Days 21 & 27, 2021

McDermott to Sumpter to Pendelton, OR
Spent the night at a little RV park in McDermott, OR and walked to McDermott, NV to have dinner at the casino. Gambled a little and had a nice dinner. There was only a limited menu, but the food was good. Lee won enough on the slots to pay for our camping and dinner, with a little left over for the Flea Market in Sumpter this weekend.
Made it to Sumpter on Wednesday, how the heck did that happen?!? We thought it was Thursday. That’s what happens when you have 2 long driving days in a row and don’t take time to look at the calendar. Well, good thing we are staying with family, so we didn’t have to worry about messing up our reservation.
Spent the holiday weekend shopping at the Flea Market in Sumpter. This thing is a big deal. We spent one day just hitting yardsales at people’s houses. 2 days were spent in town and the 4th day was spent visiting some of our favorites again. Had a great time, but I think that I wore Denise and Lee out. Poor Steve didn’t get to go because he got a kidney stone that refused to pass.
Had a great time seeing Steve, Denise, Jack and Maggie Mae. Denise out did herself again with her homemade sourdough rolls. She made buns that we ate corned beef (the real stuff, not the sliced kind out of the deli). Yum…I am so lucky because I not only have half of my corned beef sandwich left, but she sent us away with a bag of her homemade sourdough biscuits. She spoiled us rotten.
Got to see an Elk last night. Of course I was in the kitchen making my sandwich so I didn’t get to see him close up, but I did get some photos of him across the meadow.
Packed up this morning and drove to Baker City where we found a car wash that had a sprayer outside so we were able to wash the truck and trailer. Our truck is a dark blue, but looked tan from all the dirt roads we were on looking for bargains. Finally got on the road and had a harrowing drive down the Blues into Pendleton. Got stuck behind a passenger car that kept hitting his brakes any time he got above about 45. It seemed like he practically stopped a couple of times. I was so afraid that our brakes would overheat. Never so happy to pass a car in my life.
We made it to the Wildhorse Casino which is on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, just outside of Pendleton. They have free boondocking sites, surprisingly close to the entrance. We’ll see if we are lucky or not….