Day 9 - August 13

Happy birthday, Linda!  We left our park in Boise around 9.  Stopped at the visitor centre for Oregon as soon as we crossed over.  Then stopped for coffee in Ontario, Oregon.  We drove across Eastern Oregon which is high desert and mountain passes.  Some of the loneliest roads we've been on yet and very sparsely populated.
In the Ochoco Pass area we drove through freshly burned forests.  Even saw some smoldering bits yet.  It smelled quite smokey too.
We arrived in Prineville around 3 and stopped at McDonald's for WIFI check in.  Pete noticed some shaking in the van.  We had it checked out at a tire shop where they re-balanced the front tires.  The problem is still there.  Pete thinks it is the U-joints.  We will return to the shop in the morning.  We then went to the Prineville Reservoir State Park where we got the last site available.  It is a really beautiful spot in the high desert.  It is also a busy day use park with 32 boat slips, a nice fishing pier with a fish cleaning station, and people do lots of boating, water skiing and swimming there. You can see on the picture of the fishing pier below how much lower the water in the reservoir is right now.  That is why there are forest fires here, the fire rating is extreme.  It is very dry.