This column welcomes other travel journals from readers about their adventures around the Pacific Northwest. The story can be short or long; a fishing trip to the ocean or a camping trip to the Blue Mountains.

Don't worry about getting all of the words in the correct order; I will help you with this part of the journal. Send me an e-mail or drop a not off to the Herald office with your telephone number, so I can call you to discuss your project. My e-mail address is: dclay@atnet.net.

Cheryl's writings about her Bremerton adventure, below, is an example of such a journal.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins. This week we continue Cheryl's diary about a recent trip on Amtrak to visit family in Bremerton.

Cheryl has traveled to Seattle on the train and then on to Bremerton to celebrate the retirement of her son-in-law, Dan Berry, from the Navy. Read on.

The rest of the day, after the retirement ceremony, was spent visiting and enjoying my family. The next day we all boarded the Bremerton ferry to Seattle for me to be dropped at the Amtrak station and my son and daughter-in-law to be dropped at a hotel near the airport for an early morning flight back to Colorado.

After teary goodbyes, I only had about a 15 minute wait before boarding Amtrak for my trip back to Ephrata. The last car of the train is apparently the one for passengers getting off at stops prior to Spokane. It was odd to me that the next to the last car, where folks were being boarded for Spokane, had three Amtrak employees assisting passengers getting on, but and there were none at the last car.

So I just got on, put my suitcase in the rack by the door, climbed the stairs and saw "couples and groups" go to the left and "singles" go to the right, as indicated on signs posted. I was first to board and decided to take the very last seat in the train. This allowed me easier access to the back of the train during the last hour of daylight, to view the countryside while traveling along the Sound and going through railroad yards. It seemed the ride was a little rougher clear in the back, but fun to experience.

I had a choice for dinner reservations of three seating times and chose the latest one available at 7:15. I found myself fighting to stay awake though as I didn't want to miss dinner aboard the train. At 7:00, I found my way down the stairs to the washroom, so I could wash for dinner and arrived in the dining car a little early.

I talked to a couple of young men, one from India and one who had survived a severe accident with brain damage and months in a coma. The two were about ready to start up a game of chess. With a broken King, I was asked if I might have a toothpick to fix it. Luckily I did and they were both grateful. This is just an example of train travel where everyone seems to get along so easily.

The young man who had been in the accident said chess is what brought him back to life. When passing them after dinner, they were only on their second game and he had won the first. He claimed he was just lucky. Both were incredibly nice and polite.

During the meal, I was again seated with three passengers who were traveling in the sleeping car. An older couple said they take a train trip at least once a year and on this one were headed for White Fish, Montana.

A younger gentleman said he works for an airline in Chicago and yet also travels to Seattle at least once a year by train for the relaxation of it. He said he hoped the trip home was better though as on the trip out, their train hit a tanker in an intersection and they were lucky he was carrying water and not gasoline.

The three of them had steaks and I had herbed chicken, which even though was a bit dry, had good flavor. The salad, rolls, veggies and mashed potatoes were very good and our waiter was fun. I visited with him for a while after everyone else had left and he was about ready to retire after years of service on the railroad.

We rolled into Ephrata right at the scheduled time of 9:42 p.m. and Dennis was standing there to greet me and help me step from the train. Garnet and little Brenda Starr were waiting in the Dodge Ram. I was the only one who got off the train during this stop.

Dennis put my luggage into his rig and then told me to hold on a minute before getting in. He picked up a flashlight and walked me back to the tracks. What a souvenir he gave me! When I was leaving for Seattle, he had placed two quarters on the track. When I was returning, he placed some more.

He only found one of the quarters after I left, but found the other when he came back to get me. Then he had me find the ones he left before I arrived this evening. If you look really hard, you can tell a couple of them are quarters and a couple are nickels, but mostly they are just very flat, shiny pieces of silver.

Since this is defacing coins, it's probably illegal, so we'd better not make it public, but I love having these souvenirs as a reminder of my train travel.

Although there were a couple of issues on this trip, it sure beats driving the pass on winter. This and other Amtrak trips are a part of my future plans. Thanks to Dennis, Garnet and Brenda Starr for making the trip to and from Ephrata a pleasant part of my journey.

Dennis note: Don't worry about the coins, Cheryl. Remember there are machines where people pay to flatten a coin as a souvenir. If the Feds come to arrest me, I'll tell them you made me do it and send them your way.

One downside to Amtrak travel from the nearest station, Ephrata, is the time of pickup and drop off. When heading to Seattle the train is scheduled to arrive at 4:22 a.m. Returning from Seattle the arrival is scheduled for 9:42 p.m.

When the train is headed toward Spokane and points east, the arrival and departure times are just the opposite.

A beneficial side to the arrival and departure times is the prospect of traveling to Seattle, spending the day and arriving back in Ephrata in the matter of around 17 hours. Or, if more time in the big city is warranted, the travelers could spend the night and head back home the evening of the next day.

There is ample parking at the Ephrata Station and the Ephrata police were seen making regular passes by the station to make sure all is in order.

OK Cheryl, Garnet, Brenda Starr and I stand ready to play taxi for you again.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we backtrack a bit and then continue the story of Coulee City, by C.K. "Slim" Jolly, recorded July 13, 1976:

I suppose all of you know where Pilot Rock is, up on the west side of Grand Coulee, the highest point until you get clear over to Waterville. You can see it from Davenport and Mansfield and many areas so they named it Pilot Rock.

The early settlers tell me they used it as a landmark for traveling from one area to another. Pilot Rock is visible from different dir?ections. I think it is 2,250 feet which is about the highest point until you get over toward Waterville.

Question: Did you have an underground cellar?

Answer: Yes, that is where you'd keep your vegetables, potatoes and such, because they'd keep in that until late in the spring.

Question: Did you have a well?

Answer: Yes, sometimes wells were 300 feet deep, but sometimes they could get water within 50 feet of the top of the ground. It is real odd, back along the Grand Coulee wall there were a lot of springs.

The first man I knew who farmed the area around Pilot Rock was a man by the name of George Horning, a bachelor. I know my brother and I went over there to harvest for him and we took our horses and mules. We were pulling a combine with mules at that time. He was going to cook for us.

Well, now you know, we just about starved to death because it was so dirty we couldn't eat. So our mule injured one of his nice fryers. We rung its neck, and took it in and we had fried chicken. So he said he'd have to fix the barn, so the chickens couldn't get in. But the next day the mule killed one when we took it out to water.

Well, he couldn't have that, and so he wondered if we could take the mule home, and we said no that as long as we were there we had to have the mule. We knew if it didn't kill the chicken we'd never have anything to eat. I was real happy to have that mule.

My father raised a lot of mules and sold a lot of mules and I can remember how difficult they were to handle. I much preferred the horses, but mules could do a lot more work. One of those mules could kick you when you were buckling the harness, they really could. It really wasn't pleasant to be around them.

I went to school in Mold and Ragged Butte. The first teacher I can remember was Genevieve Lamb. I think she was from Montana. Then I went to Mold and St. Andrews and high school in Brewster because of the transportation problems.

There were no school busses in the 1920s and so you would either have to go to Coulee City and stay, as it was a little too far to ride horseback every morning at 12 miles. I could work at Brewster because of the orchards and that was real important to us because in 1920 we still didn't have any money. So I could work and go to school and not cost my folks very much.

Of course, at that time, my mother had passed away in 1919 or 1920 during the flu period, and I was the oldest, so I was the chief cook and bottle washer. As soon as one of my sisters would get old enough for me to tutor her I would teach her to cook and we would work that out together.

We all stayed together and my Dad raised the six of us and didn't do too bad a job. I don't know that any of us has been in jail. My brother has been in the State Legislature since 1957. He is retiring this year, Dan Jolly.

In those days they had to be real hardy souls because the only income you had was once in a while you'd get some wheat to sell and milk from the cows. When my brother and I got a little older, old enough to do quite a lot of work, one of us, either my Dad or my brother or I, would get a job working with a team of horses working for the county building roads or something like that and that would bring a little income.

It was real tough times. I don't know why we stayed, my brother and me, why we didn't just go and desert the ship, but we didn't. We were really needed and we just didn't leave. Any money we made we'd bring home to help support the ranch.

Question: How did you manage that can of cream to send by the mailman?

Answer: The mail route would go right by the road. You'd take the can out there and take a wet burlap and put over it and that would keep it cool by evaporation, that's pretty good air conditioning you know. Of course you'd take it out not too long before the postman came along.

Question: Will you tell us about cream separator?

Answer: Yes, that was quite a job. You had to turn it at a steady rate, just so many turns a minute or you'd get too thick or too thin a cream and it had to be adjusted that way.

Question: Where did your folks come from?

Answer: My father came from Missouri and my mother's folks came from Pennsylvania, they were Penn, Dutch. My mother's first name was Addie.

Question: Did they use binders in that area?

Answer: Yes, binders and reapers and then shocked the hay or grain. Later they came along with the wagon and picked it up to haul to the barn or to the stack. It took a large portion of your crop just to feed your horses and cattle. Sometimes you didn't have any to thresh, but you always hoped.

Question: Was there wild game on those lakes, ducks and geese?

Answer: Yes, lots of ducks and geese, plus lot of white-tailed jackrabbits, sage hens and grouse and some prairie chickens. You know that was a large part of your food supply-the wild game.