May 6th to 9th - Hillsboro to Spokane

May 6th – Fri – Hillsboro
After a nice late breakfast, we went to Costco to renew our membership and buy a few items. Then we found a Chevy dealer which was really close. When we were driving here, the “check engine” light came on. A lot of the information for this light in the manual mentioned emission control so we thought it might have something to do with the new DEF. The service guy was very nice and they weren’t super busy so they were able to get the truck right in and on the computer. There were 3 suspect sensors but apparently they were all “electrical” rather than a problem so they flashed (reset?) the system, took it for a test drive and sent us on our way. It was also all covered under warranty so that was good.
I wanted to find a WalMart but when we started following Wanda’s directions we realized how long it would take us and decided to go to a closer Fred Meyer instead. It was raining when we got back so we just hibernated and watched blossom petals from a huge tree behind us fall like snow.

May 7th – Sat – Hillsboro
It was cool & rainy this morning so we stayed late in our cozy bed. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, worked on the computer a bit and then we went to see Terry’s Mom and her husband Don. They now live in a small, detached “apartment” behind Terry’s sister Cindy’s house. It was being built when we were last here and it is lovely. Terry’s Mom is in a wheelchair so it was designed – by Cindy’s husband Tim – to be wheelchair accessible. We spent a few hours with them, left for a bit to get propane and a couple of grocery items and then went back to have dinner with them, Cindy and Cindy’s friend Kimberly.
It is very nice to be staying at the Elks as we are only about 4 miles from Cindy’s rather than the 20 miles when we stayed here last year.

May 8th – Sun – Hillsboro to John Day
I got up early to make Danish Puff and Pigs-in-a-Blanket for brunch at Cindy’s. The Danish Puff takes an hour to bake so I had to get an early start even though we didn’t leave until just after 10. Terry’s nephew Trevor and his wife Janine dropped by to say hi before we ate. Of course EllaMae & Don were there as well as Cindy’s daughter Amy, her husband Ryan and their 2 month old baby boy Cillian (hard C).
After brunch, we sat around & visited and were entertained by Cillian. We decided to leave about 3:30 and also decided to get out of Portland today rather than fight rush hour traffic tomorrow morning. So we fueled up and were on the road at 4:30. We stayed at the Corp of Engineers park on the John Day river which was great for the overnight stop – especially since our Golden Age pass halved the cost to $11.

May 9th – Mon – to Spokane
We dumped our waste tanks on the way out of the park and headed east on I84. We called Bill & Georgia to see if the “Hughes RV Park” was open for the season and they said we were welcome to stay but to be aware that road grinding for a sewer project was beginning on their street today.
We stopped for fuel and lunch in Connell and arrived at B&G’s around 2:30. We had set up and had a beer in the lovely sunshine when Bill & Terry went for a walk to check out the construction and met B&G’s son Dennis coming to get his boat out of their garage. Unfortunately, it was directly behind where we parked so we had to move the 5th wheel. This took us up to dinner time which Georgia provided. After dinner, we walked down the street and watched the grinding process – yes, they were still working and didn’t stop until about 9. We watched DWTS at B&G’s and headed back to our rig.