short car trip

John and I went on a short trip exploring the state of Washington. We focused on scenic roads, points of interest in the state that we had not seen and a leisurely pace.

It was a wonderful to see the summer season across the state with the field crops in place, the mountain roads were clear of snow and the festivals in full swing. We saw mountains with snow caps reflected in high altitude lakes, wheat fields in every direction for 25 miles and fewer than three farm houses or stands of trees in the view. We drove though forests on pines on the other side of the state on the Indian reservation and visited an old Indian school set up in the last century for the purpose of undoing their culture. Read the marker about Chief Joseph and saw the town where he is buried. Sadly, the pine saw mills are closing with this economy and the unemployment is raising in those communities.

We traveled along the Columbia river for miles and crossed it numerous times. Coulee Dam is a mile long with three power generators but the facts that speak the loudest is that is was built during the Depression with three shifts of workers for nine years toiling around the clock. At Rocky Reach Dam we visited the museum that explains the geographic history of the river and the human history connected to the river. On the Columbia River there are eleven dams creating many lakes and much of the power for the west coast.

Two ideas struck me while in that area. The dams make the agriculture possible for much of that end of the state. The water is used in the wheat fields and the majority of the fruit industry for irrigation. All created by the federal government, big projects financed out of D.C. That population votes GOP, they don't believe in big government. The second disconnect for me is the science of geology and all earth science telling the story of landscape in it 's true rawness there. Yet, there are the fundamentals populating that part of the state believing in the seven day story of creation. Park the truck with the combustible engine, turn off the electric lights and stop using modern medicine, all are the results of modern science. There is a link of science and daily life.

I enjoy car trips but John is now confused and stressed by the break of our routine life so I don't think I will be doing any of them for a while. The evening we were in Spokane talking about going out for dinner he asked me how many days we were staying in Milwaukee. At that moment, I realized just how stressed this traveling had become for him and felt it was time to go home.