LA CONNER TO STONERIDGE VIA LITTLE DIAMOND

August 26 – 31, 2010

Farewell to La Conner

We left La Conner after a pleasant week and headed south on I-5 but before we got very far it started to rain and got pretty nasty by the time we turned East on I-90. This is a winding section of freeway through a river valley canyon and now the wind kicked up as well making holding on to the coach a bit dicey, but finally we got to our destination for the night at Moses Lake, WA, at the Pier 4 Campground.

Not a nice day on Interstate 90

By this time the tow car was a complete mess, covered with mud and gunk from the roadway. Friday the sun came out and the wind died away making a good day for cleaning and catching up on all the “honey-do’s”. Checking the tires on the PT Cruiser I found the left rear tire pressure was down some 10 lbs.! We found a Discount Tire Co. in Spokane where we could have it fixed at no charge on Saturday; it helps to have an air compressor on the motorhome so the tire could be filled for the short trip to Spokane.

Saturday we made Spokane and I had the tire repaired (it was really the wheel) while Fran shopped at the Spokane Valley Mall. We then had lunch at “Wingers,” a chain restaurant that we like mostly for their terrific wings with their special sweet and spicy sauce, which they also sell by the bottle. They also have an awesome mushroom onion burger.

Welcome to Little Diamond

We had already made reservations at the StoneRidge Resort for a free week’s stay. We had received a gift certificate in the mail before we left Tempe but didn’t think much of it until Jerry and Gay Lacy had stayed there and told us how nice it was. So, since the price was right and we had the time, we decided to go there on the 28th and made reservations. However, we had forgotten about the Labor Day weekend coming up and we didn’t want to have to find another place to stay over that busy weekend, so we changed our reservation to the 31st for a week.

Little Diamond Lake

 We therefore decided to spend the intervening three days at the nearby TTN Little Diamond Preserve near Newport, WA, before going on to StoneRidge.

We had not been to Little Diamond in some 10 years and were surprised to find that there had been much work done to upgrade the huge facility. Thousand Trails has franchised out about half of the sites to KOA, and the employees now work for both companies; somewhat confusing, but they were all friendly and helpful.

Bears, Bears, Bears!

Since the weather was not the best, we explored the larger Diamond Lake area with homes built all around the lake. One home had an old dead tree stump in the front yard that had been carved with about five or six bears climbing up the 12 foot height. The tree had then been nicely finished and coated with a varnish - a really beautiful labor! (But why does everyone carve bears?) We then drove into Newport for lunch at a nice Mexican restaurant. Since it was the last week before Labor Day everything was winding down at the resort for the end of the season; people take these things seriously up here.

By Tuesday morning we were ready to leave Little Diamond and resume our trip to the StoneRidge Resort near Blanchard, ID. So much for now! ~~~~~~~~~Bye!