Day 26 - Crescent Bar/Bend/whatever to Pullman, WA

Elevation = 2352 ft

Song of the Day = “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground

Considering that I only have a few hours to drive today, I manage to sleep in (almost 9AM, gasp!). Last night was weird… the entire RV park is heavily fenced, so I didn’t hear any late night animal rustling. And there was a pump station near the tent, so all I could hear was a mechanical droning (better than any white noise machine). I am invited to no less than four breakfasts – turns out that all of the senior citizen RV’ers want to entertain the “poor camper”. In the end, I join Glen and Chris (and their cat, Kitty) in their very fancy RV for eggs, waffles and bacon. They are originally from Dayton, Ohio, but sold their house when they retired and now travel permanently. Sounds good to me!

View from Crescent Bar Resort, campsite 74

The Columbia River

I drive down 28 to Quincy, drop down 281 south to I-90 East (only for a few miles), then catch 17 south to 26 East towards Pullman. The road travels through the Palouse, a series of rolling large hills? Small mountains? Foothills? I’m not really sure what to call them, but the drive is absolutely beautiful… and very different. After days of coastlines, rocky beaches, red rock cliffs, canyonlands, desert and mountains, this is something entirely different. It’s like a souped-up version of eastern Iowa (don’t laugh, eastern Iowa is very pretty). The driving is stupendous, the views are incredible, and I… don’t take any pictures. I guess that I’m just enjoying it too much.

No, I didn't take this... but this is what the Palouse looks like. It's real pretty.

I end up in Colfax, just north of Pullman at lunchtime. After careful consideration, I have lunch at the Top Notch Café, which serves the most incredible milkshakes and onion rings (yum!) Then it’s off to Pullman, to WSU, a nice stroll around the picturesque campus, a meeting with JStern, a tour of the hospital and… off to a coffee shop named the Daily Grind to do work (sad face).

Later, the international crowd meets up at Josh’s house for a delicious dinner cooked by Kiara (it was fabulous!!! Thank you!!!) and later to a bar named, somewhat appropriately, “My Office”. As in, “Honey, I have to go to my office for a bit. Don’t wait up!” And in the wee hours of the morning… we return from My Office. Let me just say, that bartender was one of the best enablers that I have ever met (and that includes Big Chris). Mirror Pond, I think that you and I are now BFFs.