A little more Canada, and then back to the USA!

The town of Summerland has a  mountain in the middle of it - Giant's Head. We drove up the narrow, winding road to almost the top.  Got a great view of some of Summerland's vineyards and orchards from there.

From the top, we could also see our "campground".  That's us in the middle of all of the other white RV's.  That is Okanagan Lake behind us.

Pardon me, Roy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-choo??

Nope, it's the Spirit of Summerland!

We took a scenic ride on the Kettle Valley Steam Railway. (click for a link)  The 10 mile ride was along the only preserved section of the original Kettle Valley Railway, which was built through the Kettle and Okanagan Valleys between 1910 and 1915.  The advent of rail played an integral role in the development of BC's southern interior.

As evening nears, long shadows in a vineyard.

Nearby Pendicton, the town at the south end of the Okanagan Lake, offers a beach!  Full of hot tourists and locals.

Finally, after 3 weeks, we crossed back into the States!  The customs agent asked his usual questions (alcohol, tobacco, and taxable purchases)  and then we were diverted to a parking lot for RV's.  The nice customs lady came "aboard" and checked out our frige.  Luckily, the only quarantined produce that we had aboard were some tomatoes and 2 lemons.  All of our local cherries, apricots, and peaches were safe!

We took the afternoon and visited the Grand Coulee Dam. (click for a link) The dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world.  500 feet wide at the base, it is almost 1 mile across the top.  This monster generates more power than a million locomotives (6 Giga watts).  It was originally planned to simply provide irrigation to the arid region, but was later used more for hydroelectricity.  The project took 12 years to built.  Unfortunately, at a 500 ft maximum depth, and a 150 mile long Lake Rosevelt behind it, it also flooded several towns.  Additionally, it destroyed the salmon waterfalls used by the local tribes to stock for winter and covered native cemeteries.

Here are some of the pumps used to move water for the pump storage irrigation lake above the dam.  They may look small, but are 5 stories tall under what is visible! 

The visitor center is built to look like the top of a turbine!

It's late - time to go to bed here in our Wal-Mart campground!