Driving Miss Linda ....

I am sitting in the passenger seat of The Beast enjoying the views out the big window (remember it is called the big screen when we are parked) of blue skies and cumulus clouds (that I am sure will bear rain later this afternoon) and the landscape of southeastern SD and now western Iowa - farming country for sure - corn (lots and lots of corn,) cattle, hay - and much more I can't see.
AND - I am typing away on this blog - ah the wonders of wireless!  Bruce has been driving since about 8:30 this morning except for a quick stop for lunch.  I did ask if he wanted me to drive but his NO answer and then a question - did i really want to drive - were enough for me.  No, I don't really want to drive, Yes - I will drive if necessary.  I am a good passenger - he is a terrible one. We are on our way to Onowa, IA - very close to the flooding Missouri River at Decatur, but apparently this KOA has not been effected.  So until we arrive, I will see if I can't get this blog more up to date.  Where did I stop - oh yeah- June 21 at LePAge Campground on the John Day River, OR.

We left the John Day area on July 5th - moving only a short distance over the Columbia to Charbonneau Park located at Ice Harbor Lock and Dam (yes, another one of those confounded CORP parks  with a dam) on the Snake River in Washington State.  This park is just outside the 3 Cities area in SE WA - east of Burbank, WA.  When I say this is a Park - think of everything you know about parks - green rolling grass, marina, lots of picnic tables and a campground all set along the Snake River.  You actually see this green oasis in the desert-like surrounding area and think, this is too good to be true. And the staff there takes the word Park to heart.  Check-out is noon every day and check-in is 2:00 PM or later, and they mean it.  We arrived about 1:30 and there were several other RVs parked in the marina area with windows open and chairs set up (I think they had been there quite awhile).  The park waters between 12:00 and 2:00 every day and no one, and I mean no one is allowed to interfere with that routine.  All  of the sites are grassy and trees abound. This is looking thru our outside camping area towards the loop behind us- shady and grassy all of them.  Our site wan;t too shabby either - as you can see, shaded in the heat of the day- at least the outside area.

We spent the 2 weeks of time there just enjoying the area, seeing the dam (of course we had to do the dam - and because we were the only 2 on the tour, the guys working the dam showed us everything, explained everything and let us visit the lock and the lock mechanism towners, etc. We were there over 2 hours - the best tour yet.)

We moved on to Grand Coulee (yes, THE DAM ) staying at Steamboat Rocks State Park while we visited the dam and saw the evening laser light show shown on the water spilling over the dam. Because of the late thaws, Grand Coulee was dumping tons of water over the spillway - something that they never do any more. This is a rare sight in today's work because they built a third powerhouse and now are the biggest provider of hydroelectric power in the US and in the top five in the world. It is supposedly the the largest all concrete dam in the world (although there are now larger dams, they include earthen works) and is one of the largest concrete structurs in the world.

Once we left Grand Coulee - we were off to Glacier National Park- but that is for next time.

BTW - as we rode through Iowa and into Missouri, towards Kansas City and our eastward change to I-70 we did encounter effects of the flooding.  The Missouri River is still flooding some areas and some bridges are out.  There are multiple detours and we encountered several of them.  Our first detour was on to I-680 E back to I-80 south to avoid Council Bluffs, IA and then a bigger detour south of there on US-34 east to US71 south taking us into MO and back on I-29 at  St. Joseph - all as a result of the flooding. These are just some of the pictures I got as we drove south on I-29.

Until later - Drive Safe and Retire Early!