Joani & David's Travels: Friday, August 9, 2013, Watching Ultralight Aircraft in Elma, WA

Elma, WA, is not a "Happening Town," but it has a nice little park where we walked a couple of miles with Sam around some small lakes.

I used BringFido.com to find Vance Creek Park for a nice hike.

Trees are already starting to turn. Fall comes early to Washington!

We could see some cooling towers, telling us we were near a nuclear power plant. We found out that in 1977 it was part of the largest nuclear power plant construction project in the US. By the time it was 76% complete (in 1983), the project was placed on hold. It was another 11 years before it was canceled in 1994. Obviously, it never produced a single kilowatt of power.

Wikipedia: the facility is known locally as "whoops", a play on its official acronym, WPPSS

(Washington Public Power Supply System)

We were not far from the airport, which explained seeing so many ultralight aircraft.

David says he would like to build and fly one of these.

I hope the RV travel fills that void. Holy cow!!! Not for me!

Sam and I nearly stepped on this snake - I should have been looking where I was walking, but I was just fascinated with the ultralights.

A Ribbon Snake, about 24" long, crossed the path.

Love to watch Labs in the water (Sam would never do this!)

Wild blackberries are everywhere.

We went into Elma for dinner at the Rusty Tractor. I wonder which came first - the rusty tractor collection or the name of the restaurant? They had a Yak burger on the menu, but I opted for a less exotic Jack cheese, Jalapeno burger and some tractor treads (waffle fries).