04-15- to 04-20-2025 Cruising the Mighty Columbia on American Pride

As always, Mo spent some time thinking about what she wanted to do for her birthday in March.  This year, she spent a bit more time planning and preparing for an extra-special treat to celebrate her day.  The only minor detail is that her day is the 1st of March, and her adventure of choice wasn't available until mid-April.  So this year, the birthday trip was a month and a half later than her actual day, and I am writing about it even later than that.

Springtime here at Sunset House is a flurry of activity, and spending time at the computer writing about our time on the river keeps falling to the back of the list each day as we work.  Our beloved property requires a plethora of projects to keep our home mowed, trimmed, fertilized, and watered as we prepare for the coming warm days of late spring, summer, and early fall.  We know what we need to do, and we each have our jobs and responsibilities.  I am a bit slower this year, so with the required afternoon rest time (which I find ridiculously irritating), writing has taken a big back seat.  

As always, I have many photos that help me remember each day of this short and sweet little vacation, and in addition, there are the calendars and the few notes that I kept tucked away in my private records. The one job I most often manage within days of returning home is editing and culling the hundreds of photos  I took, unable to limit my excess.

Only a few will end up on this blog, but there are many more for us to share and enjoy, as we look back over whatever activities have taken our attention.  Without the photos, I would barely remember anything.

We were camped on Sauvie Island in 2023 when we saw this American Cruise Lines Paddle Wheeler

In our years living in Southern Oregon, Mo and I have traveled east and west many times, following along the Mighty Columbia River as it flows toward the Pacific along Interstate 84.  We have often seen the sternwheelers with their big red paddle wheel from a distance and said, "Wouldn't that be something fun to do someday?!" River journeys aren't inexpensive, and it took a birthday for Mo to decide that she could plan a river trip and make the reservation for the two of us.

Mo chose American Cruise Lines for our trip, and the ship she chose was the American Pride.  Pride isn't the newest of the ships cruising the Columbia, but in our opinion, it is the most endearing.  There is something about the red, white, and blue color scheme and the bright red rear paddle wheel that felt so romantic.  Pride cruised the Mississippi River for many years, until she was transferred west to cruise the Columbia River.  To get here, she had to cross the infamous Columbia Bar, but more about that later.

Mattie Loves being at Melody and Robert's House

Our cruise began with a simple drive north to Portland, by way of Brownsville, where Melody and Robert waited with the cats for the arrival of "the dog".  Melody and Robert love Mattie, but their older cat Kago is a bit less excited when Mattie appears.  

Deja Vu checking out the dog

The newer kitty, DejaVu was even less enamored, but Mattie has learned to give the big kitty a wide berth after a time when Kago put Mattie in her place with a slap to the face.  We are so lucky that Melody and Robert are willing to dog sit for us since sending Mattie to a doggie boarding place isn't our favorite thing to do.  At Melody and Robert's house, she is loved, spoiled, and cuddled constantly, and barely notices that she has been temporarily abandoned.  

Throughout our journey, Melody sent photos of Mattie's adventures in Brownsville, including at least three daily walks in the park.

After leaving Brownsville in the afternoon, we drove north toward Portland International Airport and the Embassy Suites, where American Cruise Lines put us up for the night before our river departure the next day.  Mo's brother Dan and wife Chere agreed to drive to Portland and meet us at the airport for a short but sweet visit to share dinner and conversation at Famous Dave's BBQ just minutes from our hotel.  We had such a luscious supper and such fun conversation that I completely forgot to take photos.  We hadn't seen Dan and Chere since our shared camping trip last summer.  It is always fun to get together with them.

The view of Mount Hood to the east from our suite

After supper, we settled into our hotel, just minutes away.  In our view, the Embassy Suites was quite spectacular, with 8 floors opening on a beautiful atrium filled with waterfalls, fountains, and pools.  When the planes flew over, we understood the reason for all those water features:  they mask the sound of the low-flying airplanes!

Our room was big and roomy, actually a suite with a huge bedroom and a separate sitting room, and that's obviously why they call it the Embassy Suites and not the Embassy Hotel.  We had a beautiful view of the setting sun on Mount Hood to the east, a big comfy bed with excellent bedding, and two televisions, one in the bedroom and one in the adjacent sitting room. We had no time to watch even one of them as we prepared for our departure the next day.  Breakfast the next morning was quite nice as well, and complimentary. 

The day seemed to drag along after breakfast because we were not supposed to board the bus to the port until 11:30 AM.  As is often the case with cruises, we needed to have our bags ready to be picked up at 7AM for transport to the ship.  Hopefully, they would be waiting in our stateroom when we arrived.

Our sister ship parked right behind us in Washougal, ready for departure on the next day

The port where the ship was docked was about half an hour away, on the north side of the Washougal Waterfront Park Dock on the north shore of the Columbia River in Washington State.  We arrived shortly after noon and boarded the ship easily.  Lunch was waiting in the sky lounge on the 4th deck, just a short distance from our stateroom 403. When we entered our room, we were happy to see all our luggage, with one minor detail.  There was an extra piece we didn't recognize, but the stateroom number was just a couple of doors down from us.  I slipped the extra piece into our neighbor's room and never said a word.

 

We learned that the lunch served here each day was perfect for us.  Always fresh and delicious, with wraps, sandwiches, yummy desserts, and an unlimited supply of wine on the tray, it was a lovely place to eat the kind of light lunch we like. With only 140 passengers and 45 crew the ship never felt overcrowded and we always found a place to dine and relax.

Pride was scheduled to depart at 2 PM, but as sometimes happens, there were delays, and it was almost 3 before the ship was underway.  I loved the low vibrations of the ship engines and the low hum and gentle movement.  No fears of motion sickness of a river ship makes it even more relaxing for me, with my tendency to have vertigo and motion issues.

The views of Mount Hood from the river were spectacular.  We were thrilled with our weather forecast for the week, with no rain predicted and temperatures at least ten degrees above normal for this time of year.

Above: Sailing under the Glenn L Jackson Memorial Bridge (the I 205 Bridge) that connects Portland, Oregon, to Vancouver, Washington.

Sea Lions resting in the middle of the Columbia River

There was a bit more delay as we waited for the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 or BNSF Railway Bridge 9.6, also known as the Columbia River Railroad Bridge, to open for passage. The bridge was built by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and completed in 1908, and was the first bridge of any kind to be built across the lower Columbia River, preceding the first road bridge, the nearby Interstate Bridge, by a little more than eight years. The 2,807-foot-long bridge has a swing span, which pivots on its base to allow for the passage of taller ships. 

As we continued toward Portland and the confluence of the Columbia and the Willamette Rivers, we were fascinated by the complexity of the port.  Something surprising to us was how empty the container yards were, even before the tariffs were fully implemented.

We weren't sure how long it would take for the ship to travel the river toward the small town where Mo grew up.  She has memories of watching the big ships pass her home, and we hoped to get a photo from the water level.  In the meantime, however, while waiting for the ship to reach Columbia City, we explored the ship.

Above: Top deck lounge area adjacent to the captain's quarters and the bridge

Above- A favorite place for us to hang out on the 4th deck outside the Sky Lounge

I don't remember the exact number of white wooden rocking chairs there were but it was a LOT!

Above:  There it is, Reeder Beach Campground and RV Park!

The sun was getting low in the western sky as we approached Sauvie Island and passed our campground from the last two trips when we camped there. Within a short time, we passed Columbia City and finally the little town of St Helens came into view.  The sun was in my eyes, and of course, the camera had a hard time focusing on the shadows.  I must have taken 40 shots to try to find Mo's family home on the hill above the town.  No luck.  When we got home to the computer and perused all the photos, not one of them had a photo of her house.

Above:  There is the lighthouse that is at the end of the trail on Sauvie Island that we didn't manage to reach when we paddled on the Columbia with Dan and Cherie last year.

Below:  Dan, Chere, and Sophie the pup kayaking the Columbia toward the lighthouse

Below is the best photo I could get of the riverside community of Columbia City.  Mo's house is up the hill somewhere and probably to the left.  We still had fun trying to find it.  Something is endearing about visiting a familiar place in an unfamiliar form of transportation.  

We made it down to the first deck to the dining room in time for dinner.  On this river ship, dinner is served promptly between 5:30 and 7:30 PM, with tables for 6 or 8 most common and no simple tables for just two, which is usually our preference.  We were delighted that on the entire cruise, everyone we met was enjoyable and interesting.

Above: large ships on the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon

Dinner on our first night on the river was a perfectly prepared halibut with fresh asparagus and roasted potatoes.  Delicious!  It was just the beginning.  We had no expectations for great food, having read a few negative reviews about it on these ships.  We were happily surprised to discover that the food on this trip was a real highlight, with a nice variety of entrees at each meal.  Excellent Pacific Northwest ingredients and cooking styles were always part of the menu, and we loved it. Every meal we had was wonderful.

The dining room was lovely.  This photo is from a breakfast setting. I didn't manage a photo of the evening setting or the food because everyone was so nice, and taking photos of the meals seemed awkward.

Deluxe balcony Stateroom on the 4th Deck

There was entertainment on the first night, but it had been a long day, and we did not attend.  We settled into our room and were reasonably comfortable.  The bed wasn't the best feature of the cruise, but it was adequate.  The bathroom in our stateroom was quite roomy, bigger than some I have had in apartments I have lived in.

Our first day on the ship was lovely.  We were encouraged and looked forward to the next three days of cruising the river.

03-11 to 03-16-2025 One Last Visit With Friends and Then Toward Home

Yes, it is already April, and I am at last writing the final blog story about our winter trip to the Southern Deserts of California and Arizona.  Yes, at the moment, here in Grants Pass, it is raining, a cold rain that brought snow to the tops of the low mountains that surround us. My body isn't necessarily happy with the damp weather, and I woke up this morning remembering how good I felt on that last morning in the dry air of eastern Arizona.  

Mo and I walking the dog on a chilly day at the end of March

Nope, I have no desire to live in Arid-zona, ever.  No desire to live in any part of the country that is hot and dry most of the year in spite of how my body responds to wet weather.  Pretty sure I would respond just as poorly to too much heat.  Mo teases me a lot about this..."too hot, too cold".  Yup, that is me.  I do look forward to sunny, dry days with the temperature in the mid-70s, with a few puffy whites among the blue.  That happens here in May and June, then again in October.  I was talking with a friend recently, and we both agreed that May and October are perfect almost everywhere.

We left our fancy park in Willcox on the morning of the 11th, with no rush to get to Wickenburg, just under 300 miles and a reasonable 6 hour drive.  I asked Janna about what they considered to be the easiest route around Phoenix without driving right through the city.  It was an easy trip going west toward Gila Bend, then north and back east a little bit on the I-10 with a small bit of craziness on the 303.  That route is supposed to be a workaround to avoid I-17, which can be a bumper-to-bumper nightmare, but after all our time in the open deserts, it took a bit to get used to the traffic.

We pulled into Wickenburg and, without much difficulty, found our reserved RV park, Desert Cypress.  I wasn't expecting much, and we were both quite surprised at how nice the park was, with plenty of space, perfectly level sites, and reasonably placed hook-ups.  Knowing that rain was predicted, we dumped our tanks immediately, filled up with water, and settled in before calling Janna to let her know we were in town.

Janna and Mike invited us to dinner at their newish home, asking us to be there by 4.  We were ready, and finding their place would have been easy if we had followed Janna's explicit instructions regarding the local roundabout.  We all laughed when we realized that we had done exactly what she warned us not to do.  Still, we had the address, and after a bit of running around, we found their lovely home.

The best part of visiting these friends is the conversation, the food, and the pups, not necessarily in that order.  The visit and the dinner were so great, and we were talking and sharing so much that I completely forgot to take any photos except for a couple of the dogs playing in the nice big, safe, fully fenced yard.  Mattie is almost 11, and Kayce is still a pup, and she did a lot of running around Mattie when Mattie slowed down.  They got along well and had a great time together.  It was fun to have a safe place with a pet we know for Mattie to play with.  Janna and I talked about how unsafe it is to take a dog to a dog park anymore, and we no longer do it with Mattie.  

Janna and Mike when we visited in 2019 in a different town, and we ate at the same table in their new house

Janna prepared a lovely meal of spaghetti with hot bread and Caesar salad, followed by a delicious strawberry cake.  Mike and Janna are the perfect hosts, and Kayce did a great job hostessing Mattie as well.

We returned home just in time to settle in before a big thunderstorm struck and rain poured most of the night.

The next day, we took Janna's suggestion and decided to visit the Desert Caballeros Western Museum.  The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and is considered one of the ten best western museums in the country. The museum houses an amazing collection of Western Fine Art, including works by Remington, Russel, Catlin, and Bierstadt, among many others.  

There are historical exhibits, with an amazing room-sized diorama that tells the prehistory and history of the Wickenburg area.  Displays of various rooms filled with artifacts from the 19th and early 20th century were fascinating.  We especially got a kick out of the projected hologram of a proprietor in the local general store that was almost spooky.  I had to remind myself that I could walk out of the store without offending him.

Had to take a photo of us in the bar room display mirror, a tradition we keep whenever we can

I was so grateful to Janna for suggesting the museum, especially since Mo and I don't always take the time to visit museums.  Interesting that on this trip, we managed to see four truly superb museums that added greatly to our understanding of the people and history of the areas we visited.

After our museum visit, we took a bit of time to enjoy the Visitor Center, located in the restored Santa Fe Railroad Depot, where we learned that we had seen among the best that Wickenburg had to offer.  After reading about the area, visiting the museum, and driving around a bit, we developed a greater appreciation for the town of Wickenburg, known as the "Roping Capital of the West".  The two women who were hostesses in the Visitor Center that day had interesting stories, and one of the women had lived in Wickenburg more than 65 years. 

 The next morning it was time to continue westward. After making sure Joanne was safely en route to the Phoenix airport via shuttle, Phil traveled west as well, and boondocked not far from us in Vicksburg.  His destination on the night of the 13th was the Joshua Tree National Park Black Rock Campground, located near the town of Joshua Tree.  Mo and I were tracking severe wind advisories for the area, and  we were glad to hear Phil was settled in by the time the worst winds hit around noon. 

We pulled up the free camping app to find a place to land for the night and found the Joshua Tree BLM Dispersed Camping Site, just north of the town of Joshua Tree as well.  It looked a bit sketchy, with some abandoned vehicles, others piled high with trash, and yet we still managed to find a spot that wasn't too close to anyone else.  

The fact that we were camped in what was technically a playa made me a bit nervous, especially with the rain predicted.  We didn't want to get stuck in playa mud, but the cracks in the dry ground seemed a good sign, even though it had been raining earlier in the day.

The wind was blowing hard when we landed, and Mo and I decided it was best to keep the car hooked up and keep the slide in so that the awning wouldn't flap in the high winds.  It was a good choice, and we slept well in spite of the wind and our reduced space.  We love that our rig is completely accessible even when the slide is in, with full access to our dinette, the bathroom, the fridge, and the kitchen.  

Our goal for the next morning was a rendezvous with Phil at the Mountain Valley RV Park in Tehachapi, where we both camped on our way south.  The weather forecasts weren't encouraging, with snow predicted for the night in Tehachapi with temperatures well below freezing.  Phil arrived before we did, and when we got there, it was already snowing.  I really didn't want to get stuck driving the pass from Tehachapi the next morning in the snow.  After a bit of conversation and a phone call, we decided to cancel our reservations for Mountain Valley and continue west down the pass toward Bakersfield.  There was room for us at Orange Grove RV Park, where we used to stay on our way south.  It is considerably more expensive than Mountain Valley at 61.20 per night, but it was well worth the peace of mind to be out of the snow.

By the time we crossed the highest part of the pass, most of the snow had thinned, and once we were on the road heading down the hill, it was completely gone. Sometimes, when we come from the desert and drop over the Tehachapi Pass toward the valley, the smog is thick and heavy, but this time, the skies were clear and fresh from the recent rain.  

The best part of the deal was that there were still plenty of oranges on the trees for free picking, and Phil and I filled a couple of bags with perfect sweet oranges.  These oranges make juice sweeter than anything I can buy anywhere in a store.

As it was on the trip south a month ago, the drive north on Interstate 5 from Bakersfield to Lodi was beautifully simple, with low traffic and no wind.  This is nothing to take for granted, as through the many years we have traveled this route, windy days are rare.

We settled into our sites at Flag City RV Park by 3 in the afternoon, with plenty of time to drive the short 7 miles to our favorite winery in Lodi, Klinker Brick.  It was fun to share this spot with Phil, and I learned something I didn't know about my friend of almost 50 years.  He is a pretty good oneophile and kept giving me "pointers" about how to taste the wine.

We had a nice time, and once again, I remembered why I love this wine so much.  In fact, I liked it so much that I decided that we should become wine club members and get the big discounts that make the shipping fee every three months worth it.  When I asked if we were the farthest distant members, the hostess laughed and said, "Oh no, we have many members from around the country and a few from around the world."

Later that evening, Phil pulled out his nifty little propane fire pit and we had a nice campfire, the first since our time boondocking on Ogilby road.

We had a narrow weather window to navigate on this trip home, and the weather gods were with us once again.  With snow storms all around us, heavy rain on the pass from Redding to Dunsmuir and snow predicted from Shasta to Yreka, we somehow got lucky and slipped in between the roughest weather.  

Phil planned to spend the night at our house in his rig, and we settled in late in the afternoon of the 16th, the very last day we had available to us with appointments in Grants Pass beginning the very next day.  We woke up that night to snow, and by morning, there were a couple of inches right here at home.  Phil wasn't sure how long it would last, but after checking all the webcams and seeing things beginning to melt, he left by 9 and made it home safely to Eugene without any issues on the 6 passes on Interstate 5 between our house and his.

Except for our one kerfuffle with the Tracker on our second day out, the rest of the trip was excellent.  We visited friends, enjoyed warm desert sunshine for a couple of weeks, had great food and excellent company, and saw many things that we hadn't seen on previous trips.

I am not sure how many more long trips we have in our bucket, but I am pretty sure that we will keep traveling south in the winter for the foreseeable future.