Day 11: Lewiston to Cascade Locks, OR, on the Columbia River
Leaving Lewiston in the morning, I first rode north to Genesee and took more photographs of this beautiful Idaho farmland.
Then west on US 12 from Lewiston, along the Snake, and south to Walla Walla, WA -- a surprisingly nice town in the middle of nowhere.
Walla Walla has a Starbucks, and a very upscale shopping district. (Why don't they call it just Walla?)
First view of the Columbia River at Wallula.
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The John Day Dam on the Columbia.
The Dalles Dam on the Columbia.
Columbia River at dusk, near Hood River, Oregon. 
I put in for the night at Cascade Locks, Oregon, having pushed on longer than I probably should have past Hood River, where I might better have stopped. In Cascade Locks, I found the Econo Lodge Motor Inn close to 9 PM. It was attractive because there was a restaurant and lounge I could walk to just in front. The proprietor in the motel told me the restaurant served dinner until 10 PM, but when I walked over there a few minutes after nine, I found it closed. The 10 PM closing was apparently only for Friday and Saturday nights. So I went to the lounge next to the restaurant, and the bartender offered to make me a sandwich. He also managed to get a salad from the restaurant, so I had a decent meal of turkey sandwich and salad, plus a couple of cocktails. The bartender had a good tip.
Before I entered the lounge, I saw two Harley choppers outside in the parking lot. While I was eating, these two swarthy boys in leather, both about half my age, came and sat at the table next to mine to drink their beers. I struck up a conversation by asking if those bikes outside were theirs. They were, and they told me they were on vacation from Nebraska. They both worked for a company that made ethanol for motor vehicle fuel from corn and had ridden here on the bikes. I was impressed. The bikes were stripped, with no side luggage, and it always amazes me when people manage to travel so lightly. They had the "bad biker" look, but were just ordinary guys with ordinary jobs off on vacation. Their vacation consisted of traveling thousands of miles in two weeks on bare-bones Harleys. What an adventure!
Return to 2002 trip map.