August 5, 2009 Walla Walla, WA

With a shorter day today (58 miles), we got to sleep a little later - 6 am for 7 am start. Cooler today and shorter mileage. Interesting scenery. Driving on Hwy 730, we followed Columbia River on the Oregon side. The road was more inland than previous days but still observing amazing gorge and steep hills with lava slides and basalt rock formation. Stopped for awhile to enjoy Hat Rock State Park that featured a rock formation that exactly resembled a top hat. Lewis & Clark probably saw it and perhaps used it as a landmark in 1805 on their travels. The road today was heavy with traffic but the shoulder was unusually wide most of the time. At one narrow place, the lava cliff was about one ft. to my right giving me a feeling of being squeezed. Spooky. Thank goodness no trucks came by. My first Red Sea experience on this tour (remember last year's blog?). The desert fields were full of sagebrush and basalt rock. Stopped again along the highway to take picture of The Sisters - two, tall formations side by side. Just before reaching Walla Walla, lots of us stopped to see the outstanding Indian artifacts at the Whitman Mission. We crossed back into WA just before Touchet (pronounced tooshie). The river was unusually wide at this point and turning north. I don't think we'll see it again after today, at least until we get back to Portland. I sure have enjoyed following the river thus far.

The mission at Waiilatpu was begun in 1836 by Marcus and Naracissa Whitman, Presbyterian missionaries who moved west from New York to live among the Cayuse Indians, teach them to read and write and instruct them on the white man's "Book of Heaven". As it turned out, the Indians really weren't interested. The Whitmans pressed on, though, and in time had a settlement with 75 settlers. A measles epidemic took many lives. Whitman, who was also a physician, was accused by the Indians, of letting the Indians die so that the white people could take the Indians' territory. As a result, the Whitmans were both killed by the Waiilatpu. Narcissa was one of the first two white women to cross the continent overland. Another interesting fact to me is that a man named William Henry Gray arrived at the mission. My father's name was William Gray Hairston. I haven't heard of ancestors who moved to Oregon, but, who knows? Gray built a house at the Mission which later was used as an "emigrant" house for travelers.