Labor Day 2008
Karl went over to the cabin early in the week to start prepping for painting. Josh and I took the train over on Wednesday from Everett to Wenatchee. Karl drove down about 90 miles to meet us at the train station. It was either that or take the bus all the way from Everett. Too long of a trip!
The train trip was nice. I finally got to see more of the scenery approaching Stevens Pass since it was still light outside. The last time we made that trip, it was dark and you couldn't see anything.
Karen and Jim arrived on Thursday with their camper and painting clothes.
Let the fun begin!
Josh & Karl hard at work
Josh & Karen painting up high
Jim priming the trim on the little cabin
Karen - the painting inspector general
But it wasn't a weekend of all work and no play. You know us...that would be impossible!
The "driving range" was open for business. You whack the golf balls until they are gone, then you have to go and find as many as possible in the field so you can play again. We do have a complaint for the management...you need more golf balls! The supply is running low.
Update for the golfers: the management has procured more golf balls for next year's season.
Of course, it's not a weekend at the cabin without some fishing. Here are some nice crappies that were caught for dinner.
Here is a shot of the cabins all finished. We spent most of the weekends in September painting. The trim is an off-white color and the base is called "Mountain Shade". Its a greenish-gray tint and blends into the colors of the landscape. It felt so good to get both houses done before the winter weather arrived.
During a couple of the weekends of painting, we were fascinated with the Sandhill crane migration taking place.
At first we couldn't figure out what we were hearing since we arrived in the dark. The next day, we heard the noise again way before we saw the birds in the sky. There were hundreds of birds migrating in flocks of all sizes. It was a new experience for us to see the cranes heading south for the winter. I believe they are on their way to the Sacramento delta area where they will hang out until they return next spring.
Sandhill Crane Migration
October 11-12 Weekend
Finally a weekend just to relax. Good thing too since we had just received notice at work two days earlier that our location would be closing down.
No work would be done on this weekend. Kinda. We needed to bring the camper home so we could go on a caravan with the truck camper club plus we didn't want to leave it over there for the winter. That meant packing it up to make the trip home.
We spent Saturday exploring the area. We weren't sure exactly how far we'd go or where we'd end up. It was one of those days to just get in the truck and drive. Have map, will travel.
We drove down Cameron Lake Road past our turn off. It is a wide-open area with beautiful landscapes.
View looking west towards the Cascade Mountains
Duley Lake where we turned east
The road that connected Cameron Lake Road and Omak Lake Road looked substantial on the map. At times, we thought we were going to have to put the truck in 4-wheel drive. We went through one cattle guard that almost scraped the sides of the truck. It was extremely narrow. We didn't think we would meet other vehicles on the road, but we did. Next time, we'll try the other connector road and see how that one is.
The entire area is range area. We've even have had cattle up at our house. It is up to the property owners to fence the livestock out, not the other way around. Eventually we will fence in part of our property.
Jelly gets all excited if you say "Cows!". She loves to look out of the window at them. We saw plenty on our trip.
Range cattle
We finally reached the Columbia River Road and Karl was able to look for places to possibly launch his kayak into Rufus Woods Lake. The lake is created behind Chief Joseph Dam along the Columbia River.
We headed towards Nespelem and then decided to go on down to Grand Coulee Dam. We stopped and had lunch in Grand Coulee and walked around a couple of the parks at the dam. The weather couldn't have been any better for us.
Grand Coulee Dam
At first, I didn't think I had been to Grand Coulee Dam. It wasn't until we went to another overlook that I knew we had been there before. When we bought our truck in Idaho, we came home past Grand Coulee. I just never saw the dam from up close.
At the overlook - Grand Coulee Dam
Upon departing Grand Coulee, we headed back west towards Bridgeport. It was hunting season and we saw many hunters. I'm not a bambi hunter, but there is a huge deer population in the area. The hunting is good to maintain the health of the herd and also to reduce the number that end up in car vs. deer incidents. One popular saying "There are two kinds of people in the Methow Valley. Those who have hit deer, and those that are going to." We have come close to hitting them on our trips over to the cabin.
We checked out the small town of Bridgeport. Yep, its small. Then we stopped at the viewpoint for Chief Joseph Dam for a few minutes. We crossed the Columbia River and decided to go visit Bridgeport State Park. What a beautiful park.
It had a nice little campground that was full of hunters. We saw several truck campers, too. :-)
They have a nice golf course at the park and saw a few golfers out enjoying the warm fall weather.
There was another viewpoint for the dam that we stopped at before heading back to the cabin.
We drove a good 150 miles round trip over the course of the afternoon. Overall, it was a great way to spend the afternoon. We got to see more of the surrounding areas and enjoyed the scenery along the way.
Trip Route (click to enlarge)
Sunday morning I emerged from the camper to see this...
A beautiful rainbow against a dark and stormy sky. We had just been talking about our situation at work and worrying about the future. I think this was God's sign that everything would be okay.
After breakfast, we loaded up the camper and headed home.
1 comment:
Im not the painting nazi. I do like my work to look great.Karen
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