Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

Lance was busy so I decided to take in the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge in Cheney. It supports "an unusual pattern of wetlands, rock, ponderosa pine and aspen forests, grassland and shrub steppe habitat" according to their brochure.

I had hoped to see some wildlife, however, I only saw two chipmunks, five birds and a flock of ducks. I did catch a photo of a light blue bird.

I just did the 5.5 mile auto tour. Maybe I needed to do some of the hiking trails. Oh, well the scenery was great.

Spokane Tour

On Saturday we decided to do our "tour" run. That usually means we go downtown and look for unusal buildings and churches. Spokane has many of both.

We started the day be stopping at the BX - Base Exchange - to get a few things. Before we were done the lights went off, came on and flickered off again. Then we were told we had to evacuate. We waited a while and decided to take off since it appeared the police and fire were going to be a while.

We just turned onto the Highway 2 and saw this accident. You cannot see it but the wheel of the car was 5 or 6 yards away from the car. Later we learned it was probably this accident that caused a transformer to blow on the base.

It cannot be said we do not have excitement in our travels. It is a good thing because this is what I do when there is nothing else to take pictures of.....

ATTENTION!!!! ATTENTION!!!! I have found the source of all the nuts running around this world. There is a NUT FACTORY here in Spokane. I have always thought they come out of the woodwork -- WRONG -- they are manufactured here in Spokane.

On with the tour -- you never know what you will learn when you explore a city. Spokane's downtown has many, many old buildings with the great architecture of the period.

The same holds true with the churches. I have not seen so many old churches in one place.

This is the Westminister Congregational United Church of Christ

Community Presbyterian Church

Central United Methodist Church

This is the Grace & St. Paul Lutheran Churches - Two Churches in One????

First Congregation Church

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

This is not a church it is "The Old Church Promoting the Arts & Community" at the Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center.

And, another day finished in our endless vacation.....what a life!!!!!

Traveled to Spokane

Thursday, 10/2/08, was a travel day. We went directly to Spokane since the weather was not being cooperative to spend a few days in Idaho. Lance can still drive over if it gets sunny. Many of the towns in Canada use murals to depict their local history.


CROSSING THE US BORDER: We had prepared to cross the border. You know get rid of fresh fruits and veggies, meat, be sure your meds are in labeled bottles. We had a banana, three potatoes, three dry onions and a lemon left. I am sorry to have to report our lemon was arrested and taken. We had no idea it was a terrorist! You never know about those lemons!

There were a lot of great barns on the way especially just over the border into Washington.

It never ceases to amaze us what you see along our highways. This was not a real giraffe. It was quite real though.




We are staying at Fairchild Airforce Base in Spokane. We love staying at bases, forts, and posts (different branches of the military call them different names). The rv famcamps are inexpensive and you have access to the commissary, px (or bx as the are called on air forces bases), inexpensive gas and military services. We have found the famcamps pretty nice and range from $10 to $17 a night. That really helps us meet our goal of under $20 a night.

We also came here to finish the process of Lance's retirement from the the military. He and I had to get new ID cards that show he is retired. We now have some new services. We can get medical services on militiary facilities. It also means we can use military flights. If you are flexible as to when you take off you can get flights at approximately $10 a leg. A family we talked to said that getting back and forth from Japan cost them about $40 a piece.











Spokane has some beautiful old churches. This one looks like it has been completely gutted in order the save the old exterior. When I get a chance will get at least three more very old churches in downtown Spokane.

Trip to Nelson on a Sunny Fall Day

Today's trip was to Nelson which is northeast of Castlegar. Lance photographed Granite Pointe and I took the car and explored Nelson. I was amazed that there were four dams between Castlegar and Nelson which is just a little over 20 miles. There is the the Upper Bonnington Dam, the Lower Bonnington Dam, the South Slocan Dam, and the Corra Linn Dam. The whole area is interwoven with dams and canals.





















Nelson has the reputation of being the town where a lot of draft dodgers came during the Vietnam War. It is considered to be a hippy, art town. I found some unusual churches.

The one on the left is an Angelican Church. The one on the right is a Trinity Presbyterian

The Court House in Nelson was covered by fall red ivy. Quite striking.

After exploring Nelson I went over their bridge and headed further north to Balfour. Balfour is the other side of the ferry from Crawford Bay which are both on the huge Kootney Lake. The ferry is billed to be the largest free ferry ride in the world taking 40 minutes to cross the lake.

It was a great drive and the weather was warm and sunny. On the way back I took a picture of the Blaylock's Resort. It was gorgous.

It is Hard to Catch Dragonflies & Butterflies

Dragonflies and butterflies always seem to allude me. Lance managed to get a good dragonfly picture at Christina Lake Golf Course yesterday. They are so cool.


He also got some great deer pictures. A group of them gathered at an apple tree on the course.

Today he went to Balfour Golf Club and saw some huge mushrooms. Any of you mushroomers out there know what they are?


And, nearby was a Salmon Spawning Channel.

Traveling Gnome Finds Friends

When I would head up to my friend Gretel's home to work on her books, I would call and say I was on my way. It got to be a joke about the "traveling gnome" was on her way. So, after we set out on the road she gave me a traveling gnome.



He joined our white tiger on our dashboard.



Well, the good news we are not the only one making friends along the way. Our traveling gnome has been warmly greeted by five gardening gnomes here at the Castlegar RV Park.

This gnome is named Dale. He looks surprisingly like our park host Dale.

I told Gretel about our traveling gnome's new friends. Suggested we need to name our traveling gnome so he does not get mixed up with other traveling gnomes like that guy on tv. Anyone got any ideas?