Day 25 – Back in the Lovely Pacific Northwest!

 After traveling for twenty-five days, we arrived home just before a downpour. As we sat on our deck, the rain began to get heavier and heavier to the point where it was gushing down the rain chain. While we sat and watched it rain, the cat went in and out of the house apparently enjoying that freedom. Although the sky was gray, it didn’t dim our remembrance of the 4,536 miles we’d just covered. 

Even though we had enjoyed the sunny warm weather in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon, it was good to see the rain return. After all, that is what keeps Washington green!

The high points of this journey were:

·         Our lovely visit with family

·         The days spent exploring the badlands in South Dakota

·         Seeing the progress on the Crazy Horse Monument

·         Observing a herd of bison on the grasslands of the Black Hills

·         Spotting a band of wild horses on the prairie in Wyoming

The low points of the journey were:

·         A noisy night at the Rexburg, ID, Walmart where locals evidently use the parking lot to “cruise” after the store closes

·         Waiting out a severe thunderstorm in North Dakota, hoping that the hail wouldn’t actually be quarter sized as predicted (it wasn’t)

·         The Old Faithful crazy busy parking lot

·         A delayed start to the trip when the camper fridge had an issue with running on propane 

(We couldn't think of a fifth low point)

An interesting coincidence:

·       While at our camp on the shore of Sheridan Lake, in South Dakota, I waved to a couple who were walking through the campground, as they strolled past. They paused, waved, and then surprisingly came into our camp.

With an accent, the man asked, “… weren’t you up in Canada?”

Surprised, we responded “Yes” and then it dawned on us, we had seen them before.

He continued, “Were you up in Tuk?” 

That’s when we knew where we’d seen them. They were up in Tuktoyaktuk, Northern Territories, Cananda last June at the same time we were! Further, we had chatted with them for quite a while when we were waiting for the border to open on the Top of the World Highway which crosses the mountains between Dawson City, Yukon and Chicken, Alaska. What a small world! We had traveled thousands of miles since meeting them almost three months earlier! Again, traveling is so interesting 😊

It is great to be home, until we feel the urge to explore our beautiful country some more!

You may want to stop reading at this point because I am going to step up onto a soapbox for a moment…

Nearing home, we drove west along through the Columbia River gorge. We had been traveling through some visually beautiful and geologically varied country. Yet, here at home, we also have pretty landscape, the gorge being one example.

However, before long both the Washington and Oregon rims of the huge basalt columns lining the Columbia River were covered with miles and miles of windmills. We had seen an enormous increase in these as we traveled between Washington and Minnesota as compared to our previous trip. 

Some people are undoubtedly happy to see these burgeoning wind farms, however we have growing concerns about them. To that point, we encourage you to look more into the effects of these energy sources. Here are some things to consider:

• How long does it take to have a positive net energy compared to what was used to create the wind farms? 
• Although they look like they are turning slowly, how many birds are killed by the blades which can exceed 100 mph?
• 
   We seem to have had fewer swallows flying over Wood’s Prairie the past several years. Are the windmills killing them or changing their migration patters?
• The huge blades of the windmills are covered with fiberglass, which is essentially a form of plastic. Plastic is composed of either natural gas or crude oil. How will they continue to manufacture these blades when there is no more oil production, as the government has promised? 
• 
  Where do those blades end up? Fiberglass is a material that does not decompose over time. Look into how long the blades last before they have to be replaced (which evidently, they aren’t lasting as long as was predicted). Those blades end up in landfills, thousands of blades that won’t decompose for thousands or millions of years. 
• Another question came to us this trip as we traveled through miles and miles of open lands that were covered with the white rotors. Nothing is free. Energy isn’t magic, it comes from something or somewhere. And there is a cause-and-effect relationship to energy. So, our question has now become, when all the open areas on the continent are covered with these huge wind farms, how will that impact wind patterns? Has that been studied? 
• Have there been models to prove whether there will be an impact on wind patterns across America (and the world for that matter)? 
• If there is a change in the Earth’s wind patterns, then what?

Questions, questions, questions… Keep asking questions, that is in effect what actual scientists do. It is okay to question experts. They should be happy to share their facts.

Stepping down off the soapbox, thank you for reading it...