Day 34: Twin Falls to Pendleton

As we left Twin Falls, we travelled over the Perrine Memorial Bridge which spans the Snake River Gorge. The bridge is 486 feet above water. Daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to leap across the Snake River Canyon a mile east of the bridge in 1974. Interesting story. Check it out at: http://weirdscifi.ratiosemper.com/evelknievel/canyon.html

We got back on I-84 and headed towards Boise. There was a lot of construction, but we were past the rush and made it through Boise and to the Oregon border in good time. Still no trees on the horizon, but we knew we would find them in Oregon. We stopped at Baker City and drove through the historic downtown area which was nicely restored and had some beautiful old houses, commercial buildings, and the Geyser Grand Hotel. Gold was discovered in Baker County in 1861. A number of mining towns sprung up throughout the county and many of those are now ghost towns, but Baker City survived.

Then we went through the Blue Mountains, descending abruptly at a 6% grade into Pendleton. We stopped at a view point to get a look at Pendleton in in the distance. At the stop, we saw a trucker who looked like the incredible hulk with four tiny dogs, three on a leash. The fourth came over to say hi. The large man with four tiny dogs seemed oddly mismatched.

It was early, so we decided to turn off at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino. From the highway we could see advertisements informing us that Tuesday was Senior Day, and that they had Free Child Care. We thought that was an interesting marketing duo. When we parked in the parking lot, a small bus pulled up behind us to give us a ride to the casino. We waved him off and walked. I guess they want to make sure they get all the seniors into the casino.

Jim and I are not gamblers. I haven't played the slots in 20 years and all the machines looked unfamiliar -- no arms. We found a nickel machine and tried to figure out how to play. We managed to get a dollar each into two machines. But no matter which buttons (some flashing, some not) we pushed (including the "spin" button) the machine would not spin. There was a "help" button that brought up a display that really did not help us. I finally pushed the "cash out" button. Still nothing.

Jim went over to get some help and managed to go into the dealer area -- mistake. They acted like he was a terrorist and shooed him out. He thought they were going to arrest him. I finally found a dealer that told me to look at the top of the machine where it had printed a ticket. She said we could put that ticket back in and try again -- I said no, thank you. So we went over to the cashier to cash in our two, one-dollar tickets. She smiled and said, "Would you like that in large bills. "

Then I spotted some machines with arms in the "non-smoking" area. We found a nickel machine that was much simpler to operate (and no "help" button). So we got the hang of it and managed to make one dollar last for about 30 minutes. But that was enough. I concluded that the secret was to choose a machine that did NOT have a "help" button.

We decided to go to the Pendleton Woolen Mills next. The Mills had a small museum of Indian art which I enjoyed. And beautiful Indian blankets and a variety of other items. We finally headed up the hill to the motel.

Later in the evening Jim discovered that the car wouldn't start. We figured that we left the lights on or something -- the car has an alarm, but it is in the audio range that Jim can't hear. Triple A will be here at 8AM tomorrow morning to hopefully start the car. If all goes well, we will be home tomorrow.