Spokane to Omak Tues 5/9

This morning as you will see in the previous post we went out early to retrace our steps and take photographs. We then had some domestic chores to accomplish including and oil change for the car. Bob had realised that it was due 1000 miles ago and he can't leave something mechanical undone. By the time we set off it was close to 11am but we didn't have far to go. We were travelling over those undulating plains of golden stubble again at first. The most remarkable thing we saw was a huge pile of barley grain dumped beside two huge silos which must have been full. They were using a front end loader to load it into trucks (we surmise beasues there was no train line there). They are obviously not expecting rain.
 The obvious place to stop for lunch was marked on the map as " The Grand Coulee Dam". When we arrived we were almost rendered speechless. It is indeed GRAND. The first phase of construction was in 1933 to dam the Columbia River. Even then it was a grand scheme. It was part of Roosevelt's New Deal recovery plan after the Great Depression. It expanded under the leadership of Truman after WW2 and then again in the mid 1980's. It is so big that I couldn't fit the whole dam wall into my photo frame. Bob had to use video to get it all. It generates enough power to supply about 7 States around it. Then there is a complimentary process with 17 tributary rivers having dams on them which provides water right across to Seattle - approx 200 miles.
After that we were back in the mountains but  lower than the Rockies and forested with pines. Tonight we are staying in the Omak Inn which is located much to our amusement in Koala Drive. The family restaurant across the street apparently has suitable Aussie themed decoration. So we should feel right at home when we go for a meal tonight.

This only shows 2 sections, the 3rd is obscured by smoke.

I am not going to talk about smoke again. We saw a map of fires burning in Washington State and they are all down the coastline so take it as given from now until I can say we have clear skies.