My month in Washington

My take on Washington

where I went this month

I think you can see that I really did try to get around the state this month.  Washington's only the 18th largest state - quite a difference from the last 7 states I've visited.  I have to go back as far as North Dakota (#19) to find a smaller state.  So I had hopes of making it to most areas.

But the map shows I missed a big chunk in both the southcentral and the northeast areas.  These western states really make me miss the relatively small states east of the Mississippi.  Even Illinois comes in at #25.  

Washington's land

Despite the vast differences in types of land between the eastern and the western sides of the Cascade Mountains, Washington can uniformly lay claim to beauty.

But more than land, WA is defined by its rivers, which it seems packed with.  The big one, of course, is the Columbia - the largest river that empties into the Pacific and the 4th largest in the US.  And 745 miles of its route runs through Washington.  But my posts mentioned several others as the month went on that are major rivers in their own right - the Snake River, for instance, and the Yakima, the Skagit, and the Palouse.  These rivers are likely how eastern WA is able to be such an important agricultural area, because otherwise I'd expect the climate to be too dry.

Back to the land, though, there were the strikingly different landscapes I saw in western WA compared to eastern WA.  Stunning, really, the differences.  The west was clearly marked by its access to moisture with miles and miles of evergreens and other trees and natural growth.  The east was clearly marked as very dry - desert-like in many areas.  Any trees were located at water sources, because water sure wasn't coming from the sky in useful amounts.

But as I mentioned, both sides have legitimate claims to beauty.  Yet, for all its beauty, I didn't see much in the way of what you might call unique natural wonders.  In fact, offhand I can't think of any.  I guess you'd have to say the natural wonders were in the land itself, so you'd need to visit an area rather than a spot.  And I guess that makes WA unique.

Washington's people

I talked with quite a few people besides just my friends.  The folks here aren't the Southern style of friendly but they were very willing to talk to me and free with their opinions.  Everyone I talked to liked where they were living, and since they lived in a wide variety of places, their reasons also varied widely.  A few folks hesitated when I asked if theirs was a nice place to live, but they all said yes, without qualifying it.  

I found most people pretty helpful, no matter where I met them or what I was asking.  (Except for that odd woman in the Moses Lake campground office asking why I wanted a dumpster for the campground.  I still can't figure that one out.)  And Washingtonians seem to be greatly attached to outdoor activities, because I saw them all over - at trail heads and campgrounds and riversides and marinas and horse stables.  

But sports aren't the only thing folks enjoy.

I've found people all over the country that keep chickens in their yards, but this is the first state I've seen a bumper sticker about it.

Driving in Washington

Yes, that's Mt. Rainier in the background.

In general I found drivers in Washington to be about like those in most other states.  They were mostly (though not always) polite and rarely tried actively to keep me from merging into a lane when I needed to.  They mostly obeyed stop signs and traffic lights and rarely jumped the gun (as I saw done in other states).  They were almost always good drivers in the sense of being able to stay in their lanes and follow traffic instructions.  While these are traits in many states, I've learned they aren't to be found everywhere and are therefore not something to be taken for granted.

I had more people thank me for pulling over for them than in most other states, which I really appreciated.  But I also had that one jerk who blared his horn at me for pulling over as far as I could but that still left me a little bit in the lane of travel.  And after saving him the trouble of having to pass me on a winding 2-lane road.  As I mentioned at the time, I've only been blared at in 2 states, and I was really saddened to have Washington be one of those two.

Roads in WA were in pretty good shape statewide.  There were a few places where I got lost or turned around which were sometimes the fault of the highway department's lack of adequate signs, but also sometimes the fault of Google for giving poor directions.  Mostly, when I wanted to know something, the highway department would soon provide a sign with the answer, and I don't ask much more than that.

What I didn't see that I wanted to see

Actually, quite a few things that I didn't already mention in my daily posts.

Up in the far northwestern corner where I didn't have time to go, I wanted to run to Bellingham for at least a couple of reasons: it's the southern end of the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system; Squalicum Harbor is the 2nd largest on Puget Sound (which is saying something).  In Blaine is a Peace Arch at the Canadian border.  I've seen it before but that was many years ago.

There are several passes across the Cascades; I took the one farthest north but a scenic wonder lies along one of the others.  Snoqualmie Pass, on the highway between Ellensburg and Seattle, lies near Snoqualmie Falls, which are 100' taller than Niagara Falls.  I hear they're beautiful and I'd've liked to see them.

Speaking of Seattle, the Aurora Bridge is a landmark for several reasons, among the most pleasant being the statue of a troll that's underneath it.  This troll holds in its hand an actual Volkswagen (with California license plates), presumably having grabbed it off the bridge.  And Seattle has other unusual bridges, among them the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and the Mercer Island Floating Bridge, ranking #1 and #3 respectively on the list of the world's longest permanent floating bridges.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (the new one, not the original Galloping Gertie that failed in a 42 mph wind) is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.  I traveled over it a couple of times when I lived in the area but would be willing to see it again, now that I know how to drive on long bridges.

Because the US Supreme Court declared Long Island in New York to be technically a peninsula, Whidbey Island here is now the US's longest island outside of Hawaii.

Clarkston, where I ended my month, is actually a seaport.  Yes, it's 450 miles inland, but container ships can travel up the Columbia and the Snake Rivers to offload.  I didn't remember to look for the port facilities while I was there.

And you'll remember all the times I learned after the fact that I should have made time to see one thing or another.  But I barely had time to see what I did, so it couldn't be helped.

My conclusion

I've always liked Washington; after all, I lived here very happily for more than 16 years.  I have good friends here and places that I love.  There's a lot of sentimental value for me here.

So it doesn't come as a surprise to me that I mostly enjoyed my month here.  Of course, losing Gracie was a sadness that will be with me for a long time.  And I'd lived through so many days of rain and overcast weather during my month in Oregon that I was seriously dismayed to find that I had to live through still more of them here.

But when I was here before, I really liked the people and places on both sides of the mountains - and I still do.

Many people consider WA to be a solidly Democratic state but, as so often with political questions, the truth is more complicated than that.  When I lived here, I thought of the west side of the Cascades as mostly Democrat and the east side as mostly Republican.  I don't know if I was right then, but now, in recent elections, the Democrats have dominated primarily in the metro area extending from north of Seattle down to Olympia, with a few offshoots here and there.  The Republicans have dominated almost everywhere else in the state.  The problem Republicans have here - as is the case in almost all states - is that their strongest support is in rural areas with relatively low population levels.  Democrats have their strongest support in urban areas that often have the majority of each state's population.  As far as I can tell (though I haven't studied it), it's like that in every state across the country.  So you could say - and I have said for years - that Washington has a very strong 2-party system, despite its top offices being dominated by Democrats.  

WA also has for some years done all voting by mail.  The rate of fraud has been extremely low (something like 10 cases in the last 15 years).  I loved it because it was vastly easier to vote.  I could do it in my own time sitting at my kitchen table, instead of having to remember to get to a precinct on whatever days and between whatever hours the polls were open.  Apparently the state's residents think it works because they haven't yet repealed it.

All of this is by way of saying that I've been seriously considering moving my residence back to Washington.  I've never made friends easily and it's important that I have so many who live here.  But I lived with too much rain for more than 30 years and I just don't think I could be happy choosing it again.  On the other hand, eastern WA is too dry for my taste, which doesn't run to deserts.  I don't know.  I'll keep thinking about it.

Washington - Day 30 - in Clarkston campground

Hells Canyon RV Resort, Clarkston

Thursday, 30 June 2022

Hells Canyon isn't actually anywhere near here.   It's about a 30-mile drive to get from here to Oregon, and Hells Canyon forms a big chunk of the border between Oregon and Idaho.  It's the deepest canyon in North America and was created by the mighty Snake River itself.  I'm guessing this campground got its name from the canyon-related tourism that Clarkston provides.

Not having done my homework ahead of time, I hadn't realized all that and was hoping I could at least catch a glimpse of the canyon from the vicinity of the campground.  Of course, that didn't work out, and I haven't completely given up that hope yet, but I now know it's a lot more inaccessible than I'm prepared for right now.  But it's a worthy goal, and I'm attaching this webpage that has some great photos and information about the canyon and its history.   https://www.thetravel.com/hells-canyon-matches-its-name

While we were here, I got 2 more blog posts done (I'm now up to Day 18!), and planned driving routes in Idaho.  Dext and I took several walks, but this is one of those places that doesn't want you walking dogs around the park.  They've provided what they call a "dog run" which is nothing of the sort.  It's a small area that's been divided in half, and each side is so small you'd have to have a Dachshund or something that size for it to be able to run.  Dext could cover it in a few steps, but he didn't even bother.  Instead of grass they used gravel, which I suppose is easier to keep clean but Dext doesn't like it much.  There wasn't even a scrap of shade.  It was a sort of prelude to Hell in itself, and I didn't inflict it on Dext but the once.

So we had to pretend we weren't walking in the campground when that's exactly what we were doing.  The campground was beside a marina (that's where the "resort" part comes in, I guess) and we walked along beside it and into a sort of wasteland area beyond it.  But there really wasn't anywhere else for us to go that didn't involve a lot of traffic.  Too bad for both of us.

But we were staying only these 2 nights here, and we were able to cope okay.

Washington - Day 29 - Pullman, down to Clarkston

Hells Canyon RV Resort, Clarkston
Wednesday, 29 June 2022

today's route

It might be a little hard to tell from the photo, but from Moses Lake we went mostly south to Othello and then turned due east, heading as directly as possible toward Pullman.  I wanted to visit the town because it has the main campus of Washington State University, so I'd heard about Pullman for almost all the time I lived here.

Although the road to Othello was part of my drive 2 days ago from Tri-cities, I still saw things I hadn't seen before.

For instance, I saw something advertising the Wenatchee AppleSox baseball team.  I'd somehow missed that when I'd been in the Wenatchee area and, with a name like that, I had to look them up.  It formed in 2000 and is an amateur team that plays in a league that fields college baseball players, only these teams have no affiliation with any school and only play in the summer.  It sounds like they're minor league teams that aren't professionals.  I've always enjoyed minor league baseball - it's a lot more entertaining than the big leagues, in my opinion - so I'd probably enjoy the AppleSox games.

I saw a sign for Potholes State Park and wondered if Washington has potholes like I saw in North Dakota and other northern states.  And it turns out Washington does have them, except not in Potholes State Park, which is very confusing.  The state park is around Potholes Reservoir, which also has nothing to do with natural potholes - those leftovers from the glacier age.  The ones WA has are about 30 miles outside the park, are really hard to find information about in a search, and don't seem to be protected by any government.  

As I drove across eastern WA, I passed crops and cows.  Those crops included asparagus and cherries (according to a sign), corn and potatoes (according to what I recognized in the fields).

I saw an unusual square building that was small enough to be a silo though it looked like a 3-story barn: very small, wooden, square and at least 3 stories tall.

I saw a critter that, for some reason, I thought was a wolf.  And there are wolves in WA, but there are far more coyotes so the chances are that's what it was.  It was trotting across an open field.

And on the radio, I heard that the state government is deliberately killing wolves, exterminating an entire pack in eastern WA, because they've been attacking people's cattle.  Dept. of Fish & Wildlife says they'd love to stop killing wolves but "there are people whose livelihoods are impacted."

In an unrelated note, I also heard on the radio that there'd been a wildfire in the Soap Lake area yesterday - still burning today, actually - and that people were being evacuated from their homes.

I passed many acres of grain fields and a sign on 2 large storage silos that read WA Grain Growers.

And in the middle of the grain fields I came to the tiny town (217 residents) of Washtucna, named for Washtucna Lake which was named for a Palouse Native American chief.  A sign a little farther along the road told me I was on Palouse Scenic Byway, and that Whitman County (which I was now in) was the "Nation's Leading Wheat-Producing County."

I saw a wild turkey by the road.  Haven't seen one in a while.

The public radio station I was picking up here said it's broadcasting from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University.  I was curious and looked it up and learned that, in fact, Edward R. Murrow, famed early radio broadcaster, is one of WSU's most well-known graduates.  Murrow is the one who was known for helping bring down Joe McCarthy with his TV program See It Now.  He was clearly a man who was on time for his moment in history, as you can tell just from the snippets in his Wikipedia article.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Edward-R-Murrow

I saw a sign for the town of Dusty, which isn't incorporated and is hardly a town.  Per Wikipedia in an unattributed comment: "Various reports put the population of this tiny hamlet at either 11 or 12 people and 2 horses (+/- a horse)."  However, it's big enough to have a grain elevator that's labeled "Dusty Elevator - Lacrosse Grain Growers."

That grain includes canola and massive fields of wheat (apparently).  As I drove I saw the wind blowing across the grain, revealing pale grain heads as they swayed, looking soft and silky.

I came to the Palouse Empire Fairgrounds, which hosts the Whitman County Fair each September in Colfax, pop. 2,830.  I saw a building that dated to 1893, and the whole downtown was full of old buildings.  A little research told me it's actually a lot older than 1893: the area was first settled by European-Americans in the 1870s, and the town that was started here was called Belleville, for the girlfriend of one of the founders.  When he switched girlfriends, he changed the town's name to Colfax, who was vice president under Pres. Grant.

I passed a mechanic shop with the sign, "Satisfaction guaranteed or your dent back."

I've been seeing "help wanted" signs all over the state, and Colfax is no exception.

It was less than 20 miles to Pullman, pop. 34,560, elev. 2,352'.  I was aiming for a park as our first stop, figuring Dext could use a break.  Reaney Park is next door to WSU and wasn't as big in real life as it looked on the map.  It had a lot of activities packed into an oddly shaped 1-block chunk of land.  But the chunk included lots of grass and big old trees and parents keeping an eye on their little kids on the playground and in the swimming pool.  Dext and I negotiated a route through all this, with some little kids being scared of him and others wanting to pat him.  It's really much easier on my nerves to be doing this with only one dog, and Dext may be getting more attention now that he's not being overshadowed by Gracie, who was more conventionally attractive.

What Reaney Park didn't have was much parking.  It took me several minutes to maneuver us into a parking place, but we got one in the shade of some of those old trees, so we stayed and had lunch there.  From there I drove through some of the WSU campus (very attractive) and on to the local IGA.  I found when I got there that the store was closing its doors permanently, and of course they weren't replenishing their stock.  It was an odd experience trying to find anything I wanted when most of the shelves were empty (I felt like I was in Soviet-era Leningrad) and of course there was no produce or dairy or any meat that wasn't frozen.

As I drove out of town I passed the bigger, fancier store that probably took all the old-time-family IGA business away.  In relative terms, Pullman's not a big city - it's not even in WA's top 10 - but for this area, it's a thriving community.  The university itself has 28,000+ enrolled and ranks behind only University of Washington in Seattle in student population.  It's an old rivalry, by the way.  When the schools play each other each year, it's called the Apple Cup and the state totters a bit until the contest is resolved for that year.

On my outward route I found the local recycling center which let me dump a lot of what was in my bathroom, including the glass, so that was good.

From Pullman, I insisted Google route me on what I thought would be a more scenic road than the fastest one - running along the Snake River.  The road from the recycling center led me for 17 miles first on the Old Wawawai Road, and then on the Wawawai Grade Road down to the Wawawai County Park by the river.  

I thought those names couldn't possibly by right, but I learned from signs at the park that they are.  That "grade" road, by the way, is so named because it runs down steeply, losing about 1,600' in elevation in those 17 miles.  And of course the road was a curvy, hilly road, but luckily there wasn't much traffic.

The park seemed very out-of-the-way to me, but there were several groups of people down there, setting off on hikes, camping or just fishing and swimming in a little side pocket of water from the river.

The water you can see through the
bridge supports is the Snake River.

I found a couple of signs explaining the area.

Wa-wa-wa = Talk, talk, talk
People never change.

Lewis & Clark were through here -
details enlarged below.

I'll warn you here not to read these signs if you're disturbed by this fact: the men of the Expedition didn't think much of salmon as a protein source and were happy to eat dogs instead.

Over the years, I've heard disparaging comments made about foreign cultures that supposedly eat dog meat.  I'll bet those same disparagers extol the virtues of the explorers on this Expedition.  

And lastly, I found this sign about the area's wetlands that included information I didn't know.

Just as a bonus, I have a "where's Waldo?" puzzle for you.

Somewhere in this photo is a walking-stick kind of insect.
I noticed him accidentally at the time,
but I haven't been able to find him in this photo,
though I'm sure he's there somewhere.

From here we drove off along the Snake River - another 16 miles or so down to Clarkston.

There was little traffic on the road, though I saw many folks camping along the side in what looked like designated camping areas - though they were all boondocking.  I think it's the fishing that draws them.

Coming our way I saw a school bus with a Dalmatian poking its head out of a window.

The road came to a T intersection that Google didn't mention, and the signs didn't give me a clue which way I should turn.  I chose to keep following the river, which turned out to be the right choice.

Near Clarkston, I passed a huge staging yard for logs.

I found the campground easily, I got good directions to a grocery store from the woman at the office, I went into town for groceries (since the Pullman IGA didn't have them) and then, not finding anywhere to walk Dext, I came back to our site for the next 2 nights.

Washington - Day 28 - in Moses Lake campground

Grant County Fairgrounds RV Park, Moses Lake

Tuesday, 28 June 2022

When I drove in yesterday afternoon, I saw a sign on the entrance gate saying something about the 4-H judging livestock, so I was forewarned to expect livestock.  Which, actually, I never saw - assuming livestock means cows and sheep and so forth.  I wasn't counting horses as livestock because people so often ride horses to tend to their livestock.  When I asked at the office about it, the women said yeah, they'd seen the sign too, and they thought someone was going to teach 4-H kids how to judge livestock.

I didn't see the kids any more than I saw the livestock, but I did see a few horses that first night, and beginning Tuesday afternoon I saw them come pouring in, so obviously something was going to happen and it looked like I'd be missing it.  Just as well.  I'm still not sure how far I can trust Dext around horses.

I got the Day 15 post done and did some personal chores and planned my driving routes for the next few days, not wanting to trust that I'd have a decent wifi signal after I left here.

It was sunny and peaceful and pleasantly warm, all of which I needed.

Washington - Day 27 - down to Walla Walla, then back to Moses Lake

Grant County Fairgrounds RV Park, Moses Lake

Monday, 27 June 2022

today's route

What I'm trying to do in these last few days of my month in Washington is to get to as many places as possible - at least, those on my must-visit list.  Walla Walla and its reputation for producing wonderful sweet onions, was on that list and, because I couldn't figure out any more elegant way to add it to my itinerary, I'm taking a special trip over there today. 

But first I started with the Tri-cities area, which I hadn't visited before.  There are 3 cities right on top of each other: Pasco, Richland and Kennewick.  I'm sure they each have their own unique flavor, but I wasn't able to take the time to find out what that might be.  I did go to a little trouble, though, to get to Columbia Park, which is a very large park that straddles both Richland and Kennewick along the Columbia River.  I was mostly aiming for it as a place where I could give Dexter something new to sniff.

We started with a historical marker.

With 1853 clearly being a year when this area was undeveloped,
this should show both the difference between the histories of the eastern and western US 
as well as the difficulties early white settlers encountered.

We did find the park and I did walk Dexter, who was so adept at finding the fast-food wrappers left by people over the weekend that I finally gave up and stuck him back in the RV.  Oddly, many of the trees I saw in the park seemed to be lime trees.  They were much bigger than I thought lime trees grew, but they had fruit growing on them that looked exactly like limes.  I first noticed limes lying around here and there under the trees and was surprised that so many people would have been making gin-and-tonics in a public park.  Then I realized none of them had been cut open, and after that I started to look up and that's when I saw the fruit growing on the trees.  I guess they could be a lookalike but what would that be?

I noticed a strong Hispanic presence when I was driving around Pasco.  I was curious and looked it up and as near as I can tell, Pasco residents are more than 55% of Hispanic background.  Kennewick is 25% Hispanic, while Richland has only 11%.  If these figures are true, they make me even more curious, without any easy way of finding out why the extreme disparity.

One thing I did learn is that part of the Manhattan Project during WWII was established here in Richland - the Hanford Nuclear Site.  As I saw in New Mexico, the activities at such sites were closely guarded secrets and relied on specifically chosen personnel.  So maybe that has something to do with today's racial makeup in the town.  What I do know is that Hanford has been shut down, and all the work currently at the site is cleanup of nuclear waste and so forth.  

Leaving town, I crossed a bridge over the Columbia River, then another one over the Snake River which flows into the Columbia here.

I saw a variety of crops all along my drive east.

I passed the turn going to the Whitman Mission National Historic Site.  The Whitmans are fairly well-known in Washington, but likely not at all out of the state.  They were Methodist missionaries who traveled west in 1836 and established a Methodist mission here in Cayuse territory.  The Cayuse were a warring tribe and were (reasonably) suspicious of these newcomers.  It's possible the Whitmans lasted as long as they did because Dr. Whitman tried to learn the Cayuse language.  But settlers traveling the Oregon Trail stopped here to rest, making the Cayuse suspicious (also reasonably) that they planned to displace the Natives.  Finally, in 1847, there was a measles outbreak (probably passed on by those Oregon Trail folks).  Half the Cayuse tribe died, while far fewer of the white folks died.  The Cayuse blamed the Whitmans and massacred some in the mission, taking others hostage.  The result of the shock waves across the country was that Oregon became an official US territory and the US government waged war on the Cayuse.  I didn't bother to visit the site because I never felt any sympathy for or interest in the Whitmans and their mission.

As I was coming into Walla Walla, I passed another sign telling me to turn for the Frenchtown Historic Site.  I didn't but I looked it up and learned its history is closely intertwined with that of the Whitman Mission and the establishment of Walla Walla itself.  It offers a great example of folks who get it right in moving into the territory of others.  In this link, if you bypass the list of folks you've never heard of in the beginning, you come to an unacknowledged but vital part of the history of our country.   http://www.frenchtownwa.org/frenchtown

In Walla Walla, I passed Whitman College (not to be confused with Whitworth University I saw in Spokane) and an area marked "Entering Golf Cart Zone."  And I did see an elderly man driving a golf cart near the grocery store.

I was aiming for Pioneer Park, which I'd found on the map, and thought I could walk Dext there.  And we did.  Lots of other dogs, but he was pretty well behaved.  It was a lovely park with a winding paved walking path running through it.  The path was bordered by enormous old trees, which made me think this park wasn't some haphazard designation of unused land as a park but instead carefully planned out long ago.  I asked a couple about my age I saw walking there, who said they were visiting in town but had been here often and yes, the park had been here for at least a century.  They told me not to miss seeing the tree that had a false limb made for it by a local foundry after the original limb was lost in a storm.  So I went looking for it.

This is the tree - see close-up below.

I'm sure I wouldn't have known this was a fake branch
if I hadn't been told.

There was a plaque nearby saying this "London Plane Branch" of cast bronze was made in 2021 by the Walla Walla Foundry.

Every town has its oddball stories, and it was just a piece of luck that I learned about this one.

The park was in a residential area, and I saw 2 houses with something that caught my interest.

It was the screen on the side of the porch that I noticed.
I think it was an elaborately carved metal screen, and it served
the multiple purposes of blocking the sun, providing privacy from the neighbors,
and looking better than such screens usually do.

I've looked through enough Better Homes and Gardens to recognize
that this house is about to have its front yard transformed.
I hope the owners took "before" photos.  I'm curious enough to want to
come back in 5 years and see what it looks like.

The most recent census put Walla Walla at 34,060 residents, which is a decent-sized town, but still a town.  People told me they like it here because it's quiet, and that it's "a rural town."  The downtown looked very pleasant, very walkable.  Overall I'd say this looked like a nice place for a visit.

I saw lots of wineries in and around town so wine tasting would likely be an enjoyable thing to do here.

All day as I drove I was plagued by worry over both the "check engine" light and what may be a problem with the brakes.  Neither seems to interfere with the running of the RV and the gauges on the dash are all normal, but I know there's something wrong and I'm trying to figure out when I can get somebody to look at it.

One of the crop fields I passed had workers in it and I didn't see water or shade or any provision at all for their safety nearby.  The forecast is for 101° high today, which is nothing to fool around with.

I drove back over exactly the road I'd covered earlier because I needed to pick up this month's prescriptions at the CVS in Kennewick.  I learned that there are only 3 CVS stores in all of eastern WA - one in Spokane and one each in Kennewick and Richland.  That didn't give me a lot of choice, but I have to have these meds.

The good part of that was that this CVS was inside a Target, and I bought a second fan to use in the RV.  I've hated having to take away the fan at night that I'd put on the floor for Dext because I needed it for me during the night.  So now we can both have fans.  One fewer worry.

From there I headed almost due north to Moses Lake.

At Othello, pop. 7,695, I passed a plant labeled CHS Bean Plant.  A sign told me chickpeas are one of the products they process.  This facility just tripled its capacity last year and processes a variety of dry edible beans.  Turns out the pandemic increased demand for such products.

All afternoon I passed fields of corn, potatoes, onions and other crops.

A sign over the entrance to a ranch said, "Meanwhile back at the ranch."  Really.

And then back to Moses Lake, pop. 25,760.  It certainly wasn't on a direct route to anywhere I was going, but I'd been comfortable here and knew they had a reliable wifi signal and ok bathrooms, so I decided to come back.

Washington - Day 26 - Spokane, and south to Tri-cities

Pasco/Tri-cities KOA, Pasco

Sunday, 26 June 2022

today's route

So now it seems I have 2 problems with the RV: the check engine light keeps coming on and staying on, though it occasionally blinks for a while before it switches back to a steady on; and I think something's wrong with my brakes.  I can still stop just like I always could, but when I step on the brake pedal and then release it, it doesn't feel like it's getting released all the way.  Plus I'm hearing an odd rubbing sort of noise that sounds like it's in my rear passenger-side wheels.  Obviously neither one of these is something I should trifle with, but I haven't got a clue when or where I'm going to be staying long enough, in a town big enough to house an RV repair place.  But I can't let this go too much longer.

After about a half hour, I was back in Spokane, where there was no identifying sign from this direction either but I did see a sign saying it's got 6 international sister cities.

I spent some time driving around town, passing 3 colleges: Gonzaga University, Whitworth University, and Washington State University (not the main campus).  I tried to get a view of the Spokane Falls that the city was originally named for.  Google told me I'd be passing at least "the lower falls" when I crossed the river, but I didn't see so much as a ripple in the water there.  I also tried to get Google to route me along Riverfront Park alongside the Spokane River that runs through the center of town, but it was a struggle.  I kept getting lost and finding it again only to run into impassable streets, and finally gave it up.  I guess today wasn't a good day to find river-related things.

When I'd been through town on Friday I didn't fully appreciate the signs I saw then proclaiming Hoopfest.  Well, Hoopfest, an annual event that proclaims itself to be "the largest 3on3 outdoor basketball tournament on Earth!", was happening yesterday and today.  Major streets were closed for blocks downtown and I had to keep dodging suddenly closed streets and detours and finally asked for directions from one of the event volunteers when I was stymied yet again.  And his directions were perfect, so I got out of town as quickly as I could.  From there I followed Google's sketchy directions (reality didn't look like their map) to the SpokAnimal Dog Park.  That turned out to be a very popular place with what looked like dozens of large dogs arriving and leaving constantly (it was a pretty day).  

The area had 2 parks, separated by the dogs' sizes.  The large dog park was built on a hill with lots of plants (unlandscaped) in it, and I was afraid if I took him there I'd have trouble keeping an eye on him.  I wasn't sure how he'd do with a whole lot of dogs his size, given the trouble he used to have at day care places.  He'd be fine with a few dogs, but when the crowd grew large he always seemed to get overloaded and there'd be a fight.  I just didn't want to deal with that here, so I put him in the completely empty pen for small dogs.  At 2 different times, people brought their equally large dogs to our pen, so Dext had someone for company, though nobody seemed to pay much attention to the other after the first few minutes.  We stayed for a while and then got on the road.

I heard on the radio someone explaining that if carrots are allowed to stay in the ground and not be harvested, then in their 2nd year they'll produce pretty flowers which produce seeds that can then be planted.  Some of Denise's guests had been saying yesterday something about carrots being 2-year plants, but I hadn't followed how that happened.  So I was lucky that they talked about it today.

Spokane is the location of an Amazon "Fulfillment Center."  Though apparently fulfillment isn't what the staff feel about their jobs.

Back on the road, we passed vast fields of grain and cows (not in the same fields).  I was passed by a semi towing an empty flatbed; he had a Texas license plate and was flying a Confederate flag.

I changed highways at Ritzville and wondered if the town still had its former reputation: it was known statewide as a speed trap, with the speed limit suddenly decreasing about 20 mph lower just over a hill and a police car waiting just inside the speed limit zone to nab people.  I couldn't find anything recent on the internet, so maybe things have calmed down.

I'm starting to decide Dext's personality is undergoing some serious changes since Gracie died.  Now he hangs back behind me on walks, where he used to run to the end of his leash in front.  He won't play with other dogs, just sniffs them.  He doesn't even get very excited about them when we pass them on walks.  He shows interest in things like deer and marmots but doesn't strain at the leash to get to them or bark his head off at them like he used to.  I'd love for it to be because he was finally getting mature, but it can't be a coincidence that it's happening right after he lost his companion of 6 years (he's 7 now).  I think he's probably grieving her loss, as I am.

He may also be lonely, but I'm not ready to get another dog just on the off-chance that it'll make him feel better.  Life with only 1 big dog is much much easier for me than it was with 2, and I really need the break.  I try to make it up by giving him more attention that I did, which he likes.  But when I try to take him for longer walks, which I can do with only 1 dog, he often heads back to the RV long before I'm ready.  I feel sad for him as much as for me, but I think I'm going to give this situation more time.  Grief is a complicated thing, and my sweet-natured dog deserves a chance to do it in his own way.

I passed a billboard that said: "Weed 'Em and Reap."  (We're definitely in agricultural country.)

In the town of Connell (pop. over 5,000) I saw a light standard with 2 lights that were shaped like upside-down flowers with several petals on the light standard itself.  Kinda nice for a change.

After passing through Mesa, a sign warned of "Farm Accesses Next 9 Miles."  Like I said, agricultural country.

The radio told me the US Weather Service had put out a heat alert for this area because of temperatures expected to rise into the 80s and low 90s.  I'm not sure why they did that because this part of WA always gets hotter than the western part, and the summer temps can get up a lot higher than that.

A large sign I saw somewhere in this area supported the Franklin County Republicans, which it said was "A Party on the Move."  "Protecting Life, Restoring Liberty, Defending the Constitution."  Considering the way the very conservative Supreme Court justices seem to be shredding Constitutional rights (since when did the Court take away rights that people already have?) in their recent decisions (on Miranda warnings, on abortion, on separation of church and state, as examples), I don't see that as much of a defense for the Constitution.  But I know not everybody agrees with me.

I passed an apple orchard advertising a "new variety: Cosmic Crisp."  And they had other varieties, of course, like Fujis.

I passed corn fields and grains and other vegies and grape vines.  This is a very fertile part of Washington.

And then we were in Pasco, pop. 73,590, and tonight's campground.

Washington - Day 25 - in Newport

Newport/Little Diamond Lake KOA, Newport

Saturday, 25 June 2022

today's route

Not a very clear photo because I just took a piece from another route map - but as you can see I only drove a few miles from the campground to Newport - just over 25 miles round trip for the day.

One of my closest friends from law school, Denise Stewart, is from Newport and has been practicing law here for some years, and I was in town to visit her.

I'd told her I got up really early, so she called me at 6:30 (I was drinking coffee after breakfast) and said I should come over as soon as I wanted to.  So I left the campground at 7:00 and drove into town.

It turned out that the timing of my visit was impeccable: it was the day of the Newport Rodeo Parade.  And Denise's law office had an entry: she and her staff and other helpers planned to walk along the parade route handing out information and useful items (e.g. a pen with the firm's name on it), while I and one of Denise's kids rode on the flatbed of an old bright-yellow pickup (also with the firm's name on it) throwing candy to the kids along the route.  

So I got a great backwards tour of Newport (pop. 2,229 in 2020) and actually improved my so-called throwing arm enough that after a while I was actually able to get the candy as far out as the kids, instead of just a few feet from the truck.

The truck was closely followed by some horse-mounted young women who wore sashes proclaiming them to have been selected Newport Rodeo Queen and other such titles.  I wasn't able to read the sashes from where I sat so I don't know which one was unlucky enough to be riding right behind us - unlucky because the exhaust from that old truck was sometimes a little much.  It was either getting hit with that exhaust now and then or the noise of the crowd or being forced to walk and stop over and over in the sun - but something was making that horse really restless.  The young woman had a lot of trouble controlling him (and she had to ride 1-handed because of having to wave) and a couple of times I (and maybe she) thought that horse was going to rear up and gallop off like they do in the Old West movies.

It was all a lot of fun.  Before we left for the parade, I got to spend a couple of hours talking with Denise and with her recently-married husband who I hadn't met before.  That was really great.  And afterward a few friends and family gathered in their back yard for a barbecue, and that was also good. 

Denise has a large Old English Sheepdog and a small pug, which gave Dext somebody new to meet.  I was surprised that he didn't seem very interested in playing with either of them, but they all sniffed each other and so forth, and Dext behaved very well off leash (in a fenced back yard).

I finally left after 3:00 because I like being in my campsite by 4:00 or so.  I stopped on the way to walk Dexter again and then we were back in the pines.  It was so good to see Denise again and to see that she was still completely herself.  Though as honest a person as she always was, and still is, it wouldn't be possible for her to be anybody but herself.

Washington - Day 24 - Grand Coulee Dam, to Newport

Newport/Little Diamond Lake KOA, Newport

Friday, 24 June 2022

today's route

We were set to cover over 200 miles today, and even Google said it'd take more than 4 hours to do it, so I decided to get on the road early.  It helps that sunrise is at 5:00 these days, so it was well beyond full daylight at 6:45 when we got on the road.

We stopped in Ephrata to pick up some groceries and then went a few miles farther to Soap Lake, the name of both the town and the body of water.  These signs I found there explain how Soap Lake got its name and a bit of its history.

It sets a record, they say.

And it really does look and feel soapy (I tried it).

farther along the lake

I took that first photo partly for the suds and partly so I could look the birds up later.  Actually, I didn't look closely enough at the gulls to be able to say anything except they're one of the kinds with black wingtips.  I was looking at the shorebirds, trying to memorize them.  Of course my memory didn't last as long as the photo, but it was good enough for me to be able to identify them.

I'm sure about the Black-necked Stilts, the black and white ones.  And if the one with the rusty color on the head looked taller, I'd be sure it was an American Avocet - they're 4" taller than the Stilts.  But it looks just like its picture and nothing else does, and it's supposed to be here, so I guess that's it.

Black-necked Stilt - 14" tall

American Avocet - 18" tall

Near the end of the lake, I happened on what I thought was a large statue, that turned out to be a sundial.

"Calling the Healing Waters"
The world's first human figure sundial,
according to the sign.

unusual pose, with one of his legs awkwardly behind him

It turned out that the outstretched wing was the arm of the sundial, with the times marked around the edge of that platform with the seats.

There was an inscription nearby that was such a combination of light and shadow it's hard to read, but without the accidental misspellings, here's what it said:

"Since its creation, Soap Lake has brought healing and therapeutic well-being to its inhabitants. . . . This sculpture evokes the divinity, heritage and dreams of the people whose hearts are in residence.  The sundial is set to solar time." 

It was a gift of the Soap Lake Garden Club and other donors.  

The road from there followed the lake, which is about 2 miles long, and one of several lakes - some quite large - that I drove along.  And I saw a lot of fishing from the shore so there's clearly a lot of life there.

Near Coulee City, I saw a good-sized flock of White Pelicans.  The map of their range in the bird book told me they don't get any farther north in Washington than this, so I guess I got lucky.

A sign at Coulee City told me it was the Home of the Annual Last Stand Rodeo, which will be held for the 70th time over Memorial Day weekend - in other words, I just missed it.

Among the lakes I saw was Banks Lake, a long (27 miles) stretch of blue-green water with tall cliffs on both sides.  The internet told me it was formed by the Missoula Floods during the Pleistocene Epoch, but I learned later that it's fed by water from the Grand Coulee Dam.

I passed the small town of Electric City, so named because of its proximity to the massive power source of the dam.

At the town of Grand Coulee, I found a place I remembered from a quick visit I'd made to this part of the state many years ago.  The Gehrke Windmill Garden was a little blurb I found in the AAA travel guide and I'd stopped just to see.  And here it was still, looking just like itself.

At first, all you can see is a riot - of color and motion and sound.  And then it sorts itself out into dozens of oddball windmills perched above dozens of planters of flowers.

I took a video, hoping you could hear the sound of the creaking of all these old odd parts, but the wind was blowing so strong it's about all I can hear.  Still, it's fun to watch.

In case you're wondering where this all came from, here's the informational sheet posted at the garden.

In 2016, the Gehrke Windmill Garden was added to the Washington Heritage List of Historic Places.

I saw a display at a nearby park that had some information about Grand Coulee Dam that helped explain the geographic confusion I'd been feeling.

So coming from south to north was what confused me.  Lake Franklin D. Roosevelt (in the north) is formed out of the Columbia River which is held back by the dam.  Water flows through the dam into Banks Lake (in the south), and from there into several other lakes.  But the Columbia River itself takes a turn to the northwest and runs back over to where I found it last week at Pateros and Chelan and especially Wenatchee and points south.  It finally flows through the Tri-cities area, where I'll be later this month, and then becomes half the border between Washington and Oregon, flowing at last into the Pacific Ocean.

But I still have to get to the dam which, from the windmill garden, was less than 3 miles farther on.

What I first came to was the most impressive part of anything the visitor center could show me.

Did you notice all those trees that were more than knee-deep in water?  Which would normally tell me there's more water coming through than usual.  I don't know what it means at a dam.

Okay, the problem I had here was that to me, the high side of this dam was on the downstream side near Banks Lake, which would mean Lake Roosevelt was on the lower part of this dramatic video.  Even I know you can't have water from below pouring in such quantities uphill to a higher level.  

So I did a lot of research and had a hard time finding anyone that wanted to explain it to me.  But apparently what happened was the road must have crossed Banks Lake when I wasn't paying attention, and then turning so that it was coming toward the dam not from south to north as I'd thought (which would put the north - Lk. Roosevelt - on the lower side), but still coming from the south, so Lake Roosevelt would be on the uphill side and that lower part is Banks Lake.  Look, I'm doing the best I can and nobody wants to give me a clear answer that fits the facts I could see.  If anybody finds a website that explains what happened to my sense of direction, please let me know.

There were a lot of displays on various dam-related topics in the visitor center.  I'll include a few of them here.

One of those signs mentioned the amount of concrete in the dam in cubic yards - and the visitor center thoughtfully provided a visual aid for that.

The sign says: "This is a cubic yard.
Grand Coulee Dam contains approximately
12 million cubic yards of concrete."

And this exhibit explains why there's so much concrete in it:

FDR visited the dam site twice, once in 1934 after construction had started but before the river was diverted, and again 3 years later when the foundation was nearly complete.  Eleanor is supposed to have commented, "It was a good salesman who sold this to Franklin."

Now, the dam serves a variety of purposes, and here are some exhibits about those.

This is the display -
some parts are enlarged below.

Then there was this one about the geology of the site.

And here's how all that geology got formed:

Fire, ice and water.
(Sounds like an old rock band.)

The photo about ICE didn't come out but it read as follows:

"Then the glaciers came, advancing from great ice fields in the north.  Lobes of ice extended across rivers, creating blockages.  Massive lakes formed behind the ice dams, covering much of today's Montana."

One of the reasons FDR supported the program (I'm guessing) is that it gave jobs to a large number of men who otherwise might not have had them.

Once the dam was done, they discovered an oopsie: the Columbia River, that they'd so ruthlessly commandeered, had supported an enormous salmon run, but the dam - and those 800,000 gallons of water per second that flowed through it - put a quick end to that historic event.

And it turned out that the salmon weren't the only casualty.

And for a final summary:

I'd come down a steep hill to get to the dam's visitor center, and once I climbed back up again and turned onto the road heading east, I came to another steep hill that kept climbing for 11 miles.

At Wilbur, pop. 2,175 they say, I saw a small herd of cows with seriously long hair.  They looked like those old shag carpets, only brown instead of lime green.

The town of Creston said it was Home of the Wildcats.  With a recent population of 238, I'm guessing the local teams are well-supported, because of being the only game in town (so to speak).

I passed large fields of grain - most already cut but not yet gathered - and other crops.

Davenport hosts the Pioneer Days the 3rd weekend in July.  It's the county seat and has more than 1,700 residents, and I'm sure the celebration will be a lot of fun.

From here I started seeing large fields of yellow - canola?

The town of Reardon (652 residents) celebrated Mule Days earlier this month.  Among other attractions they have a parade, a barbecue, a car show, and a poker ride - which seems to consist of contestants riding a mule to designated stops where they'll draw a card that's recorded on their game sheet, and the best game sheet hand at the end of the ride is the Winner!  The whole thing sounds like a hoot to me.

There's nothing like a small town to make the most of its celebrations.  Everywhere.

Not far from Spokane is Fairchild Air Force Base.  Established in 1942 as the Spokane Army Air Depot, it now hosts the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, a process that has always seemed wildly dangerous to me.

Then on to Spokane - no sign but I guessed.  Spokane (pronounced spoke-ANN) is the 2nd largest city in the state, with about a third the population of Seattle.  It seems to have a fair number of homeless folks, too, based on the number of tents I saw in a park.

I saw the Thomas Stephen "Tom" Foley Memorial Highway and thought that was the least they could do for the guy.  I remember him because I was lobbying while he was still in office.  He was a Democrat that served in the US House for 30 years, the last 6 as Speaker of the House.  In 1995, he was knocked out of office (the first time a Speaker had lost a reelection since 1862) by a forgettable Republican because his district, which had become increasingly conservative, were angry about him opposing term limits (though most people call them "elections").  While he was Speaker, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Brady handgun bill, and NAFTA, among many others.  He clearly knew how to make Congress work, and I think we need him back again.

I passed a business named Sweeto Burrito.  Apparently their food isn't sweet - the founder was just looking for a catchy name.

I passed several signs for "Re-elect Larry Haskell County Prosecutor."  He was one of my study partners in law school and I knew he'd been working in the prosecutor's office out here but hadn't realized that he himself was now in charge.  

A little research told me he was having trouble in this election for two related reasons: one was his wife having made some seriously ugly comments (at a Trump rally) to a Black woman which were documented; two was that minority residents in the county were upset about what they saw as unequal administration of justice by the prosecutor's office.  Apparently Larry had been downplaying his wife's comments, saying they were her First Amendment right but had nothing to do with him.  But he'd finally had to make a public statement that not only were the comments ugly and reprehensible and didn't reflect his own views, but they also didn't reflect the views of his staff and he wanted to make it clear that he believed his staff was always working to do their jobs fairly.  I'm sure he believes that.

But today wasn't the day for sightseeing in Spokane and we pressed on northward, quickly finding ourselves back in the pine trees - a surprise after all the desert country we've been driving through.  

We passed through the Kalispel Indian Reservation and made it to the campground 7 hours after we got on the road this morning.  We didn't actually get settled for nearly 2 hours after that, though, because I needed to refill with propane and dump my tanks and walk Dexter and unpack all the stuff that usually sits out on the counter and table but I stow when we're driving.  I was pretty pooped by then.