Sunday, October 07, 2007

The Last Camping Space

Highway 2 out of Spokane takes you west through the wheat country. You begin the trip with the sun directly in your eyes, thus they call this red line on the map the “Sunset Highway”. You pass through Reardan and Davenport, cruise through Creston into Wilber. At this little farm town you veer northwest on Highway 174 to Electric City. Dropping in to the Grand Coulee you come to a junction at the west end of Banks Lake and follow Highway 155 down to Steamboat Rock State Park, our home for the weekend.

The drive to this park is 125 miles and 2 hours, 17 minutes as recorded by our navigator, Linda. If you look back in time into this blog you will find that we traveled here last year at the end of October. There were very few campers here and the camp host, park rangers and the likes had packed up and went south to other camping hot spots. This year when we pulled in it was a very different story. We did the required loop of all the camp sites and pulled up to the pay station where we were greeted by Gene the camp host. “There is only one possible spot available, and that is the one next to me. We save that one just in case the computer booking system makes a mistake and we have to move people around. Drive up to the park headquarters and ask Audra if you can camp there.” Gene suggested. So off we went to find Audra and see if there was a chance of getting that spot.

We met Audra at the park office; she was a think dark haired lady that Linda said was very cute. Note that I let Linda describe her, it keep our marriage together. She assigned us the spot next to Gene and we boarded our camper, Canyonwren, and quickly grabbed that last spot in the entire park. These spots are rather deluxe here at Steamboat. They are very level, have water, power and even sewer hookups. We took advantage of all the provisions except the water, because I forgot the white hose. We have been camping rustic so much that I forgot to store the hose in the proper location and it got left behind.

So what do two education professionals do on their weekend off? ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING! Yep, we sat in the sun all weekend and read. Oh a couple walks were in order, but that was it, nothing else, nada. As we reclined in our Lounge Lizards, we watched the mini dramas of the campground and kept ourselves entertained.

We watched our neighbor to the right get ready to go fishing. He had a real nice Ranger bass boat, not the pro model, but a real nice one. We started chatting about the area and fishing. He told us about Banks Lake and how it had a dam on both ends and the water is pumped into the lake via huge pipes. The water is used to irrigate great expanses of the upland prairie that has been clamed for agriculture. He said that they have enough water in the lake to double the farm land it they needed to.

Fishing in Banks Lake is real good and very diverse. In our conversation he mentioned coming up here and fishing for Walleye, Crappie, Smallmouth Bass, Cutthroat Trout, and the usual Perch. It sounded like he spent several weeks fishing each time he came up and he camped here about three times a year. Oh retirement must be good.

One drama involved a big 5th wheel that pulled in and did the camp site tour. It was obvious that they had reserved a camp site on line, but they all were taken. Gene met the driver and called Audra, who appeared immediately. After some discussion and looking at the reservation printout the newbie had and comparing it to Audra’s printout, it was deemed that the camper four slots down from us was in the wrong spot. Problem was that they were hiking to the top of Steamboat Rock and could not be contacted by their neighbors. So the neighbors agreed to let the squatters know that they had to move when they returned. The 5th wheeler shook hands and pulled out and it was calm for the rest of the afternoon.

The hikers returned to the camp and out of no where Audra appeared. She did this every time something new happened in the park, it was like magic. She told the hikers they would have to move and she showed them and open handicap spot where they could stay the rest of the weekend.

Now why did I tell you all this? Well during this entire dram, Linda and I sat in the Lizards and watched, hoping that we would not have to move. We took the emergency overflow spot, Audra knew we could camp in a tent spot because we are self contained with power and water. So we kept quiet, hoping that they didn’t need to ask us to move. Everything worked out; the hikers moved and were happy in the new spot. But here is the weird thing. The 5th wheeler never returned! After all that they must have gone else where to camp. Oh, such are the dramas in the land of mobile camper cities.

The rest of our weekend was spent checking out the various events of Steamboat Rock State Park. On Sunday we packed up and drove the 125 miles back to town and got ready to face the upcoming week.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OK, I give.....Where is it.