Well, today was a little bit different picture than yesterday.  Everything started out just great and stayed that way until we were about 60 miles from our destination, Peaceful Pines RV Resort, Cheney, WA.  We had heard there would be high winds near Spokane today but everything was fine most of the day.  After we stopped for lunch, the winds came up and everything changed.

When we got to around Lind WA (3 pm) we stopped at a rest area for a break and while we were there, we heard sirens heading north (the way we were heading).  When we got back on US 395 we saw a cloud of black smoke and the traffic slowed down to a crawl.  Well, evidently there was a traffic accident due to the high winds that started a fire and this closed down the highway all together.  At this point, they turned us all around and we didn't know quite what to do.  Thankfully we had a regular ordinary old map (in addition to the GPS and Mapquest) and could see a reasonable detour around the fire.  So, we re-programmed our GPS and took about a 100 mi. detour.  Along that route, we encountered a dust storm so bad, we couldn't see 2 feet in front of us combined with the smoke from fires everywhere in Washington.  Then, along the way, we passed by ANOTHER fire that had just started (by a farmer who was mowing late in the afternoon) and luckily, the wind was blowing away from us or we would have been stuck there too.

While we were trying to get back to our destination at "Peaceful Pines" we tuned into the local AM station which told us basically, the state of WA was on fire, under a major dust storm, and experiencing flash flooding.  Luckily (for us, not them), this was happening in places we had just passed through earlier today.

We arrived at Peaceful Pines about 2 hrs. after anticipated.  Let's just say this is one of those one or more "throw back" martini nights Doreen Orion writes about in her book "Queen of the Road" or at least a couple glasses of chardonnay (Renee, you know what I'm talkin' about). 

Needless to say, we drove quite a bit farther than planned today (440 mi) and not only farther, but tougher, much tougher!  Poor Den.  I would have helped drive today but the wind was so crazy, I knew he wouldn't relax, which would defeat the purpose of me driving.

Oh, and when we got to Peaceful Pines, the first words out of their mouth was "Our pump is out and we have no water. So if you want to go somewhere else, we will undersand".  Our answer, "We aren't going anywhere".  An hour or so later, they came over and told us they got it working.  Thankfully, we can have a shower tomorrow morning and be on our way to Sagle, Idaho to visit with Rick and Polly, our long time friends from Redding and Wagon West.

Peaceful Pines RV Resort, Cheney, WA, $31.05/night. Cable TV and Wifi.  A little piece of Heaven. Ahhhh!