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Day 1 thru 6 Salinas, Corning to Pendleton Oregon – 892 Miles

We left Salinas a little late being unable to stop finding little things to do and unfortunately got stuck in the Sunday going home traffic all the way from Salinas to Gilroy.

We went up US-101 to I-680 in San Jose, to I-80, to I-505 and then onto the infamous I-5 to Corning. We discovered that this part of the world is hot (90F +) much to the dismay of the firefighters working the nearby Park fire. But other than the temperature, the run was uneventful.

The Casino was supplying hotel space for the Park Fire Firefighter to rest and recuperate.

Fire trucks with smoke from the Park fire in the background

We spent two nights in Corning and then set out for Pendleton Oregon.

From Corning we took I-5 North to California 299 to the eastern border and got on US-395 North. 395 is a well maintained, but little used highway up thru eastern Oregon.

That part of Oregon is called the “Oregon Outback” since it is very arid and quite hot. We ended up running most of the way with both the house air conditioners and the dash air conditioner running full tilt.

We overnighted in a very nice and lightly used rest area outside of Burns Oregon. It went from the 90s+ during the day to 45 degrees at night.

The next morning we continued up 395. Our intention was to go up 395 to Pendleton Oregon, but when we got to the town of John Day (famous for its fossil beds), Google informed us that 395 was closed because of multiple fires in the area.

We had earlier driven by a fire camp and declined to take pictures of the resting firefighters standing around in their shorts.

We traveled eastward on US-25 to where it intersected I-84 and then turned westward again. It added about 150 miles to the days run.

We stopped at the Wildhorse Casino outside of Pendleton. We’ve stayed there before in the RV Park attached to the casino. There we discovered that the sunroof of the car had shattered somewhere along the way – probably from heat.

Pendleton Oregon

Sign Welcome to Pendleton
Welcome to Pendleton

Pendleton is a regular stop for us on Northerly trips. It is after all our namesake. We had dinner at Hemlys Steak House which is also becoming a regular stop for us.

Unfortunately we spent most of the day duct-taping a plastic tarp to the top of the car since there is apparently a three week lead time on Sunroofs for the Toad. That and a trip to Wal-Mart pretty much shot our day.

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