Friday 8/18/00
Day 11:Palouse Falls, Yakima
We
left the hotel around 8:00am to show the kids more of Pullman. Going first to
the campus we parked at the book store and went to purchase gifts for everyone.
We went to the book store, Union building, libraries and walked thru some of
the class room buildings. It was fun trying to explain to them what frats and
sororities were like and how you get initiated into one. I think they were pretty
confused about college living by the time we would leave today. They were finally
getting an idea of what this might be like. They didn't care much for the libraries
because they had to be so quiet but I think they liked the rest of it. We stopped
at Ferdnand's to get the best mileshake I ever had. I say that everytime as
I've never had anything thicker and they come in about 20 flavors. We went down
town and walked around for about an hour as we stopped off at a bookstore and
I bought a couple book on eastern washington. We
drove next on the outskirts of town to show them the apartment we used to live
in on Wheatland Dr. It was a 20 apartment complex that was rather quiet and
next to a park. We lived there for four years with a couple cats and would walk
a 1/2 mile to get our groceries once a week. We didn't have a car until our
fourth year. I don't think the kids were impressed because they have never had
to live in a apartment before. We came back onto campus
and went to Ferdinand's for ice cream. Ferdinard's is a creamery located on
campus that is run by students and sells ice cream and cheese. After eatinhere
for lunch we stopped by intownat a book store for a1/2 hour before leaving Pullman.
left town about noon went west on 195 and drove towards the town of Colfax.
It's really a nice small self-contained
farm town, with parks, department stores, a library, etc.
Rioght before Colfax there is Almota Road that we turn off on as this would
take us to Boyer park on the Snake River. The road winds for about 20 miles
before finally coming down to a valley near the river. There is not much in
this area except rolling hills with the majority of it being farmed. We finally
got to the park which has beach access and a marina that had about 20 boats.
This is where students will come for parties to get out of town and not be bothered.
It's just not the best drive home if you've had to much to drink. Jacob and
I walked around for about 15 minutes before crossing the river at Lower Granit
Dam. This would put us on Deadman's Road and it's name was well deserved. I'm
glad it wasn't night because this is two lane winding road with no shoulder.
This went on for miles while sometimes overlooking rolling hills that just fell
into a valley. I didn't see anybody pass me on this road for about ten miles.
This road goes on for about 40 miles going west untill reaching highway 127.
Here the raod went southwest running next to the Tuscannon River for about five
miles. At Deland there is a Y intersection and we went right on highway 261
and this would be crossing the Snake River one more time and coming to Lyons
Ferryy State park. This park is in the middle of nowhere but did have camp sights,
beach access and quite a few RV's that wer staying here as we drove thru.
We
continue north on 262 so we could take a gravel road that we could see the Palouse
Falls. It is interesting because of the erosiion is has caused of many thousands
of years but yet ther are also some rock formations on the left side of waterfalls
that have not eroded yet. This impressive
198 foot waterfall appears in the middle of desolate surroundings as the Palouse
River eventually flows into the Sanke river.. You don't even know there is a
river around because it has formed such a deep canyon thru the centuries. There
are a few campsites and shaded picnic tables. A good place for meals but not
much to stay overnight for. There are also a couple trails that let you walk
around and see different views of the falls. We
were here for half hour before driving back on huighway 261 to Delany dnd turning
right right toward Dayton. .
Dayton
is a farming town with older houses, the county courthouse, a old train station
and a diner that looks like it's from the 50's. The diner is called Gasoline
Alley as we stop there for lunch today. Youcansitinthe passenger seat of thegold
bus andthey will bringt hefood to you. the kids had fun in it and they serve
great hamburger here. we will be back again Waitsburg is next farming town and
we liked this small town that had older homes and businesses downtown. The businesses
are buildt out of brick as a result of a fire that destroyed most of the town
in the 1880's. We had a discussion about what it would be like to live here.
Shawna would be doing a lot of cooking, have tons of cats and read a lot of
books. Jacob would be riding his bike, skating ad building jumps for his bike
all the time. I would be trying to make a living off of the internet and Cindy
would find a job in her profession for the school district. From here we drove
to the town of Walla Walla just north of Oregon. Other than Seattle it's usually
the only town that visitors can remember from the state of Washington. Walla
Walla is an Indian name meaning "place of many waters." I like this
town becasue it is older but kept up and doesn't feel like it's in the middle
of a farming community. You don't feel surrounded by wheat fields here as the
mountains lying to the south in Oregon give a contrast to the outlying regions.This
community has two colleges, a lot of ma & pop businesses and mansions built
in the late 1800's. It's known for the sweet onions grown here.
Continuing east on highway 12 would bring us next to Whitman Mission Historical
Site at 4:30. The visitor center had just closed but you could still take a
trail to the top of the hill that overlooked the valley. John Whitman founded
a medical mission here to bring medical assistance and religion to the Indians.
The not so successful mission existed for eleven years. At the base of the hill
is the 'Great Grave' where the Whitmans and eleven other whites were buried
after being massacred by Indians in 1847. This was in retaliation for the many
deaths from measles that were only affecting Indians. The Indians thought that
he had put a curse on them. Some say this could have been prevented had he tried
to understand their culture better. There is also also a Whitman College in
Walla Walla, the oldest such institution in the northwest.
Richland, Pasco and Kennewick are located on the Columbia River and are rather large cities for this area of farming country. This area has roughly 280 days of sunshine each year. There are many hotels along the main stirps of each city and also places for conventions. Richland was the first town we visited as we stopped at a park along the Columbia River. It looked like there was a painting class that had students out painting scenes in the park today. There were all kids of activities going on here: painting, basketball games, boating, picnics, ski-dos and just people relaxing. This area looks like it's very family-oriented town. Kennewick and Pasco seemed to be a bit older and more blue collar.
Leaving Tr-Cities and going east on highwaqy 12 toware tehwind coutnry in Yakima Valley. I picked up some information about this area from the Visitor Center and was able to get a map that had wineries in the Yakima Valley. We drove north on 22 going past highway 82 and would drive along the Yakima Vally Highway where many wineries are close by. Most of the wineries are small and not what you may be thinking of if you've been to Napa. There are a lot of vineyards and rolling hills with grapes but not the large visitor centers for wine tasting. You would only find one or two cars at each winery. We were only going to go to a couple since the kids were with us. We wanted to go to Covey Run because we like their Muscat and Reisling. They were on top of a hill overlookng the valley in Zillah. After tasting four wines, complementary, we eventually bought a case with mixed bottles of muscat, reisling and dry reisling. That only cost $80 for twelve bottles and is good wine. We left there and drove past some other wineres but never stopped at any others. Hogue Cellars and Paul Thomas are two more popular winereies that are located in this area. It's a nice place to spend a wekend if you like wine. Prices are reaasonable and there are also brewery pubs, museums, golf courses and many restaurants. We will come back here again. We also drove into the towns of Sunnyside and Prosser which are small farming towns off highway 82. We finished up driving thu the wine valley and continued west on I-82 toward the Toppenish.
Toppenish
is a medium-sized town that is known for it's many historical murals and false
front buildings, giving it an Old West feeling. Over 35 murals have been painted
on the sides of various businesses around town depicted life in the area between
1850 and 1950. There wasn't much open on this Saturday morning. We did find
a giftshop open where I went in and found jars of pickled vegatables. I bought
a 32 oz jar of pickled garlic that everybody will eat but Cindy. There were
also many more Mexican restaurannts in this town. We turned off next into the
small town of Wapato which was windy with tumbleweeds blowing acorss the street.
We kept trying to show Shawna the tumbleweeds but she kept missing them. At
one point I told her a five foot tumbleweed blew across the road and she missed
that one also. She was getting upset about it until Cindy told her I was just
teasing.
We reached Yakima at 9:30 as this is a spread out community with many Mexican restaurants. The are many small businesses, a shopping mall and many restaurants. They had a visitor center that, was closed, near a park where we stopped and let the kids play for a half hour. The Yakima Valley was originally settled by ranchers in the 1860's. The railroad arrived in the 1880's and the government started irrigation projects around the turn of the century. Before they started irrigated this area the land was mostly desert. Now there are lots of fruit orchards harvested by migrant workers mostly from Mexico. It kind of reminded us of Baja but the standard of living is so much better. The weather and scenery are much like Baja with the exception of the winter. We found aplace to stay fo the night as tit would was long day of driving today
We drove 400 miles and 3200 total