Ah ... the places we've been and the things we've seen!We began our 5-week road trip a week ago in Fairmont, BC. We spent 2 days there, getting ourselves organized and getting Louise used the idea of living in an RV. Because the Mariners were not playing any home games in the upcoming week, we opted to skip Seattle and head straight south instead.
Tuesday we hit the road with Couer D'Alene, Idaho as our destination. We drove along the Columbia River valley and took in some beautiful scenery. It was an easy driving day. Thursday we continued along the Columbia River valley headed for Yakima. Again, spectacular vistas and lots of stops to just look out over the river valley.
We had planned to stay in Yakima but "there was no room at the inn"! Well ... there was one spot in a rather seedy RV park. Had we stayed there I would have expected to be wakened by a domestic disturbance and probably would have slept with one eye open! We continued down the road to Toppenish and camped at the RV park on the Yakama Indian Reservation. It was VERY nice.
Friday we headed straight for Portland via the Columbia River valley and gorge. There are a few dams along the way and since we're kind of fascinated by dams we stopped at Dalles to see the largest concrete, man-made dam. They had a camera on the fish ladders and we could watch the fish swimming by! Way cool! We stopped off by the Cascade locks for a picnic and a chance to watch some wind-surfers. In the parking lot was a car from Blackhawk County in Iowa!
Next we went down the road to visit the Bonneyville dam. Harry decided to take the guided tour of the power plant at the dam which consisted of a 20 minute lecture standing in the visitor center followed by a 5 minute walk to the plant where they were allowed to step inside, take a look , then step back outside. I was glad that I decided to watch the fish in the fish ladders and walk through the beautiful gardens around the visitor centre.
A local recommended we take the "historic scenic route" from Bonneyville. Yeah ... that was a mistake! It truly was scenic and had about 4 waterfalls to see, but the road was extremely narrow with an immediate 100 foot+ drop on the right. Not ideal for an RV with a tow vehicle. We exited the scenic route at the first possible chance. My nerves were calmed about 10 minutes later!! Even Harry thought it was a bit extreme. Hey ... that could be a new sport: Extreme RV-ing!! Ha ha ha!!
We stayed in Portland for 2 days and had a great time. There were all sorts of street fairs and festivals to wander around ... which we did. A historic home to tour ... which we did. An amazing grotto to hike to and view ... which we did! It was hot so we put the dogs in "daycare" for Saturday so we could tour around at our leisure and not worry about them melting back in the RV.
Sunday we struck out for the coast. It's hard to make any serious mileage on the coast highway ... there's just too many places to pull over and be amazed at the sights. Yesterday, we toured a working lighthouse, including climbing the stairs all the way to the top. Today we stopped in Florence, OR where Harry golfed and I shopped and puttered around. We'll probably cross over into California tomorrow (Wednesday).
