DART 2025

 2025 DART (Disappearing America Road Trip) begins. TB and I met up in PDX about 1:30 pm and got on the road to Troutdale, OR where our planned destination was a late lunch at the Sugarpine Drive-in.  We were thwarted by an unannounced shut down - a paper sign on the door closed due to some construction on 9/3 and 9/4!!!! Meanwhile the employees were having a company picnic!

Nevertheless we persevered. We headed to The Bandit for their renowned (in house smoked) smoked salmon burger. We decided to split that and also split one of Jamie's smoked meatloaf sandwiches - also smoked in house and prepared by Jamie herself who doubled as our very friendly server. Both sandwiches were excellent and came with plenty of tots on the side. 

We definitely lucked out, because this place has terrific food with just the right touch of "different." Would definitely return - by the way Troutdale is exurbia Portland - we took the scenic route east along the Columbia River and were there in roughly 25 minutes. Beautiful drive and great bar food - what's not to love? Off to an excellent start. 

Later in the evening we did our annual snack shopping. Laying in supplies for a potential blizzard that would strand us in the car. You can see from the dashboard photo that could be a serious threat. 

Then off to Pendleton for the night at Rugged Country Lodge- we had such a late lunch we had DQ for dessert and did the shopping for snacks. I was up so early I just crashed and left TB with all the tasks of sorting items for bags versus items for the cooler... LOL  

The next morning we were out by 7:30 am.  We had a classic DART breakfast. An older gentleman informed me as we were exiting that "I guess you can tell this used to be a SIZZLER". I indicated this was news to me. On TB's way out, he met the guy who had been the Lions Club president in 1983-87 (it was on his business card!) These are named DART for a reason.

Excellent breakfast! We left more than half the biscuits and gravy and a good portion of the pot roast hash, due to the giant portions. The final photo is the sign directing us to the breakfast room at the Rugged Country Lodge which despite being located in town known for big "roundups," was comfy and immaculately clean! How ever, we chose a different Rooster place for our meal.

our choice was a different Rooster-

Then we headed out towards Joseph via the Elk Horn Scenic Byway - with a route through "hell's canyon"  and Elgin, Enterprise and other destinations...

In the immortal words of George Bluth "There's always money in the banana stand."  We came across the Blue Banana on our scenic route between Pendleton and Joseph. Had to turn around to get the photo. Did not notice on the first drive by, that BOTH a plane and car had crashed into the shop... There were vehicles in the drive thru (side not seen in the photo) so the coffee must be decent.

We made it to Joseph and checked into our hotel - then we went for a ride through town and along Lake Wallowa. Checked to see if the tram was running after Labor Day - answer Yes -so we grabbed lunch first and then headed to the tram. Across from the 102 year old Wallowa Lake Lodge is a General Store with a restaurant where we stopped for sandwiches for lunch. The Reuben was fabulous! TB took down the tri-tip gyro without any trouble. The side of sidewinders (spiral cut wedges) were more to my taste than his but he waxed off most of the fries on my platter. So it all worked out. We had to order the sidewinders because neither of us had ever even heard of them before, much less ordered them. Given the quality of the food I would recommend the rest of the menu and if we are still around for another lunch I'd try one of the salads. This place was definitely "punching above its weight."

An afternoon ride up Mount Howard to the summit. The tram overlooking the stunning lake below was unhurried and the weather much cooler at the summit. Sadly the expansive vistas were somewhat obscured by the haze from wildfires. Still a nice way to pass an hour or two. Interesting geological formation of the lake itself.

We had dinner in town - at a brew pub-TB had pizza, and I had a taco salad. Then we took a drive back down to the end of the Lake for a nighttime photo of the 102 year old lodge's sign...

The next day we were off to do our railriders excurion- but first - breakfast LOL 

We started our day with Plan B, when our breakfast place of choice was closed for an emergency. We moved on and were very happy we did. The Blythe Cricket has great, very fresh breakfast sandwiches with house-made English muffins. They were fabulous. Cute decor and friendly staff made it a lucky change of plans for us.

   

around 11:15 we went over to the station -in 90* plus heat - slathered on the sunscreen and were off on the adventure! The main event for today. Railriders from Joseph to Enterprise. Two hours there and back. TB did all the work on the downhill (outbound) segment and we let the power assist from the motor bring us back, as the day was in the 90s and we were in noonday sun! We rewarded ourselves with ice cream upon return!

After our rail ride, we headed back into town for ice cream at Mad Mary's. Then we went around the corner to Blue Mountain donuts. We chose something for tomorrow's breakfast (and possibly late night snacking). After showers we went to dinner at the Stubborn Mule. TB ate a basket of shrimp and I had a half chef salad (yes, that's a half!) and then we split half a club and took home the other half for lunch tomorrow while we are on the train ride from Elgin to ??? A four-hour tour where we are scheduled to be in the cab with the engineer on half the trip.

Dinner was excellent - especially the club sandwich! Really hit the spot. 

So that took us through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the trip and we have lots more to cover - in further posts... stay tuned