Monument Valley on Steriods

Electric City, Washington
Coulee Playland on Banks Lake

The weather was gorgeous today and made for a beautiful but long day.  I drove today but when I arrived at the crossroads "Evelyn" our GPS had me continue on US highway 97.  I decided to follow her instead of highway 14.  

It was absolutely breathtaking.  One minute we'd climb a big hill and the countryside would be pine forests and then the next minute looked like the plains.  

We made one stop in Yakima at the rest area for lunch.

I told Bill I felt fine and we decided to drive all the way to Coulee Dam.  The roads were great and we were enjoying the scenery so much, we didn't have the audio book playing most of the time so we could comment on all the beauty we were seeing.  

When we made the turn at Ephrata there was some construction that required a pilot car.  

Once we started up the Grand Coulee highway the road was more challenging.  The scenery was breath taking and we had no idea what to expect.  Bill said it looked like Monument Valley on Steroids and we all know how much he loves Monument Valley.  

I said this looked like the place where in the western movies the stagecoach horses start running and John Wayne crawls down and lets the horses loose and everyone jumps off the coach right before it goes over the hillside.  

Here's some photos Bill took while I was driving.

Unfortunately, the photos out the windshield don't do this area any justice.

I started asking Bill how much further.  I had programmed in a RV park that offered free shuttle service for the laser light show at the dam.

I seemed like the last 30 miles were the longest.  I drove over 250 miles and was looking forward to finding the RV park.

Well we found it, drove through the one road, looked at all the junk sitting around and said "no way".  No problem, there is another down the road.  Another reason not to make reservations.

Well I pulled into it and if you can believe it, it was even worse.  Had a hard time figuring out how to get out of it, so I handed the keys over to Bill.  I was getting stressed at this point.  Another reason not to make reservations.

We may sound picky, but we don't need anything fancy.  Bill drove back to Electric City and we pulled into this park.  We are right on the Banks lake and could have had a back in but they sloped off in the rear and I wanted to be one row back from the water.  No one in the front row so we have the view of the lake.  Oh yeah, full hook ups were $25 a night.  

When we were unhitched we walked back over to the office for some ice cream.  

We decided to share a waffle bowl which was plenty.  It was excellent hard ice cream.

Notice the short sleeves on Bill.  It was in the 70's today.

I asked Bill about renting these, but he said we couldn't without Don and Sharon Del Rosario with us. 

We took a ride down to the Visitor's Center to find out about the tour of the dam.  

On the way back to the RV park I saw this and Bill turned around so I could check it out.

It's a windmill garden.

I immediately thought of Vicki Allen when I saw all these unique windmills.

There were some information sheets that explained about Emil Gehrke-The Windmill Maker.

Emil began making windmills from scrap in 1965.  Emil and Stella traveled many miles acquiring thrown away material to create over 500 items.

Windmills were made out coffee pots, cookie tins, bowls, fan blades, shovels, old farm machinery and even bicycle wheels.

The windmills were planted in discarded washer tubs. "Mr. Gehrke said: "I wanted to make something pretty for the young people to see.  We throw away too much.  I like to show that practically any object can be reused."

Turtle Safely..........