.
	A historical marker was there to tell us about the Oregon Trail significance of Farewell Bend.
	We quickly got set up and used the back door screen for the first time on our trip.
	We had a great campsite with a view straight to the river and privacy on either side of us.
	Tom took this opportunity to shave after showering, ...
	... and our wet towels got to air dry hanging from the valet bar in the breezy poptop.
	Dinner was freeze-dried Thai curry with diced chicken from home.
	Here's a look at our full campsite. It was a nice treat to use the awning.
	After dinner, we went for a walk along the Snake River.
	That's Idaho just across the water.
	A pair of mallard ducks were enjoying the water too.
	These pretty flowers were starting to close for the evening.
	Our evening entertainment was a Netflix DVD of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." Day 17 >