Our next "real" destination is La Conner, Washington, where we will spend three weeks. To get there, we need to stop at such hot spots as Newport, Warden, Issaquah, and Poulsbo, Washington, for two days each, with Newport as our first stop. It was a 196-mile day on winding, climbing roads through western Montana and the Idaho panhandle. We went through notable Sandpoint, Idaho, the former home of Sarah Palin and the present home of Mark Fuhrman. Newport is right on the Washington/Idaho border, 35 miles north of Spokane and 40 miles north of Coeur d'Alene. It took us a long time but it was a pleasant trip with some nice, though not spectacular, scenery.
We are staying at the Little Diamond Lake Thousand Trails preserve. It's a combination Thousand Trails and KOA location, one of only two in the country, we are told.
The park is a typical Thousand Trails place, very rural, with secluded sites, but it is very old and the sites are small, therefore. The park is combined but the sites for members of the two clubs are separate. Strange. We found one of the few sites that are satellite friendly, so we are in hog heaven.
We basically relaxed (that means Becky walked the dogs and we shopped for groceries) for the two days we were here, since there wasn't much to command our attention.
Thursday we went 147 miles to arrive at the Sage Hills Golf Club & RV Resort near Warden, Washington. It's a very nice place in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town of consequence is Moses Lake, 10 miles away, which is the home of Big Bend Community College, the place that employed Becky as a teacher in Germany close to 40 years ago.
The Friday highlight was a 200-mile round trip to see the Grand Coulee Dam. It is huge: three times as long (nearly a mile) as Hoover Dam, three times the electrical generation, and four times the amount of concrete. It is lower than
Hoover Dam, though, so it doesn't have the same vertical visual impact. Roosevelt Lake, behind the dam, extends all the way to the Canadian border. (It's called a lake, but it's really the Columbia River.) Grand Coulee Dam is one of 11 dams on the Columbia river.
Saturday was a travel day, involving a 178-mile trip to Issaquah, only 15 miles from Seattle, where we are staying at the Issaquah Village RV Park. It's inside the city, so it has small spaces, close together. But it's fine.
Late in the afternoon, Becky's cousin Jim Chantler stopped by. Jim lives in Seattle, and we haven't seen him in several years. He's a kick.
After a few drinks, the three of us went to downtown Issaquah to have a very nice dinner at Jak's Grill, a favorite of Jim's. Our waitress, Jaynie, was a lot of fun.
On Sunday, we returned to central Issaquah and walked the "old town" area with the dogs. It's a charming place.
Monday was a travel day---91 miles to Poulsbo. The primary reason to go to Poulsbo was to use it as a base from which to visit Olympic National Park, which we did on Tuesday.
Olympic is a nice, large park, with, however, nothing to see but trees. (There is a reason Washington is called The Evergreen State.) Our stay in Poulsbo was over.
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