Baker City, Oregon, United StatesKnights Inn Baker City
| 2205 Broadway, Baker City, OR, US |
| +1 602-710-7743 |
I woke up a few minutes before 7 am and packed up what was in my sleeping room (Merced's office) as best I could.
I dressed, but planned to come back up and shower after I had some coffee. Candae and Merced were cooking breakfast - Candae was making a quesadilla and offered me the ingredients to make one for my journey. I made my usual muesli and drank my coffee and gathered up my stuff, consolidating what was upstairs with what was downstairs and moving the stuff into the garage and consolidating it with what was there. After breakfast, I began putting the stuff in the car. It all went quite quickly. I said goodbye to Candae and Merced and drove off.
My first stop was Serge's because I realized I had left John's ice packs in the refrigerator there and also my sd card on the window sill in the living room. When I got there, Serge and I chatted for a bit and, as he was working, I went off to Fred Meyer for my supplies - I bought 6 qts of motor oil, some blueberries and avocados, sushi, a dessert, some other food I think, and I got cash from the ATM since I had only change left at that point. It took hours before I realized that I had forgotten the item that was on the top of my list: Bob's Red Mill mueslIi.
Now I am hoping I can find some at the supermarket here in Baker City before I leave Oregon. It had taken me awhile - oh, yes, I filled up with gas at Fred Meyer - using my new Fred Meyer card - so now, I had a $100 towards my first 10 cents off/gal but I hadn't earned it until after I bought the gas. Oh, well - maybe I can send it back to Candae or Serge.
I think I managed to get on Rt26 without making any wrong turns. It might have been as late as 11:30 am by now. So I set off to Portland on rt26, then 405, before getting on I-84. It went fairly smoothly except for the fact that it was raining. I had had only one day with rain and some sprinkles a few other days on my drive out, and not really much rain while in Beaverton, so now as I departed, it began to rain again - quite steadily but luckily not a downpour that obliterated seeing anything. It took quite a while to get out of Portland, and then I was headed into the Columbia Gorge with its view of the river and the cliffs on the south side of the highway.
I recognized a few of the the places from some of Candae or Brenda's photo excursions that I was taken on, like Rowena Crest and others I can't recall now.
Soon I hit Hood River and the Dalles and the rain tapered off and it was relatively dry for awhile, then more rain, and then, finally, the sky mostly cleared of rain, but not clouds so that made for some pretty dramatic skies. I stopped a few times - at rest stops, at a travelers rest stop where I got a thermos full of coffee for the refill price of $1.20. There have been several surprises on this trip - bargain coffees that tasted good! I stopped at one exit where I took some photos of the landscape and skyscapes. Then just before stopping for the night in Baker City, I stopped at a rest stop where I took quite a few pics of the landscape and dramatic sky.
I-84 has lots and lots of semis and I am surprised that there are also lots of big RVs still on the road after labor day. I went up a mountain pass right after Pendleton, OR that was up and up and curve after curve with lots o semis slowing down and RVs slowing down.
I ended up passing quite often and then, as it got closer to 6 pm and the cloudiness added to the dusk, it became harder to see, so I slowed down behind some vehicle and just stayed there until I pulled off at the Baker City exit to find a place to stay. I first saw a quality inn but when I checked it on Hopper, it was one of the more expensive options so I went for the one with the highest discount. It is a Knights Inn - one of the shabbier types with parking outside your door but this is actually more convenient for me since my organization style causes me to be dragging so much stuff inside.
I got my room. I thought his internet must be especially slow since it took him ages to register me. I went to my room, dragged in all my bags and things and then went to check the toilet since I heard this noise. I tried to jiggle the toilet tank contents into stopping making that noise but only succeeded in getting the floor and parts of my jeans all wet from a spraying part of the toilet tank innards.
I called the manager and he was really nice, moving me to the room next door. I showed him what I had done and he seemed to have fixed the errant mechanism.
I managed to lay out a few things and get a little organization, ready to eat and to read, when Candae called at 7 pm as she had requested. We had a nice chat - she tried to cheer me up and gave me some good advice which I might not be ready to act on yet and said goodnight. I ate my sushi and started this blog. I had hoped to shower tonight but I was feeling really tired before starting the blog so I may just go to sleep and shower in am.
I think I have a plan for tomorrow. The manager said breakfast here is 6:30 to 9:30 so I will check it out. My coffee was still quite warm when I got here but it is a bit too late to drink any more tonight. So off to dreamland.
2025-05-22