May 30, 2013 - Turning Eastward

Days 86 - 87 of The Big Trip The 29th was a travel day and, just as Clark and I finished stowing all the hoses, cords and jack pads, the skies opened up. I had to stand, arms extended, to welcome even more rain. It had also taken some time to rid everything of dozens of wooly worms. Didn't want to squash them in the awnings. The rain quit while we hooked up the trailer and then rained on us most of our drive. We did stop for fuel, but even with putting in 104 gallons of diesel, our total transit time was just 1-1/2 hours. I think we were...

Aug 17, 2011 - Generators

The day started off with one of the generators giving me problems. I am having a hard time starting it plus once started, it runs for a few seconds and then quits. Time to get the manual out. I think the problem is bad fuel. According to the manual, the fuel can go bad in 30 days. I should have been putting an additive in to keep it fresh. I need to run all the old fuel through and get some fresh in the tanks. Hopefully the carburetor isn’t fouled up. The spark plug is ok, the air filter is ok. The oil is ok. Hopefully it is just the gas...

Aug 16, 2011 - No Phone, No Internet, No TV Reception

This was a nice short drive up the hill to Baker Lake. It is up in the mountains with nothing but trees and plants as far as the eye can see. The forest is not the same as it was in Montana. It is more open so more sun reaches the ground and more plants are growing. When we get to the campground, there are only four or five other campers. We have our choice of sites and pick one that I think we can get satellite reception. We have sewer and water, but no electric. I will have to drag the generators out of the front basement. It’s time to...

Aug 15, 2011 - Work Day

Not much to say. Carolyn went to do laundry and I vacuumed and cleaned. We worked on the journal and watched a movie. Tomorrow is moving day. We will be going to the campground by the dam we looked at the other day. It is a short 16 miles up to the campground and I don’t think we will have any phone service so no internet. We will be staying two days before going to another Thousand Trails campground. We will see if Carolyn can get by without phone and internet service for 2 days.

Aug 14, 2011 - Church, Movie, Shopping

Church was at 11:00 so we headed out about 10:00 to find it and maybe check out Sedro- Woolley. The town is closer than we thought and the church is right along the way. We get there early and decide to drive around and check out the town. We hit the edge of town and decide to drive to Burlington to go to church instead. That is where we plan on going to the movie and doing our shopping. We find an SBC church. It has an older congregation and the pastor has just got back from a 3 month sabbatical. He looked about 65-70 years old. He had...

Aug 13, 2011 - Exploring

We didn’t go to town until after lunch. We stopped to get a haircut and found the hairdresser reading a book, so we got right in. I got a haircut and Carolyn got her bangs shortened. The hairdresser was very nice and told us about some places to see while we are in the area. We made a swing through town to get some small finish nails to put a piece of door casing back on that had come off. Downtown is only one block long, but has a hardware store that reminds me of the hardware store in the town I grew up in. They carry a little bit of...

Aug 12, 2011 - Look at the Trees

We left the North Cascades National Park and followed the Skagit River. We are driving through forest of trees, some overhanging the road and forming a canopy over it. It is amazing how big the trees are and how bushy and full they are. The Skagit River is the largest river in west Washington and carries 20% of the water that goes into Puget Sound. It is the 3rd largest river in the northwest and is home to 5 different kinds of salmon. It also has one of the largest wintering bald eagle populations in the lower 48 states. We arrived at the...

Jul 23, 2011 - Concrete Fly-in

July 23 Concrete Fly-in. We head out around 10:00 to go down to Concrete. We will meet our car club at the Fly-in. We spend time looking at airplanes and cars and then hop on the bus to downtown for the street fair and Saturday market. Don’t find anything we can’t live without. So it is off to lunch with Ericson’s and then back to the airport. We sit around for about an hour and since everyone is beginning to leave we head back to Rockport. Potluck B-B-Q is at 5:00 and at 6:45 we head out the backway to Cascadian Farm for ice-cream. There...

Jul 20, 2011 - Thousand Trails

July 20 We are at the Thousand Trails in Concrete for 2 days of kickback before going over to Rockport for the campout/carshow. It has rained this morning but by 2:00 it has cleared and we decide to run into Concrete and hit the hardware store This store is crammed full of all kinds of good things. We find what we are looking for, need to complete a few projects around the RV and as we are leaving we find a group standing around the Model A. We finally get to leave and when we get back to the rig, the car is put back into its “garage”....

Jul 26, 2010 - Arrived at North Cascades

This was moving day. I said my farewells to Craig and Joan who treated me so kindly during my stay at Mounthaven. It is a small campground/cabin situation and they make it such a personal/homey place. As I checked in at the Gandy Creek KOA in Concrete, four hours north, the lady was nice, but I definitely got the feeling that this was a business and she was an employedd. Craig and Joan, the owners who did most of the work themselves, developed more of a friend relationship than a business relationship. I will miss them. The drive north had...

Aug 25, 2009 - TTN/KOA Grandy Creek

First and foremost we want to report, Dave is feeling much, much better. He's almost off the Percoset totally, maybe in 2 days. But, since he is feeling better he has to be extra careful not to overdue the physical stuff, you know picking things up over 5 lbs, stretching, twisting, bending. It's a huge story, this is gonna take a while. Because Dave is feeling so much better we can move, this move is only 25 miles but a nice, welcome move nonetheless. When we landed at TTN Mt Vernon we learned that they had 30 amp only sites and that the...