Graduation & Road Trip Part II

Following graduation my son and I headed up the Columbia Gorge on the Oregon side toward Washington State University in Pullman Washington. We stopped at one of my favorite places Multnoma Falls. We then continued up the Gorge and crossed over into Washington and the rolling hills of Eastern Washington. Pullman, home to WSU, is a very small and isolated community near the Idaho border. We checked into a motel across the street from the University and set out to explore the school's campus. Our son has been admitted into the schools Graduate School in History and we went by the History Department. We walked around the rest of the school. The football stadium is very small by Pac 10 standards. The school itself is very nice and is built on the side of a hill. We then drove around Pullman and had dinner in it's small down town. Overall I was impressed by the large and extensive Washington State University campus but was not impressed by Pullman and it's isolation. However, my son is a very self contained person and would do well there. We are now awaiting on their financial package. After Pullman we headed up to Spokane and across the panhandle of Idaho and into the long drive across Montana on our way to Grand Forks, North Dakota and the home of the University of North Dakota. On our way we stopped by Pompei's Pillar in Eastern Montana. There 200 year ago William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame signed his name on the large rock and dated it "July 24, 1806" It is the only physical evidence left of Lewis and Clark's trip across America. We got to the rock pillar late in the day on Tuesday about 7 pm. The road gate was locked to the National Monument but the park rules allowed us to walk the one mile in on a gravel road. We saw lots of jack rabbits in this isolated spot. We were the only people there and we walked up the wooden stairs on the side of the rock to view William Clark's signature. It was worth the walk in just to see this piece of history. We then fought a ton of mosquito's who dive bombed us as we walked back to the car. We then drove to Miles City Montana and checked in to a Motel 6. On Wednesday we drove into North Dakota and stopped at Theodore Roosevelt Nation Park. We saw the cabin where TR lived while in the Bad Lands of North Dakota. TR said he would never have been President had he not lived in North Dakota. He moved there after his wife and mother died within a few hours of each other. He lived in this small cabin and became a "Cowboy". After that he went on to organize the Rough Riders in the Spanish American War and the rest is History. He was recently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his charge up San Juan Hill. While there we saw a prairie dog town. From there we drove on to Fargo and then on to Grand Forks and the University of North Dakota. (to be continued)