Day 7

We started out day 7 at Riverside State Park - Bowl and Pitcher. With the nature all around us we decided to forgo a stop at Maryhill Museum and instead take it easy and have a slow start. After a while the kids decided it was time to go and we moved on to the Swinging Bridge.

The swinging bridge was a beautiful bridge over crystal clear water and overlooked the Bowl and Pitcher rock formations that the site was named after. They were gorgeous but it was a bit hard to determine which was supposed to be which. 

Then we set off on the journey home. James suddenly remembered the reuben runzas back at Cow Creek Mercantile and insisted on a stop. There was absolutely no fighting him on this and off we went! Luckily they saved some back for us and we got one each for the adults and the boys split a pizza. All very delicious. 

Then we left and immediately took atleast 5 wrong turns but all set us off to a beautiful drive through rolling hills of wheat fields. At one point a little fawn was picking its way across the highway and gave us a perfect photo op.

Then we were off on the narrow Hwy 14 heading towards the Maryhill Stonehenge WWII Memorial. James was having to pull hard to keep us on the road due to the crosswinds. Stonehenge was beautiful and a welcome stop to calm nerves.

Then we were off to Bridge RV Park. To get there we had to go through tight tunnels - 13'1 at the shortest - the Georgetown is 12'1. Needless to say our rested nerves did not last long. When we finally pulled in to Bridge RV we were welcomed with an elderly couple in our site. Annoyed and exhausted we told them the could dump their tanks and fill up on water. As the lady finished asking for this allowance and turned to go their entire black tank dumped on the site. The camp hosts had no mercy for the "foreigners" as they called them. As we calmed down we thought to ask if the couple would like to take our site for a fair exchange of cost. As James talked to them he found out they might be relatives back in Germany. Their family name being Ausmuth, an aunt of theirs. So James ever being the comic dubbed them the "Crappy Relatives North of Munich". You gotta love him...

So we set off for a place to bed down, somewhere... 

We'll call him "White-Knuckled Steve" (Not that there is any reason for it but it was a very scary ride!)

To get to I-84 we had two options (technically 3 but it was far too late to backtrack) either go on WA-14 or cross the toll bridge at White Salmon. We chose the later seeing how the next tunnel had signage for a 12'4 ceiling. James managed to white knuckle his way across with a possible 2 inches of clearance between the Georgetown and the railing. The toll attendant looked at us with shock and awe and was not all that impressed that we crossed in that manner. 

On a whim we tried Viento State Park. Luckily there was a site there for less than half the cost of Bridge RV.