It's so Coulee......

6:50 am - Monday - August 10th - Coulee City, WA - 58° F, 56% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north...clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this day in  2016 we rode our Cannondale tandem bike from TVC to Meyers for breakfast at the Getaway Cafe.......↴

Our original Jello plan called for us to be in Coeur d'Alene around 2 weeks while we waited for several packages to be delivered, but within a short time of our arrival it was determined they would all be delivered, or so we thought, within the first week, so we paid for a one week stay at the Elks Lodge.  Of course, as you know, in the intervening time FedEx managed to lose, for 4 days, one of our packages, resulting in the extension of our stay by 3 days.  That errant package finally arrived at my sister's home in Spokane on Friday afternoon whilst we were riding the Hiawatha Trail.  We didn't want to drive into Spokane on Friday as we were tired when we got home at 6:30 pm, and we didn't want to make another 90 minute to 2 hour round trip drive there on Saturday, so we opted for a third option....pick it up on our way west through Spokane on Sunday morning.  I say all of that to say this......we were up before 6 am Sunday morning, and rolling our wheels over to the local dump station by 7 am.  By 7:30 am our black tank was empty, and cleansed.  Next stop was the local Exxon fuel station were I topped off our 180 gallon diesel tank with 24 gallons at $2.08/gallon....that is the least expensive we will find until we get to Oregon, and I wanted to be sure we could get through the State of Washington, including the Olympic Peninsula, without having to refuel in that state where diesel is anywhere from 40 cents to 60 cents more per gallon.

By 8:45 am we had retrieved our package from my sister's home, and were back on I-90 west bound to our destination for the day........Coulee City, WA.....about 30 miles west of Grand Coulee Dam......

.....about 7 miles after we reentered the westbound traffic of I-90 we exited to US-2, which will take us all the way to the west coast of Washington.  We have driven this highway twice before, and love the beautiful drive, and very, very light traffic.  Initially this highway runs through beautiful farm land......

.....and then you pass through miles of volcanic landscape......

.....and ultimately to Banks Lake in Coulee City.....

Banks Lake in the distance....almost there!

.....while doing research the other day on places to stay between Couer d'Alene and Whidbey Island along US-2 I found this little city park in Coulee City which provides over 50 full hookup sites next to Banks Lake.  All the sites are first come, first served, so we timed our arrival for late Sunday morning hoping that some people had already vacated their sites to head back to their workaday lives.....we were right.  There were at least 6 pull through sites available as we pulled into the campground, and we quickly settled on Site 5......

.....we have a nice view of the lake, as well as a few shade trees to shield us part of the day from the August sun, but do not interfere with our satellite TV reception.  Our site only has 30 amp, but that is more than adequate to run both roof A/C's if need be, but that is rarely the case as one usually keeps the interior quite comfortable.

Of course, Sunday was the final day of the PGA Championship, so we turned it on to watch the final groupings of the day play their 18 holes.  At one point there were 9 guys with a chance to win, but ultimately 23 year old Collin Morikawa won going away by 2 strokes.  He chipped in on hole 15 for a birdie for a share of the lead at 11 under par, and then drove the 16th par 4 green.  He then drained remaining 8 foot putt for eagle to get to 13 under par, and the two stroke lead he never relinquished.

TLE planned surf and turf for our dinner so at 6 pm I ignited the Sea-B-Que, ran the temperature up to 480° F, put on the filet first (takes a little longer to reach medium rare), then the salmon at the 3.5 minute mark.....they both reached their medium rare temps at the same time.....

Surf 'n Turf tonight!

TLE's side dish

......we chased the surf 'n turf with a bottle of Pinot Noir....does it get any better than this?  I think not!  We were blessed with a very subtle sunset, and quickly dropping temperatures about 8:20 pm....

....in all we covered just 127 miles Sunday, and were in Coulee City a tad after 11 am....well before the heat of the day.  It is good to be back in Washington.

Thanks for dropping by!

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