Month: September 2018

Tripometer – 8080

Gas Gauge – 625.372 gal

Location – Champoeg State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

When we made reservations for our site at Champoeg, we made sure to find a site that no one had reserved for Tuesday night. We were going to grab Tuesday once we firmed up plans with Jen (Paul’s niece) for dinner. Well we didn’t remember to do that until last night and we missed our site. Today we had to drag the rig down about 10 sites. The whole operation only took about 45 min. Once moved, Kelly finished her day of work while Paul & Ranger explored the hiking trails at the campground.

In the evening we drove into Portland to the 15th Ave Hophouse for dinner and drinks with Drew, Jen and their two year old, Susie. The meal was (according to Jen) surprisingly good for the place. On tap they had Hi-Wheel Fizzy Wines, Paul and Jen had the Ginger Lemon. Delicious. Leaving without grabbing a selfie of the group, Paul messaged Jen and asked for a group photo for the blog. You’d think we’d get better about taking pictures as this trip progresses…

Trip Note: Up to this point in the trip we’ve had three major stops – The UP of Michigan, Ely, MN, and Banff / Jasper N.P. Moving forward we see three more major destinations – The SW USA, Southern Louisiana, and Southern Florida. We have been to mid California within the past few years and don’t feel the need to revisit the San Francisco area to include Yosemite / Sequoia N.P.  With the exception of Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California we are going to be taking the Pacific Coast Highway (Rt 101) south for most of the way to the SW USA.

Special Note: Jayco Travel Trailer Design Flaw: The microwave oven has a rotating plate in the bottom of the oven as most good microwaves these days do. The rotating plate sits on a wire thing-a-ma-job with wheels (most should be familiar with the things, they look like a coat hanger that wants to learn to rollerblade.) Every time we move the trailer the plate jiggles and the roller wheel shifts out of place and every time we get somewhere Paul has to reset the wheels under the plate because Kelly is too short to see the wheel / plate placement. And that’s today’s first-world problem.

Tripometer – 8019

Gas Gauge –607.372 gal

Location – Champoeg State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

Yesterday we got the sun back, today reasonable humidity returned and things are finally thinking about drying out. The inside of the trailer looks like someone strategically placed explosive charges under everything cloth and set it flying about the inside to be snagged by every corner, edge and hook in the place. The mildew smell has gone away but we suspect that’s only because everything that can be unzipped, slid, propped, or thrown ajar is wide open.

It’s Monday in a nice, quiet campground. Kelly and I both got a lot of computer work done… under the awning. Our campsite is positioned underneath a very large oak tree and the number of acorns dropping every minute is somewhere between 5-200 dependent upon the moods of the red squirrels high in the branches. What’s eerie is that you can see them in the trees, but they have no concern for anything going on beneath them. We’re very used to being yelled at by all of the squirrels in our campsite. Not this time. They are clearly too focused on the ripe acorns.

There’s a wonderfully cheap and well stocked farm stand in the middle of our nearest town. We raided this for dinner. Good produce is sometimes hard to find. We have been jumping on a good produce selection when we find it.

Special Note: Poop bags. Poop bags are just a part of a dog owner’s life. We accumulate on average, 1 a day. Where, might you ask do we store these grab bags of filth?

We maintain two garbage cans in the trailer and (when we’re on the ball) one in the car. But these are bags of poop, who wants to store them in the car or the trailer? Our solution to this has been to put them in the windshield gutter on the hood of the car. Now, this is just a temporary solution, they quickly find their way into bags that are being taken to the dumpster or garbage can at the entrance of the campground… most of the time.

The two forgotten poop bags pictured above apparently drove the entire distance from Fort Stevens to Champoeg State Parks, a distance of about 150mi without flying off the hood of the truck. We can now tell anyone that asks about the air speed velocity of two laden poop bags.

Tripometer – 8005

Gas Gauge – 607.372 gal

Location – Champoeg State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

The rain stopped shortly before morning today and there were blue skies as we packed up the trailer to move. Sadly, the trailer and contents are still awfully wet. (Kelly woke up this morning when a large drop of condensation splashed her on the forehead.) We closed up the trailer, as wet as it was, and headed to the sewage dump in the campground. While we waited in line to dump our tanks, Paul captured the grassy road picture above. You have to keep your eyes open! Beauty can smell like a dump station! (We will not discuss why it might be so green.)

There was one sight at this little park that we hadn’t visited (mostly due to the rain), the wreck of the Peter Iredale. This ship was built in 1890 in the transitional period between wood sailing vessels and iron steamers. The Peter Iredale was an iron sailing ship, what’s called a transitional vessel. It was wrecked in 1906 in a strong storm. You can see one of the three white cylindrical mast seats on the left side of the picture. Kids were having a blast playing on this hulk of a vehicle – barnacles be damned!

Most of the rest of the day was spent tooling down Rt 101 along the coast of Oregon enjoying the beautiful views. Volcanic rock structures litter the coast with sharp pinnacles and soft, rounded, pillow-shaped rocks around every corner making for really beautiful views. We are planning on travelling along the 101 far south into California, so today was a nice preview of what we will learn to love over the next week or so.

Too funny not to pass along: Our nomination for best business name of 2018, a dog training service called:

“Your Dog Don’t Know Sit”.

Special Note: Ranger had an altercation with an aggressive male Golden Retriever about 5 or 6 months ago and ever since then has been aggressive towards other male dogs when he’s on a leash. We’ve been combating it as best we can, but we really aren’t properly equipped to deal with this kind of behavioral issue on the road. It has led us to be extra vigilant with him in public places around other dogs and has limited the amount of time we can let him off leash (we’re not positive it’s ONLY when he’s on leash, but we can’t exactly test that with strangers). It’s super frustrating for all three of us. Today was a bad day. He had a run in with a black lab that was running around the beach with no leash and had a second run in with a yellow lab at an ice cream stand this evening. We are both tiring of having to be mean and ugly to the dog for being a jerk.

Tripometer – 7859 mi

Gas Gauge – 607.372 gal

Location – Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

Today started slowly. The rain last night extended well into the day today. The dark rain skies conspired with the drawn shades on the trailer to keep us both in bed until after 10am. (Yes, Kelly, asleep until 10am – several hours later than, well, almost ever.) Once coffee was had we ventured into town to find some food and a bath for the dog. (He hasn’t been bathed since this trip started and he’s starting to smell a bit ripe, swimming almost every day or not.)

Preface: We’re trying not to talk about food too much in the blog, but this meal was amazing and SO different.

When Googling restaurants in and around Astoria, a particular place stood out for us. Drina Daisy Bosnian Restaurant. Both of us are somewhat adventurous eaters but neither of us have even seen or heard of a Bosnian restaurant. We simply had to check this out. We really scored choosing this place for lunch. The appetizer was a smoked meat and cheese platter. For main entrees Paul had lamb chops and Kelly had stuffed cabbage leaves. Dessert was Baklava with coffee served in the traditional manner. HOLY COW what a meal, and not expensive at all. Now, that makes for a great meal, but to make this an unforgettable meal the atmosphere has to be spot on, right? What made this meal for us was the husband / wife team that ran the restaurant. It was pretty clear that these two have been running a restaurant together the entire time they’ve been married. The awards, reviews, and articles on the walls would indicate that they’ve been doing it quite well. What we found so memorable was the fact that they screamed and yelled at each other the entire time we were in the restaurant – about everything. Here’s the twist – they would carry on and fuss constantly but when needed, they would get within a whisper’s distance and talk about the important or serious topics  without any bickering. The screaming and yelling was a coping mechanism that neither really payed any attention to. They were both wonderful folks and we had time to talk at length to both of them before our meal was over. Drina, the wife and chef, said to Paul as she handed him the lamb chops, in a very thick accent, ‘In my country we use hands’.

After Ranger’s bath Kelly wanted to have beers at the Rogue Brewery. Astoria, the closest town of any size to Fort Stevens State Park is a beautiful old fishing town. A brand we all know, Bumble Bee Tuna Company was started in Astoria, Oregon in 1899 and operated here until 1980. The Rogue Brewery, which is a brand that Kelly dearly loves, now occupies space in what once was the original Bumble Bee Cannery on Pier 39. The old cannery had several smaller businesses as well as a Bumble Bee museum with fishing boats, canning equipment and enough historic advertising to blur anyone’s eyes. We had a wonderful Saturday evening having a few good beers while listening to the sea lions on the fishing pier about 300 yards away ‘Ork Ork Ork’ endlessly. We spent the first half of our evening outside with the dog under the table, but the rain and temperature forced us inside shortly after dark.

When we left the mountains of Canada, we expected to find warmer temperatures soon after descending altitude, but instead we found that fall had come to the Northwest and temperatures are barely touching 65 most days. Returning to the trailer this evening Kelly smelled the inevitable – mildew (Paul’s smeller still isn’t working). It has been raining on and off for about a week now. Condensation on the tents above our beds has caused minor rain storms to break out over our beds in the middle of the night if you roll over too hard. We desperately need to get us and this rig to warmer, drier weather and soon.

Tripometer – 7830

Gas Gauge – 590.306 gal

Location – Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

Stratis & Regina left early this morning to go visit their daughter in Portland for the weekend. Kelly needed internet for work so we drove out to the tip of our peninsula and both of us enjoyed a few hours of solid internet time coming from cell tower somewhere down river. We have only camped in sites without cell signal (and consequently internet) a few times during this trip. It’s tremendously frustrating. So much of our trip related activities are internet based. Everywhere we go we are new to town and have no idea where basic services are. The internet is our only easy solution to finding those services. For Paul, planning where we’re headed next, where we’re going to park the trailer, and what we want to see are all questions best answered on the internet. For Kelly the need is obvious, she needs to work. Having to do your work from the hood of a car 30 feet from the beach may sound like a dream to some, but gets old after a few days. Not having a cell signal in our campsite is always a struggle. (We HATE having to say that out loud.)

We managed to catch someone cancelling their campsite reservations for this weekend at Fort Stevens and snatched them up quickly. We still had to move the trailer though – 3 spaces down the loop! That was the easiest move day of the trip!

We spent the late afternoon in town doing a few errands followed by Ranger’s introduction to the ocean. As near as we can tell, Ranger didn’t even notice the waves or salt. He has been attacking the waves with his chest in a rather pro manner. The waves here are small though due to the gentle sloping ocean floor. We’ll see how he handles truly big waves another day. What he truly enjoys is the wide open beach. We can let him off of his leash to run to his heart’s content with this wide open space. He ran himself ragged. The parasailer in the picture was hovering just above the dunes for over an hour, slowly drifting up and down the beach. The steady 25-30 mph wind was just enough to cradle his seat in the wind. This was driving Paul nuts as he’s not had a chance to try out his new parafoil that he purchased in Michigan.

And then the rain began… Again… For realz!

Special Note: It bears remarking on the strange feeling of waking up every morning and having to remember where you are. When the eyes first open in the morning it’s easy to recognize the trailer but question number two every morning is  “But WHERE the hell am I?”.

Tripometer – 7795

Gas Gauge – 590.306 gal

Location – Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

In the afternoon, Stratis, Regina, and the two of us took the bridge from Astoria to WA state to visit Lewis and Clark National Park on Cape Disappointment. The bridge is a fairly amazing structure. It sits right at the mouth of the Columbia river so it has to permit the largest of ships to pass beneath it. What makes this bridge remarkable is not the height but rather road leading up to its highest point. The road approaches from the side, curving up to the ultimate height of the bridge surface. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a very high bridge that most of us have been across, but the approach to the Bay Bridge is straight on and doesn’t give a good perspective of the size of the bridge. When approaching the Astoria bridge around this curve the pit of your stomach has all the time in the world to realize exactly how tall, precarious, and insignificant the bridge construction is.

Shortly after crossing the bridge into Washington we had to stop briefly to watch a coastguard helicopter doing search and rescue drills far out in the Columbia River. The helicopter was hovering just above the water putting and taking divers from the water. Really fascinating.

Cape Disappointment is in Washington State on the opposite point of land across the Columbia River from Fort Stevens State Park where we are camped. We’ve been following Lewis and Clark from historical marker to National Park all the way across the United States. Just a guess, but we think we’ve been to at least a dozen Lewis and Clark related destinations in the last two months. We decided not to pay the $5 fee to read another series of museum boards about their famous journey. Apparently Lewis and Clark wintered here over 1805-1806 before their return journey (back) east.

Fort Stevens State Park is named for a WWII era fort located on the peninsula extending into the mouth of the Columbia. It was part of a network of three forts to defend the mouth of the Columbia, not unlike Fort Howard and Fort Smallwood on the Patapsco River guarding the entrance to Baltimore. We ended up touring the Fort Harvey on Cape Disappointment with Stratis and Regina and then taking a hike to the lighthouse on the point of the peninsula. On the way we passed Deadman’s Cove, an oft photographed location. The light was awful when we were there so we opted for an overhead picture. For an amazing shot google “Deadman’s Cove, WA” and look at some professional photographer’s images!

We parked near the truck above fairly early in the day. We’ve seen train horns put on trucks in the past as a high school-like prank. Neither of us have ever seen a ship’s horn on a truck. What can’t be seen very well in the picture are the air lines running into the bed of the truck which was filled with the engine, compressor and tank required to power this big of a horn. This was a full-on commitment to loud on this person’s part. They weren’t going to be able to use the truck for much else with all of this equipment on board.

We ended the day swimming Ranger in his first salt water. We decided to slowly work him up to full ocean surf. He started his ocean swimming journey in the salty water on the east side of the peninsula in the Columbia River. He handled the waves and salt quite well and we’ll be moving him up to full surf tomorrow! On the way back from swimming we saw an entire heard of elk relaxing by the river side. That’s an amazing sight.

Special Note: One button showers. Several of the campgrounds and RV Parks we’ve been in have had one button showers – Push the button, get water, no control over the temperature, you get what you get. We are both really longing for our own shower where you can actually burn yourself if you turn the knob too far. Apparently our water heater at home is set to a dangerous range because we’ve not had a truly hot shower since we left home.

Tripometer – 7697 mi

Gas Gauge – 590.306 gal (Roughly $2000 in gas so far)

Location – Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR

Lodging – $32

Cans of OFF – 4

Our usual routine of ‘Paul packs while Kelly works’ got ruined this morning by the fastest pack-up of the trip. Paul listened to his book until Kelly got to a nice stopping point and we took off for hopefully better weather and more sun!

We have plans to meet up with our fellow road trippers, Stratis & Regina, at Fort Stevens State Park at the north-western-most point of Oregon this evening. This matches well with our plans to travel Rt 101, the Pacific Coast Highway, south through OR and CA over the next week or so.

Heading south out of Washington, we stopped briefly at the Mt. St. Helens National Monument Visitor’s Center just north of the Oregon border. It was an hour drive up to the mountain viewing area and the ‘Volcano Cam’ in the visitors center showed rainy cloudy weather with a miserable view of the mountain, so we opted for our last Washington State coffee and an early night at our destination.

When we stopped for coffee a few miles later, Paul went into the trailer for something and was greeted by a high holy mess. Apparently we need to add ‘Check to make sure the refrigerator is closed and you hear the CLICK ’ to the pack-up list. The refrigerator had spewed its contents on the floor of the trailer as we drove and the plastic container of mango salsa decided that it needed to decorate the entire floor of the trailer as well as give every item that WAS in the refrigerator a nice coating of very sticky goo. What a mess.

The drive along the shore of the Columbia River from interstate 5 towards Astoria reminded us both a bit of the rainforests in Puerto Rico; the vegetation is so lush and thick with ferns and very broad leaf plants giving the impression of a tropical forest. The drive was mostly dry with only occasional showers, but the wet hanging in the air just amplified the impression that we were in a rain forest.

As we pulled into the state park this evening the sky was clearing and the rain had stopped. FINALLY!

Tripometer – 7460 mi

Gas Gauge – 572.922 gal

Location – Snoqualmie Casino, Snoqualmie, WA

Lodging – FREE

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke up this morning to an ice cold rain absolutely pouring down. What a miserable day to have to pack up and move. While Kelly worked, Paul procrastinated the inevitable as long as humanly possible. We packed up the trailer wetter than at any point during this trip. There were buckets of water pooled in the tents when they got closed up. This thing may never get dry.

We drove into Monroe because we absolutely had to visit Sam at her tattoo shop, The Inkblot Collective, where she was finishing up a fairly large arm piece on a regular. Not to get in her hair we went and ate with Chris at a little Thai place around the corner. A few errands in town and we were off to the Snoqualmie Casino about an hour south. We arrived with plenty of time before dinner so Kelly did a bit more work before we ate. While she worked, Paul opened up the trailer with the intention of drying things out a bit. His suspicions of entrapping gallons of water in the tents when we packed up were correct and he managed to drench himself opening them up for the evening. We went with a more compact sleeping arrangement this evening to save time on set-up and take-down. We left the truck attached to the trailer and didn’t lower Paul’s bunk. He slept on the dinette.

When Sam & Chris joined us at the casino we proceeded to have an amazing all-you-can-eat King Crab dinner at the Falls Buffet inside. We were very impressed. The Casino didn’t pull any of the classic tricks to get you to eat less of the expensive food, the quality of the crab was excellent, and the price was reasonable.

It was fantastic to spend so much quality time with Chris and Sam. We really enjoyed our visit. We went to sleep tonight with very full bellies in a very wet trailer.

What a coincidence…

The Snoqualmie Casino is in the direction we need to travel on Wednesday so we are planning on moving the trailer to the casino parking lot tomorrow evening. We need to do laundry really badly! With Kelly working today, Paul has been planning for several days to do the very overdue laundry at the laundromat while having a few ciders at the Whistling Post Saloon next door. The ciders we had a few days ago at the Whistling Post were simply wonderful and they’ve been calling his name ever since.

Kelly drove Paul and the laundry to the Sit ‘n Spin Laundromat just after lunch. Dropping him and the two bags of laundry she went back to the site to ‘work in peace and quiet’ (her words). Paul managed to get almost half of the laundry into the machines when the owner of the little place comes in. He’s somewhat in a huff as someone had ripped his coin changer off the wall last night. Paul and he talked for about 20 minutes as he called repair men, gave Paul change, and discussed what he was going to do about the stolen changer. (The picture at the top is shamelessly stolen from Google’s business entry for the Sit ‘n Spin Laundromat – taken before the theft, obv.) The owner was obviously local builder, carpenter, plumber, something like that, not a wealthy man to be ripped off and not be concerned. He must have told Paul it was a $500 changer 10 times that morning. Having loaded all of the laundry into 5 washers (out of 9), Paul headed to the Whistling Post to have a cider and work on blog entries.

As we said a few days ago the Whistling Post Saloon is located across the street from a fairly busy rail yard. The picture of the pretty Kansas City Southern train engine was taken from the porch in front of the saloon. We also mentioned that the Pacific Crest Trailhead is about 5 miles from town, this being the closest town. There were a couple of hikers doing laundry at the laundromat but clearly the vast majority of the hikers today were at the saloon. The must have been 15-20 backpacks on the front porch and all of their owners were inside. The group eating, drinking, and carrying on inside the saloon were about 80 miles from completing a 2650 mi hike. Needless to say they were at the same time exhausted and pretty wound up. It was a fun group to sit with.

Paul returned to the laundromat several times during the day and ran into the owner a few of those times. The laundromat owner organized with the local gas station to provide quarters to the folks from the laundromat, because frankly, you need something to nibble on and drink while you do your laundry and the gas station would be happy to satisfy that need. Win win.

After work Kelly drove down to have a cider herself. We sat and essentially gossiped about the PCT hikers for a drink imagining what it would have been like if Paul had decided to do that instead of drive around the country in an RV.

As we were backing the car out of our parking space to go pick up the laundry Stratis & Regina, our fellow road trippers, showed up in the parking lot. (Recall we spent a few days in Pittsburgh with Stratis & Regina at the beginning of our trip.) We had been sharing our locations via Google but we certainly didn’t expect to find them at the saloon! We picked up the laundry and went back to the saloon for more ciders.

Stratis & Regina needed a place to camp for the evening, so we set them up in the campsite next to ours which just so happened to be empty. While Stratis & Regina set up their camp we tidied up the trailer a bit. We really didn’t expect company. During all of this activity Paul decided to take the trailer trash to the dumpster. He opened the dumpster lid and low and behold – the coin changer from the laundromat, ripped open, and thrown in with all of the other garbage!!!

We called 911 to report the stolen item immediately. We had to fight with the 911 operator because she couldn’t accept a call without an address and for the life of us we couldn’t find an address for the campground. Once the report was made we were told the officer would be around sometime tomorrow because there aren’t any patrols in this area on a regular basis. The nearest patrol unit doesn’t regularly come up here. We also called the owner of the laundromat on his cell number that he left in the store in case anyone needed change…

Imagine what this guy must be thinking. The guy that has been doing laundry at the laundromat and drinking cider next door all day just HAPPENED TO FIND his stolen coin changer in a dumpster next to his campsite. I guess he figured no one is that dumb?

The owner ended up taking the bent and destroyed changer with him but was fairly doubtful that it would be of any use to anyone. What a coincidence!

Today has been brought to you by:

Tripometer – 7330

Gas Gauge – 552.910 gal

Location – Money Creek Campground, Skykomish, WA

Lodging – $22

Cans of OFF – 4

Today was a driving day but not in the sense of moving the rig. We went into Seattle this afternoon to have lunch with Matt, Paul’s nephew. After a really great Thai lunch we set off to hit a store or two at Pike Place, but after seeing the crowds and the parking situation decided that we weren’t really up for that scene. We’ve both had enough of tourists and crowds in general for a while.

Since the beginning of the trip, Kelly has been using Paul’s Bose headphones nightly to cancel out the local noises while she sleeps. Paul decided enough was enough so we stopped at a Best Buy to get Kelly her own pair.

Not to be boring or anything, but we topped off the evening with some TV and an early bedtime.