Down in the valley

Driving east on highway 84 takes you through the Columbia River Gorge. The beautiful rock faced walls hold many waterfalls, the best known being Multnomah Falls. Continuing east, you enter the high desert and eventually pass the Umatilla Army depot, where they store chemical weapons. Just before the blue ridge mountains, the highway dips into a valley. From a distance, one can see a large brown area, like a wound that healed but no longer matches the surrounding skin. That is the town of Pendelton.

Pendelton is best known for the wool blankets, and the Pendelton Woolen Mills is still here. State senator Gordon Smith is from this town. I've been told that he has a house up in the hills, but I haven't seen it. I have been in his office in Washington. He was out of town, I met one of his interns.

Pendelton, like Seattle, has an underground, though the purpose is different. Back in the old days, there were sundown laws for the Chinese who worked here, and the underground is where they lived. One of the places they worked was a local mine. When the owners decided to close the mine, they sent their Chinese workers in there one last time. Then they blew up the entrance and sealed them inside. True story. I guess that's the Pendelton early retirement plan.

There was a large sawmill here years ago, but it's gone now. A Wallmart sits in its place. There are three other stores to get supplies from; an Albertson's, a Safeway, and a Bi-Mart. That's it. There's a small RV plant on the northwest end of town, and an Oregon State Penitentiary on the north side. Other than that, I don't know what keeps this town going.

This is 'red state' country out here. I haven't seen a single recycle tub in anyone's yard, when the state votes, this area carries the conservative side of the issue, when Brokeback Mountain came out, the movie theater (they have only one) did not show it, and when the death toll in Iraq goes up, this place and the neighboring towns account for a lot of the casualties that came from Oregon.

My crazy green eyed friend lives here, and she serves the worst coffee I've had in a long time. That is, until the Shari's changed to a new brand. Now I think they may be tied for first place. The Denney's is still as hot as a pistol in the morning. Maybe the chef is turning the wrong control up to broil. I don't know. They play a nice selection of 80s music, mostly new wave, so I bear with it.