Retirement Road Trip 2011: Day 16, Saturday 9/10

0 miles, still camped at Heyburn State Park in Montana with the Wrights.

Another sunny, hot and dry day in Idaho.  The forecast is for the temperature to hit 90 again.

Road trip today to see the Palouse.

The Palouse is a rich agricultural region in eastern Washington made up of rolling dunes of volcanic soils that are extremely rich and productive.  The area is especially noted for the production of wheat and lentils.

This is dry land farming.  There is no irrigation.    We drove south on Highway 27 from Rockford, WA to the village of Palouse, WA. We saw thousands of acres of wheat and lentils.  The villages were small and the grain elevators were huge.  In Iowa you see corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see.  Well, in the Palouse you can see wheat and lentils as far as the eye can see.  The combines were working full force.  These combines were the hillside or self leveling type.

The rolling hills are so steep that the combines have automatic leveling devices to keep the main part of these huge machines level, while the harvesting cutterhead stays hugged to the ground.  Some of the land had all ready been harvested and tilled,  I assume to plant a crop this Fall.  The different colors of the rolling hills due to the different crops and tillage created huge artistic patterns when seen from a high vantage point.

At 3,612 feet, Steptoe Butte State Park is the highest point in Palouse County.  A road spirals up the Butte.  The views are absolutely gorgeous.  Too bad the air was so hot that it created a haze, and limited the views somewhat.  We met a hang glider outfitter who was working with students.  The instructor had made one flight earlier, but the air was not conducive for good flight, so his students were not going to glide today.  Apparently the Butte is a popular launching place.  He said he can stay aloft for several hours and by using thermals, reach altitudes 5,000 above ground level.  I wished we could have seen a flight.

We ate a late lunch (or early dinner) at a local bar in the village of Palouse.  Palouse seemed to be more prosperous than some of the surrounding towns.  We found out from the locals that Palouse is located within 30 miles of two colleges, one in Moscow, Idaho and the other in Pullman, Washington.  It turns out that Palouse is a bedroom community for those areas.

There is a beautiful visitor center at Heyburn Park.  Inside there is a slice of a tree that is over 230 years old.  In fact, the tree was about 10 when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.  The tree died and was cut in 2003.  Low and behold, after talking with the Park Ranger, I discovered the stump of the tree on our campsite.  Kinda neat, I think.

Sunday we head for Oregon.  I'm going to meet Katie Leuthauser, a former Potsdam High School student, at her new teaching job in Bickleton, WA on Tuesday.  Then off to see Cory on Wednesday.

Bye...........