Washington's Okanogan

 Summerland, BC to Republic and Kettle Falls, WA

(sightseeing)

September 27- September 30, 2016

We didn't expect to find ourselves back in Washington state but that is where we found ourselves. Having never been in the NE part of the state we thought we should explore it a bit.  We headed south then east to the town of Republic and found it to be a charming town with lots of old original buildings and such.  We found a campsite at Gold Mountain RV Park and by happenstance Laura met a man there (Dave) who knew a lot about computers.  When she told me about him I was skeptical but I also knew I'd never hear the end of it unless I talked to the guy.  So, the next morning before we left for Kettle Falls, I hunted him up. He really did know a lot about computers - especially about getting away from Windows and Mac operating systems and switching over to a Linux operating systems which is FREE.  Free always intrigues me but my main worry was about running Legacy genealogical software.  As we drove away, my head was spinning.



Gold Mountain RV Park from the entrance.

We spent 3 days in Kettle Falls, enjoying the nice fall weather and driving over to Colville to see what it was like.  In the mean time I wrote to Legacy to see if it would run on a Linux operating system. They told me it would run in conjunction with a Windows emulator.  That news didn't warm my heart but I was still intrigued with Linux.  We decided to go back to Republic to see exactly what Dave's system looked like.



Typical Okanogan landscape.  I just love the look of it.

I especially love the rocky knobs you see all over the area.
What is it about rocks that make them so appealing?

The cool weather makes the Aspens glow.



The Eocene Stonerose Fossil Beds in Republic.
 These shale deposits have preserved many plant, fish and insect fossils from the past.
You can actually go and dig in the fossil beds yourself after you sign up at the museum.

 

This was Laura's big find.  The remains of fossilized tree branches (bottom) and fossilized wood pieces (top).