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.

Slow and Sweet

Good morning, my friends. This will be a shorty. There are two reasons for that. First, we gave ourselves a chill day yesterday, which meant we did next to nothing. It was warm, but very windy outside, and so it wasn't particularly pleasant being out there. We might have taken the walk down by the river, but the wind discouraged us. And, if I'm being honest, the warning about the presence of venomous snakes killed my curiosity about anything else we might find there.

Instead, I spent a good part of the day slow-stitching. When I'd done all I wanted to in the morning, I had it this far.

Since I'd nearly filled my hoop, I decided to move to the right. It allowed me to capture what remained of the sheep.

Then I spent some more time on it in the afternoon, finishing off all that little seed stitch fill in the sheep on the left. Sheesh...that took forever. When I finished for the day, I had it this far.

As for the second reason to keep this short, we're moving on down the road today...just about an hour. Our next stop was to be Grand Coulee, Washington. Unfortunately, our furnace still is not working reliably, and our original reservation was for another no-hookup spot. All that wind yesterday was indicative of a change in the weather. The forecast calls for highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's in Grand Coulee over the next couple of days. Obviously, we need reliable heat. 

So, I canceled that first reservation and found an RV park in Electric City, Washington, for our next stop. We'll have hookups and we'll be able to use our electric heater if we need to. In fact, we now have hookup reservations to get us the rest of the way home a week from tomorrow. And with the Grand Coulee Dam right next door generating electricity, "Electric City" is a perfect name for that little town. 

All righty, then. It's time to have something to eat, and then start buttoning things up for the journey. 

Sadie posed for her picture this morning, but she's still on the hunt for an agent. Her business affairs will need to wait until she can get home and have access to her own desktop computer. Honestly, why can't the humans pack everything a cat needs? The correct answer to that question could earn you a position as her personal assistant.

A Dam Fine Day

Good morning, my friends. What an interesting little tour we created for ourselves yesterday. We first drove into the adjacent town of Brewster, Washington, to indulge ourselves with our beloved Egg McMuffins. Along the way we were able to fully take in the vastness of the apple and cherry orchards in this area. We'd noticed the abundance of fruit trees on our drive in, but seeing the landscape really brought it home to us. The green on the far hillsides…all apple and cherry orchards.

This is the Columbia River valley, lined with orchards on both sides.

Even more on those distant hillsides. 

And the harvest is on, my friends. In the image below, you can see the rows of trees at the top of the image. Below that hundreds (thousands?) of boxes that will be used to truck the picked fruit to market. And since this is labor-intensive work, we saw at least two old school buses bringing in workers. Both were towing porta-potties behind them, which gave us a chuckle. (How humiliating it must be for the school buses to have been retired in this way.)

Okay, and after all that marveling at the vastness of the orchards, we were hungry.

After breakfast, we drove back to Chief Joseph Dam. What an impressive structure!

Now, behave yourselves here, my friends. In our experience, dams are heavily guarded. We didn’t actually see any uniformed security officers, but the signs, barbed wire, locked gates, and cameras told us this isn’t a place to be too rambunctious. 

Also, watch where y’all are stepping.

So, I think I took pictures of the dam from every angle possible. Mike actually took the picture below. There was a tall fence here, and no real way for me to get a picture without also getting the fence. Mike climbed up on some guardrail supports (think of railroad ties on their ends), and held the camera over the fence. This is where the water collects behind the dam. You can see how close it is to the top.

This is the same area, only from the other side of the structure. We were at a viewpoint here, and so there was no fence.

Looking downriver, we could see the bridge we drove in on and the tiny town of Bridgeport beyond.

So, let’s just talk about the dam, shall we? It is massive: built with three million tons of concrete. It stands 236 feet high from the bedrock to the roadway on top. (Closed and locked.) The dam’s length and shape contribute to its primary purpose of producing hydroelectric power. The powerhouse on the far side of the dam was angled away from the spillway to form an “L” shape. By building the powerhouse parallel to the river, the Corps of Engineers was able to extend the powerhouse to nearly one-half mile in length. It provides room for 27 generators.  

And there it is. I took pictures from many different angles. Here, the spillway is on the left side of the image, powerhouse on the right.

The site for this dam was chosen partly because of its geologic history. The river’s carving action exposed granite bedrock. You can see it across the river in the image above. By taking advantage of this natural foundation of bedrock on the riverbank and the riverbed to support the dam, engineers were able to minimize cost and labor.

I’m hoping you can see the image below well enough to understand how it was constructed. Remember that you can make it larger by clicking on it.

I liked this next sign. These geologic processes fascinate me. I probably missed my calling as a geologist. But since I can’t really tell you exactly what a geologist does while on the job, then maybe not.

In this next image, we’d moved away from the spillway. I was trying to capture the whole of the structure from end to end, but it is HUGE!

Our next stop will be to see the Grand Coulee Dam. While neither of us had ever heard of Chief Joseph Dam before arriving in this town, we’d both heard of Grand Coulee Dam. Mike has seen it before. I have not. But it wasn’t until this trip that it occurred to me that it was a dam on the Columbia River. Our Columbia River. The one we routinely cross when we head north. I simply never stopped to think about it. 

And, so, realizing that on this trip made me appreciate how really big and long the Columbia River is. It is the state line between Oregon and Washington. And I’ve always known that it turns north in southeastern Washington. But I never actually though about where it goes from there. Of course, it’s actually flowing in the opposite direction, out to the Pacific Ocean, but its headwaters are way up there in Canada. Hey, Canada! Thanks for sharing your river with us! 

Below is an image I found online showing the path of the river from somewhere there in Alberta where it begins its journey to the Pacific Ocean…a journey of 1,243 miles (2,000 km). 

Okay, and then this next image is looking downriver again. That’s the bridge we drove in on and the little town. In the foreground is a fish hatchery.

We stopped in, but there didn’t seem to be anything going on. We could hear people in some back offices, but we couldn’t see anyone actually working. We really just wanted to use their restrooms. There were no fish to be seen…except this one hanging on the wall. I took its picture as we left. As I’ve said before, I love this form of art, and I swear I’m going to make a quilt from it.

Okay, so we were about dammed out by then. We decided to head into town to see the chainsaw sculptured trees. This sign explains the story behind that:

And I told myself I wouldn’t take pictures of every single one. I managed to resist a few of them. There are 29 in all, including the one in our campground I showed you the day before. I don’t necessarily have much to say about these, so I’ll mostly let you look. I’ll pipe up if I have something to add.

We loved the quail. They had their little dingleballs and everything!

This next one was my favorite.

I like this next one too. It was very detailed with an agriculture theme. If you look closely at the riverboat at the bottom, you’ll see a bit of white fluff. That’s a bird’s nest.

This next one is the same sculpture from the other side.

Beavers. 

This next one was beside a pretty garden.

Those were all on the main street. We drove to the other city campground to see this next one.

Several of them had plaques in memory of someone. I liked the dedication on this one:

There’s not much blooming here, and frankly, it’s awfully dry for this sort of thing. Still, I captured a few roses. 

And that was our day. We were home around lunch time and just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. There was time for some slow-stitching, and it was a pleasant way to end the day. We’ll probably spend most of today the same way. 

We haven’t had our blueberry pancakes since we’ve been traveling, but I’m going to make some this morning. There’s a jug of buttermilk taking up room in our tiny refrigerator, and the pancakes will get rid of it. So that’s where I’m off to next. Have a good day, Everybody!