BuiltWithNOF
Cle Elum, WA

7/19-22 

Leaving Castlegar today to return to the U.S.  The 336 mile drive to Cle Elum, Washington was interesting & uneventful. At the border crossing all RVs were being sent to secondary inspection.  We had carefully made sure we had no lamb, oranges, fruit with pits or green onions.  These are all banned from being brought into the U.S.  They did confiscate a beautiful, half-eaten bell pepper.  Oh, well.  Missed that one on the ‘banned’ list.  The border patrol was very courteous & didn’t do a thorough search, but did visually check the bedroom & bath after looking in the fridge.  We drove the 360 miles on good roads & arrived in Cle Elum after about 7 hours of driving.  It felt good to be back at Sun Country Golf & RV.  However, they can only keep us for 3 nights.  We were hoping for a week, but 2 large groups are coming in and the 17 spaces are all spoken for. Drat!  This is our 3rd summer spending time in Cle Elum & the 2nd summer at Sun Country.  The fishing & golf are pretty good here and Gary was looking forward to both.  He will get both one time.  Played 18 holes & had a great time.  Never told me his score.  He went out with a guide in a rubber raft floating the Yakima in the evening hours.  Guide swears the night works well when it is hot.  The guide, Guy, uses a rubber raft at this time of year due to the shallow, rocky conditions of the river. Guide seems to be right!  Gary came back from his outing with tales of several small catches & then the ultimate happened.  Something took the fly & ran with it.  Gary had a battle lasting over 10 minutes with a 24” rainbow trout.  With the guide offering encouragement, Gary kept up the fight.  The water being shallow, & knowing that Gary could not land the fish in the boat due to its size, the guide jumped into the river with his handy net & scooped up the fish. While handling the fish to remove the hook, Gary took a picture of the guide with the fish.  Putting it back in the net to keep it ‘watered’ so Guy could take a pic of Gary with his prize, the fish leaped out of the net.  Free to have fun with another fisherman on another day.  The weather has been good here.  Mid 80’s.  Did a run to Roslyn, of ‘Northern Exposure’ fame, and found that nothing much had changed in this old mining town.  We usually visit their small farmer’s market, but due to our short stay here, won’t be here on Saturday when it happens.

Visiting from Alberta, Canada, these two couples were going from participating in a car show in Washington and now were on their way to Kalispell, Montana for another show.  They certainly found a unique way to make their outings an experience!  We spotted them at the Cle Elum Safeway parking lot.

Found the truck of my dreams in the Safeway parking lot. Gary just laughed.

As the road goes through Roslyn, of ‘Northern Exposure’ fame, this little lady’s garden is always a winning sight. This is the 3rd year we’ve seen her lovely flowers & ‘yard art’. The winters here are long & very cold. So everything must be done annually.  We stopped to compliment her on her lovely display. She said that it was hard for her to do every year as ‘she’s getting up there’.  We’re glad she manages. It is so pretty.

Just a couple more shots of her yard.

Just another pretty auto.  Parked outside the barber shop in Roslyn, this really nice vintage Pontiac awaits its driver.

A carefully tended home just off the main street in Roslyn.

We’re not sure if they’re renovating the church, shoring up its foundation or have just moved it. One hopes they get the roof back on pretty quickly. It does snow in Roslyn.  In the background to the left of the church is another that we featured last year.

Back in Cle Elum, we’re staying at Sun Country Golf & RV Park.  Is this the picture of a happy man?  Just look at that smile! My own Tiger Woods (minus the women) is about to ride the cart to the first tee.

Guy, Gary’s guide, at the beginning of the very special float trip on the Upper Yakima River, begins to row. Little does Gary know at this point just how special this float will be.

Gary gives a wave as they begin the float.

Off they go into the wilds riding on a relatively shallow, rocky river.

As night falls, Gary is in the fish fight of his life. After about 5 minutes or so, Guy jumps out of the boat with his net & his camera.  He catches a shot of Gary a few minutes before he scoops the fish up in his net.  Ten minutes of fighting a fish is long enough.

Gary holds onto his prize, this 24” rainbow trout. The fish will be carefully returned to the water after the photo ops.

Guy, an experienced guide & a friendly man, holds Gary’s prize.  Because of the dark Gary doesn’t aim the camera well and all thoughts of any more pics are dashed when this beauty leaped back into the river the moment the picture was taken. A happy ending for all!

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