Destination Three

Pair-A-Dice RV Park Creston, BC, Canada June 24-26, 2005 Site 25

very nice, well- kept campground right in creston, population of about 5,000...wireless internet only $2/day (which is better than the $5 or $9.95 a day that has been available where we've been thus far)...cable, phone, 50 amps, 24 hour laundry and FREE firewood for campfires...crossing into the canadian border from nighthawk which is in the middle of nowhere and is only open 9am to 5 pm!...you immediately see the sense of pride bc canadians have no matter their financial stature with their use of flowers to enhance their properties...friendliness abounds (spent last nite around the campfire with two couples from calgary)...the view from above osoyoos and castlegar are grandiose to say the least...oliver, bc
has 40 wineries within 20 minutes...i really like how the canadians have standard bed and breakfast, as well as, artisan road signs on the highways pointing the way...kootenay pass has really fantastic scenery (all 5,407 feet in elevation)...north of creston is a burg called boswell on kootenay lake in which there is a house of glass...we, however, did not tour this attraction made of over 1/2 million discarded embalming fluid bottles, hehehe...most memorable experience:
walking the dog i came upon two killdeer birds that did an elaborate "dance" complete with a full repetoire of screeching in front of me that i thought had something to do with their mating...after reading about them online i realized that they were protecting their nest...yep, sure enough right in the gravel underneath a picnic table in site 6 there were 4 speckled eggs camoflaged very well...when you come near the adults do a "look i've got a broken wing" scenario that diverts the attention you make towards helping the poor bird as they scurry off further away from their nest, ad infinitum...very ingenious...here are urls for more info...you learn something every day...

www.crestonvalley.com

www.birdwatching.com/stories/killdeer.html

©2005 Debbie Ballard

Destination Two

Chopaka Lodge, Palmer Lake, Near Loomis, WA June 21-23, 2005 Site 4

definitely in the Washington "outback" here...the campground has water/electric and has very quaint log cabins with fireplaces...there are walnut, pecan and hazelnut trees the owners harvest...campground is right on the lakeside...internet and cell phone don't work out here but tv satellite does!...the lake is very calm, with mountainous terrain on either side...thought I heard a woman screaming but it was only the resident peacock...never actually saw the bird but heard it often...walt and brother-in-law mike caught 6 kokanee (salmon) one day and 4 the next...(always getting that word kokanee mixed up with kootenay, which are mountains in canada)...lots of sage-colored sage bushes, hehehe...walt's sister bev cooked up some fantastic fried chicken...impressions left with me as we traveled to this area:

washington has a multitude of fruit orchards...much more than I ever conceived

there is enough vacant land in washington alone for every person in the united states to have a "lot"

the harvesting of round bales of hay instead of rectangles

silver and red tin foil streamers in the cherry trees shimmering in the wind as they catch the light of the sun to scare away birds-mesmerizing to see

huge piles of weathered sticks that hold up branches laden with fruit were a picturesque testament of what abundance can mean

the occasional yet consistent distant "booms" of the propane out in the orchards

learned about the open range area with cattle guards built in to the roads to keep the herds in the area where they belong

abandoned gold and silver mines

north of pateros the conglomerate of white military satellite dishes (what are we listening for exactly?)

wild white daisies, black eyed susans, french bearded irises, california poppies and every color rose imaginable

what kind of festival does apple country have? why apple pie, of course

Molson, WA-population 35 but with an interesting school museum and outdoor (life in other times) museum

seeing about 4-5 majestic california big horn sheep (awesome!)...the ones that have horns much bigger than what it looks like their heads can withstand

albino jackass-now that certainly was a horse of a different color

for your amusement: late one evening i got to videotape 3 mule deer munching on tender grape leaves right across from our campsite...much later in to the nite i was up watching an old movie from 1946 (the razor's edge) with a small window open...i started hearing branches cracking and breaking in the distance from out of that window in an otherwise silent nite thus far...now it was pitch dark out there...and there had been a black bear attack up the road involving a resident and his dog...so i'm thinking is it mule deer walking thru these dryed branches or a BEAR?...i turn on the amber porch light which was totally useless...but i'm too afraid to shine a flashlight out there in case the "bear" happened to be right outside my window by now...after all, i had eaten bacon that morning!...listening intently with my finger on the mute button of the remote control, i can just start to somewhat discern something... soft laughter between two male homo sapiens!...not long after, i started to witness the nice campfire they built because of their midnight hunt for seasoned wood...boy did i feel dumb!...ah, adventure

©2005 Debbie Ballard

Destination One

Leisure Time Crescent Bar Resort, near Quincy, WA June 7-20, 2005 Site 35

well what can i say? after sitting in the sun for about 15 minutes and having a banana split with breyer's cherry vanilla ice cream and hershey's chocolate syrup drizzled all over it who wouldn't feel ready to write in their blog, huh?...freedom of expression, right? if you take a look at the url you'll see where we are currently until i can figure out how to download pics...don't the basalt cliffs look like the ones in egypt before they made the dam back in the 70s?...we (the gypsy woman, my baseball-happy hubby and the RV pekingese (Rosa Victoria or Rosie for short) have been parked here for 2 weeks and last night was the first time it rained...we are right on the columbia river 7 miles away from quincy, washington usa...lot's of sun...300 days a year...some wind...crickets sing even in the daytime...lots of stars at night...very cute quail, hungarian partridges, pheasants, black billed magpies (listen to it's call on the website below) and chukars about...and every so often the air force fly boys use this area to practice manuevers...man do those jets go fast!...latino country in which i had my first barbacoa in 27 years!...barbacoa with fresh flour tortillas and chopped up onions, cilantro and salsa verde (green tomatillo sauce)...and it was absolutely delicioso! for those of you who want to know barbacoa is made from the facial muscles of a specially-cooked beef head...it is like the most tender roast beef you've ever eaten...hmmmmmmm...anyway, enough about food...this is our first trek as full-time RVers (living all year round in a motorhome) outside of being near our once former home...modern-day gypsies...with much yet to experience and discover...i'm in my element...

http://www.crescentbarresort.com/

www.percevia.com/explorer/db/birds_of_north_america_western/obj/74/target.aspx

©2005 Debbie Ballard