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.