2016 Vacation

Well another vacation is upon us.

E and I have embarked upon our annual seniority vacation.  We decided this year to not have any pressure to our itinerary.  This year has been a long series of stuff.  My heart attack in February, Taylor’s death, new job, and Dad being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  The newest of these is Dad.  He has just finished 10 radiology appointments to reduce the size of the tumor pressing on his nerves and causing intense pain.  He has less pain now and has had 2 chemotherapy treatments and is feeling better as of last night.  We talked with Dad and decided we could head out.

We packed up on Friday and around 0630 Saturday headed Beastie Boy down the driveway with Piper close behind (quite literally).

We hit Interstate 5 Northbound with our sights set on Newport, Washington.  Newport is in the northeast corner of the state in Pend Oreille (pronounced pond ooray) County, north of Spokane.  This is in my old stomping grounds from High School (I went to Jenkins High in Chewelah).  We hit highway 18 north to Interstate 90 and cruised East.

First stop was Indian John Hill, where we had a snack.

travelers resting

Flynn’s first pic

Then back on the road east.  We came to Vantage, where we crossed the Columbia River.  After crossing, we pulled off at the Wild Horse monument where we completed our first hike of the trip.

view from the top

Flynn makes an appearance

steel horses on the hill

almost straight up

RP getting Flynn mounted on the raging steed

parked at horse heaven

For those of you who follow me, you know that we always do back country hikes along the way.  Well, this is no slouch for a starter expedition.  It’s an easy pull off the freeway that has a nice turnaround and easy parking for the combo rig.  We took some pics at the bottom and then decided to go to the top where the steel horses are set.  It’s about 200 yards almost straight up with combination sandy soil over lava rock.  This can be pretty treacherous as one of the folks coming down the hill found out.  She had slick bottom shoes and went for a slide (unhurt but her ego bruised).  E and I were both lamenting not changing into our hiking boots and definitely won’t forget to take the time to change next time.

Done with hiking and pics, time to head east again.  Rest stop at Sprague and then on to Spokane.

ahh, Eastern Washington

Hit the truck stop near Airway Heights and fueled (one tank from home to Spokane, I love the Beastie Boy).  On through to Highway 395 and northbound through town to Highway 2 and on through to the Little Diamond Lake KOA.  This is a 360 acre park that splits half and half KOA and Thousand Trails.  A small lake (stocked with trout and with boat rentals), store, clubhouse and all the amenities that go with the KOA operation.  Pretty classy place in the middle of nowhere on a rural county road.  The only drawback really is that they have no septic at the sites, you must either go to one of the two dump stations or arrange for the Honey Wagon to come by.  We pulled up to the entrance gate and the young lady in the booth comes out with the look of “we have no room” (it is Labor Day weekend after all).  She asks if we have reservations and I tell her yes, and gave her my name.  She instantly broke into a smile and invited me in to do the attendant paperwork.  She said they have a few tent spots but nothing else open.  They have a special events calendar for this weekend that includes ice cream socials, scavenger hunts, games, crafts and a five dollar waffle breakfast which we fully intend to attend) on Sunday morning.

parked for the weekend

We are going to hide here for the holiday weekend and then move on east.  We have some places we want to hit on this trip.  We are going to go to the Todd Brunson Poker Challenge in Bigfork,Montana.  We have a possible destination of Cody, Wyoming for the museums there and the Yellowstone area.  I may swing into the Golden Spike monument on the way to Sparks, Nevada where I hope to get a view of the Reno Air Races.  Eventually we are headed to the coast and then home.  We don’t have to be back to work until the 28th of September.  Our plan is to not rush anywhere and have no time crush.  We just want to have a relaxed time.

We have a new character in our travels this year:  Flynn the Flamingo.  He will have cameos in our photographs and E’s tweets (@ErinMaj).

Come along with us on our journey this year.  Remember, if you see us out there say hi.

Let’s Go!

See ya out there,

BFD