JULY 4 and 5, 2009

Hello Blog Followers, and a Happy Belated Fourth of July to you all!

We spent our last day at Crescent Bar (Fourth of July) going on an hour-long walk in the morning - up and down the dreaded hill I’ve been fretting ever since I got here. It’s pretty steep, and we could smell the breaks on our way down (when we first arrived), so, for some insecure reason, I had been wondering if my truck would have troubles getting back up… But more about that later…

It was a sizzling day right from the start: 100 degrees at 10:00, and who knows what fried after it got really hot…. Luanne and I spent quite a bit of it indoors… We did manage to squeeze in an Ice Cream Social at the Club House (which is located on a small cliff above the river), a walk down to the beach, and we took the truck into “town” (which basically consists of a couple of stores and a tavern).

The yearly 4th of July parade was finishing up as we arrived, and the mad dash of the participants to get away from the sun, left us with a wonderful parking spot very close to the loaf of bread we came to “town” to purchase…. Lucky us!

We went back to the Club House in the evening to find the surrounding lawn and open areas completely “booked” up… I’d be surprised if less than 90% of all the people in the RV Park were hanging out in lawn chairs and chaise lounges along the cliff, all of which faced the river and town….. Time for fire works, which, to no-one’s surprise, started late… Around 10:20.… To call it a blazing success would probably be going too far, but there were the occasional oohs and aahs from the toddler section, whom obviously were up way past their bedtime.

So that brings us to this morning…

As I said earlier, I had butterflies as we prepared the rig for take-off…. That hill is not only steep, but also very winding… To make matters worse, the sharpest turn also happens to be the steepest section, and, of course, my visions of us stalling in the middle somewhere, and not being able to either go forward or back, had me in a bit of a tizzy…..
Well, I have good tidings: My confidence returned half way up, and I boasted to Luanne that she shouldn’t have worried: “See that, Big Boy (truck) had no problem biting into that hill. Heck, he didn’t even breath hard!”
There never was any doubt in my mind!

We scooted through Quincy and headed straight down Highway 281 to George, where we filled up Big Boy’s trough. We then meandered through agricultural country second to none… Wow! The fields upon fields of wheat, Alfa Alfa, and what-have-you, stretched from horizon to horizon, only to be replaced here and there by vineyards, and fruit orchards of every kind… Truly magnificent farm country!

Passed through Othello just after 9am, and kept on Route 26 to the pretty little town of Washtucna, where we intercepted Hwy 261, which then took us through the metropolis of Starbuck (Mr. Coffee‘s cousin?) and on to Scenic Highway 12, which we then followed all the way to here: Lewis and Clark Resort, a mile East of Kamiah, or (if you can’t find Kamiah), about 70 miles East of Lewiston, Idaho. After the flat terrain of the Wheat Country (as I like to call it), Highway 12 is truly scenic, but also very hilly with a lot of turns, so it pays to be vigilant.

The town of Clarkston has a Main Street lined with shade trees along both sides, so it’s almost like driving through a tunnel… Very quaint, and, I’m pleased to say, well protected from the summer sun, as we crawl through at a steady 10 mph, just after High Noon.

Washington State is behind us as we cross the Snake River and head into Lewiston, Idaho, which is also left behind in short order, as we follow the Clearwater River up through the canyon bearing it’s name…. Another WOW! This stretch, between Lewiston and Kamiah, is breathtaking, and I would love to do some more exploring here. After all, this is the less known route Lewis and Clark took on their way home from the Coast… We’ll see what happens……

We pulled into the Lewis and Clark Resort at 1:56pm, and was in the pool shortly thereafter……
And that’s where this part of the saga ends….
So long from the Blog….
Fair weather and tail winds to all our friends and relatives.