THE GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE LOOP TOUR - Day 9

August 24, 2017.  Hood River, OR to Morton, WA, 192 miles.  Right off the bat, we crossed the Columbia River to get onto the two lane road side.   Check this bridge out, it is a far cry from the Bay Area.  One lane prepaid, one lane with a toll taker.

And the price is,,,,,,,,,  

Only thing is, they forgot  to put the pavement on.    And  there was a work crew with a welder working on broken pieces.

Route 14 on the WA side is a great scenic drive, with a whole bunch of tunnels.   Car tunnels are concrete lined, train tunnels are just cut through the rock.

Stopped at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center,

Loved the tree statues,,,,,,

This is a fish wheel,   self powered by the current, scoops up fish swimming upriver and dumps them out the side into a basket.  Ingenious, now banned I think

Skamania Conference Center caught our eye.  You can stay in a tree house like this and do zip lines and golf and tennis.  We volunteered Will but he declined.

Onward to Bonneville Dam,  the mist rising upriver is actually from the spillway.

Looket these turbines,   interestingly enough, NASA Ames used to (and maybe still does) buy power for the wind tunnels from Bonneville.

Last stop for ;the day,  Mt. St. Helens visitor center,,,,

Loved this pic, everyone trying for a picture framed by the trees.  We opted to not drive out the 37 miles for a closer look, because it was after 5 and we began to worry about the mote holding our rooms.  When we got their we were the last 5 rooms,   whew!

A's still ticking,  ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.