Wednesday, August 10, 2011
We made it a fairly long day of doing nothing special. We get quite a bit of practice with that.
After listening to the staccato chirping notes of the rain birds as we went to sleep, we arose early this morning. We took a short walk in the park, did a little computing, and then had a leisurely breakfast of eggs, hash browns, biscuits, jelly and honey at the large picnic table at our site. It was about 7:00 or 8:00, depending on whether you use local time or your internal clock. However, the time of day had no effect on the quality of the breakfast. It was delicious .
We saved Sacajawea State Park for another time, and instead made our first stop for the day the WalMart in Richland. We needed necessities like Washington State Fishing Licenses and a couple of other things much less important. Fred and Wilma purchased a Discover Pass for Washington State in order to avoid a $99 ticket for illegal parking on state land. Barney and Betty had already purchased their pass on line.
While we were there we decided to fuel up at the Mirastar Station at Wal-Mart. That turned out to be a major mistake. Fred and Wilma pulled up to an available diesel pump and started to fill up. Betty and Barney had to wait for a car to finish up at the only other working diesel pump. When the car finally left and Barney pulled up to the pump, Fred said “I should be full in another 15 minutes.” Barney, of course thought Fred was kidding and went through the process of card swiping and getting the pump started. After washing the windshield Barney checked the pump and it was just passing through 8 tenths of a gallon. True to his word, Fred was finished in about 15 minutes. The pump shut off at it’s maximum dollar amount and Fred said “I’m done!!!” After Fred’s pump shut off Barney’s pump sped up considerably but it still took another 15 minutes to get as much as the pump would give. The whole process took about an hour. There was no attendant at the station to report the slow pumps to. There was a sign on the pump that gave a 1-800GOMIRA number and said it was Tesoro Customer Service. To top it off there was a sign taped to the pump that said after July 25,2011 they would no longer accept Wal-Mart gift cards and were sorry for the inconvenience. Oh well…… It really was trickling in that slow! It was almost funny.
We saved Sacajawea State Park for another time, and instead made our first stop for the day the WalMart in Richland. We needed necessities like Washington State Fishing Licenses and a couple of other things much less important. Fred and Wilma purchased a Discover Pass for Washington State in order to avoid a $99 ticket for illegal parking on state land. Barney and Betty had already purchased their pass on line.
While we were there we decided to fuel up at the Mirastar Station at Wal-Mart. That turned out to be a major mistake. Fred and Wilma pulled up to an available diesel pump and started to fill up. Betty and Barney had to wait for a car to finish up at the only other working diesel pump. When the car finally left and Barney pulled up to the pump, Fred said “I should be full in another 15 minutes.” Barney, of course thought Fred was kidding and went through the process of card swiping and getting the pump started. After washing the windshield Barney checked the pump and it was just passing through 8 tenths of a gallon. True to his word, Fred was finished in about 15 minutes. The pump shut off at it’s maximum dollar amount and Fred said “I’m done!!!” After Fred’s pump shut off Barney’s pump sped up considerably but it still took another 15 minutes to get as much as the pump would give. The whole process took about an hour. There was no attendant at the station to report the slow pumps to. There was a sign on the pump that gave a 1-800GOMIRA number and said it was Tesoro Customer Service. To top it off there was a sign taped to the pump that said after July 25,2011 they would no longer accept Wal-Mart gift cards and were sorry for the inconvenience. Oh well…… It really was trickling in that slow! It was almost funny.
 |
| Wish I could read his mind! |
 |
| At the SLOW service station. |
We took an assortment of numbered roads, up through the US Department of Energy Hanford Reservation, then northbound along the Columbia River as it heads south, stopping at the VC (visitor center) at the Wanapum Dam. They didn’t have a stamp, but it was an interesting stop. The dam supplies power to the Grant County Public Utility District. The receptionist indicated that their residential electric rates are about 4 cents per kilowatt hour. Pretty cheap power.
 |
| Wilma and Betty at the Wanapum Dam VC |
We followed the Columbia for quite a way, and it was quite busy with recreation enthusiasts. We finally made it to the VC at Lake Chelan, and got the proper stamps in our parks passport books. The town of Chelan itself is a very busy tourist resort, but the lake is beautiful. The stamps were located at the Ranger Station in downtown Chelan, and we were lucky to get parking spots close. There are a number of spots designated as maximum 30 minute parking for the Ranger Station, but many were taken by those enjoying sunbathing and swimming at the lake. After noticing us trying to get parking spaces, the staff called in the ticket brigade, and by the time we got turned around and headed back out of town, many were being ticketed! Hey, we didn’t do it!
We did not take the fairly expensive boat ride to the other end of the lake, even though there is a stamp available there. The lake is a 50.5 mile glacier-fed lake, 1.5 miles at its widest and 1486 ft. at its deepest point.
Continuing on towards the North Cascades highway, we stopped in a pull off to finally eat some dinner. What a feast we had that included corn on the cob that we purchased fresh along the way today. Topped off with very juicy and delicious plums from our generous neighbor last night.
We went north on 97 to Pateros, WA where we made another fuel stop. This stop only took about 15 minutes total time to get back on the road.
We then went in search of a place to call it a night, and went through a very heavy rain and hail shower. For a few minutes the wipers were on high speed, as fast as they could go and were just barely keeping up with the rain. But then the sunshine came back. By the time we looked at, and ruled out several places, we were just too tired to continue, and pulled into an RV park in Twisp. Cost a lot more than the park last night, is not as nice, and it certainly isn’t our first choice to stay in an RV park, but will chalk it up to averaging out in the end.
It’s time to shut down the caves. See you tomorrow.
w/b
No comments:
Post a Comment