Solar! and On to Portland

This morning we rolled out of the AM Solar bay, and the four solar panels immediately sprang into action, charging our new batteries. Michael said that all was well and we were good to go. We checked out with Deb, and by 11 a.m. we were on our way to Portland.

On the way we stopped at Corvallis at a shop called the Rain Shed to buy some fabric for a bike cover. That took us a bit off our route, and nearly resulted in damage to our new solar panels--oh no! We tangled with some tree branches when we parked in front of the shop, and I had to get up on the roof and cut them back to free us up. Fortunately there was no significant damage (what a relief!), and after a quick lunch we were on the road again to Portland. As we neared the city we were impressed by the sight of Mount Hood, cone shaped and covered in snow and ice, rising above the horizon off to the east.

We made the mistake of taking I-5 through Portland to I-84 at 3 p.m., so our first views of this lovely city were marred by our anxiety to get through the rush hour traffic in time to set up camp and pick up my granddaughter, Annie, before 6 p.m.

Our campground is actually in Troutdale, east of Portland and at the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge. We rolled in around 4 p.m., set up camp quickly, and headed in to Portland to pick up Annie from her after school Poekoelan class. Luckily we made it in time and then headed over to her house to spend the night.

Chris called from Hawaii to check on our progress and to talk with Annie. I made some tomato bean soup to go with the leftover pizza we found in the fridge. The cats, Phoebe and Violet, were glad to see Annie but a bit leery of Sweetie.