A sunny day in The Gorge

Where else can one sit at their computer - slaving away, of course - with a view of snow-covered Mt. Adams out one window and the cloud-capped silhouette of Mt. Hood out the other? When the sun shines in The Gorge, there's no place in the world we'd rather be.

For our supposed isolation on the east slope of the Cascades, The Gorge seems to be pretty central to world news. Olympians are training on Mt. Hood. Unmanned aircraft manufactured in The Gorge are mapping the globe and helping to keep our service men and women safe. As national law-makers are passing laws to reduce taxation on business to stimulate jobs, the voters on the Oregon side of The Gorge have made news by helping to pass legislation to burden every Oregon corporation, large or small, with additional taxation. A four-year veteran of the Bingen-White Salmon police force made the national news, charged with child-molestation and incest. And bipartisan talks are underway in Oregon to create a land swap to protect more of Oregon's amazing natural resources.

No, we aren't perfect in The Gorge, but we certainly aren't the invisible bumpkins of rural myth. Sadly, the IPOD was invented elsewhere, and the grammys won't be coming to Hood River soon, but small-town America is very much alive - struggling along with the rest of the county, but still vital and busy and involved. And darned proud of ourselves!!

For great suuny-day adventures in The Gorge visit www.TravelTheGorge.com/outdoor.asp