Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Road trip; with bonus traveling cactus

Last week Andrew and I road-tripped back up to Spokane for my dad's memorial service. On our way out of town I snapped photos along I-84, headed east through the Columbia River Gorge. Here we're only about 30 minutes out of Portland, the color is a bit funky, but I loved the rocks and the waterfall. 

Better color, but window reflections! Oh well. I wonder how many people would ID this as Oregon? It's not all tall trees, ferns and moss here. This one was taken about an hour and 20 minutes east of Portland.

Fast forward to our leaving Spokane a few days later, now we're heading south on the Palouse Highway in the rolling hills of SE Washington. 

That's not a shadow line, but rather changing crops.

Wind turbines are ubiquitous in these parts.

We spent time exploring around Walla Walla, Washington. Andrew wanted to fish on our way home and since my dad always enjoyed a drive in the countryside it seemed like a fitting way to make our trip back home. Wild roses like these grew all along the roadside where I grew up.

Lonicera ciliosa, I believe. It's native to forests of western North America.


I don't know what this little white-flowered cutie is though.

And this—super strange! 

The top side of the leaves look like this...

And the undersides have this fuzzy business on them. Some sort of parasite?

There was water, of course. 

Andrew found a deer bone, a foreleg we're thinking.

We saw a lot of verbascum, my favorite "weed of the west"...

Here they're hanging out stream-side, we were a couple weeks too early to catch them in bloom.

In Walla Walla proper we visited Green Valley Gardens, it was a nice nursery—complete with kniphofia mysteries!

I bought a blooming cactus ("growers choice"... in other words, no ID), which kept me company for the rest of our travels.
Water bottle holder? No! Plant holder...

Country roads of SE Washington...

And into the Columbia River Gorge again...

Beautiful country, with or without a cactus friend.

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

19 comments:

  1. Adding those other stops was a perfect way to make this trip less sad. I dug up a bunch of Primroses from my sister's house and managed to get them home alive. Looking forward to them blooming next year. Now you have a nice plant that will make you remember your dad every time you see it.

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    1. Reading your road trip post certainly helped me to frame this side trip in a positive manner, thank you for that. The last trip up to Spokane I dug some chives from his garden, so I have those too.

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  2. Beautiful countryside! You don't see waterfalls like that in SoCal. Photo #4 is very artsy! The fuzzy white puffs in photo #10 made me think of giant woolly aphids (aka fairy flies, fluff bugs and maple blight aphids among other things).

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    1. Giant woolly aphids—omg! Those are creepy as hell. It's been a bad aphid year around here, but thank god not THOSE aphids.

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  3. Your post is so endearing! Love the cactus friend. :)

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  4. Beautiful country indeed. I smiled at your "of course there was water" comment, because here in Texas, there's no "of course." Our streams often go dry between rains. Just one of the interesting differences between our two 8b growing zones. Love the waterfall pic -- I've seen that one too. That whole drive is gorgeous. And last but not least, I hope the memorial service for your dad provided a meaningful way to say goodbye. I know you must miss him greatly.

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    1. Well actually many of our smaller streams dry up too, in the summer time. How I meant that "of course" was that since the side trip was a fishing adventure, Andrew had done his homework and where we visited there was water. No water = an unhappy fisherman.

      The memorial service was hard, to say the least—but the opportunity for a formal goodbye was very important.

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    2. FWIW I also should have mentioned this area is not Zone 8b, it's actually 7a...

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  5. 💚 Always good to bring along a cactus buddy 🌵

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    1. I am glad you understand!

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    2. AnonymousJuly 06, 2022

      Well I certainly understand bringing along a cactus buddy or maybe more than one even!

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  6. What a beautiful part of the country; I need to get out there someday. Thanks for sharing some of the highlights!

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    1. Yes you do! I remember your daughter was going to school out here, is she still in the area?

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  7. I-84 through the Gorge is such a scenic stretch of road. We just made a similar trip out to a botanical nature preserve a month and a half ago. I enjoyed the ride there and back almost as much as the reason for the trip itself. I was so sad to learn you lost your father, and sorry you had a more somber reason for your travels. It sounds like you honored him well, taking your time home, fishing, and enjoying the many stops along the way.

    I haven't seen my dad since January 2016, so this year, I'm taking a couple of months off and going home. I figure that's about a week for every lost year. He'll be 90 this year, so I'd better do it while I still can.

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    1. I've been through the Gorge three times this year and it's always such a scenic trip. Glad you're going to visit your dad, I lost so much time with mine because of COVID. Something I will always regret.

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  8. Beautiful landscape -- I hope it was peaceful and soothing. Nature to ease the mind, and 1 cute cactus!

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  9. AnonymousJuly 07, 2022

    Loree, I think the small plant with the single white flower that you think is "a cutie" may be Clintonia uniflora. We have it here in the east, along with other Clintonias, and I've seen it in the Rockies too. The "super strange" whitish growths on the photo below that are probably insect galls of some sort, but which, I wouldn't know.

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