Tuesday and Wednesday, March 29 and 30, 2016 (Carl Precht Memorial RV Park, Omak, WA)

We woke to beautiful blue sky and sunshine this morning...unfortunately, it ended up being windy out again. We have had a lot of wind this season...getting kinda tired of it!

We had a very relaxing start to the day...nice not having to hit the road again. After breakfast and showers, Steve went out and got a few pictures of the campground while I got started on the dishes. We had considered crossing the border tomorrow, one day early...but decided against it. We have a few errands before we do and today we decided not to do much of anything. So tomorrow we will take care of the stuff we have to do here and then hit the road Thursday, as originally planned.


There is a river dike path behind the campground that follows the river's edge...


Once that was done, Steve relaxed in front of the TV watching "his shows" and I worked on our blog post. About 1:00 we decided to get out for a walk. We decided to walk the path along the river; it goes all the way to downtown Omak. Not sure what this is but it looks like a giant slide into the river...
Stampede grounds...
There are these memorial plaques up all along the path...


The Stampede Grounds which includes the RV Park we're in is huge, with a dog park, ball fields, batters cages, horseshoe pitches, and outdoor pool...
The bridge over the Okanogan River to downtown Omak...





We walked both sides of the street in downtown Omak...not much to see. On the way back, Steve took this picture of the sign at the entrance to the park. It has seen better days,,.

For a day that we had nothing planned, we actually got quite a bit done. Steve changed the battery in one of the tire pressure sensors on the truck and then cleaned both of our leather chairs. While he was doing that, I worked on our budget and did some banking.

Wednesday was another beautiful day...and no wind! Well, perhaps a slight breeze but not like it had been yesterday. After our coffee, we (or should I say, Steve) thought it would be a good idea to do our resistance exercises...yes, it has been a while! After that torture was over with, it was onto breakfast, showers and dishes.

Finally, we were ready to head off and get the stuff done that needed to be done today. We started with fueling up the truck...$2.24/gallon for diesel....then propane...and lastly Walmart. Steve got his hair cut while I did some grocery shopping.

By the time we were finished at Walmart it was about noon...so Steve suggested we go for lunch. There was a bar and grill that he had noticed this morning when he was researching propane sales. We had no problem finding Koala Street Grill and Neighborhood Bar where we each enjoyed a beer and lunch.

After lunch, we decided to go check our the new 12 Tribes Resort Casino. Our original plan had been to camp overnight in their parking lot but since we ended up being in Omak for 3 nights, we chose the RV park. However, we still wanted to check out the parking area for RV's.

It's a pretty plain-jane looking casino on the outside...
The parking lot is sloped. If you stay here in an RV, you want to get up to the top of the lot where is appears a little more level...
We ended up going inside to take a look....and donate $5 each to the slots (yeah...big spenders!) They currently have a promotion for Canadian visitors on Mondays so we missed out on that. It's very nice inside...much more so than I expected since the outside wasn't much to look at.

At around 2:00 we pulled into the park...passed the Visitors Center...and home to the RV park that is tucked into the far corner by the river.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with chores. Steve flushed the black water tank,dumped the grey tanks, cleaned the windows outside, then did a repair job with some awning repair tape on one of the slide toppers that's needing to be replaced. While he was doing that, I recorded some budget stuff and got our passports out...all ready for crossing the border tomorrow...then I gave the trailer a good vacuuming (I can hardly wait to get a new vacuum!)  It had warmed up to 70F/21C with no breeze so Steve was back into shorts!

We will finish the last leg of our trip back to BC tomorrow...only about an hour or so to Osoyoos, BC...where we will join our good friends and previous co-workers from last summer, Sue and Doug. Oh...and of course, Tucker! Gee, I wonder if he will remember his "cookie auntie"?



Monday, March 28, 2016 (Travel to Carl Precht Memorial RV Park, Omak, WA)

After big hugs and handshakes, we said our farewells to Allen and Donna and pulled out of the Wildhorse Resort and Casino RV parking area. It was 8:40 a.m.
We thought we would make a stop at the Walmart in Pendleton and pick up a few things...taking advantage of no sales tax in Oregon. This statue was at an intersection as we left I-84 towards Walmart...


And as we headed back to I-84 after our short shopping trip, we saw statues of a cattle drive, but the cowboy was behind the trees...
We took I-84 west to I-82...
...crossing over the Columbia River into Washington State...
 Kennewick...

 ....across the Columbia again to Pasco, taking highway 395 north...
 ...and then highway 17 towards Moses Lake...
This was a rough highway and the strong winds didn't help...
 And Soap Lake...
 Where we stopped for lunch at a park on the lake...
We ate our lunch inside the truck...the wind outside was just too chilly...
 A very nice spot on the lake...looks like it was built by the Soap Lake Garden Club...
This is a beautiful area...the sun was shining last year on our way through and it was stunning...
A large campground with tepees at the end of Soap Lake...

 Lenore Lake...
 Alkali Lake...



 Blue Lake...




 Sun Lakes/ Dry Falls State Park...
 



 That's Banks Lake...and the highway to Grand Coulee Dam...
We went the other way...on hwy 2 for a short distance before veering north again onto hwy 17. We were going up and up...that's the deep gorge we drove through down there...


 Bridgeport...
 And Chief Joseph Dam...
...on the Columbia River (again)...

Acres and acres of orchards...you can tell we are getting into the Okanogan Valley (or the Okanagan Valley as it's called in BC)...
The Columbia River...and Lake Pateros...


We reached highway 97 and turned right...the Okanogan River....

At about 3:00, we turned off of highway 97 into Omak and Eastman Park...and Carl Precht Memorial RV Park. The site (#25) that we had last year was available (actually, when we arrived, there was only one other RV there), so we pulled into it.

We got leveled off, unhitched and then we both went to work getting set up. We have full hook-ups here, with 30/50 amp...bonus! And with a Good Sam discount, it is $22.50/night, including WiFi, not bad! For some reason, Steve's set up outside seemed to take longer than usual...I told him he wasn't used to full hook-ups, LOL! Even snagging a signal on the satellite seemed to take longer...but we managed it. By the time we were all done, it was going on 5:00...and the first thing Steve did was jump into the shower! Nothing like a long "full on" shower!

We are actually here a day ahead of schedule...which is fine because the weather forecast for up here is far nicer than some of the areas we drove through on our way. So after some long days of driving, we will likely just chill here for a couple of days before crossing into BC.