5-30-2023 Vantage, WA

 Five surprisingly sunshiny days have passed.  We spent them with several of the family including Rick and Trina, parents of last Saturday’s bride.  The boys spent 2 days at SIR (Seattle International Raceway) where Rick raced and Rob was the pit crew.  With the boys out of our hair, Trina and I had lots of fun digging around and acquiring antiques and other junk that we don’t need.  We laughed, scratched and had a great time.

 

At times in the past, this area has been a fun opportunity to revisit old favorites.  Leavenworth is one, a tiny little town that seems like it was lifted up out of Bavaria and dropped here.  However, there aren’t a whole lot of places to park a 53-feet-long beast.  Maybe you could shoehorn into some microspot but then there’s the issue of getting back out.  So we passed through, wistfully staring at the pastry shops, bakeries and taverns where beer and brats are the specialty.  Seattle, the home of the Pike Place Market was also an experience we used to not miss, but now, sadly, it is the nucleus of homelessness, violence and crime and an experience to avoid.  So we behaved and stayed in our yard.  Today, we are packed up and moving east to Vantage, WA, a pretty little resort on the banks of the Columbia River, and then on to Lewiston where, hopefully, there are 2 new Noobee keys awaiting our arrival, for one thing.  Actually, the ONLY important thing for this Type A Virgo Kraus.

 

Rob relaxes in our back yard at
Wanapum Campground

Wanapum Campground is on the banks of a wide area on the Columbia River, which is classified as a lake.  Wanapum Lake, oddly.  It was warm and sunny, nearly the cocktail hour, so we took a leisurely stroll over to see the river.  The breeze grew a little stronger.  Then a little stronger.  Now it’s wind.  Big wind.  By the time the dinner hour was over, it was big fucking wind, so much so that we feared for the slide toppers and decided to withdraw the slides and hunker down.  It was the worst night we have spent in any rv, crawling over each other to use the facilities and otherwise, listening to the raging wind outside trying to capsize Noobee.  Facing a forecast of 40 mph gusts today, in an unprecedented move, we pulled up stakes and said adios.  There are things to see here, like the petrified forest, but well, maybe another time.

Overview of our campground on a
wide spot in the Columbia River

 

Next stop:  Clarkston.  This is familiar territory.  Years back, we parked Bee in Clarkston, drove the Jeepster west, parked at #2 Son Mike’s home, then rode a paddlewheel boat from Astoria to Clarkston on the Columbia River, then the Snake.  When the cruise ended, we deboarded at the boat dock a few steps from Bee and picked up right where we left off.  Today, Rob finally tells me our next campground isn’t in Lewiston but Clarkston.  He explained:  I just tell everybody it’s Lewiston because everybody knows where that is and nobody knows where Clarkston is.  Got it.

5-23-2023 Electric City & Grand Coulee Dam

The shore of Banks Lake, just steps
away from our campsite

Catch of the day - walleye!  Yum!
He didn't offer us any... Hmmmm.

Our campground is on a peninsula out in the middle of Banks Lake at the base of Steamboat Rock.  It’s blue and glass smooth, there are beaches and boat launches for the avid fishermen who have a ball hauling in the huge trout, walleye and bass.  We were surprised to learn that Banks Lake is man-made.  Let me explain.  Where to begin.

Our camp at the base of Steamboat Rock
(white arrow)

Noobee and the Jeepster at our campsite

 

First, many millions of years ago the ice age and  floods that followed crashed through the valley.  It washed away the loose rocks and dirt and left behind monster cliffs and rocks like Steamboat Rock and between these, vast riverbeds called coulees.  When the Columbia River changed course, it left behind the coulees that dried up and were covered with sandy, dusty dirt called loess, an arid wasteland.

 

In 1933, the Grand Coulee Dam project was launched by FDR as part of his create-jobs policy.  Some engineers said the Columbia River could never be tamed, it was impossible.  But those who had a dream, and probably plenty of whiskey and chew, had already drawn up the blueprints.  Thousands of hardy souls in search of work during the Depression flocked westward.  They went to work for $.80/hour and fatigue was not an option.  If a worker had to take time off, he was immediately replaced by another from the rows of hundreds who were queued up seeking work. 

 

The massive spillway just behind us

The first goal was to divert the river to remove the loess, one truckload at a time, down to solid bedrock where piles could be driven.  It seemed like a hopeless task.  Every shovelful of the dusty loess removed caused the adjacent soil to avalanche down and fill up the hole.  The engineers came up with a plan that worked.  They froze the adjacent soil with an ammonia solution and cleared a small area at a time.  When cleared, the pouring of concrete began.  Twelve million cubic yards were poured, in the end, enough to build a 4-foot wide sidewalk around the earth’s equator twice.  It is the largest man-made structure in the country (used to be the world but China has since surpassed us).  Perspective on its size:  Hoover Dam was built with 3 million cubic yards of concrete.  Grand Coulee is 5,000 feet wide, Hoover Dam, 1,200.  Grand Coulee generates 7,000 megawatts of power, Hoover 2,000.  Anther fun statistic:  One breakfast for 950 hungry laborers involved 3,000 pancakes, 25 gallons of syrup, 200 lb. of bacon, 1,000 eggs and 75 gallons of coffee.

Divers went down to make sure the base of the
dam was set soundly.  The suit was five layers
thick, 3 canvas and 2 rubber.  The shoes weigh 25
pounds, the suit 40 and the helmet 80.

 

Now to my original point.  Vast acres of arid land still lay waste in the northwest, sere and thirsty.  What to do, what to do.  In order to get double duty out of the channeled water that was so far creating hydroelectric power, the engineers came up with another idea.  “Project creep,” we call it.  Pumps and enormous tubes called penstocks were installed above the dam.  Water is drawn from Roosevelt Lake, created by the dam, and is pumped up and over the adjacent hill to a canal where it flows down to fill the next coulee.  Thus, the 30-mile-long Banks Lake was created and its waters are used to irrigate millions of acres of what is now rich, fertile farmland and ranchland.

 

The Indian tribes were a bit unhappy about the dam, it having made it impossible for fish to make it upriver to spawn.  The fish were the Indians’ lifeline.  Fish hatcheries were created to seed Banks, Roosevelt and other nearby lakes.  They supply 1.2 million fish to the lakes per year.

 

In sum, the colossal Grand Coulee Dam supplies hydroelectric power to 11 western states, irrigates vast swaths of farm and ranch land and provides jobs and food to millions.  What a thing.

 

Now, we are in Snohomish, WA and we’ll spend a little time with Rick and Trina, our kids and parents of the bride.  I shall return.

5-22-2023 Electric City, WA

 It was a whirlwind few days for Rob and me.  Rob babysat Noobee while I flew to Chicago and back to attend my sister’s memorial services.  I left spouse unattended and surprisingly, there were few casualties!  A box of Kleenex squished between the slide and the fuselage and another small detail:  he lost Noobee’s keys.  Well, now there’s something, Jane!  Fortunately, we have a spare and fortunately times two, it was stored where it could be accessed from the outside.  We’ve ordered not one but two new keys from the manufacturer to be shipped to our camp in Lewiston, ID, and all is well.  Meanwhile, Rob moved along to Spokane, we reconnected and attended Rachie and Cody’s wedding the next day, Saturday.  The emotions ran the gamut of extremes over the last few days, from sorrow to wedding joy.

 

Now we have gathered up the pieces and are back on the road.  Next stop, Electric City and a visit to the Grand Coulee Dam.  We deliberately stayed off the freeway and are currently traveling the back country road through small farming towns speckled with antique shops, little cafés and tractor repair garages.  The terrain is rolling hills, emerald green with newly-planted crops.  Idyllic. 
We are currently pulled over to the side of the road to wait out a hail storm.  Noobee tends to play slip-and-slide on the little marbles of ice and that gets, shall we way, exciting.  Next, a pullover to reinstall an errant windshield wiper that decided to drift.  Some drivers are more cavalier than we, passing us like Mario on the back straight.  That’s OK.  We don’t have a death wish and we’re not in a huge hurry.   

Not big hail... but... not small hail, either.

 

Upon arrival at Steamboat Rock State Park out on a peninsula in the middle of Banks Lake, our first encounter was four fishermen who were cleaning the day’s catch of rainbow trout.  The fish are huge, about 4-5 pounds and I thought they were a little rude to not offer me a couple of filets!  But for me, to quote Dave Barry, “Fishing is fun.  And then you catch one.”  We’ll have fish tonight but I caught it at Albertson’s wrapped in plastic and that’s as it should be.

We're in Washington:  it's raining.

5--15-2023 Jerome, ID

 

We interrupt this trip for a special reason.  I have lost my big sister, Bootsie (Margaret Mary).  She died on Saturday.

 

The plan is set.  I will fly out of Boise to Chicago on Wednesday for the memorial services.  Rob will stay behind with Noobee and continue to travel toward Spokane for Rachie’s wedding.  After the funeral on Friday the 19^th, I will fly into Spokane in time for the wedding and we will resume our trip.  Bootsie would have insisted on it.

 

The Kraus family is quite blue and essentially now flying blind.  Bootsie was our anchor, our port in the storm, our rudder.  Now we are seven.

1948

1951  Bootsie and Lindy

The fam  Christmas 1954

1962

1962 North Central
Airlines

Easter 1963

Mar, Lindy, Carol, Bootsie

We ten
Bill, Lindy, Patty, Bootsie, George,
Carol, Larry, Beep, Mike, Mar

5-13-2023 Introduction to the Spring-Summer Trip

 At 1640, it’s been a long Winter and Spring riddled with appointments:  surgeon, cardiologist,  dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, physical therapists, lab tests, x-rays, the care and feeding of Noobee and a variety of miscellany like haircuts, a plumber and a tree doctor.  The calendar looked like a spaghetti bowl.  Nevertheless, a plan developed to get out of Dodge which required monumental focus and effort. 

 

Granddaughter # 2, Rachie, is getting married to Cody on May 20 in Spokane.  This seems like a valid enough reason to push the summer trip ahead a bit and make a big loop of it.  From Spokane, we hope to travel over to western WA to visit family and friends.  Then we’ll lollygag east across the beautiful northern states as far as Minneapolis-St. Paul and blindly draw a squiggly line to wherever is next.  For us, traveling across America’s heartland and bread basket is always a wonderful treat as we make every effort to find tiny back roads and stay off the freeways.  Maybe we can cross off a few entries on the bucket list while we are at it.  We will see what trouble and stories we can find.

 

So for now, Day 1, we made it.  We juggled, ran the maze, weaved through the obstacle course and spun the plates.  The goal was a 10AM departure.  We drove away at 10:39AM.  This is some kind of milestone!   And we are off like a prom dress!  Three hours into the 9-week trip, it rained on us.  Not a lot, just enough to ruin our beautiful wash job.  Ach du lieber.  All is well.