July 5, 2020 Idaho to Washington, Grand Coulee Dam

😊😄Sunday, July 5
46 degrees this morning as we head north.  We will veer into Montana for a bit before turning west at Missoula and crossing the Idaho Panhandle, heading for Washington's North Cascades National Park.  We spy this osprey nest near the river.

The mother flew off and it looked like this youngster was practicing and about ready to fly.  Still, it settled back into the nest.

Pretty scenery into Montana, then we  cross  the narrow part of Idaho and drive along the western edge for a while. A lot of small towns and pretty good highway.

                                                                                                                                      Left at Missoula and we
 pass into Washington and slip into Pacific Time.





Greg stops for gas and I visit a roadside stand next door for some bing cherries!🍒🍒 The man says they are from southern Washington, as the ones here in the north are just beginning to ripen.  I wash them up and we enjoy them as we make our way towards Grand Coulee Dam.  Yum!  One of my favorites!






Rolling hills, some agriculture.

We pass quite a few turns for Lake Roosevelt which is 130 miles long running from the dam to the Canadian Border.  Lots of boats.

 Then we come into the town of Grand Coulee and see the dam. It is massive! Unfortunately, the tours have been cancelled and the visitor's center is closed.  So we wander around a few locations and read what we can.  A few others are picnicking and doing the same.

This is the largest hydropower producer in the United States, which provides enough for 4.2 million households in 11 states!
It is one of the largest concrete structures in the world. The concrete used here is enough to build a 4' wide sidewalk wrapped twice around the equator!  It was built between 1933 and 1940 under FDR and Truman and was hailed as a sign of US strength and ingenuity.    An average of 806,600 gallons per second pass through the dam!  Hard to imagine!

This is the beginning of the lake, below the dam.

We thought this parking area was interesting.  The poles with bobbers atop represent nearby cities.  In case you were lost, the YOU ARE HERE  clarified things! 😀

The day has been long and temperatures are in the 80's.  There is some camping by the lake, but we decide to splurge and stay at the Columbia Inn hotel, just across from the visitor's center.  It was built in 1972 and shows its age a bit, but it is clean and the folks are friendly and masked.  Good wifi, hot showers and it even has a laundry facility!

 The workers share a nice spread of sandwiches and fruit while we are doing a few loads of laundry.  Quite a few restaurants are closed on Sunday, so for dinner we end up getting sandwiches from Pepper Jacks, a mile up the road.
 Pick up only, no issues