Day 80 Grand Coulee to Spokane
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
87
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Spokane,
Washington,
United States
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Today we had planned to visit the Grand Coulee dam and tour the No 3 power plant.
We began the day with rising at 8:15am, then breakfasted and headed out, filling with gas (must be the slowest filling pumps)then head to the dam tour.
With one wrong turn including a Castle Special U turn we found our way to the Tour Start, mind you the parking was full and we parked about 600 metres away.
Never mind we managed to hook into the 10:30am free tour and away we went, The young lady was very informative and the enormity and success of this great man made structure was certainly worth the time spent. Not a part of any tour of USA Travel brochures, but part of what we experience by choosing our own journey.
We set our sights on heading to Idaho across the border along the 90. Rick wanted to find a Wal-Mart to enable him to download the pictures from the card to a disc, the challenges faced with the computer and the camera were building and rather than lose the photos it was best to at least save to disc.
The country opened up to straight roads along farms of wheat in various stages of growth and ripening. It would be an extremely easy road to be memorised as driving along and it certainly is great to have the ability to share the driving. We lunched along the route and Eagle Eye Earnie, spotted a Wal-mart and swung in.
Well from a very simple "transfer the photos" it became a "Rick one way" Earnie towards the DVD's and Karon(bless her heart) becoming lost in the woman's clothing section.
The end result was we left the store with a/ the photos done. b/ Earnie with some Dvd"s and a new $11 watch and C/ Karon with some BARGAINS!. A good deal for all.
Only stopper for this is Rick decided a new camera would be in order to "maybe" reduce the IT problems, (Yeah right! He claims he was having trouble download the photos from the old camera)
The upshot is he managed to obtain an address to another Wal-Mart (on the way we are headed) to obtain the new camera he had chosen but was out of stock in this store. Hey this is easy Karon sets Mandy to the address and away we go, following the Mandy instructions, Umm how did we end up in the 'burbs? Viewing the houses in East Spokane? Ahh umm Karon suggests she may have put in Broad Ave instead of Broadway ave, that may have something to do with the problem. Hey we are used to finding different places to turn a 29 ft Castle so this is not a challenge at all.
We eventually find the Wal-mart and this becomes a more simple process, they were ready for us to call (thanks to Matt from the previous store calling ahead) but still Karon was diverted to a different section other than the photo department. (the boys simply shake their heads in unison)
Purchase made and head towards Idaho, but by this stage it was decided we would pull off at the Eastern side of Spokane into a KOA we spotted advertised.
We found this RV park with the help of Mandy/Karon and booked in. We are sure that someone is assisting us, at that moment in time we wanted to book in, another person had cancelled a site and we took the last site available, this is not the first time we have picked up the last slot.
We take up residence and Earnie completes his task of checking out the washrooms and we settle into relax and Rick plays with his new toy. We are thankful for the last spot, BUT GEE, a train line runs directly behind us, we are becoming fairly sure the trains are set out to haunt us along our travels, with the rumble and whistles blowing, but hey we can handle anything!
Tomorrow we head to Idaho and north towards a glacial National park.
We have managed to upload some photos from Vancouver for those interested in having a back review, and the communication system is working apart from the emails they are not available for what ever reason. Still working on that, we are available by phone or yahoo messenger or text or on posting a note here on this site.
Comments
Trains
I am sure you are being especially guided to choose an RV park close to a train line. After the number of trains that passed the RV park in Anchorage, you would all miss the sound of a passing train in the night. I am starting to feel jealous, going back to work is becoming tedious already. I miss you all, and the time I spent with you was so great that I will never forget it. I have told Christine that when and if we finally sell the shop I am taking her to Brooks Lodge for an experience that she will never forget. I have even told her about the mosquitos at King Salmon!