Aug 23, 2012 - Change of Scenery

We said goodbye to the Oregon coast today. Both of us are feeling much better and as usual, we were excited to hit the road again. Today's travel was approximately 100 miles which is the farthest we have traveled in one day for the past several months. -- We crossed over the bridge spanning the Columbia River at Astoria, Oregon. The mouth of the River here is very impressive, reminding us of the Mighty Mississippi. There were hundreds of small fishing boats scattered underneath the bridge. The Native Americans are allowed to fish for...

May 24, 2012 - Woodland WA

Greetings from Water World; I mean western Washington. It rained overnight; it started raining again about 8:00 this morning; it rained most of the day. But other than that it’s been just dandy. It actually started to look slightly better about 11:30, so we checked the Mt. St. Helens webcam and we could actually see part of the mountain and the radar was improving so that was enough incentive for us to give it a try. The trip back north on I-5 to Exit 49 and east on Hwy. 504 was painless and once we got off the interstate it actually was...

May 23, 2012 - Woodland WA

Today’s weather started out better than we – and the weather dudes – expected, but it wasn’t all roses. We awoke to mostly cloudy skies, with some sun but no rain so we had the option of going to Mt. St. Helens or the Columbia River Gorge. I looked at the webcam from MSH and you couldn’t even see it – it was all gray. That made our decision easy – Columbia River Gorge it is. We left and after a short stop at the Chamber of Commerce here in Woodland for some info, we were on our way south on I-5 to I-205 around the east side of Portland OR,...

May 22, 2012 - Woodland WA

Greetings from the banks of the Columbia River. We left Bothell just after 9:00 in a little drizzle, which by Tacoma turned officially into rain, which it did for the balance of the 3+ hour trip to our current base of operations for the next 3 nights here in Woodland WA. We are close to Oregon – in fact the other side of the river is Oregon but we haven’t officially gotten there yet. Due to the liquid sunshine we didn’t do much after we got set up, then about 3:30 the sun actually made an appearance so we took off the 2 miles back to I-5...

Oct 11, 2011 - Coach Upgrade: Laminate Flooring and new chair

Our coach came equipped from the manufacturer with light colored carpeting, as is common with many recreational vehicles. When we bought it in 2007, I didn't know there were any alternatives. Our house in Sacramento went through a renovation in 2006 removing "white" carpet and installing Pergo laminate flooring and I loved it!!! So when I found out it could be done in a motor home I began searching for the most experienced vendor to perform the upgrade. (See Sept 28, 2010 Evaluating a Vendor Trip Journal Entry) We originally planned to have...

Jul 5, 2011 - Traffic jams....

Up for one last walk on the beach and then time to sweep up all the sand and pack everything away and head back to Uncle Carl's. Spent a long time trying to get across the Astoria Bridge and made up for it by shopping in Astoria. Then on to Woodland through two more traffic jams and back to Uncle Carl's where the kids played with the neighbor kid who happens to be Uncle Carl's great-granddaughter. An early night to bed as we were all tired from the beach.

Jul 1, 2011 - Uncle Carl's

We packed up our yurt and headed into Florence for breakfast. Lots of interesting charictures at the local McDonalds. We started up the coast and stopped again on a nice beach. We spent several hours playing in the surf and walked a long stretch of the beach. Gina found a very nice sand dollar. I found a very small one which we named a sand quarter. I apparently got a little far out in my search for beach stuff as the waves soaked my shorts. We had a nice stop at the Newport Pacific Ocean Aquarium and saw a lot of really cool ocean stuff....

May 22, 2011 - Woodland, WA

We rolled-up I-5 to Uncle Wally's in Woodland, WA. His house there is obviously brand-new, in fact the whole area & interstate exchange where it sits is newly developed. The surrounding area is still very rural, but there is a sign for a new high school to be built across the street & there are signs of other commercial development coming there soon. This is the first SuperCenter at which we recalled staying that was not open all night, an indication that they are still building their trade. I failed to mention in yesterday's entry a sight...

Nov 17, 2010 - We are home.

11-17-10 Woodland, WA We actually got home Saturday afternoon. We had a really fun trip and it was great to see friends and get “caught up” on the latest info. Friday (12th) we met Dar and Bev in Petaluma for lunch. We had a very good time, and enjoyed hearing about their activities. Bev is starring (all right, appearing!!) in Matt Damon’s film “Hereafter”. She actually touched him!! We had a bit of an electrical problem with the RV so waited around Friday and all day Saturday for the repairman. He never showed!! Consequently, we headed for...

Sep 26, 2010 - Columbia River and Mt St Helens

We found a gem of a park in Woodland Washington, named the Columbia Riverfront RV Park. We came for a day and stayed a week. Our trip south is along the I-5 corridor and we will move into Oregon at the end of this week. Columbia Riverfront RV Park has frontage on the Columbia River west of the town of Woodland. We are pleased to have a large pull through site which faces the river. We are treated to large freighters and barges of many sizes traversing this large waterway. It is an immaculately maintained park with large open grassy areas...

Sep 22, 2010 - The Evergreen State

We have been in Washington State since we crossed back over the border August 27th. First we stayed in a town called Mount Vernon. Beautiful little RV park within walking distance to the historic downtown area where they have a farmers market on the waterfront on Saturdays. We drove to Anacortes ( about 15 miles away) and took the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. It happened to be a beautiful day with lots of sun. There were a lot of sail boats as we cruised up to the island, but mostly working off of their...

Sep 4, 2010 - We are home!

Greetings to all, We arrived home Thursday afternoon. Our total RV miles were 11,533.1. We also went about 1,800 miles in the car. Gas prices ranged from $2.48.9 to $2.97.9 in the U.S. and $.99.2 to $1.12.5 per liter in Canada. We were in 20 states and 6 Canadian provinces. In our 112 day trip, we stayed in 85 RV parks, dry-camped 3 nights, spent 2 nights on ferries, and 1 night in a hotel. Along the way, we did 30 volkswalks in the U.S. and 2 in Nova Scotia (about 200 miles). The RV and the car have been washed, but the inside of each...