Playing In The Snow

When I was a child I used to love playing in the snow especially if it got me a day off of school in the process. Now not only do I not play in the snow anymore but it affects my work since it isn't safe sometimes to drive on the roads. Now I find myself almost two weeks out from my last post because I've been in the area of South Dakota and Montana where I don't have any data service on my cell phone.

It has, however, been interesting living a couple weeks with basically no Internet and no phone. Some of the truck stops do offer wifi service but they usually only stay connected a few minutes before kicking you off so my Internet accessibility was limited to low-bandwidth versions of email.

I once again find myself parked because of snow but at least its on a place I have coverage and can spend a little time online. This weekend I am at the Arrowhead Travel Plaza in Pendleton OR. This time I stopped because the state decided it was necessary to have chains on my truck to go over the mountain, at this point I decided to just park to be safe. The last time I was here for more than a night there were wildfires threateningthe highway and they closed it.

This is the view behind my truck so I really can't complain, even if I did no one would take any pity on me. It could, and has been, worse. Not beyond one of the major branded truck stops (Pilot, Flying J, TA, Petro and Loves) this stop attracts less of the major fleets since they generally won't fuel here which can usually mean its less crowded. That is unless the weather acts up as it has and it is very busy. Regardless it is big enough to handle the crowd and the people working here and super nice and helpful. Cheaper than average laundry (which I'm doing as I write this), television lounge, showers and a casino next door certainly don't hurt. There is a McDonald's here as well but work a free shuttle to the better casino food I almost never go there unless I'm just stopping in for a quick stop.

They've got these neat setups around with the bears (above) and moose (below) for people to take pictures with. They do appear to be totally fake and not stuffed. Overall its a nice place to stop and the fact that going east it's the last real stop before the pass means out gets its share of visitors. If you are on I-84 in Oregon maybe you'll get a chance to check it out yourself.

All pictures in this post were taken by me.