Yes, I'm still alive. We've been chillin' in Spokane these past two weeks.
It always dregs up memories driving through Idaho and Washington. Three of my four children were born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and I lived there, in Post Falls, and in Spokane for many years before moving to California in 1981.
But...I digress.
Our first week was in an RPI park, right off I-90, north of Cheney, Washington, called Ponderosa Falls RV Campground. It's not a bad place, and we'll be returning for another week on Saturday. It's fairly close to the kids, who live practically downtown Spokane on the west side of the city-- a fifteen minute drive. But I'm a little bummed we couldn't stay in the same park for our full three week stay.
It's difficult to find an affordable park in this area, for some reason I haven't figured out yet. I just priced out a KOA park east of the city, and their summer rate is about $85 a night! Who can afford that?! We could get a motel room for less money. The thing is, with the RPI network, we can only stay one week at the reduced rate for which we pay an annual fee to enjoy, and then we have to go somewhere else for a week before we can return for another week at the reduced rate. The closest Thousand Trails park is in Newport, Washington, about an hour's drive northeast of Spokane. And that's were we are this week, with the bees, doing more or less nothing.
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| Missing a piece |
It was good to see Liz and Josh and their families again. We stopped by their respective houses for a short visit the Sunday after we arrived. Then I came down sick with a cold. Ick! We had made arrangements for Leah to come stay with us a couple days on Wednesday & Thursday, and I was expecting that plan to fall through because of my sudden illness, but Leah is a trouper. She came anyway. And as far as I know, she didn't catch my germs, thankfully. We had a lovely time. We checked out the family activity room, tried a little ping-pong (which immediately turned into a game of chase-the-ping-pong-ball-around-the-activity-room), a little table hockey, and some Foosball (which neither of us could get the hang of). In the end, we pulled out a jigsaw puzzle and spent some time putting it together. Of course we also made use of the swimming pool. It was smallish and somewhat less than pristine, but the water was cool and we had the pool to ourselves most of the time. We have a date for another sleepover next week when we're back in Cheney. Savannah will join us too.
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| The view out your window |
Here in Newport, we're at the Little Diamond "Resort," which is a split park-- part of it is KOA, and part is Thousand Trails. Amenities are shared. The pool is much too small. Power is 30 amp only, and there is
no sewer at any of the sites. (I'm such a complainer!) But, it didn't cost us anything except the price of a visit from a "honeywagon," which came on Tuesday and emptied our tanks for us. It was worth it not to have to pull up jacks and go dump.
To top things off, there is a yellow jacket problem in the area. It seems that the dryer than usual winter has led to the worst bee infestation in fifteen years. Fortunately, although they are everywhere, they don't seem to be aggressive. Nobody's been stung. Yet. And we've managed to keep them out of the house.
The days have been pretty warm, but the nights are in the upper 50s to low 60s, making very comfortable sleeping weather. It cools off pretty quickly once the sun goes down, and then we open up the windows and enjoy the night air.
There's not too much to do here, but we took a drive into Newport and visited their local museum - Pend Oreille Historical Museum, a quaint but interesting establishment. Many of the items on display were things I remember seeing in my parents' or grandparents' homes as a child. Now they're in museums. (Does that make me old?)
On Saturday, we return to Cheney for our last week in Spokane, and we'll get as much visiting in as we can before we head west. Two weeks just isn't enough time when you see family only once a year. I'll just have to factor that into next year's plan.
Maybe we can get a monthly rate somewhere. Yeah...I'll make a note of it.
As ever, I am sad to leave my Spokane kiddos (and grand-kiddos). But we're off to California now.
The west coast fires have turned the air into a smoky fog as far out as Spokane. Yakima was the worst we've seen so far. The air was so dense, the sun looked like a harvest moon the morning we left. Our drive through the Cascades was disappointing, since we couldn't see any real scenery through the smoke. There was actually an active fire fairly near Highway 12, the route we took, and fire crews had set up a command center at White Pass, where there were facilities like a store and gas station,etc. The area on both sides of the road were dotted with pup tents that firefighters used for sleeping. The news is reporting a lot on the California fires, but there are hundreds of fires burning up and down the west coast, from California all the way up to Canada.
The west coast fires have turned the air into a smoky fog as far out as Spokane. Yakima was the worst we've seen so far. The air was so dense, the sun looked like a harvest moon the morning we left. Our drive through the Cascades was disappointing, since we couldn't see any real scenery through the smoke. There was actually an active fire fairly near Highway 12, the route we took, and fire crews had set up a command center at White Pass, where there were facilities like a store and gas station,etc. The area on both sides of the road were dotted with pup tents that firefighters used for sleeping. The news is reporting a lot on the California fires, but there are hundreds of fires burning up and down the west coast, from California all the way up to Canada.
