It was a "Gorge-ous" day

For two days we were at Memaloose State Park, situated along the Columbia River. Looks nice, doesn't it? Lots of trees, shade and close to the river. There were two other things I forgot to mention: heavy traffic on I-84 just above the campground and train tracks below! I guess you could refer to it as a "noise sandwich"! The road directly behind our RV's was an incline, which meant the semi-trucks going up the hill were doing full steam ahead and the ones coming down were using their noisy Jake-brakes. But we survived, even though it was hard for me to sleep at night. Don had no problem at all. Once he goes to bed, he sleeps like a log. Wish I could say the same for me.

We had enough time one day to do a short drive on both sides of the Columbia River, commonly referred to as "The Gorge" in this area. I got my title for this blog from Jerry, who kept saying it was a "gorge-ous" day. He was just being "punny". Nice drive, even though it was very hazy from all the smoke. There were 3 fires in the nearby areas, all causing it to look like a smoke screen at times.

We were on the Washington side of the river at this point, almost directly across from the Memaloose Campground. If you knew where to look, you could see the little while blobs in the picture, which are actually RVs.
We did a mini tour of The Dalles on the Oregon side of the river. That included Old St. Peter's Landmark. It was built in 1871 as a Catholic church and saved from the demolition ball in 1971. It is now owned and managed by a non-profit nondenominational organization. The 176 ft. steeple is topped by a 6 foot rooster weather vane, which turns on bearings and has never needed repair work!
The railings and altars were made in Italy from carrara marble and installed by Italian artisans.
We also found Pulpit Rock and were amazed that it is now in the middle of a road behind the local high school. This was used by pioneer missionaries and is still used for Easter sunrise services.