Coeur d'Alene to Beebe Bridge Park near Chelan, Washington

Today's trip is from Idaho to Chelan, Washington. The day started out well enough, getting underway at around 9:00am. Based on some internet research, we decided to fill up with gas before we left Idaho, since prices were cheaper there than in Washington. We knew of a Shell station in Post Falls, so headed down I-90 in that general direction. As we rounded a curve, we spotted a Flying J sign and changed plans to go there, knowing they had big parking lots. Well, there must have been a sale on or something, since the cars and RV's were lined up on the street trying to get in. After a couple of minutes of indecision, we opted to go around a few blocks and fill up at a Shell station we saw on the way in to the Flying J.

As we're gassing up the bus, I noticed that the lock on the tow bar hitch pin had fallen off! A few more miles (or bumps) and we may have lost the hitch! Since we were stopped anyhow, we decided to manually re-pin the hitch. Well, to make a long story short, it took 15 minutes to un-hitch and then re-hitch the toad to the motor home. It also involved lots of pushing, pulling and finger mashing. However, it was finally done and we set off down the road again...for about a block, when I had the feeling that I had forgotten to put the retaining clip onto the hitch. Stop again on the I-90 on ramp to check (it WAS in place) and the off we go. Through Spokane and up the hill and turn off on US highway 2 to go directly west to the Chelan area.

Had a look for B-52's that may have been flying around the Fairchild AFB, but none to be seen today. US-2 is a good 2 lane road past Fairchild, and the only item of note was the smoke from forest fires. It was particularly bad near Almira, presumably from the fire reported on the news as being at the far end of Lake Chelan. By the time we got to Coulee City, it was lunch and break time. Cassie and Tucker add one more to the list of SPO's (states pee'd on). Part of the landscape was desert and eroded rock, especially the Moses Coulee between Coulee City and Waterline. And we wisely decided to unhook the car just before Orondo and highway 97. There's a 6% grade drop for 6 miles (or so the sign said), but it seemed more like 10% for 10 miles with very few pull offs.

As we headed north on highway 97 towards Chelan, we spotted a really nice looking park and, on the spur of the moment, decided to turn in. This was Beebe Bridge Park, near Chelan. The park is well maintained, lots of green grass and a beach and a place for the dogs to swim. The 'lake' is really the Columbia River, but it's so wide and relatively slow moving that many boats and water skiers are present. It's also quite hot and with no wind it seems very resort-like. The down side is that there is no internet or TV and no sewer connection, but that seems like a small price to pay for the space and the ambiance. The park is almost full since it's Friday night. There are a few folks here from BC as well as many from Washington, and one or two from Alberta. We didn't see too many from other states however.

Saturday was the day to visit Chelan and to go golfing. Chelan is a pretty town, reminiscent of Kimberly. Lots of stores, antiques, old cars, etc. The golf course is above the town and is a good looking 18 hole course with enough hills that we decided to go for a power cart (first time this trip). Golf wasn't too good today, starting off with the other twosome that failed to join us on the first tee. Turned out that we met them later (on the 9th tee)...they had been in the bar, watching the football game, and hadn't heard the starters call. After golf, we went downtown and had dinner in the Campbells Resort restaurant. It was okay pub grub, but the service was terrible. Lots of staff around, but our server appeared to be absent most of the time. The tip reflected the service!

It was also fortuitous that we decided to stay at Beebe Bridge. All day on Saturday was some kind of rap 'music' concert in the public area adjoining the campground that we were planning on staying at! It was annoying about 1000 feet up and half a mile away at the golf course; we couldn't imagine living next door to it, even for just one day.

Sep 14, 2007

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