Wednesday, July 23, Ellensburg, Washington

Woke up at 5:50 - which would have been 6:50 without the time change!

After breakfast, we went for a walk around the area. It started raining and we got wet! After getting dried off, we went in to town to deposit US funds in to Wells Fargo. Then it was off to the laundromat.

On the way back, stopped at Papa Murphy's Pizza for a "Take & Bake" pizza (memories of Arizona).
That was lunch!










Also stopped at Super 1 Foods for groceries.

Severe thunderstorm warnings kept interrupting the radio. It was rainy & chilly in the afternoon. The skies looked very ominous, but it passed us by, thank goodness.








In the evening, the campground owner stopped by with a bag of fresh green beans from her garden. Nice!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

After much discussion between us and a neighbour, we were on the road by 9:15.

It was a good drive, surrounded by mountains until I missed telling the driver to turn ..... Fortunately it wasn't too far before we could turn around.
We had a scenic drive following the river (Clark Fork), then turned on to Interstate 90. Found a Rest Stop for lunch which was overrun by ground squirrels. They were everywhere!








Upon entering Idaho, we changed to Pacific Time Zone. Crossed Lookout Pass at 4860 ft, followed by four steep downgrades to 2500 ft, then more downgrades.

Next, we entered Washington and on reaching Spokane, the terrain was flat at 2000 ft.  For a while after Spokane all we saw was scrub as far as the eye could see.
After a rest stop, there was a 5% downgrade for 2 miles. We crossed the Columbia River t 560 ft, then climbed to 2535 ft before arriving at Yakima River RV Park, Ellensbury, where we stayed for two nights.

Monday, July 21, Moving on

After goodbyes with our hosts, Kim & Karen and owners Roy & Reta, we were on Hwy 1 at 8:45. Shortly afterward, we turned on to Hwy 3 towards Lethbridge.  We drove for mile after mile of flat farmland. How boring......
At Lethbridge it started raining but didn't last long. The terrain became hilly and at Fort McLeod we turned south on to Hwy 2. It was back to flat farmland.

By 12:25 the foothills of the Rockies were visible off to the right but we had not seen any "rest areas" for a lunch stop.

At 12:43 we arrived at the US border at the Port of Piegan, Montana and there were over 26 vehicles in line ahead of us, so we had our lunch while waiting.

No problems at customs, although we had to open the door of the trailer so the customs agent could have a "tour".






We had to slow down to allow horses to get off the road.....











The road was twisty & winding thru the mountains and at times we were at 6000ft elevation. There was snow visible in the mountains.

After 535km, we arrived at Columbia Falls RV Park in Columbia Falls, Montana. We had Wi-Fi for me and cable TV for Marcel! Life is good!

July 14 - 20, 2014

After the retaining wall was completed (except for some capstones missing), work returned to grading the yard. Sod was removed about four feet back and we were chipping away at the soil with Ethan's help.

Getting there........

The slope is taking shape, all it needs is sod.











Relaxing with Facetime with Jacob & Adam

Before....






and after

July 13, Birthday pool party

Ethan and Brandon had a combined Birthday party at Redcliff Aquatic centre. It was the perfect venue for a hot day!











A great time was had by all in attendance, and we had the day off from work!

July 7 - 11, 2014 Destruction/construction

The base row of the new retaining wall was laid and is straight & level!













While digging out the bottom row of the retaining wall, Marcel discovered a fifth row!









Another retaining wall comes down! This one was constructed solidly of wooden beams which were anchored by four foot rebar and spikes.



There was also a lot of gravel to be moved by shovels.





Another concurrent project was to rebuild the steps leading down to the back alley.

At the same time, a roofing company was installing new shingles on the house (we had nothing to do with that!)

Sunday, July 6, 2014, Starting work on the wall

It was decided that we would remove the block retaining wall and rebuild it at the end of the yard. Let the work begin! First, dig down for the base. Had to chop through a lot of tree roots along the way.









We removed the cap stones and the first row of stones under careful supervision before quitting for the day.