Thursday Sept 10
We finished loading the motor home after breakfast and left
sometime after 9 am. Turns out we forgot
the milk and orange juice in the frig.
We drove I-5 North to 512 and then onto 167 to highway 18 and I-90. A
few miles West of Cle Elum there was a traffic accident which had the traffic
stopped for about 2 hours. Whew, not a
fun way to start the trip. Ended up
spending the night in Ellensburg.
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| Knitting in the evening. |
Judy
had made a quiche a while back which we thawed and had for dinner. Yumm!!! Warm, actually hot at 94 degrees.
Friday September 11
(We will always remember)
We drove from Ellensburg to Ponderosa Falls RV which is off
exit 272 in Cheney. We got a nice
back-in space in the shaded woods. |
| See Judy waving in the window! |
We
invited our granddaughter Jessica and her husband Tony over for dinner. They were married in July. Soft tacos for dinner. They came at 6 and
left at 10:30. We had a great time
talking. So nice to get a look at the
world through 20 something eyes.
Saturday September 12
Before we left the RV resort we checked the vehicle lights
and the motorhome left rear break/blinker light did not work so I replaced
it. Also, the right blinker did not
work. I checked the bulb and it seemed
ok. Decided go to Camping World to help
me find either the flasher unit or a fuse.
They could not and none of the three chassis places they checked were
open because it was Saturday. So, we
headed up to Loon lake which is about 30 miles from Spokane hoping we would not
be stopped for improper lights. We got
space A-4 and got set up. It was about
3pm so we had our lunch. And it was hot,
94 degrees, so the air-conditioning felt good.
Pulled pork for dinner. Plan to
call Beaver on Monday to see if they can help me find what is wrong.
Sunday September 13
After breakfast we watched the Seahawks loose in overtime.
Rats. After a smoothie for lunch we went
kayaking for a while. There were
supposed to be turtles in the lily pads but we did not find any. Judy and I then went for a drive to Granite Park,
and this is the place she went swimming as a little girl.
  |
| The main building and beach as Judy remembers it. |
 | |
| Turkeys in the local field. |
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| Turkeys in the campground. |
Judy make a great salmon loaf for dinner with
little potatoes, broccoli and salad. We
watch the movie Cabaret after dinner.
Monday September 14
Decided to go to Granite Point park where Judy used to go as
a young child. So we packed up and went
the 5 miles to the park and got a space.
After setting up we drove North to Chewelah and then on to Colville
where we ate lunch in a sports bar.
After a hearty lunch we drove to the Little Pend Orielle national wild
life refuge where we took the auto tour making many stops.
 |
| Judy picking up pine cones for the Christmas Gift Faire |
Lots of ponds, lakes, and forests. Judy found lots of pine cones which we gathered
up. We drove home at dusk and had a Mexican
casserole Judy had made earlier. Over
the last few days we have seen deer, wild turkeys, quail, ducks, and chipmunks. Turns out the light problem was a bulb which looked ok. When replaced all worked ok.
Tuesday September 15
Today we went on a drive.
We headed North on 395 to Chewelah then East over the mountains to
highway 20 and the “town” of USK. We
crossed over the Pend Orielle river and headed North through the Kalispel
Indian reservation to Manresa Grotto.
  |
| Notice the cross just above the opening. |
The Grotto is a set of caves which were apparently used by early
natives. On the way back we stopped at
the reservation and looked at a herd of about 100 bison. 
The Pow-wow grounds were being used by
firefighters fighting the local forest fire.
The tribe had a cute Catholic church there. |
| Inside the Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church |
Decided to have lunch in Sandpoint, ID so
headed there. We ate lunch at the Cedar
Bridge Bistro which was one of the stores built on the old Cedar Bridge. After
the late lunch we headed back to our motorhome.
Wednesday, September 16
Slept in today and lounged around all morning. We then took a walk along the lake with Judy
reminiscing about her swimming here when she was a very young girl.
 |
| Swimsuit changing building is the same as years ago. |
Thursday, September 17
After our morning chores we headed into the hills to find
the Cardinal Mine. Well we searched for
quite a while and did not find it.
Talked to a nice lady on top of a hill who had gotten last week a Phase
2 fire evacuation notice. She said we
probably took the wrong turn onto Red Marble road. After getting a Colville national forest map
in Colville and checking it out, she appeared to be right. We will have to check it out the next time we
come. Checked out a few stores in
Colville. Judy got some yarn and pattern
and I got a kumihimo square form to make flat ribbon like cords. We had rib steak for dinner.
Friday, September 18
 |
| One of the many quail the came to our site every day at the lake. |
We left the Granite park on Loon Lake and drove south to I-5
in Spokane. We had a good drive on I-5
spending the night in Cle Elum at the Whispering Pines RV park on the Yakima R.
space 26. Nice evening with temperature
of 73 degrees and no wind.
Saturday, September 19
We left the RV park and there was an apparent problem with
the motorhome. The motorhome was pulling
to the right like it had a flat tire or the break was sticking and there was a
loud shrieking noise. We made the short
distance into town and I checked on places that could look at it. Found one open on Saturday and when I started
the motorhome again and started driving the three block to the repair shop, the
problem was gone. What is going on. Did fine all the way home. Drove I-90 over Snoqualmie pass to highway 18
then to I-5 and home. The right had lane
over the pass and on 18 were very bad, full of patched holes, uneven pavement
bouncing the motorhome all over the place.
We got home about 2 pm and unloaded most of our stuff from the
motorhome. Home was just as we left it.
