July 20, 2002 - Moses Lake, Colville & Trinidad
We're in La Conner,WA (pictures to come later), really enjoying the sound of the furnace in the early morning. When we got here it was almost, but not quite, 80 degrees. It was 79 when we left the Wenatchee area at 9:30 AM, heading to another 100+ day. A few of those are alright, but we found the heat to be fatiguing.
The view of Moses Lake from top of the Road Abode, parked in Pier 4, a Sunrise Resorts membership park. And because we're not here often, we'd like to sell our membership. Drop us a line if you're interested. There's plenty of other rigs in between us and the lake. Biggest crowd we'd ever seen here. Maybe the date had something to do with it. And we'd never seen so many boat trailers parked here either. Fourth of July, here we are. Actually, I took these pictures the day after, but you get the idea.
About the only place that didn't have people enjoying it was the fish pen. Apparently (according to some other visitors), these pens keep some of the fingerling trout until they're ready for release into the lake. The swimming pool is on the other side of the volleyball court. And I actually went in one day. Lucky for me, I found the warm water inlet so I didn't freeze to death. It was 110 in the shade, but I don't like water that is any colder than I am if I can avoid it.
The "overflow" for boats is here along the shoreline. Lots of PWC (personal watercraft, or jet-skis) as well. Mostly well behaved, although a couple of teenagers did manage to spray me while I was fishing.
This is the harbor for the park, and there's our little 8' PortaBote on the left behind the boat with Jeff climbing aboard. Jeff was interested in our rig, and wanted his wife to come see it as well, but like many wives, she was sensible enough to remind her husband that they have several kids to finish raising before they can start to look at fulltiming retirement type rigs. God bless our wives!
Then it was off to Colville, WA, to celebrate my older (much, much older--8 years, :-) ) brother Ken & wife Nancy's 50th wedding anniversary. And to share in the joy of one of his granddaughter's wedding receptions. Becky and Jason met in Korea while both serving in the Air Force. Then Jason was transferred to Las Vegas and she was slated to go to Germany. That didn't appeal to them, so they quickly got married (to quick to make plans and gather family from all over the place) and Becky got her orders changed so she could stay in Las Vegas where they're both in police guard/security-type jobs. The decision was made to have the reception the same day as the 50th celebration since most the family would be there anyway. It worked just fine for everybody.
One of the granddaughters, Polly, is a quilter and made this gorgeous family tree quilt for them. The hands are of Ken and Nancy's kids, grandkids, and greatgrandkids! What a job, and what a beautiful sentiment as well. And then the cousins that were there. From left to right, Kathy, a school teacher in Oregon City, OR, (Ken and Nan's daughter & mother of Polly), Amelia, the daughter of our deceased younger brother Bill, who is working on her Masters of Library Science at the U of Hawaii, and then Maury, Ken and Nan's son who recently retired from the Coast Guard. My two sons were unable to attend.
WAAAAAA!! There goes my wife -- and our Jeep! And I barely had time to get their picture! When we left Colville, we decided to go back to the Wenatchee area to spend some time with some very dear friends that we met in 1974 when we first moved to WA from CA. And the GPS (bless that little gadget) thought that a straight shot (more or less) down highway 21 would be the shortest route. Of course, the GPS only told us we were on the Colville Indian reservation, and the roads were named BIA 46 rd and things like that and of course, it forgot to tell us that when the highway came to the Columbia River there was no bridge....only this funky little ferryboat! We'd seen the signs for "Keller Ferry," but how many small riverside towns have "Ferry" as part of their name? Plenty of them! Then I spotted a sign that said something about length and weight limits, and I thought perhaps it was a really old bridge. We were under the 75-foot limit and well under the 40-ton limit, so we kept going. Until we got to the water! What a surprise for us. There was room on the departing ferry for the Jeep but not the rig, so I stayed and Barb went.
And sure enough, there was room not only for Moby Dick and the Road Abode, but for another pickup and the boat it was towing, and a VW bug behind that. But no more!
There's a useless sign for you. There was no way I was going to do anything except breath carefully and take a few quick pictures. The ferry had a decidedly starboard list because of us, and I wasn't going to do anything until I was told to. I don't like to swim, remember? And we got off just like we were supposed to and everything worked just fine. Whew! What an adventure. Made all the more fun by the surprise of it.
The rest of the trip through the wheat fields of Eastern Washington was uneventful...of course it would have to have been something spectacular to earn the title "eventful" after our ferryboat ride. We're in the TTN park at Crescent Bar, WA. Only there's no such town. There's Cresecent Bar Recreation Area, and the TTN park is part of that, but no town. Try to find that on your fancy-schmancy GPS thingy, Mr. Jenkins. However, there's a trading post right where the turnoff is from Hwy 28, and it's called Trinidad, WA, and that is on the GPS. Of course, it's hardly like the "real" Trinidad, but that's a different issue. Fortunately, we'd checked out the park while we were in Moses Lake and knew right where to go. Nice pool, good view, and terrific air-conditioner in the clubhouse with a phone line for the computer hookup. Yipee! The wind came up every night and blew pretty hard with even harder gusts. The awnings stayed rolled up.
And here's why we came back this way rather than going over the North Cascades Highway. Bob and Marvel and their pup (9 months old) Pudgy. At least I think that's how they spelled it. That's what it sounded like, regardless. A shot of them at our place, and one of them at their place. I had so much fun using some of Bob's tools in his shop there, I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the four of us. But you know what we look like anyway. In 1977 or maybe it was 1976 I was working as a real estate agent, finding property in Eastern Washington for Western Washington buyers. Bob and Marvel were the first ones I sold anything to. A nice 10-acre apple orchard with a house. Now they've sold all but one acre and the house, and are thinking seriously about moving back to Western Washington to be closer to their daughters, so if you know of anybody who would like a nice house in a beautiful setting with all kinds of fruit trees......well, that's nice. I'm not licensed anymore and don't plan to work anymore (I hope -- thanks Mr. DOW for nothing!!) so I'll leave it at that.
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