The South Riding RV Travels

656

9th-10th October 2011 - Oliver BC to Richland WA to Boise ID

From Oliver we continued south and soon reached the border at Osoyoos. There we crossed the border without trouble but they took away our only tomato and 2 peppers. We never know what they will take.

Oddly enough this is desert country and in places is quite barren. Trees only appear on the rocky outcrops and then only in a stunted form.

In some places there are patches of green where there is cultivation and splashes of colour where other plants like the sumac have found enough water.
Double trailers are permitted here. This one is carrying crates of apples. The harvest was in full swing.
This is agriculture on a grand scale. These are apple orchards.
The apples are picked and put in boxes which are then picked up by these strange trailers and transported to the packing factory.
We carry on past rivers which look more like lakes.
More trees at the foot of the cliffs. It seems the only fertile soil is at the foot of the scree.
These are much taller trees forming a windbreak around yet another orchard.
Yet more apple orchards. This shows the setting quite well and the little white dots at the side of the road in the distance are piles of boxes waiting to be filled and collected.
Another of the giant rivers which flow in this part of the world. This is the Columbia River.
One of the few bridges across the Columbia but we aren't going that way. The road splits and we carry on on this side.
It gets pretty empty though. This part of Washington state and later in Oregon is very sparsely inhabited.

We stopped overnight at Richland near Hanford where the US produced most of its plutonium. Now they are trying to clean up the 500 sq mile site.

Green almost always means irrigated. Here such fields are almost always circular because of the method of irrigation. We think this is alfalfa.
Big rivers need big bridges to make the crossing. It was raining quite hard now.
Mining is very common but exactly what is going on here is not known by us.
As you go west to east there are more mountains to cross. The trains follow the roads - or was it the other way round?