One weekend from our Hampton Inn month, we went back to
Oregon for Chief Joseph Days. It was a 2 hour trip and we arrived in Joseph
just in time to park off Main Street—the entire town was blocked off for a
parade. And what a parade! We had never seen so many
horses, piled high with floral arrangements and girls in glittery chaps. They just kept coming. We watched candy being thrown by politicians,
musicians, kids on floats and Native Americans in blanket-covered cars. It was
longer and better attended than any parade in recent memory, not that we’ve
attended very many recently. We walked the length of town looking for a food
truck billed as “BBQ” but surmised that it must be over at the fair grounds for
the apres-the-parade festivities. We never really found it, so took our hummus and veggie picnic
lunch another 20 min up the road to the Wallowa Lake park. We had heard of it from a friend back in
Jacksonville who called it the little Alps of Oregon. We were stunned by the snow covered peaks in
many layers behind the lake. The tiny town plays up the Alps theme and several
hotels are in the Swiss village style.
All were sold out due to the Chief Joseph Days weekend. But we had a
plan B and C up our sleeves. Plan B:
drive 2 more hours north to Lewiston or Clarkston and get a hotel, or Plan C:
drive 4 more hours home via the Joseph Canyon.
We ended up home in our own hotel bed.On our way out of Wallowa Lake, we stopped at Chief Joseph’s tomb. Reading the history is very sobering. The drive home was astounding, going from the tree filled valley and snow covered peaks past the canyon which seemed as big as the Grand Canyon…
The first Monday of the month is Food truck night at the
airport. Judd has been waiting patiently
all month. After work we drive out to
the Walla Walla airport (6 minutes from
our house) and drove around not seeing any trucks. Then we start to see a line of cars, all
turning the same way. We followed. When we got past the 6 wine tasting rooms and
brewery, we found a crowded parking lot with about a million cars. Well, not a million, but a gosh-darn lot more
than we thought resided in Walla Walla.
And then there were the lines of people, at nearly every food truck. It
was like summer fair in Windsor. Judd found two trucks of BBQ and it was hard
to choose which had better food as the lengthy lines were equal. I offered to stand in one line and have Judd stand in the other and see who
got served first, but we declared Best of the Blues line-waiting worthy. The three meats and three BBQ sauces were ok.
The coleslaw was nothing but poorly shredded cabbage, a lot of it, with some watered
down mayonnaise. Judd can do better. We sat on the grass and swatted bees and I
thought about the much better time we’d just had on Friday at Recess Monkey.
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