Say Hello to VAN

Van, our new Class B RV, fits beautifully into our family, AND our parking spot!

We have gotten home from Yuma, our first trip with Van and Wally. Adding a puppy and a smaller rig at the same time takes a little adjustment.... OK, quite a lot of adjustment, but we did it! We drove the 5 hour trip on less than $100 in gas, a change from the Class A that we can get used to. We fit nicely in the park site and took a lot of questions from fellow campers who have also thought about going smaller. "That is so cute!" was the common remark. This from folks who know the joys and hassles of a Class A.

High points of the first trip with Van:

• Sitting behind the rig to watch TV and the stars while Wally finds a nice spot to rest in the sand.
• Creating a porch where Wally can relax off-leash between Van and car.
• Traveling light.
• Cooking light.
• Terrie DRIVING! but not too much. We just proved it was possible for me to drive the new rig.
• Packing/unpacking in the condo parking lot. No more traipsing back and forth across town to the RV park to get ready for a trip.
• No more RV storage fees.

Highlights of Yuma trip:

• Thanksgiving dinner with fellow Escapees.
• Meeting other Escapee dog owners at the 7 acre dog park.
• Swap meet shopping.
• Shopping in Mexico.
• Happening on a children's parade in Mexico.

 Every change comes with adjustments. We enjoyed discovering the surprises of Van. As Russell says, "Now we're really camping!"

Odd Pairings

Throughout our travels we have noticed entrepreneurs with small businesses of all varieties. Most are the predicable service or product oriented stores, some based in people's homes. Several have caught our attention because of the combinations offered. Some are just unique, other down-right unappetizing!

You decide!
Taxidermy and Cherries (farm road in Washington state)
Car Wash and Grill (that's burgers and other bar food in Dickinson, TX)
Homemade Candy and Hair Salon ( sign at a home in Tennessee)
Coffee/Storage/Car & RV Wash (Kallispell, MT, I think)
Anti-Monkey Butt Powder (advertising sign at hardware store in Couer d'Alene)
Motorcycle Accessories and Dart Supply Co. (I forgot, still thinking about candy/hair shop)

We will continue to keep our eyes open for folks just trying to keep their heads above water across the USA.

At Home

Looks weird, At Home. But that is how it feels and we are glad to be here. We spent several days at the RV park before putting the rig in storage, busy days.

We are now in the pattern of most retirees, exercise, errands, assorted projects. Nothing to blog about... until Tuesday.

Introducing Wally!

Russell started shopping the shelters and rescue agencies. There was a pattern: find the right dog, leave, think about it, go back, dog is gone. Heavy sigh. At the Vegas Animal Shelter I refused to leave and think about it. We were leaving with Wally, and he is the best choice. He is a dachshund/terrier mix; long, low, squirmy, weighing in at 15 lbs and full grown at about a year old. It has been noted that his white hair matches his owners. He is quiet, mostly, and well tempered. He is house trained, mostly, and will be a perfect RV dog.

The Trip to Vegas

We left Seattle heading south on I-5 to Vancouver, WA on the north shore of the Columbia River. This park was so nice and so much less expensive than we had been paying, (they took our Escapees card!) that we decided to stay a week. This gave us time to visit Portland, just south of the Columbia and allow the temps to drop a little in Vegas, well we could hope for that anyway.

The park is within walking distance of shopping, a real rarity for RV parks which are usually a little remote. The Seattle park also had shopping close by. Another commonality of the 2 parks; blackberries. I had thorn scratches and insect bites, but also a bunch of great berries to show for my efforts. We are still eating the berries that I froze. We also rode our bikes and walked the river shore and downtown Vancouver.

RV neighbors recommended the downtown farmer's market, a weekly event. On this weekend the area was also the scene of the annual Komuricon convention. Komuricon, we found out, is a group that follows Japanese anime characters, comics and games. The attendees dress as their favorite in colorful and creative costumes. It is a mostly young group, but not exclusively. They were playing games in the park, shopping and posed quickly for cameras. We enjoyed the show, music, shopping and lunch in the festival type atmosphere.

We took a day trip to Portland, OR. Our primary destination, Powell's Books. We enjoyed the shopping and people watching at the largest book store around. We walked several miles through town and decided that Portland is indeed weird. We enjoyed it more the first time we were there. The trip back north was grueling. All roads lead to the single bridge that crosses the river. We bailed out and ate dinner on the south shore.

We continued south on I-5 through Oregon and into California. This is a pretty drive, mostly through rural and suburban areas. Just north of Mount Shasta we turned off  the interstate to cross the northeastern corner of California. this is the shortest way to Reno. The 2-lane road was beautiful connecting 2 volcanoes, Shasta and Lassen. We just caught a glimpse of Lassen, but Shasta was obscured by smoke. There had been a number of fires in the area that were still smoldering. We stopped in Susanville on the eastern side of the mountains.

The second day we entered the desert created by those lush mountains of the previous day. In Reno we picked up the Truckee River and traveled along it for awhile then headed more south to pick up US-95 that takes you to Vegas. We were surprised by Lake Walker. This beautiful oasis is a deep and wide natural lake fed by the Walker River. We passed through the towns of Hawthorne, the largest ammo storage site in the USA. Nellis AFB stretches from Hawthorne to Vegas, it is massive! But the road was long and we kept driving to get to Vegas. We plan to retrace that path in October to actually stop and see a bit more.

Western Washington State

We made 2 stops on Washington's Puget Sound, first north to Bellingham then to Seattle. The trip to Bellingham included fruit stands, bike rides and a day trip to Vancouver, BC. We enjoyed the towns of Ferndale and Lynden, suburbs of the larger city as well. Lynden is near Mount Baker, a snow-capped volcanco peak that watches over the valley. We drove up during a bike event. Our car was working to make the steep grades, we were most thankful to not be peddling. Actually, the free fall  trip back down would have scared me too. We took a short hike and picnicked next to a series of small lakes that were crystal clear and beautiful.

We enjoyed several bike rides, but the hate we have long held for out bike carrier grew with each trip. We finally bought a new one that is so much easier to handle, what took us so long? Each ride was unique and eventful, through town, forest, coastline. The one common element was UP. I don't do UP very well, so trips were fairly short, I'm afraid.

We drove to Vancouver to see my cousins and have an early dinner prior to their Alaskan cruise. We walked downtown and enjoyed the street performers on a Sunday afternoon and got to walk a bit in Stanley Park with dinner at the Fish House. We got dessert at the water-side market. The border crossing was eventful coming and going. It seems that border agents are suspicious of Texans. We are all "gun toting" apparently; well Russell is actually. Anyway, they searched our car on the north bound trip and we must have passed. South bound, the agent asked to see our 45's. He believed us when we told him they were at home.

We stayed at an interesting park in Seattle near the intersection of I-405 and I-90, easy access to just about everything. We spent time at the Bellvue Mall, movies, shopping, food, art all together. We also met up with the Rutherfords and walked downtown, including Pioneer Square and the Market. The Rutherford's have gotten out of RV mode and had rented a house across the Sound in Bremerton. We spent a day bumming around the University of Washington area. Another day we enjoyed a drive to Tecoma and the shoreline at the southern end of the sound.

This trip, from the time we left Vegas in May, has been one of breakage. In Bellingham, we had to replace the RV alternator. Russell found a great truck service shop that took good care of us. In Seattle Russell's computer gave out. Office Max saved that day. A nice lady, Pam, was able to recover and transfer all of his data to the new unit. So when talking about our next stop, we decided that home was a good destination.

Cle Elum

We arrived here yesterday in time to set up, get in and turn up the air. The 90's in mid afternoon are really hotter than we have become accustomed to.

Today we hit the path early. We were on our bikes about 8:30 for a ride on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. Our park is a short drive through the neighborhood and a stair climb (Russell carried my bike up for me!) to the Rails-To-Trails path. This one follows the Yakima River, just south but out of sight of I-90. The trail itself is not paved, but hard packed dirt and gravel. We really had to watch the road to avoid deep loose gravel and larger rocks. The route to Cle Elum is pretty with lots of trees lining the way. We got to the train depot - really - and took the surface roads to town for a cup of coffee. We found a great local place and met Red Dog, a very nice local who gave us a lot of good info and insights. We got back home for a total of about 10 miles, ready for lunch.

This afternoon we drove to the nearest Walmart in Wenatchee. Several people told us that it is a pretty trip across the pass through the Cascade Mts. We headed back east and then north on a very busy mostly 2-lane state highway to the Apple Capital of the USA, if not the world. The Wenatchee area really reminded us of California; arid hillsides, lush orchards with irrigation. We enjoyed a stop at a local fruit stand. You could see most of the food growing within sight of the stand, except the onions which are from Walla Walla.

The drive back was not as busy, but just as pretty. As we neared flat farm land Russell noticed a smoke cloud obscuring an otherwise blue sky. As we got closer, the flames were evident on the south side of the ridge just south of the freeway. This appears to be a large fire, but we have no reports as yet. It does look like our park is well west of the affected area and will remain out of range.

I-90 in Eastern Washington State

“I don’t know what we are looking at, but it is really beautiful!”

“It’s some water.”

 You will have to guess which of us said what, but that shouldn’t be a trick!

 We have just stopped at a rest area on the eastern side of Washington state, same one we hit 3 years ago when passing this way. I was thinking about blogging and decided that I could do it now and transfer to online later. We will stop in about 150 miles for a few days in central state.

We are entering the farming section of the state. It has wider expanses of pasture land and more than just hay type grasses in cultivation. The fields have been beautiful with a variety of greens and yellow-tan colors depending on the level of irrigation and rainfall. The predominate color is what I have decided to call DRY. It is sort of golden. At some places the farmers are working at bailing. Is the grass ripe or just tired? It is full and the corn is really pretty, not like the shrunken variety we drove past in the drought stricken corn belt.

 Some nice things about traveling in a motorhome: With the generator on, I am free to blog, and I can go make lunch so the chicken salad will be ready at the next rest stop! Very Cool!

 Back on the road and we ate too soon. Just past our stop is the fabulous river view I remember from our previous trip in 2009. You are driving along these wide, barren, rolling hills when you start to get glimpses of a massive river. As you near the bridge, there is a Scenic Overlook area to gape and stare at the gorge made by the Columbia River as it flows from the north and makes a turn west. We kept going, but I took as many pics as possible along the way. We were barreling down this 6% grade, curving toward this bridge with traffic on all sides. I’m all over the cab trying to get the very best on-the-move photo when here comes a Model T (yellow), 2 motorcycles and a camper on the on-ramp. Good news! I got the picture!

We entered another farming region, and a number of Vegetable Stands that looked really great from I-90. We were starting to glimpse snow-capped mountains between the ridges closer at hand. Then all of the traffic began to slow as we saw smoke ahead. Firemen were on the shoulder fighting the grass fire before it got to the trees. Fire in the median was being allowed to burn as long as it didn’t get any wilder than it was. We exited at the next town and saw more trucks on their way to the blazes. It was no surprise to see the FIRE BAN sign as we neared the RV park.