Awake: 5:30am Temp 62 sleep 5+49 partly cloudy elevation 918 ft
overnight @ Royal City, WA.
@ 9:30am Frank picks us up for his Columbia Basin tour. He calls himself a
poor farmer & started his fruit & vegetable farming in this area some 50
yrs ago. If not for the Grand Coulee Dam project, providing the water
canals running throughout this valley, this entire area would still be
like sage brush country. Instead, the ground is lush & fertile for miles.
As Frank maneuvers his 4 wheel drive vehicle around the different large
farming areas, we see many different types of apple orchards growing: red
delicious; gala; fugi; yellow delicious; granny smiths; pink ladies, etc.
I have never seen so many apples growing on these smaller dwarf type
trees. I ask him how those small trees can support so many apples hanging
from their limbs.
Frank stops @ an apple orchard owned by his son Randy & explains the
trellis method that keeps the tree limbs from breaking when loaded down
with mass production apples. Its labor intensive but they literally bend
those limbs horizontally during their early growing times, fasten them
with 5 wires to control the direction, then let the limbs grow vertical
again he explains. Some orchards have a white cloth or sheet stretched
between the rows of apples; he explains that this sheeting reflects the
suns rays upwards to the lower branches with apples.
Then there was the question of why there are crab apple trees interspersed
among the regular trees? Again he easily answers: pollination.
We see a lot of apple orchards but there are definitely more types of
fruit & vegetable orchards: fields of onions, wheat, potatoes, beans,
mint, large carrots, peaches, watermelons, cantaloupe, Bing & pie
cherries, sweet & field corn, grapes for juice & grapes for wine, etc. We
also noticed some cattle farms with Holstein cows.
We also drive by his son Randy’s home, hangar & runway for his personal
aircraft. We drive by his daughter Chris’s orchard & home & talk with 2 of
his grandsons, Derek & Justin, who were working in one of their red
delicious orchards. We were told there are more than 135 different species
of red delicious apples.
Now we change directions & are nearby the town of Royal City & the
Sunfresh facilities which Frank founded yrs ago. We stop @ Frank’s
granddaughter’s truck stop called: Zebs. Here we meet 2 friends of Frank &
Kay from Seattle who are part of their motorhome rally group. Pat & Chuck
are en route to Pullman to deliver their Jaguar to a friend who bought it
& they couldn’t go thru this area without seeing Frank & Kay.
Speaking of Kay, she was having her hair done @ Moses Lake this morning &
joins us for lunch here @ Zebs.
We spend just about an hr gabbing & having lunch with Pat & Chuck & then
they have to get back on the road to Pullman.
Frank drops us off @ our motorhome for some free time…..then to join him &
Kay for the traditional 4:00pm happy hour. After a dandy hour of happy
hour, we ride with Frank & Kay in the Toyota for 40 miles to Soap Lake &
have dinner @ Don’s restaurant. Kathy & I share a top sirloin steak, baked
potato & a salad.
After dinner, Frank drives us down to see Soap Lake & the beach. Then back
to Frank & Kay’s home where they twist our arms to hang around for yet
another day. We can’t say no, these tours that Frank takes us on are
irreplaceable.
High temp=86 Lights out: 10:53pm
Leave a comment