We have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow so we wanted to make today a 'relax' day. After tiring the mutts out with a walk, My Fella and I went to stock up on a few groceries.
But before heading back to JohnnyDisco, we had to stop here:
The monstrous Grand Coulee Dam.
Swiped straight from Wikipedia: the Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River... built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942. It is the largest electric power-producing facility in the United States and one of the largest concrete structures in the world.
This building overlooks the resevoir which is called Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake - obviously named after FDR, who presided over the authorization and completion of the dam.
We couldn't get close to the Dam bust since the Dam area was restricted to employees, but from the pic above you can see it's about the size of a car. That's one huge head.
The Grand Coulee Dam is the 5th largest hydroelectric power station in the world, by capacity.
Here's the other side of the dam, where all the action is.
There is enough concrete in the Grand Coulee Dam to build a 60 foot wide highway (four inches thick) from Los Angeles to New York City. That's a 4 lane highway, 3000 miles long.
Couple more pics - here's the bridge over the Columbia River:
And a shot of JohnnyDisco at our campground, Coulee Playland Resort, on the edge of Banks Lake. As you can see it's pretty quiet at the RV park this time of year.
Banks Lake is in the middle of a pre-scheduled maintenance draw-down which occurs every 15 -ish years, so I have no pics of the lake. (A draw-down gives the governement or private owners a chance to make repairs/improvements to a lake.)
Even with the lake being so low, we're really happy with this RV resort and will stay here again when passing through the area. Outside of some road noise, the park is quiet, well treed and offers lots of room for the mutts to walk.
Current rates are posted on their website; after Oct 16th the cost is $18/night for full hook-ups (50 amp) with super fast, free wifi. And that wasn't with a camping membership discount - everyone gets that rate.
Small confession to make... My Fella and I have been making dam jokes all day. And every single time I typed the word dam while writing this, I said it out loud and giggled. What are we ... 5?
Great RV Park. Must mark that one in our log. You're well on your way south. Hope the sun follows you all the way down.
Posted by: Rene' | October 20, 2011 at 07:48 AM
That's a dam good rate for a full hookup campground!
Posted by: Don | October 20, 2011 at 09:19 AM
Rene - once we got JohnnyDisco back on the road I remembered how I felt when we were coming home to park last April. I didn't WANT TO!!! Man, I love this lifestyle.
Are you and your lovely bride starting to prep your 5th wheel?
By the way, Utah is beautiful. Have you been here?
Posted by: kelsi | October 21, 2011 at 07:16 PM
And THAT was a dam funny comment. My Fella got a good laugh out of it :)
Posted by: kelsi | October 21, 2011 at 07:17 PM