Where will you be when you turn 86? If you’d asked my grandpa Bud that question fifty years ago, he sure as hell wouldn’t have said Ephrata, Washington. Yet somehow, through a series of fortunate and unfortunate events, that’s exactly where he ended up with his partner of more than five years, Lois.
Ephrata is one part Scottsdale, one part the town from Footloose, and one part middle of nowhere. At least, that’s how it looks when you first arrive. But when you start to look closer, a whole bag of surprises opens up. Grandpa Bud was quick to show us the area of town where wind turbines are constructed to help mobilize Washington’s continual effort to be lean and green. He then told us that he was going to drive us up to a “local place of interest.”
Okay, I have to be honest. At this point, I was totally thinking that he was going to drive us up the hill to a rinky dink recycled tin cross, where we’d have to pretend that we were super impressed and take dozens of soon-to-be-erased photos. This just goes to show that I am basically an arrogant, city-centric prig who needs a smack in the head. The “local place of interest” turned out to be Dry Falls, one of the oldest and most beautiful geological attractions in the United States. It looks roughly like this:
If you are ever even near Dry Falls, you need to check it out. If you have an extra hour on top of that, head up to the Grand Coulee Dam.
So, besides showing us one of the coolest sites I’ve ever seen, Grandpa Bud dispensed a sage piece of advice:
“Try him out for five years. If he doesn’t work out, trade him for a yellow dog and then shoot the dog.”
Given that Grandpa Bud just passed the five year mark with Lois and the only animals in their backyard are ceramic gnomes, I decided to pocket this advice for future use. You know, just in case.
I feel bad for the yellow dog in this scenario. But Dry Falls looks awesome!