We are back in Canada and back in BC.  We crossed the US/Canada border at about 3 pm this afternoon.  It is nice to be back home; even if we are not actually home yet.  Although I am never anxious for vacations to end.  I enjoy traveling.  I enjoy being away from all the normal routines and meetings and appointments.  I guess I am just an escapist.

We left Coeur d’Alene just after 10 this morning and crossed the border into Washington state a little while later.  Our eleventh state on our return journey.

All of the area west of Spokane, WA is grain farming land.  The after-combining stubble stretched out from the roadside in both directions for miles and miles.

At the little community of Wilbur we headed north on Route 174 up to Grand Coulee Dam.  This is desert country; dry dirt and lots of rock bluffs and cliffs.

Grand Coulee is one of the world’s largest concrete structures.  It is a mile long and contains 12 million cubic yards of concrete.  It began operation in 1942.

The Roosevelt Lake behind Grand Coulee Dam stretches back for miles.  It is a very popular recreational area and in today’s lovely warm sunshine it is easy to see why.  It was so nice and warm today we put the top down on Poppy after we had lunch at the Grand Coulee Dam overlook.

We continued north through Colville Indian Reservation where they have very interesting clumpy rocks scattered all over the hillsides. They remind me of the geological Conglomerate Rock formations that we have seen in other places.

Once we arrived in Omak we arrived in irrigated orchard territory.  It is so easy to see where there is water.  The hillsides around Omak are barren, dry rock.  Down in the valley there is lush green alfalfa fields, heavily-laden apple trees, and irrigations sprinklers spreading life.

Omak is 46 miles from the USA/Canada border so it wasn’t long before we arrived, went through Canadain customs and drove into Osoyoos for the night.