Today we were packing up the 5er for awhile. We are headed to my mom's house to do some house sitting for a couple weeks while she goes on her annual trek to Klamath Falls and the Running Y Ranch to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles with her church.
In addition to packing up clothing for several weeks and since it was so hot out now, my packing was leaning toward shorts/tank tops, but also knowing that the rain would probably be coming also, made it an interesting packing job. Because the 5er would be stored, we also had to empty out the refrigerator/freezer. Wow, it was a good thing check out at this RV park was not until noon. I think it was actually 12:05 p.m. before we were pulling out of the park.
We got to our storage facility and got backed into our alloted space, which seemed pretty large, until you stick a 39' 5er into it. Rich is getting much better at backing, what's the old saying.....practice makes perfect. =)
We got backed in and then the fun began, trying to get all of our bags and food packed into the backseat and bed of the truck and boy was it hot out today. We finally got the 5er tucked away and everything loaded up, boy that airconditioning in the truck felt good. It felt a little sad to be leaving our home behind. Actually we have a warranty appt scheduled next week, so we will be taking it down to Junction City for that.
We got up to mom's, it sure is good to see her again. She does an amazing job in keeping the "home place" looking good all by herself. It's a lot of work and she has a big list for us which should keep us nice and busy while she's gone.
Since we'll be at my mom's, I won't be posting regularly. Our plan is to be back on the road heading south and to warmer weather sometime in the early part of October, so you can check back then to see about our adventures while we were at my mom's. Until then, be safe and God Bless you all.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 (Salem, OR)
We woke to pretty skies this morning, looks like it will be a nice drive to Salem today. We took our time getting packed up this morning since we didn't have far to go. We had a very nice drive and it was good to get back into the warm sunshine vs the cool sunshine we've been experiencing the last several months being on the Washington/Oregon coast.
We got to our RV park in Salem which was on Silverton Rd about 12:30 p.m. The drive was uneventful and my concerns about hitting Salem during the noon lunch hour was for nothing, as we didn't hit much traffic and the route to Silverton Rd was just fine.
We got checked in at the Phoenix RV Park and into our pull through site with no incidents. Got to love those pull through sites. This actually is a very nice park and we were actually quite impressed, so impressed that we forgot to take a picture of our site - rats, I think this is the first one we've missed taking a picture of our site.
The plan this afternoon was to check out a couple RV storage spots for the 5er as well as get all the salt washed off. Being on the coast for so long, we didn't want to keep that salt on our paint job any longer than necessary.
So after getting the bare minimum set up inside the 5er, we checked out the storage facility here at the park, but weren't too impressed because it wasn't totally fenced, good thing we have another option. We went and checked out our second option and decided to go with that one because it was fully fenced. Good, got one thing checked off the list. Now on to the second item, washing the 5er.
Lucky for us, it was very hot outside, so it was a good afternoon to wash the 5er, the cool water felt good. We even got up on the roof and got that washed off, it was pretty dirty. Again, no pictures, we were too focused on our task.
My brother, Jayme and his girlfriend Lisa came by and picked us up and treated us to an authentic Mexican meal at one of the local Mexican restaurants on Silverton Rd. We had a very good burrito, though I told Lisa that I liked hers better - she makes one mean burrito. Of course, after such a filling meal, what else would taste good but a good old DQ blizzard, this was our treat. The blizzards were a little disappointing as they were softer than normal, but is ice cream really ever that bad? Then it was back to the 5er for a tour as they had never seen the inside yet. We had a very nice visit, thanks for the meal Jay & Lisa.
We got to our RV park in Salem which was on Silverton Rd about 12:30 p.m. The drive was uneventful and my concerns about hitting Salem during the noon lunch hour was for nothing, as we didn't hit much traffic and the route to Silverton Rd was just fine.
We got checked in at the Phoenix RV Park and into our pull through site with no incidents. Got to love those pull through sites. This actually is a very nice park and we were actually quite impressed, so impressed that we forgot to take a picture of our site - rats, I think this is the first one we've missed taking a picture of our site.
The plan this afternoon was to check out a couple RV storage spots for the 5er as well as get all the salt washed off. Being on the coast for so long, we didn't want to keep that salt on our paint job any longer than necessary.
So after getting the bare minimum set up inside the 5er, we checked out the storage facility here at the park, but weren't too impressed because it wasn't totally fenced, good thing we have another option. We went and checked out our second option and decided to go with that one because it was fully fenced. Good, got one thing checked off the list. Now on to the second item, washing the 5er.
Lucky for us, it was very hot outside, so it was a good afternoon to wash the 5er, the cool water felt good. We even got up on the roof and got that washed off, it was pretty dirty. Again, no pictures, we were too focused on our task.
My brother, Jayme and his girlfriend Lisa came by and picked us up and treated us to an authentic Mexican meal at one of the local Mexican restaurants on Silverton Rd. We had a very good burrito, though I told Lisa that I liked hers better - she makes one mean burrito. Of course, after such a filling meal, what else would taste good but a good old DQ blizzard, this was our treat. The blizzards were a little disappointing as they were softer than normal, but is ice cream really ever that bad? Then it was back to the 5er for a tour as they had never seen the inside yet. We had a very nice visit, thanks for the meal Jay & Lisa.
Friday-Monday, September 6-9, 2013 (Lincoln City, OR)
Wow, I haven't posted in awhile, so I hope I haven't forgotten too many of our adventures, so this may be short and sweet. (I hear that collective sigh of relief from you readers.....)
Friday
Today was a travel day, it was relatively short in mileage, but because we were driving Hwy 101, we knew it would take a bit. We got on the road around 9:30 a.m., it wasn't really raining, but it was very cloudy and the roads were wet. Unfortunately Rich wasn't feeling 100% but was doing well enough to drive which is a good thing since we had to vacate our spot today.
We drove over the 4 mile bridge at Astoria which really wasn't too bad, I wasn't sure what to expect being in the 5er. Luckily there wasn't much wind, that would have made for a tricky drive. We were back in Oregon after being gone for about 3 months, it was nice to be back in our "home" state. We took a rest break at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and I think this is one of the first time's I've known Rich to pass up ice cream, he must not be feeling well. =) As we were walking back out to the 5er, Rich recognized someone from Bend, Bob who used to own the Tire Factory. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, it was nice to be in Oregon and run into a familiar face. Then it was back on the road.
We arrived in Lincoln City in the early afternoon and no rain on the drive down, yahoo. We actually had blue skies, though it was windy and cool. We were staying at the Premier RV Resort south of Lincoln City and weren't too sure what to expect. Pulling in, it looked very nice, whew, that's a relief, sometime you just can't tell from the pics on the internet. We also use a RV Park review tool which helps. We got our assigned back in site and proceeded to pull up to it, yikes, it looks really tight Whew, Rich made it in, though we did have to ask someone to move their car. IF you notice, we are parked next to another Mobile Suites, this is the first time we are parked right next to one and only the 3rd one we've seen in our travels. We got to spend awhile talking to the other Mobile Suites owners who have had their rig for around 5 years and had nothing but good to say about it. It's always nice to hear positive comments.
After getting set up and doing some visiting, we took a walk through the park and then pretty much kicked back for the rest of the evening. This is the view from our level of the park, we are across the street from the ocean, actually we are next to the Inn at Spanish Head.
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Friday
Today was a travel day, it was relatively short in mileage, but because we were driving Hwy 101, we knew it would take a bit. We got on the road around 9:30 a.m., it wasn't really raining, but it was very cloudy and the roads were wet. Unfortunately Rich wasn't feeling 100% but was doing well enough to drive which is a good thing since we had to vacate our spot today.
We drove over the 4 mile bridge at Astoria which really wasn't too bad, I wasn't sure what to expect being in the 5er. Luckily there wasn't much wind, that would have made for a tricky drive. We were back in Oregon after being gone for about 3 months, it was nice to be back in our "home" state. We took a rest break at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and I think this is one of the first time's I've known Rich to pass up ice cream, he must not be feeling well. =) As we were walking back out to the 5er, Rich recognized someone from Bend, Bob who used to own the Tire Factory. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, it was nice to be in Oregon and run into a familiar face. Then it was back on the road.
We arrived in Lincoln City in the early afternoon and no rain on the drive down, yahoo. We actually had blue skies, though it was windy and cool. We were staying at the Premier RV Resort south of Lincoln City and weren't too sure what to expect. Pulling in, it looked very nice, whew, that's a relief, sometime you just can't tell from the pics on the internet. We also use a RV Park review tool which helps. We got our assigned back in site and proceeded to pull up to it, yikes, it looks really tight Whew, Rich made it in, though we did have to ask someone to move their car. IF you notice, we are parked next to another Mobile Suites, this is the first time we are parked right next to one and only the 3rd one we've seen in our travels. We got to spend awhile talking to the other Mobile Suites owners who have had their rig for around 5 years and had nothing but good to say about it. It's always nice to hear positive comments.
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| Our spot in Lincoln City - notice the D Mobile Suites to the right of us. |
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Saturday
We woke to a nice day - Wow, how lucky is that. We got up and went jogging on the beach, how nice is that. After we came back and had breakfast, we got Gracie and took her for a walk on the beach, you know how she loves the beach and her ball.
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After some beach time, we headed to the outlet mall to do some shopping, we are still replacing items that got stolen. We spent a few hours picking up some items and of course since Rich was feeling better, we stopped in and had an ice cream cone, yummy.
Sunday
As you know, we try to attend a local church in each area. Today was no exception, so after breakfast we headed out the door to church. I walked up to the truck expecting Rich to unlock it but he kept on walking, what??? Guess what, we are walking to church today, there was a church right across the street, how convenient was that.
When we walked up, we could see a little girl looking out the window (it was a two story building) and there weren't many cars as the parking lot was tiny, but we saw the sign, City Gate, so this must be it. We walked in and were greeted by the little girl and handed our bulletin, how sweet was that. There were only a few people standing around and they came right over and introduced themselves. They had been fellow travelers, but in the last year because of health issues had settled down in the area and had made this their church home. The church congregation was very small today, under a dozen and part of them were the pastors family members, including the little girl, who was his grand daughter. What a powerful sermon this pastor gave, it just goes to show that God is with the small congregations as well as the large. After the sermon, the pastors wife came up and we were talking and she asked if we had attended Westside in Bend and knew of the Stern family. Well yes we do, what a small world, apparently Bo Stern's mother used to babysit her when she was small. We had a very pleasurable morning.
After church, we had a bit of lunch and then went down to the beach with Gracie. Our plan was to do some reading and just kick back on the beach, but the wind came up and the sand was just blowing too hard. We had heard about a farmers market, so we decided to check that out. Well, we checked it out, but it wasn't really much, mostly craft items and not many vegetables, we did buy a couple ears of fresh corn.
When we checked in we got a coupon for the restaurant at the Inn at Spanish Head, so the plan was to walk over tonight and have some h'orderves. We got a window table and had a little friend that visited, it probably didn't help that Rich kept feeding him chips through the window. Even with the wind blowing pretty strong, he was able to grab those chips before they went over the side, I don't think you can tell but we were up about 10 stories.
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Monday
It was a little foggy when we woke up this morning, but it quickly burned off and looked to be a pretty nice day. So after our morning jog and breakfast, we grabbed my kite and Gracie and headed to the beach. I finally got to spend some time flying my kite, I'm not very good at it, but I have a lot of fun.
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After the morning's fun, Rich and I walked down the beach about a mile to the Mo's restaurant and had lunch and then walked back. Hopefully that walk worked off that big bowl of clam chowder. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry in anticipation of our departure tomorrow. We have had a really nice time at Lincoln City these last couple of days, which Lincoln City is usually not one of my favorite beach towns to visit. We head for Salem tomorrow to get the 5er ready to park in storage for a couple weeks.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013 (Long Beach, WA)
All we kept hearing about the last couple of days was this incredible rain that we were suppose to get today, so we weren't sure what to expect when we woke up, but it was fairly nice out, overcast but warm. Hmmm this doesn't look too bad. So we started our morning out with a jog on the beach. Wow - that's a pretty good way to start your day, other than three ladies we were the only ones on the beach, it was beautiful though it didn't make the jogging any easier.
After we got cleaned up and had our breakfast we decided to take Gracie and go and check out the local boardwalk we'd read about. It is just under a mile and cost around $400,000 to build. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a very nice walk out among the sand dunes.
While we were out walking, we saw part of the Discovery Trail which is a 8.2 mile walking/biking trail from Long Beach to Ilwaco and covers part of the trail that Lewis & Clark took. Hmmm, the weather is looking pretty good still, shall we go for a nice bike ride, what's the worst that can happen, it starts raining and we head back - yep, let's go for it. So we went back to the 5er, got some lunch and got our bikes loaded up in the truck and headed back to the Discovery Trail.
We started at the beginning and road to Ilwaco and Baker Bay. It started out as a nice leisurely bike ride through the dunes for the first six miles or so but those last two miles were a killer. Once we turned away from the beach the elevation changed and we rode up to about 150' elevation. Now that doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you it was for us semi-novice bike riders. I made the wrong choice in footwear because I was wearing Teva open toed sandals and they were slippery on my pedals. I was also having a few technical difficulties with shifting (i.e. my nice way of saying that I messed up shifting gears a couple of times). I think there were two places coming and going that we ended up pushing our bikes up the steep inclines. When we rode Paulina Lake, Little Crater campground to the Paulina Lake lodge, I was able to make it up those steep inclines, but they had a little bit more of a gradual beginning to the grade, these inclines just went straight up. I was a little annoyed with myself to have to be pushing the bike. There was this little voice in the back of my head saying, don't forget, you have the return trip and these couple of steep hills you have to go back up but by then it was the challenge of riding all the way to Ilwaco. I'm glad to say we made it to Ilwaco - and it was a pretty little harbor with lots of fishing boats. We stopped and checked out a fish market but decided we didn't want to try and carry home any fish in our backpack.
I'm surprised I'm actually smiling in this picture, we had just pushed our bikes up this incredibly steep incline that I couldn't make it all the way up by pedal power. After some gear shifting coaching by Rich, we finally made it through the 2 miles of steep hilly inclines and were back on the beach in the dunes, whew that was an accomplishment. Now it was only six miles back to our starting point but now we were bucking a head wind, oh well it was much easier than pedaling uphill but I do have to admit, I was glad when we got back to the truck. We had an awesome 16+ mile bike ride, saw some pretty country, conquered some hills and never got rained on, it was a very enjoyable day for the both of us. These are the kinds of days I imagined for us before we were retired and still working and I'm glad to report they are much better in reality than in my imagination.
We got back to the 5er and had only been there a little while when Rich asks me if someone just took a picture and no sooner got the words out of his mouth than kaboom, Wow now that was some loud thunder and it was very close, a little too close in my opinion. Luckily we only got one other loud kaboom and then a few minutes of hail and then it was over, we were sure glad we were safe and sound back home and not out on the beach somewhere when that hit.
Needless to say, the rest of the evening was spent relaxing in our recliners. Tomorrow we move on to Lincoln City and want to get an early start since it will be a little bit of a longer travel day than we usually like and we are also traveling on a Friday along with the weekend travelers.
After we got cleaned up and had our breakfast we decided to take Gracie and go and check out the local boardwalk we'd read about. It is just under a mile and cost around $400,000 to build. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a very nice walk out among the sand dunes.
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| Road leading to boardwalk and the beach |
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| Start of Long Beach Boardwalk |
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| Walking on the boardwalk |
We started at the beginning and road to Ilwaco and Baker Bay. It started out as a nice leisurely bike ride through the dunes for the first six miles or so but those last two miles were a killer. Once we turned away from the beach the elevation changed and we rode up to about 150' elevation. Now that doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you it was for us semi-novice bike riders. I made the wrong choice in footwear because I was wearing Teva open toed sandals and they were slippery on my pedals. I was also having a few technical difficulties with shifting (i.e. my nice way of saying that I messed up shifting gears a couple of times). I think there were two places coming and going that we ended up pushing our bikes up the steep inclines. When we rode Paulina Lake, Little Crater campground to the Paulina Lake lodge, I was able to make it up those steep inclines, but they had a little bit more of a gradual beginning to the grade, these inclines just went straight up. I was a little annoyed with myself to have to be pushing the bike. There was this little voice in the back of my head saying, don't forget, you have the return trip and these couple of steep hills you have to go back up but by then it was the challenge of riding all the way to Ilwaco. I'm glad to say we made it to Ilwaco - and it was a pretty little harbor with lots of fishing boats. We stopped and checked out a fish market but decided we didn't want to try and carry home any fish in our backpack.
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| Starting out on the Discovery Bike Trail |
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| Where the bike trail turns away from the beach and starts heading up in elevation |
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| Had to stop and check out this fish market - it had the same name as our grand daughter |
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| Baker Bay Harbor - notice the clouds, but still no rain |
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| More fishing boats |
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| Heading back toward Long Beach on the Discovery Trail |
We got back to the 5er and had only been there a little while when Rich asks me if someone just took a picture and no sooner got the words out of his mouth than kaboom, Wow now that was some loud thunder and it was very close, a little too close in my opinion. Luckily we only got one other loud kaboom and then a few minutes of hail and then it was over, we were sure glad we were safe and sound back home and not out on the beach somewhere when that hit.
Needless to say, the rest of the evening was spent relaxing in our recliners. Tomorrow we move on to Lincoln City and want to get an early start since it will be a little bit of a longer travel day than we usually like and we are also traveling on a Friday along with the weekend travelers.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013 (Long Beach, WA)
Wednesday
Today was a travel day to Long Beach. We got up and after our normal morning routine started the pack up routine. We were also watching to see if the RV across from us was leaving this morning and yes, they were, sweet. We didn't get on the road until 11:00 a.m. and had a nice leisurely and uneventful drive to Long Beach. Neither one of us had ever been to this part of the Washington coast. We drove for quite a while along Wilapa Bay which made the drive very scenic.
We arrived around 1:00 p.m. and got set up in our site. We prefer pull through sites, but for our next two stops we were going to be in back in sites and right handed back ins which are not Rich's favorite. I thought he did very well getting backed in, it was pretty tight quarters since they put us close to the end of the row. They have a camp host that helps guide you in, which is good since I still haven't quite got the turning radius figured out and so am not much help in guiding Rich back.
We have a lovely view out our back window of the grassy dunes and the beach is just a short walk through the dunes. Too bad we can only stay here two nights, it would have been nice to stay longer, we are liking this park.
After we got set up, we had a late lunch and then took Gracie out on the beach and let her play fetch. I tell you, she just loves to fetch, you can just see how happy she is when she's running after her ball. I just wish she wasn't quite so obsessive about it, she was letting us know when we were getting set up that we were taking way too long and we should already be down there on the beach.
After our beach walk, we took a drive through town to check it out and try out some seafood since we are on the coast. When we checked in, I had asked for a recommendation on a good place to get chowder and oysters and was given a name of a restaurant which we decided to check out. Hmmm.....it doesn't look too good when you drive up at 6:00 p.m. and you see the cooks out back smoking and only a few cars in the parking lot. It's even scarier when you walk in and are seated and there is only one other couple in the whole place. We decided that we'd like to try a different place so we left. I always hate walking out of a restaurant once you've been seated but we were just not "feeling" this place. We drove around and found a more promising place called the "Lost Roo". We both had their fresh halibut fish and chips and they were very tasty, so I was glad we changed restaurants.
When we got back to the 5er it was close to sunset so we took Gracie out on the beach for another walk. Rich took some amazing pictures while I threw Gracie's ball. It was a beautiful evening, the beach was amazing, only a handful of people walking, so very different than our experience on Sunday at Ocean Shores. The beach here is long and wide and there are no rocks and very few shells on the beach, just smooth sand for as far as you can see.
What a beautiful way to end our first day at Long Beach, WA
Today was a travel day to Long Beach. We got up and after our normal morning routine started the pack up routine. We were also watching to see if the RV across from us was leaving this morning and yes, they were, sweet. We didn't get on the road until 11:00 a.m. and had a nice leisurely and uneventful drive to Long Beach. Neither one of us had ever been to this part of the Washington coast. We drove for quite a while along Wilapa Bay which made the drive very scenic.
We arrived around 1:00 p.m. and got set up in our site. We prefer pull through sites, but for our next two stops we were going to be in back in sites and right handed back ins which are not Rich's favorite. I thought he did very well getting backed in, it was pretty tight quarters since they put us close to the end of the row. They have a camp host that helps guide you in, which is good since I still haven't quite got the turning radius figured out and so am not much help in guiding Rich back.
We have a lovely view out our back window of the grassy dunes and the beach is just a short walk through the dunes. Too bad we can only stay here two nights, it would have been nice to stay longer, we are liking this park.
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| RV site |
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| View out our back window |
After our beach walk, we took a drive through town to check it out and try out some seafood since we are on the coast. When we checked in, I had asked for a recommendation on a good place to get chowder and oysters and was given a name of a restaurant which we decided to check out. Hmmm.....it doesn't look too good when you drive up at 6:00 p.m. and you see the cooks out back smoking and only a few cars in the parking lot. It's even scarier when you walk in and are seated and there is only one other couple in the whole place. We decided that we'd like to try a different place so we left. I always hate walking out of a restaurant once you've been seated but we were just not "feeling" this place. We drove around and found a more promising place called the "Lost Roo". We both had their fresh halibut fish and chips and they were very tasty, so I was glad we changed restaurants.
When we got back to the 5er it was close to sunset so we took Gracie out on the beach for another walk. Rich took some amazing pictures while I threw Gracie's ball. It was a beautiful evening, the beach was amazing, only a handful of people walking, so very different than our experience on Sunday at Ocean Shores. The beach here is long and wide and there are no rocks and very few shells on the beach, just smooth sand for as far as you can see.
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| Start of sunset over Long Beach, WA |
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| Going through the clouds |
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| Almost gone |
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| All gone..... |
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| Onle last parting shot |
Monday - Tuesday, September 2-3, 2013 (Elma, WA)
Monday
Nothing too exciting was on the agenda today and since it was Labor Day we were staying put. We spent the day doing mundane things like: paying bills, researching our next two stops, updating our blog and laundry.
Tuesday
We were a little more adventureous today. We took a trip into Olympia after breakfast. We stopped at a couple of our favorite stores like Trader Joes, Costco and Fred Meyer. We are still slowly replacing items on our "stolen" list.
We expected to come back to an emptied out park, but we didn't, it still was pretty full. According to the camp hosts, it was suppose to empty out, which it did but then they got a bunch of overnighters stopping in. We were hoping the spot straight across from us would remain empty to make it easier for us to leave in the morning, but no such luck. Oh well I'm sure it will all work out.
Nothing too exciting was on the agenda today and since it was Labor Day we were staying put. We spent the day doing mundane things like: paying bills, researching our next two stops, updating our blog and laundry.
Tuesday
We were a little more adventureous today. We took a trip into Olympia after breakfast. We stopped at a couple of our favorite stores like Trader Joes, Costco and Fred Meyer. We are still slowly replacing items on our "stolen" list.
We expected to come back to an emptied out park, but we didn't, it still was pretty full. According to the camp hosts, it was suppose to empty out, which it did but then they got a bunch of overnighters stopping in. We were hoping the spot straight across from us would remain empty to make it easier for us to leave in the morning, but no such luck. Oh well I'm sure it will all work out.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Wednesday - Sunday, August 25-29, 2013 (Elma, WA)
During the night it rained hard, so much for the clean 5er and truck. We got up and skipped our jogging routine – I think I was too sore from the trampoline jumping to even jog, for some reason my right hip was just killing me.
After breakfast we started our pack up routine – boy it’s been awhile, hopefully we don’t forget something important. Kris and the boys came by to say goodbye since they were headed into town for errands, one of them being getting their school supplies. I remember those days, how exciting it was to have your new pencils/pens and peechee folders.
It took us longer than normal to get packed up, we just had more things to put away since we had been in one location for so long. We had planned to leave by 10:00 a.m. but didn’t pull out until about 11:00 a.m. One nice thing about the rain, at least it settled the dust on the gravel road. We said our good-bye’s to Brandon and headed out.
Now the big thing is we are traveling down I-5 to Olympia before we head west toward the coast and you know us and traffic. Well I’m glad to report, that other than just a few minutes of stop and go in the Seattle area, we did not have any traffic issues. We missed being able to use the Express Lanes that run through Seattle but it still wasn’t too bad.
We arrived at Elma RV Park around 2:00 p.m. after a nice comfortable drive with no rain. It appears to be a pretty nice park and we were able to get into our back in site easily. We plan on being here through the Labor Day weekend. Because our plans were so up in the air while we were waiting for our BANKS and camera replacements to arrive, we weren’t able to find anything on the coast over the holiday weekend. We are about 20 miles from the coast and just south of the Olympics. We sure got spoiled at Brandon & Kris' as far as a nice private setting.
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After we got set up, we took a walk around the park. It appears that part of the park has some year round residents, but the part we are camped in looks to be the "traveling" folks. We met one of the campground hosts while we were setting up. They have only been on the road since May and will be camp hosting here until the end of September. Hopefully we’ll get to chat some more while we are here and take a tour of their "home on wheels".
We just kicked back the rest of the afternoon and had a relaxing evening watching a movie. We’ll see what tomorrow will bring.
Thursday
Boy during the night we sure got some heavy rain. This morning it was raining and the forecast is for rain all day….yuck. We didn’t have much incentive to get up early and when we did, we decided to go out for breakfast at one of the local restaurants.
We ate at the Rusty Tractor. They had "yak" meat on the menu which is a healthy alternative to beef with less fat, so I gave their yak sausage omelet a try. Rich had "cowpie" biscuits and gravy. The yak sausage was good and my breakfast was OK, just too much food. Rich was disappointed with his biscuits and gravy, there was too much biscuit and not enough gravy. I guess that’s why it was called "cowpie" biscuits, it was one huge blob of a biscuit. On our value meter, the restaurant scored low because the prices were quite high and the food was just OK.
We have some places we’d like to visit, but with all the rain forecast today, it may just be a kick back day at home in the 5er.
Friday
Today our plan was to head north. We had our breakfast and packed up a lunch and headed out for our days adventure. We were headed as far north as Forks, yes I have to admit it, I'm a Twilight fan and since we were in the neighborhood......
We stopped for lunch along the part of Hwy 101 that actually goes by the beach and was only about 11 miles worth, definitely different than the Oregon Hwy 101.
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| Our lunch spot, as you can see it was pretty foggy out, the ocean doesn't really show up in this picture |
We finally made it to Forks and the first stop was the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Info which has definitely taken advantage of the Twilight saga. In talking with the lady at the front desk, in 2005 Forks Chamber/Visitor Info saw approximately 5,000 folks. In 2010 they had 75,000 folks stop in. Since 2010 the visits have started dropping off from that 75,000 mark but are still extremely high. You leave the visitor Center with a "Forks Twilight Map" which has the different locations from the book/movie. We didn't go to all the locations, just a few....
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| Welcome to Forks |
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| 63 Chevy Truck Bella drove in the movie |
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| Chamber - notice sign above the doors |
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| Bella's house |
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| Sign at the hospital - the original sign didn't have "vampire", that was added later |
After our trip through Forks we turned around and headed back south instead of making the whole Hwy 101 loop through the Olympics. We stopped and saw this large cedar tree - it really was quite huge.
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| Rich & Gracie in front of the big cedar tree |
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| Big Cedar Tree |
The next stop on the way home was Lake Quinault. They had a waterfall trail that I had read about and thought would make a nice hike. Because it has been a dry summer, even up here in the Olympics, the waterfalls were not that spectacular, but they were pretty and it was a nice 2 mile hike and the lodge and lake were beautiful.
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| Falls Creek Falls |
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| Cascade Falls |
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| Not sure of the name of this falls |
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| View of Lake Quinault from the resort |
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| Lake Quinault Lodge - it was pretty |
We had quite a long day for us - we didn't make it back to the 5er until after 7:00 p.m. It was a good exploring day and we saw a lot of sights.
Saturday
Today our plan was to go explore the other side of the Olympics. We got an earlier start to our day. We stopped in Shelton and grabbed a quick bit of breakfast - McDonalds and then Starbucks for our lattes. Shelton had a farmer's market so we decided to check it out. What a disappointment - I don't know if it was because of the holiday weekend, or they just didn't have alot of vendors, but it was nothing to write home about. We walked away with no purchases, maybe we'll find another one later today.
We didn't really have any activities in mind today, we were just mostly out for a drive and to check out the scenery. We drove through Belfair which was having a Celtic festival this weekend but we decided to pass, the parking alone was $10.00 and who knows what the entrance fee was and if they would allow dogs. We are leary of leaving Gracie in the truck now since our recent break in.
After we left Belfair we drove through Union which was a very pretty drive and I forgot to take pictures of the pretty water and all the pretty houses. The only bad thing with all the pretty houses were that they were right next to the road and I mean right next. We did come across a farm stand so we stopped and got some fresh veggies. After Union we headed to Hoodsport. We checked out Hoodsport which Rich was familiar with because his sister Madeline used to live there. Here is a shot of Hood Canal near Hoodsport.
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| Hood Canal near Hoodsport |
When the sun is shining, I can see why people like to live up here near all this water, but it's the rest of the time when it's raining that would get to me. I read that Hoodsport's annual average rainfall is 100 inches per year - yikes, that's too much rain for me.
After Hoodsport, we drove up to Lake Cushman to have our picnic lunch. Well that was the plan at least - we could not find a public beach or boat launch at all. We saw a sign for the dam so we decided they might have a picnic spot - wrong, nothing but pavement. We were getting hungry so we stopped in the parking lot and ate on the tailgate of the pickup truck. Our lunch entertainment was watching the neighbor trying to pull his travel trailer out from underneath his garage roof. You would have had to been there to understand the setup, but needless to say, they weren't having much luck because the trailer air conditioner kept bumping up against the roof. I'd be curious to see how they ever got that thing in under the garage, let alone how they are going to get it out. So for us - Lake Cushman was a big disappointment, I had visions of having our picnic lunch and spending some time with my toes in the water, but it wasn't going to be today. We decided to head back to the 5er and sit in our lounge chairs with our books, so that's what we did.
We had an enjoyable afternoon just kicking back doing some reading and watching the comings and goings of the other campers. The only bummer is all the smokers. We have noticed since we left the Bend area, that a lot of people still smoke.
Sunday
Today we were visiting the Grace Community Church in Elma. I have to say, this has been the most friendly church we have visited yet. We sure enjoyed our visit and got to meet most of the congregation of about 40 folks.
After church we came back to the 5er and had some lunch and then headed to the beach. We were going to go visit Ocean Shores. I don't know what we were thinking, what with the beautiful sunshine and a holiday weekend, but the beach was crazy busy, I've never seen a beach with so many people and cars on it. We spent a little bit of time on the beach with Gracie and her ball, she loves to play fetch before we decided to head back home before these hordes of people decided to go home also. One thing I have to say we noticed, the crowds seemed very well behaved and there was no visible police patrols.
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| Cars & people for as far as the eye could see - they don't really show up that well in this picture, you just have to take our word for it. =) |
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| Looking the other direction and again cars & people for as far as the eye could see |
Our drive back to the 5er was uneventful and the traffic was still pretty light, thank goodness. Once we got home, we parked ourselves in our lounge chairs with our books and did some reading.
Around 6:00 the camphost we met on our first day here came over and invited us to join them for some socializing. We grabbed some of our smoked kokanee and some Perrier and headed over to the office deck area for some visiting. We got to meet the managers of the park, another couple that live full time in the park, another work camper and then the work camping couple we met, Jesse & Sherry. There was a young couple from North Carolina that joined us for awhile, they had just purchased an inflatable kayak from Jesse. Rats, too bad we didn't realize he had one for sale as we have talked about one, oh well. We spent a nice hour visiting with folks and hearing some of their stories and experiences. We've found that people are usually very friendly in the RV parks we've stayed at and always willing to share their stories.
Monday - Tuesday, August 23-24, 2013 (Camano Island, WA)
Monday
Today was going to be an errand and catch up day. After breakfast Rich took the truck to Mt. Vernon to get the tires rotated. We’ve put on a lot of miles this last month or so traveling between the kids in Maple Valley, Lake Stevens & Camano Island as well as our trips up north to Bellingham and Mt. Vernon. I spent the morning getting caught up on our blog and answering some long overdue emails.
After lunch we decided to drive all the way around the island. The several different times in the past year that we’ve been here for visits we’ve never taken the time to drive around the island. In some ways I was disappointed only because you couldn’t see the water that much, there was too much brush and trees that blocked the view. There are way more people that live on Camano Island than I ever dreamed of. That is the one thing that surprised both Rich and I, there were tons of houses along the way, both south and north. There also wasn’t much beach access for the public. I see why the kids were excited that their property came with three beach accesses through the local country club.
After our drive, Rich started getting things ready for our departure on Wednesday. Since we’ve been sitting in one place for so long, there is a lot more to do. One thing is he has to reconfigure our replacement BANKS Power IQ computer.
Tuesday
Today Kristina had a meeting at her school until noon (she’s a school teacher and they are starting to gear up for the coming school year so her summer vacation is ending) and we offered to watch the boys. We wandered over to the house around 10:00 a.m. and took over. We spent the morning playing two games of Apples to Apples Jr. Cameron was winner of game one and Grandpa (Rich) was winner of game two. After our games, we decided to take the boys into Stanwood for lunch at the DQ and of course Blizzards were on the agenda. We also needed to fuel up the truck with diesel. One of the things when you install a BANKS power system, the computer has to "learn" the gearing in each setting, so we took the opportunity on that drive to take care of that task.
We fueled up the truck first and then headed to the DQ. There was this "pet boutique" that we kept passing when we would go to Mt. Vernon that was just a couple blocks from the DQ that I was curious to stop in and check out before we left, so we decided after lunch we would do that. Well there is a lot to learn when you are grandparents…..one being…..make sure you know what your grandkids like on their hamburgers. When we were ordering the kids meals I didn’t even think to ask if there was anything they "didn’t" like such as mustard or pickles, you know all the good stuff that adults tend to like. Well our food came and yep, you guessed it, the little guy, Calvin’s hamburger came with ketchup, mustard and pickles and of course you can’t eat a hamburger with mustard and pickles. So Granny tried the scraping off the mustard and removing the pickles trick, but apparently in my earnestness, I touched another part of the hamburger bun with the mustard and the whole thing was ruined and couldn’t be eaten by Calvin. Oh my, I felt bad and Rich told the boys that if we were around more, we’d probably know better what they liked on their food. Well you would think that would be the end of the story, but no, there’s more. After Calvin ate his french fries it was time for his ice cream cone that came with his kids meal. He wanted chocolate so Rich brought him back a chocolate ice cream cone. Well the chocolate in Calvin’s mind was the hard crunchy chocolate on the outside of the dipped cone, not chocolate ice cream. Yikes, but at least this one wasn’t a total disaster, he decided he could go ahead and eat the chocolate ice cream. Poor Calvin didn’t fare too well with Grandpa & Granny. I think Cameron’s lunch was OK. Boy it’s hard work being a grandparent. =)
Well after lunch we decided the best course would be to forgo the "pet boutique" and head back to the house and let the boys run off some of their "sugar". We had just gotten back when Kristina pulled in so that was good timing. I explained that Calvin may need a little protein later on since his lunch consisted of french fries and an ice cream cone – not very nutritious was it?
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some more chores around the 5er in preparation for our departure. One thing that I really wanted to get done was to wash the truck and 5er, they were covered in dust from the gravel road. There is rain in the forecast but I didn’t care, I still wanted to get all that dust off our rigs.
After we got everything all washed up, the boys had asked Grandpa to come and jump on the trampoline with them. After Grandpa was done jumping, I took my turn. Boy, that’s a good workout, I got plum wore out.
Kris had invited us for dinner, so after the trampoline jumping we went in for dinner. Boy those boys were sure hungry tonight, especially Calvin. =) We had a nice relaxing dinner and visit. We have had a very pleasant and enjoyable stay and it’s been good to be around the grandkids, they will be grown up before we know it.
Here are some parting pictures of some of the finished projects we had been working on.
Today was going to be an errand and catch up day. After breakfast Rich took the truck to Mt. Vernon to get the tires rotated. We’ve put on a lot of miles this last month or so traveling between the kids in Maple Valley, Lake Stevens & Camano Island as well as our trips up north to Bellingham and Mt. Vernon. I spent the morning getting caught up on our blog and answering some long overdue emails.
After lunch we decided to drive all the way around the island. The several different times in the past year that we’ve been here for visits we’ve never taken the time to drive around the island. In some ways I was disappointed only because you couldn’t see the water that much, there was too much brush and trees that blocked the view. There are way more people that live on Camano Island than I ever dreamed of. That is the one thing that surprised both Rich and I, there were tons of houses along the way, both south and north. There also wasn’t much beach access for the public. I see why the kids were excited that their property came with three beach accesses through the local country club.
After our drive, Rich started getting things ready for our departure on Wednesday. Since we’ve been sitting in one place for so long, there is a lot more to do. One thing is he has to reconfigure our replacement BANKS Power IQ computer.
Tuesday
Today Kristina had a meeting at her school until noon (she’s a school teacher and they are starting to gear up for the coming school year so her summer vacation is ending) and we offered to watch the boys. We wandered over to the house around 10:00 a.m. and took over. We spent the morning playing two games of Apples to Apples Jr. Cameron was winner of game one and Grandpa (Rich) was winner of game two. After our games, we decided to take the boys into Stanwood for lunch at the DQ and of course Blizzards were on the agenda. We also needed to fuel up the truck with diesel. One of the things when you install a BANKS power system, the computer has to "learn" the gearing in each setting, so we took the opportunity on that drive to take care of that task.
We fueled up the truck first and then headed to the DQ. There was this "pet boutique" that we kept passing when we would go to Mt. Vernon that was just a couple blocks from the DQ that I was curious to stop in and check out before we left, so we decided after lunch we would do that. Well there is a lot to learn when you are grandparents…..one being…..make sure you know what your grandkids like on their hamburgers. When we were ordering the kids meals I didn’t even think to ask if there was anything they "didn’t" like such as mustard or pickles, you know all the good stuff that adults tend to like. Well our food came and yep, you guessed it, the little guy, Calvin’s hamburger came with ketchup, mustard and pickles and of course you can’t eat a hamburger with mustard and pickles. So Granny tried the scraping off the mustard and removing the pickles trick, but apparently in my earnestness, I touched another part of the hamburger bun with the mustard and the whole thing was ruined and couldn’t be eaten by Calvin. Oh my, I felt bad and Rich told the boys that if we were around more, we’d probably know better what they liked on their food. Well you would think that would be the end of the story, but no, there’s more. After Calvin ate his french fries it was time for his ice cream cone that came with his kids meal. He wanted chocolate so Rich brought him back a chocolate ice cream cone. Well the chocolate in Calvin’s mind was the hard crunchy chocolate on the outside of the dipped cone, not chocolate ice cream. Yikes, but at least this one wasn’t a total disaster, he decided he could go ahead and eat the chocolate ice cream. Poor Calvin didn’t fare too well with Grandpa & Granny. I think Cameron’s lunch was OK. Boy it’s hard work being a grandparent. =)
Well after lunch we decided the best course would be to forgo the "pet boutique" and head back to the house and let the boys run off some of their "sugar". We had just gotten back when Kristina pulled in so that was good timing. I explained that Calvin may need a little protein later on since his lunch consisted of french fries and an ice cream cone – not very nutritious was it?
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some more chores around the 5er in preparation for our departure. One thing that I really wanted to get done was to wash the truck and 5er, they were covered in dust from the gravel road. There is rain in the forecast but I didn’t care, I still wanted to get all that dust off our rigs.
After we got everything all washed up, the boys had asked Grandpa to come and jump on the trampoline with them. After Grandpa was done jumping, I took my turn. Boy, that’s a good workout, I got plum wore out.
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| Grandpa, Cameron & Calvin - caught them on the down jump, they were going awfully high |
Here are some parting pictures of some of the finished projects we had been working on.
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| This is the completed school map that we helped with earlier in the month |
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| Garden shed (new paint, barkdust and rock border) |
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| Rhodies that I trimmed into trees and weeded and cleaned up underneath |
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| Shop that Rich painted |
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| Another angle of shop |
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