July 30 - Ice Age Floods and becoming teenagers

Ellen called to wish the boys a good day. We then had to honor their wish to play tennis. It was not yet too hot so we took Rocky with us. He chased balls until he dropped with exhaustion. Our next caller serenaded each boy while playing her accordion, we laughed at her slip of the tongue when she made mistakes - Thanks Sarah. Baxter sent wishes from everyone in SA who the boys did not remember! Granny Peggy, Paul and Kathy each called and sent wishes. After some phone calls to the local ice cream stores we found the perfect cake. Luckily our camper has a freezer. I was sad to leave Wenachee, but driving north along the Columbia reminded me of the Orange River in SA. Very arid with a splash of green along the banks. We were soon cutting across basalts towards Dry Falls. We traversed some incredibly wide u shaped valleys. The basalts made for some steep valley walls. Dry Falls blew my mind!(pic) The sheer size and energy of the ice age flooding was fascinating - just 17,000 years ago. The museum sitting on the cliff edge was very informative. The whole concept of a massive ice dam extending into Missoula then breaking through and gouging out the Grand Coulee just north of the dry falls was inspiring. Evidence of the energy involved during this dam break can be seen in Montanna where there are massive ripple marks covering the hills.
We enjoyed generous helpings of the ice cream cake for lunch(pic). What a place to celebrate a birthday! We drove north along Grand Coulee to meet the Colombia River at the Grand Coulee Dam. We passed a very pretty campground at Steamboat Rock, perched next to the Coulee reservoir. Our campground was on the Columbia and thankfully there were many trees and lots of well irrigated green grass.(pic) We struggled to squeeze into the small camp site - under a carport. It was strange to be so confined, but at least the camper was not out in the full sun. There was no power - and as a result we had no AC. The dam was going to serve as our shower for a few days and it took very little arm twisting to get us into the water. The boys pitched the tent and moved out the camper.
We all chose to have a special Mexican dinner - which was super. We had to leave before pudding so that we could watch the laser show on the dam wall. We were all very sleepy by the time we got back to the camper. The heat in the camper and noise from our East European campers nearby made it difficult to sleep.