Lake Roosevelt National Recreational Area

 Day 11: Final Day 

This morning we woke up and said goodbye and thank you to our friends to begin the last leg of our adventure. We had decided again to break up the drive home with a stop at another spot with a Jr. Ranger program, and Desmond was excited to see the second largest dam in the world. 


When we arrived at Fort Spokane Visitor Center, we were surprised to find that it had not opened yet. We looked at the map, thinking we could swing by the Grand Coulee Dam and come back, but it turned out to be quite a distance out of our way. Desmond was disappointed to hear this, as the visitor center we were at was not very impressive looking, and he had wanted to see the big dam. 

Desmond at this point, who had taken off his junior ranger vest and hat when we found the visitor center still locked, informed us that he didn’t care about the badge and we could just go. (Understandable since we would be waiting for about an hour for this visitor center to open.) Fortunately, at this point I spotted a ranger off in the distance, and she was able to let us in early and give us a packet. 

She gave us a bag that included the activity packet and a safety whistle, and an iron on junior ranger patch, and let us know that people didn’t usually come back to the visitor center here to get sworn in. We thanked her, looked around at the exhibits within the visitor center, and did a clean up activity before getting back into the cruck and pointing ourselves in the direction of a Chipotle. 

We did the activities as we drove along, and before we ate our burrito bowls, Desmond had earned his sixth badge of this trip. The rest of our drive home was uneventful. Desmond FaceTimed Nonnie and G.B. as we drove the gorge, and told them a little about our trip. 

When we arrived home, we were all happy to be back. This has been a wonderful first road tripping adventure together, and we are already dreaming of what future trips we might make. But for now, sleeping in our own beds sounds pretty excellent. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Kind of Adventure

Image
  Day 1 This roadtrip was born out of a simple, if somewhat silly, question. “It’s called a bed, can we sleep in it?” This is the question I asked Bryan of his new vehicle. It’s a Santa Cruise. Marketed as a  Sport Adventure Vehicle , this rig is not a car, and not really a truck. In Australia they would call it a “Ute.” We call it the “cruck.”  While the bed of the cruck is a diminutive 4.5 feet, and not a very comfortable sleeping option for us, my question sparked Bryan to begin a series of Google searches and research on rooftop tents.  This year is not a year we had planned to go abroad, as we are working towards paying off money borrowed for my grad school. We have always talked about going on a road trip at some point when Desmond was old enough to enjoy it. Sometime this winter, we took a day trip into the gorge and Desmond was an enthusiastic and enjoyable travel companion. As we saw him really getting into it and being impressed by the views, and asking questions, we felt lik
Read more

Craters of the Moon and Into the Grand Tetons

Image
  Day 2 We got up and around in a timely manner, despite the hour time change. I was proud of Desmond, and the good attitude which he had when I showed him one of the things he needed to do was take the sheets off his bed and put them in the laundry basket in the garage, per the Air BnB check out instructions. After energetically agreeing to do so, and inviting his friend to do the same, I heard him saying to her mom in the other room as he went about the task, “Debbie, I have a question. Which part of the bed is actually the sheets?” Travel is such a great way to broaden one’s vocabulary and learn new things!   We ate an easy breakfast of Costco muffins and bagels. Desmond and Bryan got out the atlas and traced our route from the day before with a highlighter and talked about where we would be going today. When Desmond learned we would “only” be driving five hours today he did a little fist pump.  All told, even with Bryan and I taking a quick trip to the local Walmart for a few forgo
Read more

Moose!

Image
  Day 3 We were in no hurry to get going in the morning. We enjoyed breakfast burritos that Debi had made ahead of time, which we heated up on our new camp stove, which has a grill over the second burner. Jamey took the kids down to play at the lake. Bryan and I walked down to join them, but didn’t see which way they had gone. So we began to de-camp at a leisurely pace. Although we are staying two nights at this campsite, having our sleeping accommodations attached to our rig requires a certain amount of breaking camp to get back on the road again and see the sights. The kids enjoyed the time at the lake, and then doing activities in their junior ranger booklets at the picnic table before we left.     When we had safely tucked all the foods away in the bear box, we headed out for    Jenny Lake Visitor Center. On our way there, we were fortunate enough to see a bull elk grazing on the side of the road. Both the kids got to take a picture of it with the camera. Arriving at the visitor ce
Read more