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!