Electric City, Washington

Good morning, my friends. We had a blissfully short drive yesterday...just 44 miles to our location here in Electric City, Washington. The town was established in 1934 as a place to house workers for the Grand Coulee Dam project. Some of the original buildings were relocated here from the nearby town of Osbourne. Osbourne was inundated when the dam was built. Electric City was incorporated in 1950.

This is the view of Banks Lake from our campsite. Banks Lake resulted from the damming of the Columbia River.

There wasn't a lot to see between here and Bridgeport, but there were some interesting geological formations. The ones below, for instance. If I didn't know better, I might think I was in Egypt.

Well, you know me. I had to consult The Google about these. As it turns out, these are known as the "Chalk Hills." They sit just off the northern stretches of Highway 17 closer to Bridgeport (where we were) and the Waterville Plateau. They consist of stark, light-colored volcanic ash and lakebed deposits that contrast heavily with the surrounding dark basalt rocks we would see along the way. Here are some below:

They were scattered haphazardly along the way. And The Google told me about these too. These dark, fine-grained volcanic rocks formed from massive, fluid basaltic lava floods that poured across the Columbia Plateau millions of years ago. The one below was as big as an automobile.

There wasn't much more to see along the way. There was the occasional dilapidated structure.

And a barn or two.

Mostly, there was just an undulating landscape of wide open spaces.

As we approached our final destination, we drove by Grand Coulee Dam. We'll visit today. Happily, the visitor center is open every day...even on Sundays. It operates under the auspices of the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Sorry about the reflections in the image below. Couldn't be helped, I'm afraid.

Shortly after passing the dam, we crossed over this aqueduct, which is part of the Columbia Basin Project, also managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Water flows southward from Banks Lake (where we are) into the Main Canal system, which stretches across the arid Columbia Plateau to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.

Just before arriving in Electric City, we passed by this interesting collection of wind spinners. 

The sign on the fence there says "Gehrke Windmill Garden." There are hundreds of wind-powered sculptures created by Emil Gehrke and his wife, Veva. They began putting them outside their home in the 1960s. Each is made from scrap materials, mostly metal, which was sourced from junkyards and scrap piles. Over the years, the Gerhkes created nearly 800 of these wind sculptures. Though many of them now sit in private collections, more than 100 are on display here. We'll definitely take a closer look at that today.

And here we are! That didn't take long, did it?

We drove past Banks Lake on our way to the RV park, which was just a few minutes down the road.

So, our plan for the day is to visit the dam, and we'll check out the windmill garden. Aside from that, we have nothing else on the day's agenda. I'm hoping to pick up a refrigerator magnet and a shot glass at the dam visitor center. I've collected five refrigerator magnets so far this trip, but only one shot glass. Surely I'll be able to find another one here at Grand Coulee Dam. Fingers crossed.

Okay, my friends. We had some rain and wind late last night, and there was a “severe weather alert” for the area related to dust storms. It’s nothing too alarming…more annoying than anything. I’m hoping the dust won’t materialize. Hard to see how it could be very bad when it just rained a good amount 12 hours earlier. Time will tell, I guess. At least the wind has died down. It reminds me though, I’m hoping you folks in the gulf states came through the hurricane okay. You’ve been on my mind. 

The weather here has taken a turn to cooler temperatures. Dress warm today, my friends. Let’s go have some dam fun.