Day 37 - Columbia Gorge - Ritzville, WA

Today we awoke to a beautiful day and after breakfast we headed to Ritzville, WA which was our goal for the day.  We are no longer on a tight schedule, so we are trying to pace ourselves on our daily travels so as to not wear ourselves out!  And the dogs appreciate the added play time once we reach our destination!

To reach  Ritzville, we drove through the Columbia River Gorge and the scenery was absolutely stunning!  Washington State is a beautiful state and this area is really lush and beautiful!  Unfortunately, I had left my camera in the car and missed a lot of good shots (hard to stop on an interstate with traffic going ninety-to- nothing), so the pictures I did get were later in the day.  The Army Corps of Engineers have done an outstanding job of building dams at strategic points in the river to prevent flooding.  It just amazes me how they are built and how they function!

The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River.  Up to 4,000 feet deep. the canyon stretches for over 80 miles as the river winds westward through the Cascade Mountain Range, forming the boundary between Washington and Oregon.  The Gorge furnishes the only navigable route through the Cascades and the only water connection between the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.

We made one stop at a Country Mercantile store that our friends Joe and Joy had told us about, and picked up a few items that we cannot purchase in Texas.  It was an interesting store with a variety of goods to sell, a deli and fresh produce.  ($1.99 for a five pound bag of aspargus!).  The highlight of the stop however, was a  robin-egg blue 1953 Corvette convertible that was parked outside!  It was a beautiful car and I did get a picture of it to share with our readers!  I know my friends Dale and Betty Cooper would love to have this car! (They are BIG Corvette admirers!)

We arrived in Ritzville (not sure why they call it this, there is nothing Ritzy about the town!) about 5 PM. and after setting up the RV we found out that there was not wi-fi service to the park and that there were too many trees to set up the portable satellite, so that meant we had to spend the night talking with one another, listening to music, reading and relaxing!  It wasn't all that bad, and there were no commercial breaks!  Priceless!

Tomorrow is another day ...........

Scenes from the Columbia River Gorge

Tree Farm

Great place to shop and browse!