Dode had a surveying class he wanted to attend in the Tri-Cities and since it wouldn't cost anything extra at the hotel for me to go along, I did! Working for the tribes is pretty cushy. They gave Dode Thursday off to drive there and paid for his hotel. His class was Friday and since it went all day, they payed for a 2nd night. Then, since he was driving home on Saturday, they gave him Monday off. Nice! Sheri did the babysitting for us while we were gone. I googled around the Tri-Cities and managed to come up with some things to explore while he was in class.
Dode received this machete as a door prize at his class. It's too big to carry around in a pocket but too small for doing the kind of machete work Dode does while surveying.
(apple shown for idea of size)
Thursday we drove over and stayed at the Holiday Inn in Richland. Apparently they're trying to capitalize on the nearby Hanford Nuclear Reservation (which I really want to tour someday, but no tours were offered at this time). We received this bag at check in with a "spent fuel rod" (light stick) and "spent fuel rod storage container" (mug), and a paper badge from every one's favorite nuclear power plant employee (Homer Simpson). The hotel had a pool the kids would have loved. It was small but was in a glass solarium with a fountain in the corner.
We started off with dinner Thursday night at Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Pasco. Apparently, Pasco is known for its Mexican restaurants and this one did not disappoint. I had the chicken chipotle which was rich and tasty. Dode got his usual: ground beef taco and enchilada combo. They had a salsa bar with fresh tortillas and a variety of salsas (I'm addicted to green salsas) to snack on while we waited for our entrees.
Look at this ice cream dessert!
A deep fried flour tortilla shell with vanilla ice cream, peanuts, oreo crumbs, caramel, hot fudge, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream. (We shared it.)
Once again proving the "it's a small world" theory, we walked into the restaurant and were seated at a table beside a land developer Dode worked with back at Downing. He lives over in the Tri-Cities now. They had a nice short catching up visit.
A deep fried flour tortilla shell with vanilla ice cream, peanuts, oreo crumbs, caramel, hot fudge, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream. (We shared it.)
Once again proving the "it's a small world" theory, we walked into the restaurant and were seated at a table beside a land developer Dode worked with back at Downing. He lives over in the Tri-Cities now. They had a nice short catching up visit.
Friday, I started my day off at with a nutritious breakfast, a donut from Spudnut. These potato dough doughnuts are famous around here. When I think potato dough, I think dense and heavy but my doughnut was light and airy. Yum!
Next I was off to the Columbia River Exhibition of History. They have a rather large sign on the freeway telling you when to turn to find this rather small museum. But, I spent two hours immersing myself in the history of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the local area.
model of the Hanford reactor
Apparently, members of the church have had a strong presence for a long time in the Tri-Cities. A church building was up before the grocery store!
Then, on the reviews of tripadvisor, I went to Phucket Thai (I'm not sure the correct way is to pronounce that, I'm not even going to try!) in Kennewick. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Thai food. They really believe in spicing their food. My one star phaid thai was so hot, both my tongue and lips were burning and sweat was beading up on my forehead. That's a bit hotter than I like it!
After stuffing my belly full of noodle goodness, I went to the East Benton County Historical Society Museum. For the 2nd time in a day, I had a quiet museum all to myself. This museum had information about "Kennewick Man" (a 9,000 year old skeleton found at the shore of the Columbia in the 90's) as well as assorted artifacts from the last 100 years that were donated by local families. No photographs were allowed inside the museum, so here's one of the sign!
After a short break back at the hotel, (researching ice cream establishments in the area), I was off to NW Country Mercantile in Pasco for some ice cream. They had 30 homemade flavors to choose from. Tough choice! They had free samples but each sample was at least a tablespoon of ice cream. I was getting full just on samples. I chose killer brownie (caramel ice cream with brownie chunks) and malted chocolate (chocolate ice cream, crushed milk duds, caramel swirl, white chocolate). I also found some yummy tomatilla salsa, and a few other jarred tasties. They have their own chocolate shop their too, so what's a foodie to do? Buy some of course!
Eating my ice cream as I drove, (dessert before dinner is always welcome) I went to pick up Dode from his training meeting. Then, we were off to dinner at another highly recommended Mexican restaurant in Pasco, Garibaldi's. Dode got his usual and I choose bacon wrapped prawns. They came with sauteed vegetables (peppers, onions, and mushrooms) in addition to beans/rice and tortillas. It was delicious. And their chips? Absolutely addictive!
Saturday, we visited the Washington State Railroad Historical Society Museum in Pasco. Once again, it was a private tour of an empty museum. The collectors who contributed to the museum definitely had a love for steam engines. They left out a lot of Washington Rail history we're interested in, like the electric railroad that used to stretch across Washington, Tommy Thompson's narrow gauge railroad in Anacortes, and information about building the tunnels that go through the Cascades. But, we did get to see a lot of photos of steam engines!
After lunch, we went to our last Pasco Mexican restaurant. They also had a salsa bar with fresh tortillas. Of the three restaurants we ate ate, I think the first, Fiesta, was my favorite. Things are really close together in the Tri-Cities. There are three towns: Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and although my day took me though all three of them, I never went more than 10 miles. And, if you go more than a mile from the freeway/highways in most areas, you're back to sagebrush.
Driving home, I wanted to see the murals that are painted on many buildings in Toppenish. We were about half way between the freeway and town when a bad noise under the hood signaled our serpentine belt self destructing. We pulled over and Dode figured we'd soon be back on the road after a "10 minute fix". He pulled all the pieces of the belt away from all the pulleys but the car refused to start. After trouble shooting on it for over an hour, with only his pocket knife and mini leatherman (nail clippers) as tools, he gave up. Everything seemed to be working perfect. We had spark and fuel pressure, the engine was turning over properly but it would not start. He even checked the timing belt by checking each of the cams to confirm they were rotating. Stumped, we called a tow truck for the car and Greg for us.
Dode even checked the fuel pump.
We could not afford to have the car towed home (over 200 miles) so we had the van towed to an auto parts store in Yakima where Dode could borrow the code reader and see if it gave him any new information. Nope! The car's computer thought everything was working perfect! Greg, my step-father, was nice enough to drive over from Edmonds (a 3 hour one way drive) to pick us up and bring us home. When I called Elizabeth to check in on the kids, she was absolutely astonished when I told her Dode couldn't fix the van. She has such faith in his abilities! Greg stopped and bought us dinner on the way home at the Riverside Cafe in North Bend. It was a great place to eat and relax on the long drive.
Sunday: Dode and Isaac went back to Yakima to retrieve our poor little van and tow it home.
Monday: Luckily Dode had Monday off because he spent the entire day working on the van. After trouble shooting lots of different things, he finally found a problem with the timing belt. Somehow when the serpentine belt self destructed, a piece of the belt shrapnel made its way inside the protective covers for the timing belt and got bound up inside. The shrapnel had rapped itself around the crakshaft pully forcing the timing belt to ride on top of the shrapnel. This made the cams and crankshaft spine at different rates making everything appear to be working right but it was impossible for it to run. This is about the same as all the chambers of your heart ignoring each other and doing their own thing (it's just not going to work). I am so thankful to have a husband who can fix things. I can't begin to estimate how much it would have cost us to have the car fixed by a mechanic. It was painful enough to pay for the gas to send the big van over and back and the rental on the trailer to tow the van home with.
Monday: Luckily Dode had Monday off because he spent the entire day working on the van. After trouble shooting lots of different things, he finally found a problem with the timing belt. Somehow when the serpentine belt self destructed, a piece of the belt shrapnel made its way inside the protective covers for the timing belt and got bound up inside. The shrapnel had rapped itself around the crakshaft pully forcing the timing belt to ride on top of the shrapnel. This made the cams and crankshaft spine at different rates making everything appear to be working right but it was impossible for it to run. This is about the same as all the chambers of your heart ignoring each other and doing their own thing (it's just not going to work). I am so thankful to have a husband who can fix things. I can't begin to estimate how much it would have cost us to have the car fixed by a mechanic. It was painful enough to pay for the gas to send the big van over and back and the rental on the trailer to tow the van home with.
our problem, those pieces of the belt in Dode's hand are not part of the timing belt
how it's supposed to look
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