16 July - Goodbye Tacoma, Hello Clear Lake Recreation Area Fairchild Air Force Base Spokane WA

16 July
This morning we pulled chocks and headed eastbound towards I-90 and the Spokane WA area for location #16.

The drive was fairly uneventful and like many of our other moves,  the scenery changes dramatically.  The area around Tacoma was heavily wooded.  The further east we traveled today, the more we climbed into the mountains and then back down to a desert-like background.  Before we departed on this trip I found out about a website called "flattest route" www.flatestroute.com  It provides a quick and easy way to determine the flattest route between any two points walking, biking or driving, and then allows you to see the elevations and percent of ascent or descent anywhere along the route.  Here is what today's travel looked like:

We also use our truckers atlas to verify our routes.  If it is good for the semi's, it's good with me!  Here are a few pictures Doreen took today:

Lake with mountains in the background

Our RV and pickup at a rest area with snow-capped mountains in the background

Terrain is flattening out and desert-like

Trees are gone, replaced with rock formations

We arrived at Clear Lake Recreation Area which is located SW of Spokane WA.  It is associated with the Fairchild Air Force Base Morale Welfare and Recreation office.  The drive was about 5-1/2 hours including two stops and right at 300 miles.  This is the same base that Jennifer did her survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) training for the Air Force.

The campground has it's own marina where you can rent boats of all sorts.  Monday and Thursday is half price, so we plan to take advantage of that.

There is a large picnic area.  RV's in the background.

RV sites all in a row.  They are close together also.  Well, it's only $20/night, so it will do.

Nice playground area for the kids.

While we are here we will see several of Doreen's relatives plus some military friends of mine.  With 16 nights here, we will also likely do some catching up on the relaxation side, some boating and other adventures.  With the lake here, and the fact I HAVE MY TRAINING DONE ALREADY!!!, we can surely take advantage of that LOL!  We will explore the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene areas and visit Fairchild Air Force base too.

Stats Update:
Campsite#:  16
# States Traveled Through This Trip:  8
Baseball Parks Visited This Trip:  4
Point to point travel miles:  3614 miles

Vicinity miles:  6115 miles

Total miles:  9729 miles

Total point to point driving time:   75 hrs 36 minutes

Total fuel purchased:  675.376 gals

Total fuel cost:  $1739.59

Average fuel cost:  $2.691

Average MPG:  13.14 miles/gal

# Nights at end of this stay:  83

Lodging cost:  $2332.59

Average lodging cost/night:  $28.10/night