The Lighthouse

 One of the main reasons we believed we were to stay in Wenatchee for the winter was to help with a new ministry to the homeless, recovering addicts, and other needy people. Our friend Bob leased this building, in awful shape to start with. In this photo you see the shell. The partial wall to the right was removed by Bob and his son.

 

Here's the same view, mostly finished, with a stage for musical groups. There will also be a soup kitchen, and Bible studies every day.

 

The outside of the building, a former tavern. It was actually called "The Lighthouse Tavern"!

 

A lighthouse painted on the front window! We're already having a Bible study here, and the grand opening will be December 18, with 2 Christian rock bands performing on the new stage. It's going to be an exciting ministry, put together by God!

Check out the website:
http://wenatcheelighthouse.org/

A memory from childhood

This photo of my granddaughter, taken by her aunt and stolen by me from my daughter's Facebook page, reminds me of something I used to love doing as a child. We lived on a farm, and of course in those days we made our own entertainment. I would make little teepees from construction paper. It's simple—you cut out a circle, any size you want,
cut it in half, and fold the paper to make 2 teepees. More circles, more teepees. I would get some kind of tray, cardboard or otherwise, fill it with dirt, then gather pieces of moss, twigs and little branches and put them in place beside the teepees to make trees and bushes. A tiny mirror made a great little lake, and tin foil would look like a stream. Pathways were pressed into the soil with my fingers, and I would add a few rocks and whatever else I could imagine. Voila! I had a great Indian village, good for hours of fun!

A Fruitful Afternoon

We walked down from where we are parked, through an orchard to the Columbia River, with our granddaughter. This is the mighty Columbia, looking south toward Wenatchee from just below the Rocky Reach Dam.

Here we are looking north, towards the dam. You can barely see it in the distance. (click to enlarge) Nat is always finding sticks to pick up.

 

 Heading home through the orchard. There are still  lots of apples here and there, very tasty, though on the verge of getting rotten from the cold and from being on the ground. You can see our 5th wheel at the end of the pathway.

 

A golden treasure along with some "junk" she found in the field. She ate all these apples in one afternoon!

A Porch Project!

Whenever we know we're going to be in one place for a few months we like to put up our porch. It's a lot nicer than the standard RV steps, which can be awkward and dangerous sometimes. We store the porch, completely dismantled, in the back of BigTruk when we don't want it up. On this lovely day we had a surprise visit from our daughter and granddaughters. Keith asked Natalie if she'd help him get the boards and supports out of the truck so he could start assembling the porch. She did, and then she stuck with him throughout the whole process! Pretty good for an 8 year old!

 In this photo Mom came out and helped with the nuts and bolts, too.

 

 Here is the finished product! A great porch and steps for our RV!

New Digs

 We have new digs! The Wenatchee River County Park closes on November 1st so we had to leave. Our friends have provided a great spot for us to park, right behind their fruit stand and gift shop. This apple orchard, part golden delicious and part Braeburn, has a lovely glow and is enticing me to have a stroll down the rows! The best part is that our door opens right onto this gorgeous fall scene!

 

Here is our 5th wheel from the front, parked between the orchard and the fruit stand.

 

 A view from the back. It's a lovely spot.

 

 Another shot of the tree tunnel. So pretty!

 

And last, this is our view from the back of our trailer. That hill is on the other side of the Columbia River, which is not far beyond the orchard. We plan to enjoy our stay here!

Loved Ones!

Loved ones are always the best subject for photos. Here is Keith, amongst the salmon being led upstream by the Coyote, who is taking the salmon to the Native American people in the area. Will Keith go with them? He looks like a fish out of water! This sculpture is at Walla Walla Point Park  near the confluence of the Columbia River and the Wenatchee River.

What can I say? Is this the prettiest red-headed, freckle-faced girl you've ever seen? She loves to make music on her grandpa's guitar and on her grannie's piano.

Autumn in Wenatchee

What could be more fun than a campfire with a cute granddaughter! Bop, as Katy calls him, is starting the fire.

The fallen leaves are beautiful, covering the ground, fun to crunch through. The fire is almost going!

 Now for the enjoyment. Bop watches, Katy plays. Bring out the hotdogs and marshmallows!

 

 The trees in Wenatchee are especially brilliant this fall. This photo was taken in Riverfront Park near the Orondo Street boat launch.

 

Here is a lovely photo of the red trees, hills in the distance, and an awesome sky.

Treasure!

"Next to the friendship of God, a friend's affection is the greatest treasure."

I don't remember where I got that quote, but it is one of the truest statements I know of. A frost has taken the golden leaves from the trees in our RV park, a joy to see as they rained down upon the grass and the roads. What a pleasure to see two friends scuffing through the deep layer of leaves. Our buddies from western Washington were here for the weekend, and they got to see all this beauty. Autumn is truly my favorite season, the weather, the colors, the odors in the air. We could go south like other RVers but we'd miss most of autumn, wouldn't we!

Home

Home at last! The Wenatchee River County Park is one of the most beautiful parks we've stayed in. The layout is quite different, too. The sites are arranged in 4 wheel-like circles with 10 spokes in each. The distance between RVs is about right, not close to each other. Add to that some lovely, old trees, now turning color, and a calm, pretty river right along the park edge. We love it here!

Here we are—in a perfect parking spot!

We took this photo from a new road leading up to Fancher Heights, a housing area high above East Wenatchee. You can see the Sunset Highway right below, then the Columbia River (talk about "a river runs through it!) and across the way, looking west towards Cashmere, is where the Wenatchee River merges with the Columbia. We need a panoramic shot to see the magnificence of the whole valley.

(Click to enlarge)

To me, even more beautiful than the Wenatchee Valley, is this shot of my daughter with one of her pet chickens. What could be more delightful than being reunited with one's family, the best part of coming home!

Leaving Missoula

 Leaving the place we've worked for 5 or 6 months fills us with mixed emotions. We are excited to be on the road again to new adventures, and sad to leave a happy place and the wonderful people we've met there. Here we are, pulling out of the entrance to the KOA.

 

 On Interstate I-90 heading west towards the Idaho border—the mountains in Montana are majestic!

 

 I love these runners in the downtown Riverfront Park in Spokane.

 

 The tower at Riverfront Park. I don't know if this was built as part of the 1974 World's Fair. I attended that event but don't remember if the tower was there prior to the construction of the Fair. It is a lovely setting.

 

 Washington at last! The wheatfields heading west towards Ritzville. No more mountains till we get home to Wenatchee.

Saying Good-Bye

Saying good-bye to friends we've made over the summer is always somewhat sad, but also it's exciting to think about the new adventures we will all be having on our way to the next place! Here are our immediate neighbors hooking up their motorhome to their new storage trailer. That's a long, long rig!

Here we have Keith, Elana, Andre, and Roger. God willing, we will meet again somewhere along the road!

Stumps to Bears

 

After listening to a chain saw for awhile we looked out of our window to see what was happening. The park recently had to cut down a ponderosa pine that had gotten diseased. They left a 4 foot stump and I wondered why they didn't put a potted plant on top to make it look nicer. Now I know why. A chain saw artist had been hired to transform the stump into a work of art.

I wish now I had been there from the beginning, to see him cut away everything that didn't look like a bear. He used a blow-torch to blacken parts of the bear and then smoothed it out.

Looking good!

The finished product, with a solar lamp for the overnight RV guests lucky enough to get this spot.

Around Missoula

As our time here grows to a close, I wanted to get more photos of some of the outstanding buildings and sights around Missoula. This first photo is of the Missoula County Courthouse, constructed between 1908 and 1910. Its dome is visible for a long distance.

Probably the most noticeable landmark is the old St. Francis Xavier Church. The church was built in 1889, the year Montana became a state, and is noted for its graceful steeple, paintings and stained glass. The paintings were done by a brother of the Society of Jesus, a kitchen helper, who painted them in his spare time and turned out to be a master. This same man painted the inside of the St. Ignatius Mission, near Ronan, pictured in an earlier post "Trip to Glacier National Park".

Here is the First Presbyterian Church, where we attend. You may have seen the movie "A River Runs Through It". The founder and builder of this church, Dr. John Norman Maclean, was the father of the man who wrote the book, later made into a movie starring Tom Skerritt, Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer. This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the church, and a stone monument honoring Dr. Maclean will be put in place this fall on the church grounds. We've enjoyed being a part of this large, flourishing congregation.

Missoula is called "The Garden City". One reason is that the streets are lined with large trees, mostly deciduous varieties. These are most prominent in the university district, many of the old downtown areas, and along the river. It is a beautiful sight, and I can only imagine what it must look like in the fall when the leaves turn.

I couldn't resist this one! A street named after my husband! We barely noticed it beneath the leaves.

Trivia

I put up a picture on an earlier post of a taffy shop in Keystone SD where we stopped often to enjoy our favorite candy in the Black Hills. Now we have found, and visited twice, a shop that sells 58 kinds of licorice, in Arlee MT, which is about 25 miles from Missoula on the highway to Glacier Nat'l Park. Great licorice, so much to choose from! OOh! Black teeth!

We continue to look for the biggest "doodoos". Traffic was busy on this highway to Glacier, slowed by much construction, so we couldn't stop and get out to holler in this doodoo.

We couldn't figure out why this edifice was right here. Doesn't seem to make sense. We thought maybe it was going to be one of those overpasses for animals that we've been hearing about. Somehow they get the critters to cross the highway on the overpass instead of risking their lives on the road. Maybe that's what this is, still lacking the fill on the side where you see the cars. Just a guess.

Contrasting Emotions!

It's been awhile since I posted, so I thought I'd just include a couple of very contrasting photos. Our poor little Focus has suffered another injury in the same place twice! The last crash was 16 months ago, in Wenatchee. This time, in Missoula, I ran into a pick-up who didn't give right-of-way in an intersection. No one was hurt except my car. It'll soon be fixed as good as new!

This is too precious not to share. My beautiful red-headed, freckle-faced granddaughter is holding her pet rooster, Ernie. Wish I could be there!