We just got onto I-84 at Baker City, Oregon on our way back home. It’s about 5 pm. We had left the hotel in Bend, OR at about 7:30 this morning. We drove through Redmond and Prineville and connected with US-26 in Mitchell. There we joined the Travel Through Time Scenic Byway. What a difference this route was compared to the ugly route we came out here on — US-20.

Today we drove through farmland, along the ‘wild and scenic’ John Day river, down fabulous canyons, and over forested mountain passes. It was a visual feast compared to the sagebrush, rocks, and dirt by the mile last Thursday!!

We stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument which turned out to be very intellectually stimulating respite. I left very pleased with how we’re spending out tax dollars there (as opposed to the $700 million … or rather Billions in today’s proposed bailout).

Another stop was in the village of Dayville where we learned that the Mercantile and General Store was for sale for a paltry $680,000 plus the inventory. We demured.

A little further down the road we stopped at Whitney, “Oregon’s most accessible ghost town.” What was once a thriving lumber town is now a few abandoned ramshackle, broken-down buildings well worth several dozen pictures. Narrow gauge railroads once criss-crossed this area and are now all gone.

The last remaining gold dredge is being renovated and refurbished in Sumpter. These amazing machines were engineering marvels. This dredge ran until the early 1950’s when it finally shut down more than a hundred thousand dollars in debt. Inside were memorial plaques on the walls from families whose fathers had been killed working on the dredges. Before WWII the dredges ran 24 hours a day, three eight hour shifts, 363 days a year with only Christmas and July 4th off, and those were unpaid.

Eventually we arrived in Baker City. Last time I was there was to visit the emergency room at their hospital. We were on our on our way to Seattle to see Jared, Wendy, Kendra, and family and I had come down with a severe cold and strep throat. I don’t remember much of that stop (or much else from that trip) except getting a very painful shot in the butt in the ER which didn’t seem to help much.

We’ve now crossed the border into Idaho. We’re listening to Charles Kuralt on Nina’s iPod being broadcast on the new Griffin FM transmitter I bought at BestBuy in Bend. It’s supposed to find the best frequency to use. It doesn’t work very well. Manual frequency search is still required.

We’ll be home in about four and a half hours. It’s been a wonderful trip.