I gave up this morning and gave into Sam re-crossed the Columbia at Portland and picked up the Interstate, can't remember which one! I was really trying to avoid the city but I need a day of driving on 4 lanes of divided highway! This is rugged, dry country along the Columbia river gorge. You wouldn't think that with the great huge Columbia right there, but the land is high above the river itself, all bluffs and deep gorges. Today it was greenish as it is spring but soon enough it will be brown. I saw my first wildlife here, mountain goats! I've seen lots of birds but not so much as a rabbit until now. Oregon is an odd state, you cannot (by law) pump your own gas and the Interstate speed limit is 65-weird. There are three dams on the river (well maybe only two) and a train track on either shore, I did see a couple of river barges and one paraboarder (I don't think that's the right term but they were on a surfboard being pulled around by a small parachute. People do the oddest things.) At great deal of electricity is produced here between the dams and the wind mills. These are the first windmills I've seen since Kansas and there are a lot more! There are also lots of high voltage towers to be seen. At the Tri-cities I again cross the Columbia, this will be the last time as I'm heading north from here. I travel through a high prairie, rolling hills covered with wheat, and tall grass--the hills are higher than in Kansas. I love it there, all the expanse of greens is so restful. My eyes have hurt every day I drove in that green tunnel but here they seem to sigh and relax. I enjoy every mile. I'm headed to a cousins home on Lake Roosevelt, a cousin I haven't seen since 1973. He is actually my father's first cousin (my grandfather being the oldest son, his father the youngest) but he is only a year older than I. For some unknown reason we are connected at the heart. I have only seem him 3 other times in my life as we lived far apart, I have never met his wife. Yet here I am, driving several hours off the track in great anticipation and knowing he is awaiting my arrival just as much. I can't explain it. I phone them from down the road and they meet me in Davenport, Wa--they worry that my GPS will lead me astray as other's have. Open arms, big smiles and big hugs. He's taller than I remember.
We Hickam's love to talk. As children we both waited on parents who always found someone to talk to and we have become them. We talk the rest of the day away as I soak up the silence of his lake. Apparently, Kelsey feels the peace as well. I have never seen her settle in so quickly and accept people so fast. Jim grills me spring caught salmon, just let me say OH MY GOD. I had to close my eyes and have a moment it was so good. (Kelsey liked it, too.) Jim is an outdoors guy, big fisherman (out in his office-read boat) almost daily, master hunter, camper etc and boy does he have stories to tell. So we talk until we can't stay awake--Joanne abandoned us long before! I fell peacefully into bed, in the silence.
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