Zig Zag Back Into Washington

Today is our last day in Pendleton, Oregon but we will be back in Oregon sometime after middle of August.  We will be moving to a small town in Washington just 6 miles south of the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park, the town called Packwood. Our plans are to visit with Mount Rainier National Park while there. Packwood is about 100 miles south and east of Seattle.  The downside to going to this little town is that we may not have any internet connection while there, so posting may be sparse until we move to Port Townsend, Washington on the 7th of July.

A little about our stay here at Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton.... it has been entertaining to say the least. By 9am most of the overnighters have gone and within an hour the next group comes in.  We would have to say that people come here to gamble.  Period.  RVs come in, set up in 20 minutes and we see the shuttle bus picking them up to go over to the casino (about a 15 minute walk within the grounds of Wildhorse). We have had vintage RVers, toy haulers (have a motorcycle or ATV tucked inside the back end), lots of motor homes (Class A) and 5vers (5th wheel like ours), and many many travel trailer boxes.  All sizes, all shapes, all years - very old and beat up to very new.  And many many dogs.  One of the biggest surprises was when a small box (travel trailer) and our opinion only room enough for 1 person to sleep inside,  and multiple dogs were inside it.  That one had 2 large dogs (black lab size) and 2 small dogs (about 5 pounds of a yapper dog) inside. When Mom and daughter went to the casino to gamble those 4 dogs just howled and howled.  Glad they were back by 9pm!

And then there are the barkers - the littler the dog, the louder and more annoying the yap.  Been amazing to see all the variety of dogs.  We have made a joke to ourself - if it is Oregon plates (most are) then there must be dogs inside (99% of the time there is). We are the abnormal with an indoor cat.

We were surprised with Pendleton.  It is a good size town for the northwest - about 12,000 people, with a large population of Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse Indians. We did go to the Pendleton Woolen Mill store but I would have had to gamble at the casino to get enough money to buy something.  Absolutely beautiful, but very expensive.  Did learn why Pendleton has the largest rodeo in the country - the Umatilla Indians had the largest herd of horses in the country for centuries.  They developed the Appaloosa and the Cayuse horse breed by careful cross breeding.  The rodeo has been in existance for over 100 years now.  Draws people from all over the country.

And of course, being on the Umatilla Indian Reservation here at casino for the past week has been interesting.  Being a sovereign nation, they are their own country, have their own government and with that their own police department.  Let me just say - you don't want to get into trouble here.  Security (police) patrol the RV park constantly - we have always felt secure here - never an issue.  We did make it to the Umatilla's cultural museum called Tamástslikt Cultural Institute - was very impressed with it. Could not take pictures but was worth the visit.