[cahc] Pendleton Trip Report

[Reid Trummel]

On Sunday I returned from Pendleton and here's a recap of the "Unofficial
Austin-Healey Northwest Meet'' held there on the dates planned for the
official one, which was cancelled.  Funny thing about that though ...
despite being canceled, Pendleton was still there.  All of
the hotels, restaurants, shops, and tourist attractions and *wonderful* touring
roads were all still there, and all still open.

The morning view from our room at the Red Lion Pendleton was like a
Renaissance painting with rolling, grain-covered hills and the sun hitting
a couple of passing clouds.

But first, a few words about getting there...

We left Portland on Thursday, August 26.  We stopped in Hood River so that
my traveling companion, Gary Feldman, president of the Austin-Healey Club
of America <http://healeyclub.org>, could visit Kent Lambert's place for
the deluxe tour of Kent's shops, cars and parts.  Then we all went over to
John Stanley's shop, also in Hood River, and ordered pizza for lunch and
then hit the road again in mid-afternoon.

We headed east to The Dalles, gassed up there and then crossed over the
Columbia River to the Washington side and made our way into Pendleton,
arriving about 6 p.m.  Some friends were already there and had made dinner
reservations at Virgil's <https://www.virgilsatcimmiyottis.com> in downtown
Pendleton.  We met them there and enjoyed local cuisine - that would be
beef!  Nice place, and a nice way to kick off the Pendleton visit.

We got up Friday morning to a spectacular view of a sunny morning and
headed out for breakfast at Rooster's.  After a hearty breakfast we headed
north to Walla Walla, stopping at a Chase Bank branch there so I could wire
funds to complete the purchase of a special Bugeye Sprite that is currently
located in Hawaii.  More on that later.

Then we proceeded to the Fort Walla Walla Museum <https://www.fwwm.org> which
was open as usual, and met Dwight and Connie Jones from the Tri-Cities,
already there.  The museum consists of several buildings and some preserved
old buildings and is very well done.  We saw old farming equipment
including an enormous rig that was pulled by no less than 36 horses and of
course there was also lots of memorabilia from the history of the area.  It
was really worthwhile - a very nice facility with 50,000 artifacts, four
exhibit halls and a pioneer village.

We then returned to Pendleton for an afternoon snack of beer and nachos at
the Rainbow Cafe, a downtown old-time bar/cafe that is a favorite from
previous visits, and with lots of Pendleton Roundup atmosphere.  By the
way, the famous Pendleton Roundup <https://www.pendletonroundup.com> is
coming right up - it's the second whole week of September, and it is ON.

After refreshing at the Rainbow we then visited the famous Hamley Western
Store and Saddle Shop <https://hamley.com>. It's a real mecca for Western
Wear, and a young woman who works there told us the history of the store,
the Hamley family and saddle-making in the region.  She was like a tour
guide with exhaustive knowledge of all those subjects, and typical of the
friendly, welcoming people we met through the visit.

Then we continued the downtown focus by meeting friends for dinner at the
Hamley Steakhouse next door!

So that was Friday.

Saturday morning we woke up to a clear, slightly cool morning with low
humidity that promised warmer temps later, and while I'm on the subject,
the weather throughout the visit was a 10.  Perfect is the only word for
it.  Cool mornings and warm afternoons just made for poking around the
downtown shops and Healey touring on the area's roads.

So for breakfast we toured downtown to ... you guessed it ... the Rainbow
Cafe.  By the way, Pendleton is not a large city and "touring to downtown"
was about a five-minute drive from our hotel, if that long.  After
breakfast we poked around some downtown shops and then made our 10:30 a.m.
appointment for The Pendleton Underground Tour
<https://pendletonundergroundtours.org>.  Pendleton has a really
interesting history and this tour is so very well done.  Our group of
something like 15 people explored the underground rooms, hallways, jail,
tavern, Chinese laundry and more, then wrapped it up with a tour of a
downtown hotel that had been a brothel for many decades and is unrestored!
  Our tour guide was fun and extremely knowledgeable.

After the tour of the underground it was time for an overground tour, and
we headed south on US 395 on the "Battle Mountain Forest State Scenic
Corridor," a road just meant for Healeys with curves and curves and more
curves and climbs and descents amid great scenery - really a must-do if you
ever get to that area.

Then we took OR 244 into Ukiah and stopped for gas and a beverage in this
slightly offbeat, fully off-the-grid remote town where we struck up a
conversation with a local and got lots more local information and insights
on the region.  The people throughout the visit were uniformly friendly and
happy to chat with visitors, even after I told them I was from Portland!
 (I did, however, get a couple of comments along the lines of, "Welcome to
God's country.")

Refreshed and enlightened at Ukiah we then continued northeast on OR 244
back to I-84, but we also took a detour off the Interstate and made our way
into Pendleton the back way.  We got some spectacular panoramic views from
our backroads route.  Arriving back into Pendleton meant that another visit
to the Rainbow Cafe was in order, and after a beer and onion rings to
revive us, we discovered that there was a street fair that evening,
complete with live music and wagon rides, with the wagon pulled by real
donkeys.

We poked around downtown some more, ducked into the Pendleton Air Museum
<https://www.pendletonairmuseum.org> storefront where the woman was getting
ready to close, but she interrupted her plans to give us a tour and
discussion about the local connection to Jimmy Doolittle's Raid on Japan in
1942 (I asked if she'd mind if I told her what I know about it, and after
giving my rendition of its history she said I was *mostly* correct!).  This
was just yet another example of the friendly people who go out of their way
to accommodate you there.

Then as luck would have, the underground tavern that we had visited earlier
on the tour was open and serving drinks that evening.  They open only once
every so often (once a month?), but we hit it just right and retired under
the streets of Pendleton, me for a gin and tonic, and we sat down with an
over-the-road trucker and his wife and had a friendly and informative
conversation over drinks, this being yet another instance of the friendly,
welcoming open people there and the bustling downtown life of Pendleton.

After we surfaced we weighed our dinner options and finally decided on a
Mexican restaurant.  The covered tables spilled out all the way into the
middle of the closed-off street, and one Margarita and several
combination fajitas later we continued our tour of downtown Pendleton and
the street fair.

One repeating feature of our trip was lots of amused attention to us two
larger-than-average guys getting out of the Bugeye. It seems like
everywhere we went the car was just naturally a center of attention, which
is to be expected with a Bugeye, but the highlight - for the onlookers -
was watching us spill out of it while trying to maintain a little dignity.
We virtually became part of the downtown show in Pendleton several times!

That was Saturday.

Sunday morning we hit the road early and headed back to Portland, but not
before a stop in Hood River to have lunch with Kent at Grace Su's China
Gorge Restaurant, always a must-do in Hood River.  After lunch we crossed
the river into Washington and took WA 14 back to Vancouver where I garage
the Bugeye.

Remarkably, *this was Gary's first time ever driving a Sprite or even
riding in one*, despite his having been into Healeys for almost 45 years
and being president of the Austin-Healey Club of America for several
years!  The fact that my Bugeye had a hardtop on it made it an extra
challenge for the uninitiated to get in and out of (and it's a challenge to
do it gracefully even for us old Bugeye hands), and so I was really glad to
get him broken in.

It was a really memorable time in several ways:

   - *Perfect* weather.
   - *Lots* going on in Pendleton - nothing closed.
   - The Bugeye ran perfectly the entire time.
   - *Great* touring roads in the region.
   - The people were so very friendly.
   - We ate well, perhaps needless to say.
   - *There was even a Corvette club meet based at the hotel across the
   street from our hotel!*

I liked Pendleton a lot and plan to go back again before too long.  Maybe
next time you'd like to join me?

RT

Reid Trummel
Editor, HEALEY MARQUE MAGAZINE
*Official Publication of the *
*Austin-Healey Club of America*
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