Tuesday, January 28, we started off at 6:20 AM from Rockwall - Still dark.  Drove the George Bush Fwy - I-35E, US 380 - US 287 - I-40 to Amarillo, TX. 
We sidetracked a couple hours to see the 2nd largest Grand Canyon in the U.S. - Palo Duro.  We were here about 1 to 2 in afternoon.

Below we were standing at the vista point, and on our way out we took pic of T am me in the field.

Now off to Albuquerque, NM where we would stay the night at friends house - George and Ginny Baca

I had to post this - I'm not used to seeing a speed limit of 80 mph posted here in Utah.  I understand Texas is the only other state that allows that speed limit. 

This is the first I have seen it.

We went through Moab, UT....a most interesting town of off-roading fame...many many cool looking places to eat and stay,
and the hills were full of places for vehicles to drive.  Hole N The Rock was a few miles past Moab.  It was a 5000 ft. dwelling carved out of this huge rock. 
We did not stop to visit however.  We had to make it to Salt Lake.

We then got on Hwy 191 - The Grand Army of the Republic Hwy toward Price, UT.  It was getting to be about 4 PM.  We stopped at Arby's to get stuff to go and were warned about going over Soldiers Summit where there was snow and a lot of weather closing in.  We went over the Summit and it was snowing and it was dark.  Unfortunately we got no pictures of that.  Timarie was driving and she did a great job....sometimes following a Semi for safety.

We drove through Salt Lake on I-84, in the dark, and stopped in Layton, UT, a surburb, for the night.  We had a nice dinner at the Brick Oven.
Below are 2 photos - one from my room, and the other from Timarie's room.

Thursday, January 30, we headed out toward Idaho along I 84.  We would encounter Tule Fog all of a sudden, and had to deal with that for several miles. 
Sometimes it got pretty thick and reduced our visibility.  We were going along the Snake River which was the source of this strange Fog.

Weather was coming in and when we got up Friday morning there was snow all over the place that hadn't  been there the night before.  We waited until 10 AM to leave as the weather was pretty bad, and we were warned by the hotel staff that the mountains we were going to go through had snow and ice.  They were named the Blue Mountains, and indeed, even though it was a federal highway - I 84 - it was covered with snow and ice.  There were times Timarie could drive only 10 mph. 
It took us 1 1/2 hours to drive 40 miles. 

Trucks were required to put on their chains.  As we reached the top of the Mountain (4039 ft) we saw on the other side the Highway Patrol
issuing tickets to the truckers who hadn't put on their chains.

I just had to take this pic of Deadman Pass as we were driving through some pretty precarious stuff - ICE and SNOW

We cleared the Blue Mountains, and it was smooth sailing from then on.  After many miles we stopped in The Dalles for lunch at Burgerville. 
We had about 50 miles to go....so for the last leg......to Portland itself.... PHEW

Passing by the Columbia River on right.  We got to Timarie's rental Condo a little after 3 PM.

Above left - view of the street from Condo on 5th floor - plus views of inside of Condo

After getting settled in a little bit, we took a drive around to see Portland.
 We ended up visiting the famous Pittock Estate on the hill not more than 5 miles from the Condo.

Timarie and Rick plan to eventually buy a house, but will rent for the time being.

This was the final picture....T and Me at one of the houses with the beautiful woods behind us. 
Later this afternoon, Timarie would take me to the Portland Airport for my return flight to Los Angeles.

That's all Folks - it was a great 6 day experience for me - oh that would be Lee doing this website.