Day 4: Road To Pendleton

We knew that today, Monday would be a long drive, so we attempted to set off really early and actually got away by 9.10. we left Mt Rainer National Park by going through the White Pass to Yakima. This took us through a deep valley with a beautiful waterfall at the head of it. We drove to Yakima and took a short detour to the Sarg Hubbard Park, where another of the Merci Train box cars is on display. we also stopped for a coffee at a small espresso bar and had a nice drink and a (small) goodie.
From Yakima we drove on across the Columbia River at Umatilla. This town is notable as it has a huge storage depot where about 12% of the USA chemical weapons are stored, we took a couple of pictures ans the storage facility is right by the road, this storage facility was started after the First World War.
From Umatilla it is only a short hop to Pendleton, so we arrived about 3.00.
We stayed in the Rodeway Inn, which was quite pleasant. Its major advantages being that it is close to the town centre and also had rooms available! Because this is Round Up Week, one of the biggest Round Ups (rodeo to you and me) in the USA. Pendleton used to be one of the biggest cow towns, though now its main source of income seems to be from this one week of the year festival. The place was buzzing with people in western dress. Sally and I took a walk along the riverside and found an entire Indian village set up for the week, as many Indians come here to take part in the Round Up shows.
Pendleton is also interesting for its social and cultural history. Being a railhead and centre for the cattle industry, it also had a whole load of 'ladies of the night'. Many of the houses are still there, though no longer used for their original purpose. There is also a very interesting Chinese perspective. Up until the 1950's it was actually legal to shoot any Chinese who were seen on the street in daylight hours! This ruling comes from way back and highlights another of America's less pleasant sides. Chinese were brought across from China in the 1800's to work on building the railways, often in conditions worse than black slavery. Once the railroads were built then they were just turned loose, wherever the job finished, and were seen as something close to vermin. In Pendleton, they managed to make a living by servicing the hotels laundry needs, however, because they could not be seen on the streets, they built underground walkways which joined  many of the hotels, so that they could remove and deliver the laundry. These underground passages were also used by people who wanted to get from their business premises to the hotels for their own purposes without being seen. The underground city is still there and you can now get an underground tour to see many of the things that happened underground.
We ate at The Saddle, a family diner, where the daily special was Prime Rib, on seeing what others were eating, we opted to have one meal between us, believe me it was enough for the two of us!