Showing posts with label WASHINGTON. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WASHINGTON. Show all posts

🌦️ REFRESHING WASHINGTON SHOWERS 🌦️

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THURSDAY - As you can see today's move was only 63½-miles, all of it on Washington Route 25 which follows the Columbia River as it flows south to the Pacific Ocean.

Just like our last stop, we'll be staying in a Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area campground. There are 15 of these campgrounds between the Canadian Border and the Grand Coulee Dam which is located about another 50-miles downstream from us here.

Construction was completed on Grand Coulee Dam in 1939 and it effectively turned the Columbia River into a miles wide lake anywhere north of it. The area was originally called Coulee Dam Recreational Area in 1946, but in 1997 it was renamed what it is today, the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

All of the campgrounds are located on or near the river's shoreline and with my Lifetime Seniors Pass we get 50% off the regular camping fee of $23.00 a night. After October 1st, the regular rate goes down to $11.50 per night, so we are only paying $5.75 a night for each of our last two nights here. That's a bargain price for somewhere to camp that's both scenic and quiet, not like the Walmart parking lots where we've been staying.

A typical view of the Washington countryside from our travels today.

Just on the other side of this bridge over the Columbia River is our campground.

I just love this view of looking up through the girders.

Our very unlevel pulltrough site for the weekend...

...but we'll make it work for us.

FRIDAY - Today we have a pair of very important tasks to take care of.

First up is laundry! Tomorrow it will be three weeks since the last time we did ANY laundry, and that was just a single load of clothes "to get us by" for just a little while longer.

Well today we drove 23-miles to the town of Davenport, WA to take care of our laundry needs. The online photos and reviews we could find on this laundromat all looked good, but we've been fooled before by "clever marketing" (I'll leave it at that)!

Today however it turns out that it was better than advertised. This small town (pop. 1703) has the best laudromat we've seen in our 4+ years on the road, and we've seen a lot of laundromats.

It all starts at the front door. The door swings both ways (easy now you gutter minded readers). In others words, if your hands are full with your laundry, all you have to do is push, whether you're going in or out to open the door. You don't have to juggle your laundry to free up one hand to try and pull the door open. Thank You Very Much to the propietor for thinking of their customers on this point alone.

Next every single machine is in working order and they all look and operate like brand new. There are five different sized washers to choose from, priced accordingly from $9.00-$2.75, so you only pay for the size you need. There are also two different sized dryers, priced $.25 for either 4 or 6 minutes of drying time.

This place was spotlessly clean, from the floors, to the folding stations, to the tops of the equipment, to the seating areas. The place was air conditioned and cool inside, but I imagine there is also adequate heat when the season warrants it.

High up on every single vacant wall space is a whimsical laundry sign, you'll see them in the slideshow photos, and informational signs on every possible question you could have. If you're not the type that likes to plug dozens of quarters into the machines one at a time, there is even an App you can download to your phone, register a credit card and pay wirelessly to operate everything single washer or dryer in the place. How convenient is that for local returning customers!

With all that said, the best is yet to come.
Take a look at the slideshow first and then we'll talk some more.

DAVENPORT LAUNDRY

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This sign hangs just inside the front door. Notice the video camera?
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This is the entire laundromat, wall to wall!
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There is even a little work desk with electrical plugin just outside the bathroom.
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Many "gift shop" signs and a few informational ones.
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More signs!
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Even more laundry themed signs!
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Not funny!
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Now that's more like it!
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This ever happen to you?
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I really chuckled when I read this one.
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Now for the surprise!
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You'll only find a bigger/nicer shower/bathroom in a Five Star Hotel.
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Toilet, toilet paper, toilet seat liner, sink, mirror, hand soap. Yep, it's all here!
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The shower was easily big enough for two.
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They only ask you to squeegee down the walls and floor after use.

Since they had a First Class Laundromat I expected a First Class Shower also, we were again not disappointed!

We've experienced several dozen instances where we paid for a shower outside of the campground we were visiting. They've ranged from nice to nothing more than a plastic shower surround and a cheap curtain. We've even paid as much as $10 for a quick 5-minute shower with only modestly warm water.

This shower was roomier and better appointed than any I've ever experienced. Once the hot water started flowing from the shower head I had to turn it back past the middle and towards the cool side to make it comfortable, and I like my showers scaldingly hot!

The price for the use of this shower, in case you can't read the sign, is $3.00 for 9-minutes. That's usually plenty of time if the water starts off hot, as it did today. If it's not enough time you can purchase additional minutes for $.25 each, if you get another quarter into the machine in time.

We've seen this offering to extend the time before, but never did the equipment start beeping when you have one minute of time left. This gives you ample warning to decide if more time will be needed, usually the water abruptly just stops.

We're rating this the "best laundry and shower experience" of our 4½ years on the road!

I'll bet when you read this blog title
you thought we'd be talking about the weather here in Washington, didn't you?

SATURDAY - Today will be our day for sighseeing.

We first went and checked out one of the two picnic areas here at Fort Spokane. They are both right on the river's edge with one on each side of the Fort Spokane Bridge. On the campground side we also have the boat ramp, which is very busy now that Saturday has arrived.

Boats heading towards and away from the busy boat ramp.

The picnic area from our side of the bridge.

The other side of the bridge has a view of a large marina with a longer view down the Columbia River here at Lake Roosevelt. There is also another picnic area with a swim beach, complete with a floating sun deck anchored offshore.

A large privately owned marina is across the river.

Bridge view from the marina side of the bridge.

Sectioned off swim area with marina in the background.

Yesterday on our way into town we saw several homesites that consisted on nothing more than a cement pad with water/electric and sewer connections. Most had large fifth wheels parked on site and some even had for rent signs. There were a few more elaborate ones with permanent pavillions or storage sheds. Some even shared the site with a tiny home.

This follows along with the same idea Tricia and I have for our future homesite, but not here in Washington, we're thinking somewhere in the southwest (like Arizona or New Mexico).

Next we explored around the site where Fort Spokane was located back in the 1880s.

There isn't much left of the numerous buildings which once stood here. Today all that's left are many walkways with informational signs and pictures of what once stood in front of you.

There is a nice Visitor Center in the main building, but it closed for the season about two weeks ago. Just our luck, but we weren't going to cut short our summer in Alaska. No way!

Notice the sign reads "Fort Spokane, W.T. 1880"
The W.T. stands for Washington Territory, because Washington didn't become a state until 1889.

The Powder Magazine (1888) was located way off in a corner of the property all by itself,
so if it exploded it wouldn't kill soldiers or damage the other numerous fort buildings.

The most intact original (unrestored) building is this foundation for the Bachelor's Quarters.

This is the large restored Quartmaster's Stables (1884).

Another view of the stables with the Visitor Center (Guardhouse 1892) in the background.

This is the view of the river from the location of Fort Spokane.
It's the perfect high ground vantage point to defend the entire region.

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WE ARE BACK IN THE LOWER 48

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MONDAY - We had just 39-miles to travel this morning to reach the Canadian/United States border, but we had a planned sightseeing location to check out before we got there.

We thought we had seen all the fruit and vegetable stands there were to see yesterday, but that paled in comparison to what the last 39-miles of BC-97 had in store for us today. On both sides of the road were vineyards and gardens from the road shoulders to the foot of the nearby mountains.

Just too beautiful not to show and about the only acreage where there weren't vineyards.

That's a lot of grapes hanging below the vine, just waiting to be stomped into wine.

Had we not got off the highway to check out our sightseeing destination...

...we would not have seen these magnificent views of the vineyards below.

High up above the town of Osoyoos, BC on Route BC-3 and just 4-miles from the border, is the Spotted Lake, known as Ktlil'k to the First Nations People of the Okanagan Valley. The lake is a cultural and ecologically sensitive area, and a traditional medicine lake for the Okanagan Syilx people.

The lake can be viewed from behind a fence that has very limited parking at the site.
Watch for this gate and look for a place to pull over.

The First Nations People's belief is that each of the different circles
holds its own unique medicinal and healing properties.

Coming back down to the highway to start heading towards the border we of course made two more stops at a pair of fruit stands and purchased another small stash of fresh fruit. Let's hope they don't ask how much fruit we have in THE POD when we cross the border ten minutes from now.

Upon arriving at the border we were asked all the usual questions and then the big one we were dreading, "Do you have any fruit with you today?" My reply was simple, "Just what we purchased in the last hour." Without batting an eye he said, "Welcome back to the United States." He never asked what kind or how much fruit we had, so why ask us in the first place? My guess is he just wanted to know if I was being truthful when answering all his other standard questions.

Once across the border we travel south for another 22-miles before turning east on SR-20 in the town of Tonasket. After making the turn the roadway immediately started an upward trend into the mountains. It's roughly 84-miles between Tonasket and Kettle Falls, where we're headed, and the second half of that distance, roughly 35-miles from Republic to Kettle Falls is called the Sherman Pass Scenic Byway.

Sherman Pass is located 5,575 feet above sea level and is the highest roadway in the entire state of Washington. Had I researched that in advance I may have been better prepared to drive across it today. As it turns out, on our way down from Sherman Pass we had to pull off the road and let the brakes on ROVER cool down.

While we were on the side of the road Tricia made some sandwiches for lunch, which meant the 30-minutes went by quickly. Once back on the road the shuddering feeling was gone from the brakes and we safely arrived in Kettle Falls. We haven't experienced brakes overheating like that since we were on the Blue Ridge Parkway back in 2018.

Just on the other side of the bridge over the Columbia River is our destination.

A waterfront view and plenty of wide open spaces.

Our office and dining view for the next three days.

WEDNESDAY - Yesterday we did absolutely nothin', nada, zilch, zippo!

Today however is a different story. Today we have a sightseeing destination in town, a diner where we'll have lunch, a geocache to find and a 12-mile trip to the next town down the road to the Walmart, so I can pickup my prescriptions.

Sounds like a lot, but it won't take long to get it all done. Oh yeah, as a bonus we may even find somewhere to refill one of our propane tanks.

Our first stop was our sightseeing destination, The Old Apple Warehouse in Kettle Falls.

The building started out in 1907 as the name implies, it was an apple warehouse. Produce laden wagons would enter the building from the side, unload their wares, which would later be loaded onto train cars on the adjacent railroad tracks.

Business was good until 1939, that's when the Grand Coulee Dam was constructed across the Columbia River some 100-miles downstream from Kettle Falls. Construction of the dam caused most of the furtile valleys which contained many apple orchards to become submerged. Apple and other fruit production in the area was never the same again and by the 1990s the building was all but abandoned.

The building was sold to new owners and repurposed into what it is today, an antique mall and local artisans workshop area. There are over thirty small individually owned businesses, sometimes as small as 6x8 feet, where items are sold somewhere between yard sale pricing and truly collectible antiques.

We walked through the entire building, both street level and basement level, but thankfully found nothing that we couldn't live without. We saw many items that we might have purchased had we a real home to furnish, but we live in 216 square feet of "home on wheels" and just don't have the space needed to display these kinds of treasures.

JUST AS A SIDE NOTE: We were in the basement looking around when a train slowly passed by outside on the tracks. Everything in the basement started to shake, rattle and roll from the vibration. Dishes, glassware and metal pots and pans began making what could only be described as an unorganized symphony of sounds. It was quite an eerie experience being in the basement of a 100+ year old building that was making all that noise.

The side wall café entrance into The Old Apple Warehouse.

The building is at least 10-times deeper than it is wide.

The tail end of the train that was creating so much chaos in the basement.

Right across the street from The Old Apple Warehouse is a gas station that sells propane. We filled up with $4.79 gas, that's the most we've ever paid in the Lower 48 states. Our previous high was $4.19 back in May just before we crossed the border into Canada. I don't even want to talk about the price of gas in Canada and Alaska!

We then got our propane bottle filled before heading down the road to Walmart to pick up my prescriptions. Of course we also spent nearly $100 in groceries and had to return to THE POD to get some items into the refrigerator.

After unloading the groceries we were off to Sandy's Drive In in Kettle Falls for lunch. They are known for having the freshest hambugers in the area. We both got a different variety of a hamburger, Tricia a mushroom/swiss and me a traditional cheeseburger, plus we both got fries, all for just over $18.00, that was the best part for me.

JUST ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: While eating lunch in the diner it was strange watching the TV news from the northeast corner of the United States (Washington) and seeing the southeast corner of the United States (Florida) being battered by Hurricane Ian. We're hoping all our friends and family in Florida are safe and dry this evening!

Now with full bellies the only thing left on today's list was to locate a geocache. That wasn't hard to do, there is one hidden just a half mile down the road. We were able to drive to within 150 feet of the geocache and located it in no time.

Nothing to do now except return to home base and write this blogpost.

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