What a fun day today! I wandered my way from Chewelah to Colville to Kettle Falls (Salish: Shonitkwu, meaning “roaring or noisy waters”, browsing through thrift stores along my way.

Where are the falls? Well, the history is very interesting and very sad and you can read about that here. The falls are long gone, buried under water created when Grand Coulee Dam was built.

My search was for a hot pad and some hand weights. Anyone who has tried to buy hand weights knows that they are extremely scarce because of Covid. I didn’t want to spend much, and only need them for a short time, so I thought the more “rustic” the thrift store, the better my chances.

I first stopped at Colville Goodwill. I found a lovely chartruse 100% suede leather jacket I REALLY wanted to buy for $12.99 – but resisted! There were no hand weights. I forgot about the hot pad.

Next, instead of going back south, I continued North to Kettle Falls. On the edge of town was a small thrift store called “Thrift Ministry N Mind”. There were lots of books on religion and a pink hotpad–for .29! I only had a $20 dollar bill, so I went ut to the car to find some change and when I walked back in, (without any change), I saw two handweights just inside the door! Perfect. Cost on the hand weights? $1.99! Holy cow! Success on both fronts.

From there, I thought I would try to find a trail to run, so I went on to Kettle Falls State Park. It is right on the Columbia River or Lake Roosevelt for this stretch. Scott and I camped in this campground once in the Westie. I think we were on our way to Red Mountain. There were mostly pickups with boat trailers in the parking lot. Apparently folks were out fishing for Trout.

I found a really nice trail that wound through the park. Along my way, I had birds watching over me. First was an adorable Owl.

Not far from the owl was a larger, more threatening bird. I can’t help but wonder if the Eagle knew about the owl.

The trail emptied out into a huge “meadow” called Colville Flats on the map at the Ranger Station.

Maybe the river fills this is in the summer. This is where I turned around. Soon after, I spotted this huge immature Eagle. Must be lots of good food for them here.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.