Our Trip to Madras, Oregon

We were off to Madras, Oregon the first of the week. Ron's work takes us there about once every three weeks to inspect the mint growers' fields. It is a nice getaway and time we spend together.

It takes about three and a half hours to travel from West Richland to Madras, Oregon. It surprises me that the geography of Oregon from here to there is very dry and desert-like. We stay at a nice hotel when we go and are able to have some quiet time at the indoor pool and spa hot tub. We look forward to that and the relaxation that it is since that is the only place we can enjoy the diversion.

The weather was great too. We took a short walk from our hotel to the "Mazatlan" Mexican restaurant for dinner. Ron likes for us to get some exercise after we are in truck for hours at a time. Other times we have had Chinese food in Madras and get fun fortune cookie messages. We drove further on to Redmond, Oregon this time and last time had lunch at a favored Chinese eatery too.


Another highlight when we go to inspect the mint fields is to get some of the fresh mint right out of the field and make mint tea when we get back home. The tea is great tasting and gives a refreshing scent to the truck and house when we bring it back home. We even chew on some of the leaves and it is a delightful, natural treat.


A side benefit was we when shopping at a couple of thrift stores to check for canning jars. We got lucky and found about two dozen quart jars for .25 cents apiece. Some of the stores here sell the jars for .99. We see no advantage to buy them at that price and pay more than retail at Wal-Mart! Only one of the stores had any jars so we were pleased to find what we found. The jars are nice for making a lot of tomato juice.