Hat Rock, Doggie Hair Cuts, Another Rest Area

The noise at the Rest Area last night was barely tolerable.  Once it cooled off enough, I think we both were able to sleep.  At 7:30 I got up and turned on the generator, so we went for about 8 hours with no generator, which means no TV.  I really need to hard wire my inverter one of these days so that we can use computers and the TV without the generator going.

I figured we had some time to kill, and my research while we were in Portland really paid off this time.  About 8 miles off our course is a place called Hat Rock State Park.  I saw in Google Maps Satellite view that there was a large parking lot with another even wider parking lot for overflow, so I felt we could take the motor home down there without any problems.  I was right, we had plenty of room to park.

Below you can see the satellite image from google maps showing the two parking lots.

Above is a view of Hat Rock from the top of the parking lot.  Hat Rock got its name because, as you can see, it looks like a hat.  Hat Rock was the first distinctive landmark passed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on their journey down the Columbia, and is one of the few remaining sites not underwater, according to the Oregon State Parks website. 

 These two pictures are the park which is to the right of the longer, narrower parking lot in the above map.  The dogs LOVED the park...especially SKRUFFY who got away from me...err...I let her loose allowing her to run, and run she did...way to the end of the park ignoring my commands.  I think she thought she was in Arny and Sandy's backyard again!

Of course, their love of the park might have turned a bit when I got out the clippers we bought in Portland and gave each of them a clipping.  Skruffy was not too bad, being cut just 6-7 weeks ago or so.  But Bubba had not been clipped since we were in Palm Harbor, perhaps March.

Well, I did Skruffy first and had Bubba out on the lawn watching.   She is so cooperative, and again, her hair was not that long.  Her trimming probably took me 40 minutes or so.  Bubba took much longer, but he behaved real well.  I was afraid of hurting his leg, but he did not whimper at all.  Unlike Skruffy, he does not like to be on his back (unless he is sleeping), so it was harder to do parts of him.  Overall, I think it was a good first clipping, and the money we saved already paid for the clippers.

Here they are showing off, Bubba above, Skruffy below.  I think next time I might just shave them down, it probably would go so much faster, and they will be cooler, but I like how they turned out this time too.

Just as I was finishing up Bubba, a Sheriff's car pulled into the parking lot...for a small minute I wondered if he was going to say anything.  I was using our power, but I was using their park table, having parked parallel to the park taking up about 8 car spaces...but with only one other car in the park, he did not seemed to mind and he took off fairly quick.  Marcia wondered if he was looking for someone...perhaps he was, but it was not us.

So we headed out about 1 for an undetermined rest area close to Spokane.  Well, we got to Hatton Coolee Rest Area, near Lind Washington, and decided that it looked pretty good, despite the fact that it wasn't even 4 pm. yet.  We have strong cell coverage, about a dozen TV channels, and I don't think there will be many, if any, trucks using this rest area tonight.  We have seen way more RVs than we have trucks since we got here nearly 3 hours ago.

Tomorrow we have about 3 hours drive to Coeur d'Alene, so this place will do just fine.