The "Leaf" Blew over to Grand Coulee... and Got Burnt to Ashes!

HooooolllllllllEEEEEE CRAP! I fergot jussss how hot HOT is! ;) Been on the coast so long I got un-acclimated to the ree-al-i-TEEZE of "Mans' Country"!

Whew! Comin' across the midsection of Washington on a sunny August day is gar-uhn-teed to warm up yer surf chilled tootsies... :)

Pullin' away from the Columbia River Gorge when we left the Wenatchee area there's a long long grade...

Considerin' the age of this Ol' rig and her OH-Kay-shun-al infirmities, pulling a stiff grade, it makes me a mite nervous, what with her tippin' the scales at approaching 20,000 lbs, to look up at the thermometer on the roof of the cab and see numbers that say stuff like 99... or ... 100...

But with my tender coaxing and her actual solid self we climbed up out of that ditch with nary an issue.

Somewhere along in there we got a pretty good look at one of the fires we made the cut north to go around...

That smoke was all east and south of us... which was the plan... one finally worked!

We'd been thinkin' that we'd do a casino night up at Grand Coulee... Well... sure... if you're a mountain goat and a small one at that. There's a casino there but you'll be better off to be drivin' a car, and one with a decent parking brake... 'cause the only flat spots (or close) are only gonna fit something with four wheels.

If you've got 10 like us... and don't like sleepin' standing up? you'll keep on looking.

We'd already passed a "community" park where they wanted 25 bucks for dry camping in a gravel lot... yeah... uh... No.

We found, three miles east of Grand Coulee, a Park Service camp... set up mostly for Morris Minors pulling tear drop trailers I think... and managed to squeeze in for a $5 night.

Managed to get unhitched and brushed up in the shade under some trees in the center of the place until the sun went down enough to think about goin' down for another episode of the Grand Coulee Dam Light Show...

* Grand Coulee Dam *

I tried... I truly tried to capture the light show with a camera... It turns out that doin' such a thing is like chasing a humming bird with a freight train...

They open up the gates across the spillway a bit, so that there's a sheet of white water running down the face for a picture screen... then cut loose with a battery of laser projectors...

Your free to guess at what these were...

... cuz I ain't got no recollection...

They do make kinda nice abstract pictures though...

... when those lazers are dancing all over the face of the dam... a digital camera just can't keep up.

We got up fairly early... took care of some secret business ;)

... and hit the road for wherever we were to end up...

Now, one word of warning... iffn' ya'll are in a hurry, and you're travelin' through Spokane? get on the Interstate and roll on... The thing is... somebody in that burg has an affinity for two  things; Traffic lights and... RED ones.

I mean... they've got 'em every 12 feet and then their engineers have 'em set so you get to look at each and every one of 'em for about two minutes. Lordy... I had two birthdays gettin' through there!

But, we did... and then dodged up to Priest Lake in Idaho and found THE LAST CAMP from what I'm told in the Luby Bay area. And only got THAT one, cuz a young couple who was grabbin' camps for three couples, decided they could all fit into one site and let us have the only non-reserved that would be available for more than one night!

That'll leave us plenty of time, I'm hoping, to scout around and find us a boondock to set up for a couple of weeks maybe. Still haven't recovered from all the repairs... and need to let the bank recharge... if I can figure a way to get something flowing to it! ;)

... and, just like Klbexplores advised a week or so ago... I got 4G bangin on the air card so I can work! in this one lil part of Idaho we've not dipped into before...

Anyhoo... after putting a dent in my head... again... from that #&%$@  *%#%@ fiver nose unhitching... and cooling out with a Full Sail brew and a nice cool, Rocky Mountain night... I'll be bustin' the keyboard on that next book today... and tomorrow... and tomorrow...

* Another Grand Coulee Abstraction *

* Grand Coulee Relections *

Well.. that and ride the bike back down to Priest River for some of those Huckleberry Shakes we saw on the sign boards when we rolled though...

Back in the Rockies
Brian