I'm in Spokane, and would be happy to meet up for coffee , soda or barley pop.
I would like to give you a route from Ritzville towards Eugene. It is a route we have taken many times and is worth doing.
Fill up in Ritzville and head south on 395, this is a 2 hr nothing but tumble weeds to look at. When you get past the vineyards the speeds drops, take the exit west onto 82 /395, stay in right lane after a couple miles you exit back onto 395, long right hand curve, stay in the left lane, be sure to follow exits for 395 south. At the far end of the Tri Cities there is a Chevron [?] on the right side, fill up here. Holliday Inn on the left.
From here you follow 82 / 395 south to 84, this puts you into Oregon and this is were we go SE 25 miles to Pendleton [fill up here] to continue on 395 south. from here you go from farm land into Umatilla Nat Forest, and a couple passes. Travel down 385 to 26 /
Mt Vernon, at the stop sign turn left, a block down on the right is the gas station. fill up get back onto 26 west bound.
This takes you on a nice county hi way a few little towns towards Redmond, 20 miles west of Redmond is Sisters Oregon, Lots of snow covers mountains around here, we have stayed in Sisters a few time and a recently as 9 th & 10 th of this month. We like to stay at Sisters Motor Lodge, walking distance [1 block] from the shops, restaurants.
From Sisters you have a couple ways to get over to Eugene, 126 out of Sisters, this is where you can stop to see a couple great water falls, Sahalie Falls and Koosah Falls both worth stopping at.
From Sisters 242 is McKenzie pass, great hi way, nothing over 35 ft long allowed do to the tight switch backs.
We did this loop 126 from Sisters / 242 back to Sisters on the 10 th and it was great, no road work anywhere, light traffic.
126 will than take you to Springfield / Eugene. 126 to the coast.
Anyway kind of long post here, hope it is worked into your planes.