New Places

Well, here I go again.  Needing to blog but Rick has already done his so I have to get mine done so I can read his.  I better get crackin!

Instead of sticking around for the usual 4th of July antics of our neighborhood Rick and I chose to go wandering (actually, I chose to and just shoved the idea down Rick's throat, but all's well that ends well, right?), prowling for ghost towns.  I found quite a few promising ones in Okanogan County in North central Washington so that's where we headed.

We chose to leave Saturday morning to avoid the mob scene leaving our neck of the woods for places less traveled that would be taking place on Thursday / Friday evening and returning Monday.  It was a perfect choice, the only traffic we found was in Cle Elum, they had traffic averted due to a parade and other festivities on the main drag through town.  Otherwise, our driving experience for nearly the entire weekend was delightful.

So we headed up and about 3 or 4 hours into our trip alighted onto the first town listed on the ghost towns website, the "town" of Monse.  The word "town" is an over-exaggeration and the word "ghost" an under-exaggeration, or maybe it, too, was over-exaggerated.  There was barely anything to see of interest except a cluster of satellite dishes up on a hill, not quite the wild west we were looking for!  There was a neat curvy dirt road next to a train track and a bunch of smelly lavender flower plants, kinda like big tumbleweeds.  Rick loved the scent and it was everywhere in the desert areas that we visited. (he's a super sniffer)

Our next stop was Riverside.  "Town" - yes, "ghost" - no.  There was one old building that was in use as a western store.  Across the street was an interesting corner store, complete with vintage gas pumps (still in use!) and decorated with rusty bikes.  After filling our tank there we asked if there were any old buildings in the area and the clerk directed us to a place called "Tunk".  Well, it was a nice drive but much further than we really wanted to wander so we never got to see if there truly was anything to see in Tunk.

The next possibility was another spur off the main drag and didn't sound ghost enough so we bypassed it and just headed straight up toward Oroville, the northernmost US city on the highway.  There was a town of Nighthawk west of Oroville that we were gonna explore but when we got to Oroville to try to find a room and only found the best of the best and the worst of the worst we decided to break in our new passports and hop over the border to the Canadian town of Osoyoos, named after the lake it resides around.  We barely found a room there, very expensive but otherwise a run-of-the-mill motel.  No blinking, buzzing light just outside our window, nor the paper-thin walls separating the rooms but everything else was pretty typical, though not to an unacceptable level. It was clean, had hot water and the bed was firm enough.  The town was interesting but Rick kept describing it a s a typical border town.  OK, I'm not familiar with what that is but I'll take your word for it.  The thing that I thought was hysterical was how, as soon as we stepped over the border, everyone spoke with that Canadian up-lilt accent, eh?  We overheard a couple guys pulling a boat out of the water and they spoke that way.  Rick was channel surfing on our amazing 17" TV in our room and found a stand-up comedian telling severely distasteful jokes with that accent.  But no one was wearing flannel.  Lots of flip flops and shorts though.  Our room was on the shore of Osoyoos Lake so we grabbed some Subway and ate dinner on the beach watching the sun wane.
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The next morning we pretty much got up and ready and made a beeline back for the states.  Everything was a little too pricey in Canada and our unfamiliarity with everything was uncomfortable.  We got back over the border and found a nice place for breakfast, a small local grocery store to re-ice our cooler and headed off for the next town on our itinerary - Molson.

The drive out to Molson was beautiful, the weather was great, no traffic.  We started to spot some old buildings on the way and the "town" itself was a gold mine - of antiquities, that is!  They had a nice display of old buildings that had all been moved to a central location and were stocked with old paraphernalia.  Then there was a 1914 brick schoolhouse filled with tons more interesting old stuff, including the 2 old ladies that actually attended that school and were anxious to share their stories with every person who walked through the door.  Behind the school building was a couple old "Little House on the Prairie" buildings off across a big cow pasture and one of the little old ladies, Mary Ann, owned them. She thought I was crazy when I asked if we could go visit them, but she gave us permission if we really wanted to walk all that way!  Without asking Rick I told her we would love to walk out there and would respect her property.  Fortunately Rick was OK with that!  The Canadian border was just north of town, on a hilltop marked by a row of trees, we could have walked to it.

From Molson we took the scenic route via dirt road to our next destination, Chesaw.  Chesaw was in the throes of their 68th Annual 4th of July Rodeo.  There was a $5 per head entrance fee but since neither Rick nor I have ever attended a rodeo we went ahead and paid up.  It was a very nice event and extremely family-focused.  I saw at least 2 little boys securely carrying a chicken in their arms and during the barrel racing a 4 year-old was led through the course by what must have been a parent.  The girl was on horseback and the parent was on foot.  They timed her and announced her time and all applauded!  There were at least a couple other barrel racers that were like 7.  They had cow riding (no bull!) and the kids were off in a corner by themselves being thrown off heifers onto the sawdust-covered ground, getting a small taste of the thrill, but kid-style.

OK, so we hung around there for a couple hours then moved on to the next "town", Bodie.  I guess this was the closest thing to a real ghost town in that the buildings were there, right alongside the road, but were not in use.  Being alongside the road did not afford the best photographic surroundings and also left the buildings wide open to vandals.  They weren't in horrible condition though, no doubt due to their being so far out and off the beaten track.

The road continued down to Wauconda, which was back on the main drag.  No old buildings to see there but we saw so many scattered along the way all day, and Molson was so plentiful, that we were OK not having found anything there. 

So we headed next to Coulee Dam, the town and the dam.  When we got near the dam the crowds were gathering for a fireworks and laser show that was taking place at dusk, another 2 hours off so we just drove straight through.  On the outskirts the dam area we saw a collection of whirli-gigs in a cage on the side of a park.  But the light was already beginning to wane.  The highway followed the shore of Banks Lake for many miles and then we had a beautiful sunset to watch develop over an hour or so.  We stopped to see a little-known Washington sight, Dry Falls.  It was interesting but getting dark and very windy.  We drove through some beautiful, hilly, grassy areas while the sunset grew and changed. 

Since we had seen everything on the original agenda we opted to head straight for home, avoiding the retuning hoards.  We had had a successful photo outing, beautiful weather, pleasant driving, an overall great weekend.  So, of course, since nothing is perfect, we had to have one unpleasant thing happen.  Just as we were finding the onramp to I-90 which would lead us back to our beloved western WA we noticed some sprinkles on the windshield.  That was the beginning of the rain that continued the rest of the 75 miles home, accompanied by darkness, spray, heavier traffic, poorly marked lanes and occasional fog.

I think overall the whole family had a nice weekend.  I hope you didn't mind missing the fireworks, Rick!