Last blog post, I left you in Winthop. Sorry about that! But today I will catch you up and we will go visit our cute little place to stay! But before we do, I just wanted you to know that I tried to get that jar with all the candy in it, but she wouldn’t sell her jar! Darn it! I even offered to let her keep the candy! Anyway… we are now headed over to our little cottage room at Mt. Gardner Inn just outside of Winthrop. When we arrived, I walked inside to check in and was told that she was upgrading my room at no charge!!! Favor!!! Yes!!! So we walked upstairs to this lovely room with a RED door!! Now I knew God cares about the little things in my life. Our room had its own deck and view of the mountains! Ah…it was so welcoming! We had a refrigerator, microwave and gourmet coffee too. We got things settled and put away just as a storm blew in and what a storm in was!
A little while later it, it was really nice again! I wish we could have stayed a bit longer and enjoyed that deck!
Here was the entry to our room! Our room even had a red door! Yep all planned for me in mind!! It’s in the little things! Welcome mat and all!
I just loved this sweet place! Look at the inside! Very comfortable with everything we needed!
The next time we come, I want to stay in this cabin! I love it!!! The people were great care takers, and it was a wonderful place to stay. So with things all settled, we decided to give our friends a call that have a home in Twisp. We had made plans to meet up for dinner. We drove out to their place and visited for a bit and then they offered to go out on the 4-wheelers and see the property. They have around 40 acres and part of it is on the river! Oh HOW FUN!!! Terry and I were on one 4-wheeler and our friends were on the other one. We drove around the property, through the trees and around the corners and saw many, many deer standing there looking at us without a lot of fear. They looked up to see where the noise came from and that was about it. Terry hadn’t been on a 4-wheeler for a long, LONG time and so when we got up to the river bank and were going to back up so we could turn around, getting in reverse proved to be interesting. I was hoping we don’t strip a gear! Finally when he gets it in reverse, it is so sudden that my feet go up in the air and I have to grab him to hold on! We are laughing our heads off! The throttle was so touchy for him that he felt like a person just learning how to drive a stick shift! We would have been quite the sight to see. BUT I didn’t take any pictures! Dumb or what?!?!? But afterwards, we were so glad they offered that to us because we had a blast! What great people they are and I love the treasure of friendship when you can be separated for years and pick up where you left off. They were very such gracious hosts!
Next, we decided to hit the big town of Twisp to see what we could find to eat! Now if you know this area, you know you could almost blink and miss the town. But because of the time of day, we had a hard time finding anything open. We saw this one restaurant that they had wanted to try but the timing never worked out for them. This is one that you have to stop in and see if they have room for a reservation. It was Italian food. We had a great time visiting and catching up. We could watch them cook most of the food, if not all of it, in an open stone oven. VERY cool! Good food, good music and good conversation. Terry and I made that meal our celebration meal for our anniversary! Good memories! After a long table conversation, we said good night to our hosts, and headed back in to Winthrop to our room. First thing Terry did was get some coffee going and I looked at all the pictures I had taken that day! We were very thankful for all God had given us that day! What a joy to see the country side we hadn’t seen in years, experience the ambiance of quiet places, and a share some time with friends. We got all cozy for the night and did some reading before we let sweet dreams of sleep take over.
Good morning everyone!!! It’s Tuesday morning of our trip and we are ready to go! We are excited because we are headed to Grand Coulee Dam today. What a beautiful drive it should be. We left our room, and headed out toward Twisp again and honked at our friend’s house as we passed them. We are Grand Coulee bound! Whoohoooo! A lot of the pictures I take on the way today, I took through car windows as we drove, but we sure saw some pretty country.
Found this log church to be interesting and inviting. I love log houses and the look of them always seems warm, cozy and inviting to me.
This farm is coming up from the valley just before coming into Grand Coulee Dam. I love old barns, and so I get a picture anytime I can. There is a smaller shed that is by itself that matched the barn. As you look over this valley, you find this country has a beauty all its own.
I saw these trees just up from the barn and wondered if there had been a fire at one time. They reminded me of survival… we all go through the fire at times in our lives, but we have to be determined to stand and face whatever it is that hits us. God is our strength. These trees were a good reminder to me.
Look at the beautiful view of the valley! I think I could deal with the barren land as long as I lived by the river.
These fields of fruit look a lot different then they used to. Now they have the cloth that they can roll out over the trees to protect them. It was interesting to see how they did that over such large fields. I remember coming over to the Eastern Washington as a child with my parents to pick up fruit and haul back home so we could can it. Later in my parent’s life, they actually came over and stayed in their motor home, and picked the fruit for the farmers as an extra job each year.
As we round the corner to drive into Grand Coulee, I was reminded of years ago when we came by motorcycle. Oh yes. I was the rider on a motorcycle that put on many, many miles across the states! I learned to read and sleep while on a motorcycle. That way when it got cold or rainy, I could sleep and not notice so much! I wore leathers and boots also. But I was a young adult when I rode and hadn’t been to the Dam since that time. So, here I am some 35+ years later and it still quite a sight. We pulled in to the park and walked around so I could get some pictures. We were first greeted by some furry friends. Before we took this shot, one was laying flat on its belly ALL sprawled out enjoying the sun! I raised the camera to get the shot, and I hadn’t turned off my focus indicator, and sure enough, he heard that little tiny sound! So when he looked up, I took the shot!
I walked over to the dam and took a shot. It is quite amazing. It would have been awesome to have been there when they actually had it opened up more.
Above, you can see the dam from the other side. Just to the left in this picture, there is an observation and museum building that you can go through to see how it was built and it was fun to learn things I didn’t know about it. They had many artifacts that you could see. Of course, I found a camera and movie camera that I had to take a picture of!! Pretty cool!
This bird represents many that came over to this tree once I started talking to this bird. It seemed all alone and it was really a pretty bird with black body and a green ring around the neck that kind of transitioned up the head to a mostly black head. The eyes were bright yellow. As soon as I started talking to the bird, then he started talking too and pretty soon a whole lot of friends came to join the bird in the tree.
On our way out of the park, I saw this really cool architecture in this building. I always enjoy when I find unusual things and this was so bright, you couldn’t help but notice! It was gold and so the sun reflected off of it and made it hard NOT to notice! It was hard to get the full spectrum of the lighting in the photograph because I just shot it out of the window. It’s all diamond shaped all across the front.
After filling our eyes with as much as we could see, we headed out to Coulee City where some of my cousins live. I hadn’t been in that area for years and years either. So it was fun to see the area where they live. On the way there, you will drive by an area that was purposefully, I believe, flooded and is now a lake.
We saw many unusual mountain formations and the sky was beautiful as it set off the jagged edges of the mountains around us.
If you look closely at the picture above, the bottom portion of the silver area reminded me of a key lock. Maybe it is, and you could put a big skeleton key in that lock and a secret passage opens up. I don’t know, but it was fun to think about! Don’t ask me where these ideas come from as I am riding along!
Look it how the clouds reflected their shadows on the mountains. Made an interesting view. I stopped for this picture and as I was getting back in the car, I saw this bottle cap that was kind of cool. I have no idea what it is, but it reminded me of super hero icon or something and so I took a picture of it.
What a joy it was to ride along and have such great country before us. We both enjoy traveling and seeing different areas, and so as we drove along to Coulee City, we had a great time munching a few snacks and talking about life. The picture above and below were taken from the car at 60 mph so not too bad!
Another farmer’s barn! Sometimes I think of traveling around and just taking barn and church pictures because they are so varied and fun to explore. We came into Coulee City and drove around to find the best gas price and came back to the beginning of town to this cute little quaint coffee shop/gas stop/ice cream shop combination. What a delightful couple that owned this shop. Right on the main road and they had wonderful ice cream that we enjoyed after getting our tank filled. Cute decor too! A great addition to this little shop, is that they had wi-fi and good cell reception also!!! Yay! They had pictures on the wall that were before and after flooding that area we saw before. If you are ever traveling in this part of Washington, do stop by and see them! They are a relatively new shop and had the best gas prices in Coulee City!
Refreshed from a great dish of homemade ice cream, we are now headed for Wenatchee. Another cousin lives there and we hadn’t seen each other in years and years. So I had called from our little shop where we got gas and told her we were on our way. Of course, I made a few stops along the way for some roadside finds.
I wanted to hook this car up behind our little focus and pull it on home. Oh it made me sad to see it sitting in the sun and no one doing anything with it! It wasn’t it that bad of shape inside either! My grandparents had this car in chocolate-brown. This lady (me) loves vintage and classic cars! Made me so sad to leave it sitting there in the field. At one time, they had shown the car because it had a Collector’s License Plate. It wasn’t for sale either.
I just love old churches. There is something about those steeples that you can see for miles that draw you in. I saw this coming into town and told Terry to follow the cross. It reminded me of a song that a gospel group called Gold City sings about a little boy who is lost and man comes up to him and asks the crying little boy what is wrong. He tells him he is lost and can’t find his way home. So the man tells the little boy to think of something that he can remember around the area where he lives. All of a sudden the boy looks up through the tears, and with a smile says, “If you get me to the cross, I can find my way home.” I kind of feel that way every time I come across a country church. I love seeing the steeples above the houses and buildings in a town or city. This one was a beautiful church out in Douglas, Washington.
What a fun day this has been! I hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories. I will be driving you to my next stop, which I know you will enjoy, in Part 4 of the Road Trip! Don’t miss it! I have some fun finds to share with you and some great photos! See you in the next leg of my journey. Thanks for coming along with me this time…
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