Out of Washington

We are at the Kootenai River Inn and Casino in Bonners Ferry, Idaho (map), along the Kootenai River and operated by the eponymous tribe. We had a nice dinner in their restaurant overlooking the river.

We had a pleasant and uneventful drive yesterday from Colville. We opted to take the slightly shorter and certainly flatter route along US395 and US2, crossing over on the Deer Park-Milan Road. We'd actually done the remainder of Washington 20 in the car seven years ago, when we were looking at property in the state to constitute our domicile. There is an ownership RV park along the Pend Oreille, across from Usk, where we looked at lots. We've had our fill of twisty mountain passes in the last few days, and we'd never done this stretch of 395, which pushed us a little in that direction, and the lousy weather sealed the deal.

Either route would have brought us into Sandpoint, where we knew there was an Elks lodge. In fact, we nearly had our mail forwarded there, until we realized that we'd be there on a postal holiday, and instead directed it to Kalispell, MT. Following the faster route, we hit Sandpoint earlier in the day, and decided instead to proceed here, where we knew the casino allowed overnight parking.

This morning we could just catch a glimpse of the city's Memorial Day parade as it rounded a corner a couple blocks away. It was pouring rain, so we watched what we could from the bus, rather than brave the elements. Unfortunately, it looks like the rain will be with us all the way to Kalispell and beyond. We should be there tonight, and our mail should arrive tomorrow sometime.

Any port in a storm

We are at the Wal-Mart in Colville, Washington (map). Yesterday turned out to be a longer drive than we had planned, which I suppose makes up for the several shorter-than-planned days before it.

This is, of course, a holiday weekend, and perhaps one of the biggest camping weekends of the year. So we knew finding parking would require a bit more effort than usual. We also knew we wanted to tank up on water early on, to give us more stopping options. Fortunately, as we rolled through Okanogan on 215, eschewing the more major US-97, we came upon the "Flying-B" truck stop (yes, "B"), which advertised a free RV dump.

We did not need the dump, but they had a spigot, and we filled up while chatting with the proprietor. Judging from the sign and the parking lot lights, the place has been there forever, but the c-store and fuel islands looked brand new. He told us they had just re-opened five months earlier, after demolishing the old station and building a whole new facility. He and his family were very pleasant and accommodating and we ended up making a token purchase of a nice bottle of Riesling in the store for taking 50 gallons or so of their water. We wish them much luck with the place -- these kinds of RV-friendly facilities are becoming rare.

We stopped again just up the road in Omak, at the Wal-Mart Super-Center there for supplies. It was 70° and sunny while we stopped, and we briefly thought about just staying, as it was already 3:30, but decided that was too short a drive. So we continued onward along Washington 20, which took us again into the forests and over Sherman Pass. Our directory said there was a lone Forest Service campground at the summit, and several pull-outs along the road where we could overnight.

The pull-outs were unappealing on the ascent, so we held out for the campground, knowing that it might well be full. Ha. It was completely empty. It would also have been free, with the iron ranger disabled and a note on the board about limited services. Even with snow blocking the day use parking lot of the adjoining scenic overlook, and also part of the campground road, we could see at least two spaces that we could reach and would accommodate Odyssey, and one of them had a view to the satellite. Free camping, by ourselves, in such an idyllic spot was very tempting.

Ultimately, though, it was now 45° and raining at the 5,000' summit elevation, and we were wistfully remembering the sunny warmth back down at the valley level. Realizing we would basically just spend the whole time in the warmth of the bus, and having to run the Webasto all night in near-freezing temperatures to boot, we decided to head down the mountain to warmer and perhaps drier climes below.

We did pass a few more pull-offs that might have been suitable, and in hindsight, we probably should have just taken one. But instead we headed all the way down to Roosevelt Lake (yes, the very same lake impounded by Grand Coulee Dam nearly a hundred miles downstream) where there is a Park Service campground. In stark contrast to the summit, this place was packed to the gills, with all 75+ sites full. (This cartoon captures the vibe perfectly. -Louise) Even if we could find an empty spot, these type of weekend conditions are unappealing to us, and we knew it was a long shot anyway, so we continued on through Kettle Falls (named for a feature now inundated by the lake) and into Colville, where we knew there was an Elks lodge with parking.

This Wal-Mart was closer to our route, and we spotted a restaurant across the street. It was past 6:30 by the time we parked, uncharacteristically late for us, and not having to cook after a long drive on mountain roads sounded like heaven. Tony's Ristorante, really just a fancy pizza and pasta joint with a beer and wine license, turned out to be a perfect fit, if a bit carb-heavy for us. Not only did we end up splitting a lasagna, but also a cheesecake, tossing our low-carb mantra right out the window.

In a few minutes will we continue east toward Sandpoint, Idaho. We first need to decide if we will continue on 20 and along the Pend Oreille, or instead head south on US395, cutting over to US2 at Deer Park.

Forest solitude

We are parked in a clearing for a power line on the Okanogan National Forest (map), just off a paved Forest Service road and a short ways from Washington 20, at Loup-Loup pass. Across the street is a large "sno-park" lot (permit required), and there is a developed Forest Service campground just half a mile up the road.

Yesterday morning found us at the Colonial Creek campground in the North Cascades National Park (map). We were completely under the trees there, and so we could not get on line. Even DirecTV was out, driving me to the DVD collection; thankfully, we had finally picked up a Blu-Ray player. We got a great spot right next to the creek, but it rained pretty much the whole time we were there, so we could not really enjoy much of the park or the campground.

Most of Colonial Creek and all of Newhalem Creek, which we passed a dozen miles earlier, had just opened for the season. In fact, when we stopped at the visitors center in Newhalem, crews were madly scrambling to get the loops open in the campground. The ranger allowed that they hoped to have things open by 6pm, prompting us to continue on up the hill to the next campground. This section of the highway, following the Skagit River gorge, is stunningly beautiful and mostly untraveled. Some of the scenery rivals anything you might see in, say, Yosemite, but without the crowds. The gorge is dammed in several spots for power generation, forming turquoise-blue lakes.

Colonial Creek was a relatively early stop for us. While we knew there might be some good and possibly free spots on the other side of the park, we were out of water, and the Park Service campgrounds had spigots. Knowing we had two long grades ahead of us, topping out over 5,000', we opted to just put in a couple days' worth rather than haul a ton of water over the hill, so we will need to be looking for water again later today.



We had the place mostly to ourselves when we arrived, but several rigs pulled in later in the evening for the start of the holiday weekend. In the small world department, one truck camper with a young family had "Nordic Tugs" stenciled on the windshield in the corporate font; turns out he works at the factory. They had remembered seeing Odyssey in Mount Vernon as well. Even more campers were arriving as we rolled out at the noon checkout yesterday.

We had laundry to do, and there turned out to be a convenient and modern laundromat in the town of Twisp along our route, so we stopped there for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. The spot where I had to park the bus was rather tilty, and I used up all the suspension travel on both sides trying to get level. That put the door a good foot or so above the ground, so I set up our little folding step.

It was a pleasant enough stop, and we were glad to have the laundry done. As a bonus, the laundromat had WiFi, and we enjoyed zero-delay Internet from the comfort of our easy chairs for the time we were there. Once we had the laundry put away, I zeroed out the suspension and started to drive away. Of course, I had forgotten completely that the step was still outside the door.

Those steps are really durable, but the 12,000 pounds of the right drive wheels was just a bit more than they could take, and we promptly turned the step into an approximation of a potato chip. Oops. Long time readers know that I always do a walk-around inspection of the bus before we start out for the day. I check all the lights, make sure the dish is down, inspect all the tires, and make sure there are no fluids on the ground. This is also when I catch anything we've left outside, like the solar garden light, or the step.



Usually, however, I don't do such an inspection at intermediate stops during the day, such as at rest areas, visitor centers, grocery stores, and the like. We never put the step out at those kinds of stops, either. Laundry is one of the few times we actually level the bus at a mid-day stop, and we often deploy the satellite dish then, too. So really, I should be doing walk-arounds after laundry stops as well, and you can bet I won't omit it at such a stop again. Now we need to find ourselves a Camping World or similar store to get another step; we humans can get by without it, but the dog absolutely needs it.

Between the slow grades, the laundry stop, and the step fiasco, yesterday was another short day. Our directories said there were two Forest Service campgrounds near the top of this hill. We pulled into the first one, "JR," just a couple miles from here, to find it completely empty. Most of the half dozen spurs were too short for Odyssey, but we found one long level one that had a couple of gaps through the trees in the general direction of the satellite. After ten minutes of searching the sky, though, we gave up and continued on. One night without Internet access is fine, but a couple nights in a row can put us well behind on email.

We passed this spot on our way to the Loup-Loup campground. This very large campground was less than 10% full, but after driving the entire loop I did not see a single space where I thought we could get a shot at the satellite through the trees. Besides that, it was $12 for dry camping (the smaller JR had been only $8), and so we returned here, where it's free and I knew the clearing would let us get on-line.

It's tempting to spend another night here, to avoid having to battle holiday crowds for a spot somewhere else tonight, and to get a few things done, but we are again out of water, and so we will continue east and downhill from here. We will be east of the Cascades and officially on the "dry side" of the state from now on, and we're done with high passes until we cross the Rockies in Idaho and Montana.

Northern Cascades

We are at a Forest Service wayside on Washington 20, the Northern Cascades Highway, along the wild and scenic Skagit River (map). Our Days End directory said it was OK to park here, and there were no signs indicating otherwise. It's a beautiful spot, with a great view of the river from our windows, and hills all around us.

I wanted to make it an early night someplace with a good satellite view as well as good cell coverage -- something we can't count on as we head east. This spot fit the bill. We've been having satellite search problems ever since HughesNet moved us to a different transponder -- they lost the lease on the one we were on, which went back to Galaxy. We've been working with our HughesNet VAR, Mobil Satellite Technologies, to get this straightened out for a couple weeks now, and I really needed to spend some time on the phone with them well before the end of their support shift at 9pm ET, or 6pm here.

Unfortunately, our equipment is now so old that none of it is still on the officially supported list. After nearly an hour on the phone, we concluded that we would have to upgrade the actual dish hardware before we could get anywhere with Hughes. That could get expensive quickly, with our VAR in Virginia shipping items to us cross-country at new prices, and where we left it with them was that I would try to acquire an entire used HughesNet system, with not only the proper outdoor bits (LNB and BUC), but also a newer modem. Specifically I want an HN7000 and the newer, naked "gray" outdoor pieces. I should be able to pick the whole thing up for a couple hundred bucks, which is what Mobil Satellite wants just for the modem.

Until then, we are stuck having to manually tweak the dish each time we need to get on-line. A pain in the butt, but not a show-stopper. And once I buy one of these setups, we'll need to figure out where it can be shipped to intercept our path. It is rather irksome that we need to continually buy upgraded equipment to keep this system running, but it is really the only way we can get on line many of the places we go.



Today we will continue northeast into the Northern Cascades National Park. I'm not sure if we will end up at one of the two Park Service campgrounds on our route, or all the way on the other side of the park tonight.

Departing the coast

We are at a small truck stop, part of a Shell station, north of Burlington, Washington (map). Aside from the truck stop, there is nothing here but a lone motel, some fast food, and a Bob's Burgers and Brew causal restaurant, where we had dinner.

We arrived yesterday at the brand new Wal-Mart in Mount Vernon close to 3pm, and were disappointed to find the lot posted No Overnight Camping. Our Wal-Mart no-no list showed this new store but not as No Overnight, so I will be sending a note in to the web site there. We needed supplies anyway, and that was also a good place to meet Carol from Yacht Products with our replacement pump box for our YachTub system. We ended up spending nearly two hours in the lot there before moving on, and that meant we needed to stay somewhere in the Mount Vernon/Burlington/Sedro-Woolley area for the night.

We trundled over to the defunct old Wal-Mart location across the freeway, to see if we could maybe park there as we have done in other cities, but the lot was clearly posted both No Overnight Parking and No Trespassing. There is an Elks Lodge immediately across the street from there with what would constitute an actual RV park, but at $23 for the night we deemed it too expensive for this place in this weather. We knew it was there, though, as a back-up option.

Our truck stop directory listed two RV-friendly truck stops in the area, one three miles south of our route, and this one three miles north. Getting back on route from here, though, is a couple miles shorter, so we opted to continue north. It turned out to be a fine place to stay, and Bob's, a small local chain, was tasty to boot. There is even a dump station here, of which we will avail ourselves before continuing east in a few minutes. That will save us the trouble of diverting in Sedro-Wooley to the city sewer plant, where my directory says there is another free dump station. By this afternoon, we should be crossing the mountains.

Tug Town

We are at the Swinomish Northern Lights casino, adjacent to the Swinomish channel near Anacortes, Washington (map). This casino has an actual RV park complete with power and water hookups, but we did not need them and are instead parked in the RV day lot. I called security ahead of our arrival and he seemed perplexed by the question, but said it was OK to park here. We had a nice dinner last night in their very casual restaurant.

Yesterday morning we walked down to the Nordic Northwest office and met up with salesman Geoff, who had agreed to take us out on the water as well as on a tour of the factory. Scheduling issues ended up flopping the two, and after Geoff secured permission from the harbormaster for Odyssey to remain in place beyond the noon checkout, we headed off to the factory near the Skagit airport. The tour was very interesting and we learned a great deal about the boats.

After returning to the marina, walking the dog, and grabbing a quick bite, we strolled back to the dock where Geoff met us aboard a Nordic Tug 42. We had about an hour cruise wherein Louise and I took turns at the helm and walking around the various parts of the vessel under way, including the engine room. The boat handled well and it was a nice ride (although seas were calm), but I felt like the boat really wanted to go faster than I wanted to drive it. We expect to drive around mostly at a very efficient "hull speed," and these boats have semi-planing hull forms and enormous engines, so they can easily do twice that speed.

Between the tour and the cruise it was a great day, and we are grateful to Geoff and the factory folks for generously spending so much time with us and answering the kinds of questions that only a couple of engineers would ask. It was well into the afternoon by the time we wrapped up and made it back to the bus.

We knew we were scheduled to meet Steve, the American Tug salesman, at their factory first thing this morning, and he had suggested we park in an enormous lot just south of the plant intended for boat trailers and other over-sized vehicles. Before we stowed the dish to leave Anacortes, I had a look at the route and the lot on the satellite view. Somewhere in that process I realized that the lot actually belonged to the marina and port of La Conner, and I went to their web site to check up on the overnight parking rules. Not good -- no "camping" allowed. A quick call to the port office confirmed that we could not actually park overnight in the suggested spot.

None of our usual parking resources turned up anything close to the factory, and I reluctantly had to call Steve to let him know we could not just meet there as planned. After a few minutes of noodling, we agreed that he would instead pick us up here at the casino this morning and drive us down to the factory and back.

Once again it was an interesting tour and we learned a great deal. Considering these two companies are only a few miles apart, make very similar boats, share a hull designer, and in fact were started and staffed by many of the same people, there are some rather interesting key differences. As usual it is never a cut-and-dried case of one being superior to the other, but rather that each boat has its strengths and weaknesses. We were very glad to have had the opportunity to tour these factories back-to-back, where it was all fresh in our minds and we could make such comparisons. And if we end up with either of these boats, it will be helpful to have seen then from the inside out.

In a few minutes we will pack up here and head over to Mount Vernon. It is a few miles off our route, which will be east on Washington 20, but it is the only Wal-Mart we will pass for the next several days, and we need supplies. First we will stop at the gas station right here next to the casino -- the tribe is selling fuel cheaper than anyplace else around, and we will top up our diesel at just $3.019 per gallon.

Another Trawler Fest in the bag

We are parked in the RV parking area at the Cap Sante Boat Haven (map), part of the Port of Anacortes. Behind us, across the abandoned 18"-gauge tracks of "Tommy" Thompson's railroad, is the W.T. Preston sternwheeler and the snagboat heritage center.

Before I move on to today's update, I would first like to acknowledge and thank everyone who has sent well-wishes for George, either here in the blog or in private email. It's great to know she has her very own fan club, and we are grateful for everyone's thoughts. I am pleased to report that she is comfortable and happy right now, even if her kidneys are not quite up to snuff. We are continuing with the course of antibiotics and the special diet, and are hoping for the best.

We arrived here Wednesday afternoon after a scenic drive from Marysville. We found the RV parking with no problem, on a small bluff overlooking the marina. It's really just a series of grassy parking spaces divided by horizontal poles, but it was empty when we arrived and we picked a nice spot with a great view of the marina. A sign said to sign in with the harbormaster's office, so we pulled the scooters out and rode down to register.

Willa at the office was very accommodating. The nightly rate here is $18 and change (for dry camping -- an outrageous price, really), but when we asked about a discount for Trawler Fest she went out of her way to find out. In the end they decided we should get the same discount as the show dockage rate, which brought it down to $4-something, quite a deal. We paid on the spot for five nights, which takes us to tomorrow afternoon. A short walk from our space are restrooms with coin showers, and a coin laundry, so we are getting all the marina amenities.

Wednesday evening we rode down to Cameron's Living Room, the highest-rated restaurant in town. Deservedly so; we were waited on by Cameron himself and the food, service, and atmosphere were all top notch. We rode to dinner and back in a gap in the weather, which steadily worsened after we returned. By the middle of the night the wind was blowing 35-40 knots, with gusts higher than that. The marina was a cacophony of clanking rigging, the flags in front of the rest rooms were threatening to leave their staffs, and Odyssey was rocking so hard that the air compressor was running every few minutes. I was somewhat nervous that a deck chair or similar item would launch itself from the marina and into the bus, but we never did get hit with anything worse than sleet.

It sleeted again on Thursday in the middle of the show, but we've had mostly clear weather since then, if a bit on the chilly side. We had a good show, with three full mornings of educational seminars, including what amounted to a graduate-level weather class that we had trouble keeping up with, even with our engineering degrees. We also saw several boats we had not seen before, including a couple that have been on our must-see list for some time. Friday morning our friends Martin and Steph from the SF bay area joined us, and we enjoyed strolling the docks with them and comparing notes. We also enjoyed reconnecting with new friends Chris and Alyse, whom we met in Stuart and again in Fort Lauderdale.

The show officially ended yesterday evening, and this morning we slept in. Our friends Jim and Ducky drove down from Vancouver for a visit, and we had brunch at the Calico Cupboard (highly recommended) and then spent most of the afternoon with them. After they left we strolled back into town for dinner at local Italian restaurant Bellissima.

Yesterday afternoon as we were walking the docks we looked at several models by local builders Nordic Tugs and Tomco Marine (makers of American Tugs). These are two brands that are on our list of possibilities, and after chatting with the salesmen we made arrangements to go out on the water tomorrow morning on a Nordic Tug 42, followed by a factory tour at Nordic Tugs in the afternoon. We'll then drive down to Tomco for a Tuesday morning tour there. As long as we've come all this way, we felt we should stop in and see these facilities in person.

We should be packed up and ready to depart before we stop in at the Nordic Northwest office here at the docks in the morning for our boat ride. Official checkout time is noon, and we'll have just enough time to clear out of our space when we get back to the dock.

Photo by pinprick, used under a Creative Commons license.

Lattitude 48

We are at the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, Washington (map). We've stayed here once before, to visit friends, and remembered it as a nice stop. Unlike that visit, we actually went inside the casino this time, and ate at the buffet -- Tuesday is seafood night. They also have two sit-down restaurants and a sandwich stand, in addition to a coffee-shop type restaurant in the hotel.

As on that visit, we are again surrounded by Canadian snow birds on their way back home, including a pair of Prevost conversions. The Prevost folks seemed to think the rule about no generators after 10pm did not apply to them, and security stopped by around 11 and knocked on their doors. I admit their generators were very quiet, even more so than ours, which made me a tad envious.

In addition to having an extra night before we needed to be in Anacortes, I also wanted to make a stop right next door here at the outlet mall. This is one of the very few Sony outlet locations, and it was high time to pick up a Blu-Ray player. We sold our DVD player back in November (really), and there have been a few times since then when I wanted to grab a DVD at RedBox, but really had no good way to play it.

Yesterday morning found us parked on the street in Woodinville, near the house of Louise's cousin. We had a nice dinner with them Monday evening, and they fixed us breakfast as well. It was only a seven mile drive there from our digs on the street in Kirkland, hardly long enough to get the engine warm, let alone make any hot water or charge the batteries.

In other news, I have been meaning to post here for a few days now the George report, for the many kind folks who have inquired about her. While we were in Sumner we took her to another vet for follow-up blood work, and the results are not encouraging. It looks like she is entering renal failure, which is more or less how all cats die if they don't go from something else first. There is not much that can be done, but we now have some IV fluid bags and needles in case we need to hydrate her, and a script for yet another type of prescription food.



She also has some kind of bacterial infection, which we are treating with a 30-day course of antibiotics, and we are hoping that renal function will at least improve some once the infection is cleared up. She is only nine, which is early for onset of renal failure, and we are girding ourselves for the untimely passing of the best cat ever. She could have anywhere from two months to two years; we are, of course, hoping it is years. Thanks to everyone who has sent kind words of support, and we will be sure to update George's status here from time to time as things change.

In a few minutes we will head north to Mount Vernon where we will turn west to Anacortes. Our destination is the RV parking at the Trawler Fest marina.

Land of Starbucks

We are parked on a city street in Kirkland, Washington (map). We remembered this spot from a few years back, and had saved the coordinates, as parking is tight in this town. It's a great spot, kitty-corner across the street from the Park Place shopping center, walking distance from the water front, and just a block from the bus stop. We are on the north side of the street; the south side is reserved for transit buses laying over between trips.

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a short drive from Sumner, where we first dumped our tanks and topped up our water before leaving the Infinity Coach parking lot. We had a nice dinner with local friends Pat and Carol last night, and are looking forward to seeing them again before we leave the area, possibly at Trawler Fest this weekend (they have a 56' trawler). Since the bus stop was so convenient, today we rode the #255 into downtown Seattle and had lunch at the Columbia Tower Club. Seattle has a whizzy underground tunnel for its buses, complete with subway-style stations and platforms. You can't go anywhere in this area without passing a Starbucks on nearly every street corner, and there was even one at the 40th floor sky lobby in the Columbia Center.

We had a very productive week at Infinity Coach. A section of rotted subfloor was replaced in the bathroom, and the window whose leakage had caused that condition was sealed up. All the roof seams were also sealed, and the brittle and cracking rubber trim under the rain gutters was replaced all the way around. The trim, incidentally, is now unobtainium, and I managed to snag a box of it from another Neoplan owner, who bought it five years ago but never used it.

We also had all eight house batteries load tested, and they tested as "good." They did find, in the process, a couple more loose terminal connections on the bank, which probably contributed to the appearance of diminished capacity. And finally, the generator got a new radiator and thermostat, as well as yet another attempt at a heat deflector on the intake grill, in the hopes of curing the overheating problems we have whenever the main engine has been run hard. While we were in the genny bay with the coolant drained, they pulled the top coolant pipe out and removed the valve cover for me so I could adjust the valves, overdue now at the 2,000-hour mark. Remarkably, they were all loose rather than tight.

While we were at the shop I also used the downtime to tackle a couple of projects, including replacing seals on the fresh water pump intake, which has been gulping air as the tank gets below quarter-full. I also finished the routine maintenance on the scooters, including replacing the spark plug on the Kymco. It also included changing out mild steel fasteners on the mirror quick-releases for stainless ones, which I was able to find at McLendon's hardware just down the street. Infinity took the ~3 pounds of R-12 refrigerant, that I have been schlepping since we left San Jose, off my hands.

We pushed hard to get all the work done by Friday, so we could leave Saturday morning to have a leisurely run to Anacortes. We ended up staying over Saturday night just so we could have dinner with friends Bob and Shirley, something we'd been trying to schedule since we arrived at the shop. As always the hospitality of everyone at the shop was unsurpassed and we enjoyed spending time with Jim, Danny, Cathy, Mitra, Bob, Shirley, and all the kids. We also managed to catch a window of perfect weather, and enjoyed walking or scooting to dinner almost every evening.

As long as we were in town I took advantage of our nationwide but Washington-centric preferred healthcare provider list to get some overdue doctor visits out of the way. I haven't seen the bill yet, so it remains to be seen if there was any advantage to sticking with the preferred list; only after I had filled out all the insurance paperwork did I learn that I would have gotten a 40% discount had I simply told them I had no insurance at all. Which is nearly correct, since we have never once come even close to reaching our annual deductible on this policy.

In a few minutes, we will continue north only a few miles to Woodinville for a visit with Louise's cousins (and loyal blog readers) there. Tomorrow I expect we will be at the Tulalip Casino, and Anacortes on Wednesday.

Photo by Viton, used under a Creative Commons license.

For the rail fans

There is a short spur of the Union Pacific railroad that runs along the parking lot at Infinity Coach. About once a week, a train pulls a car or two to the factory across the street. It leaves about an hour later. I videoed the train from Odyssey's bedroom.




Our cats aren't impressed by much, but Angel did sit up and take notice. She wasn't nervous, though. Full-timer cats see a lot of heavy equipment.

Drydock 2010

We are in the shop at Infinity Coach, in Sumner, Washington (map). As I type, I mean that literally -- they pulled us in this morning for the official start of our week of maintenance.

We actually arrived here Wednesday evening. After leaving the Red Wind casino, we spent a couple hours in a parking lot in Yelm while Louise washed all the linen from the cat disaster. From there we contemplated heading right back to Red Wind, perhaps catching the $15 Cinco de Mayo buffet, but we opted instead to continue east. We stopped in Puyallup, hoping we could overnight in the Wal-Mart there within walking distance of the Olive Garden, but there were signs posted forbidding overnight parking, even though it was not on our most recent no-no list.

We could have stopped at the Elks lodge in town, or at the casino in Tacoma, but decided to just show up here a day earlier than planned. We had expected to be here Thursday night anyway, so that we could do a walk-through on Friday and go over the project list. That gave us a chance to get a few things put away and another couple of our own projects done without having to move again. This area is very familiar to us, and we've visited several of our favorite haunts since we settled in.

Today we've got the commode out and the flooring peeled back in the bathroom, as we replace a section of rotted subfloor. Water has been entering through the window, running down inside the wall, and getting into the floor. We'll have the window sealed up, too, but we probably will not deal with any damage inside the wall. It's not really visible behind the Sunbrella fabric wall covering, and it's not structural. If and when we ever have to replace the wall coverings in there, we will replace the backer board at the same time.

With any luck, we'll have the commode back in place by the end of the day. Otherwise, we'll be looking for a hotel room tonight. The rest of the work should be less disruptive. As they say in comedy, "We'll be here all week."

Early morning wake-up call

We are at the Red Wind Casino, on Washington 510 between Nisqually and Yelm (map). We had a nice anniversary dinner last night in their steak house, and we are told they also have a decent buffet. There are a handful of oversize spaces striped in the paved lot near the garage; we chose instead the gravel oversize lot across the street, where it was darker and quieter.

We had no trouble getting our licenses updated in Centralia after only a ten minute wait at the Department of Licensing. Of course, our new licenses will have to come in the mail; they gave us temporary paper ones along with our old ones now hole-punched. They charged us $10 apiece for the privilege.

From there we headed up I-5 just past Olympia to Lacey, where we learned there was a new Cabela's store. Cabela's often has RV parking, and the web page for this store advertised such along with a dump station, potable water, and even a horse corral. When we arrived there was, indeed, a dump along with plenty of oversize parking, but it was all posted as no overnight parking allowed. That prompted us to come here as a backup option; had we known ahead of time, we could have saved a few miles by coming directly here on 507 through Tenino, which would have kept us off the Interstate to boot. That'll teach me to call first.

Yesterday afternoon we got a call from Bob and Shirley Lewis inviting us along on a Northwest Bus Nuts excursion to a balloon festival this weekend in Walla Walla. We're still thinking about it, but I'm not sure I want to do a 600-mile round trip for a weekend excursion, especially right ahead of a week of projects. Had we known a week ago, we could have stayed on the dry side and relaxed a couple of days in our official home town of the Tri Cities, leaving only half that drive to get to Sumner for Monday.

We decided to sleep on it, but when we headed for bed we found that one of the cats had left us an anniversary present there. Yuck. It's been a long time since anyone has peed on the bed, and I hustled down to the litter box to see if something had gone wrong. Indeed it had. Throughout most of the day yesterday we had been getting torrential rain on and off, and for a good part of that, the wind was blowing so hard it was virtually raining sideways. Apparently, the angles were just right to flood the litter box compartment, and I found a combination of standing water and "mud" consisting of the inevitable spilled litter that collects in the bay. It was a chore to get it all cleaned out in the cold and dark at 11:30pm, but at least it was no longer raining.

We stuffed all the dirty linens in the shower so we could get to bed, and today's project will be to stop by the laundromat and try to get them all clean. The bed spread, unfortunately, may be a casualty of the situation. At least we had enough backup linens to stay warm last night; there have been occasions when pet badness has required an immediate visit to the coin laundry without passing "Go."

It was with that backdrop that we turned in a good half hour or so after we intended, looking forward to a fresh day where we could deal with the problems in a more leisurely and calm manner. That, of course, made it nearly inevitable that both our phones would ring at 5:30 this morning. It was our Red Cross chapter, in Indiana (where it was 8:30am) calling to see if we could go to the floods in Tennessee.

We are on the availability list right now, and we'd be more than happy to go to the Tennessee floods, but it would take us five days to get there, and we'd be reimbursed for less than a third of that mileage. We went back to sleep and waited until 8:30 our time to call them back and explain all of this. Sometimes, they want us to go anyway, but as we suspected, this was not one of those times, and they filled the positions with people closer and more immediately available. We did let them know that if Rainier blows, we'll be first on the scene.

While we both feel a little twinge of guilt that we were not able to go where we could have been useful this go-round, we also have the sense that this season is going to be a humdinger for disasters. We remember the hurricane season of two years ago, where the disaster volunteer pool had already been exhausted working on floods in the mid-west before the first tropical storms even hit, and by the time the second storm rolled in we were among the very few volunteers still left on the list. We ended up working 17 weeks straight that season, with only a three-day break in the middle. This season is shaping up to be a repeat, and we are content to be able to help more a bit later in the year.

In the meantime we will spend today dealing with our own personal cat-induced disaster. I have no idea where we will end up tonight, but I am hoping we can at least get a cerveza or two in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Photo by Image Zen, used under a Creative Commons license.

Driver license déjà vu

We are at the Wal-Mart in Chehalis, Washihngton (map). We're here simply because it was the first convenient overnight stop north of Vancouver. Our regular readers may remember the last time we were here was to get our driver licenses and registration renewed back in May of last year.

Back then, we thought we'd be done with in-person visits to the Department of Licensing for another four years, when our current licenses expire. Since then, however, our mail-receiving service went out of business, forcing us to change our address and thus rendering the address printed on our licenses invalid. Up to now, this has not been a problem -- Washington is happy for us to have an obsolete address on the cards so long as it is correct in their computer (it is). It has even worked in our favor, as several casinos in the interim have happily keyed in the obsolete address when we signed up for players' club cards, thus causing any junk mail they send to be discarded by the postal service.

In a remarkable coincidence, however, Louise received word yesterday from our health insurance provider that they believe we no longer live in the state and are planning to drop us. To comply with their request for proof of residency, we must supply them with copies of utility bills or driver licenses with a current Washington address, and so we now must get new licenses issued with the correct address on them. All our bills go to a post box in South Dakota, where our electronic bill-payment service is located, so we can't use those, and our property in Washington that serves as our legal address has no mail delivery.

And so it is that we find ourselves about to depart the Chehalis Wal-Mart destined for the Centralia office of the Department of Licensing for the second time in the span of a year. In fact, today is just two weeks shy of the anniversary of that occasion. Speaking of anniversaries, today is also the seventh of our wedding; apparently the appropriate gift for the seventh anniversary is a watermarked plastic card with a photograph.

We are actually very thankful that we received this notice while we are here in the state. More often than not, these kinds of things happen when we are 2,000+ miles away, and it is a mad scramble to deal with things remotely. This is, of course, exactly what happened when our last mail service closed its doors, giving us only two weeks' notice.

Photo by coconut wireless, used under a Creative Commons license.

Customer service stopover

We are at Peninsula Glass, home of Motion Windows, in Vancouver, Washington (map).

In addition to providing excellent drive-in service for their products, these good folks also provide 30-amp electrical service for those arriving the day before. We were all alone when we arrived, and backed right up to the pair of receptacles.

Within an hour, an older class-A pulled in to the lot. Apparently the maiden voyage for this older couple -- he backed right into the building not once, but twice while jockeying around. The first time he just hit the bumper, but the second time he crushed the ladder into the building, and I heard a crunch of fiberglass when he hit. Ouch.

Despite the hookups, he continued to run his generator for an hour, until I finally went over to offer assistance, adapters, or whatever. The second receptacle here is a NEMA 5-20R, notwithstanding it has a 30-amp breaker. He did not have an adapter to go down to that size plug, nor was his cord long enough top reach from where he parked. I lent him my 50' adapter cord, already equipped with a 5-15P, so he could get plugged in and shut the genny down. Once that was done, we had a blissfully quiet night.

This morning I handed over the two screens with holes in them, courtesy of our feline passengers. I also pointed out the leak in the left front window, and now that they are done with the other coach, the service technician is here taking care of both front windows. He remembered us from our last visit, nearly five years ago. I expect they'll be finished in an hour or so and we will be on our way.

East Portland visit

We are at the familiar Gateway Elks lodge on the east side of Portland (map). We came here from Troutdale yesterday explicitly to visit our friends Terry and SaTina. They picked us up here last night and we headed just a few blocks from here to McMennamin's pub for dinner and conversation.

These guys are very serious dragon boat paddlers, and their club is having time trials all weekend. Being coaches and officers in the club, our friends have been tied up most of the weekend, and between a very early start yesterday and a very early start today, we had to make it an early night last night. Still, we had a nice dinner and it was great catching up.

The lodge here has power (30 amps if you're early, and 20 amps if you come after the place is half full) so we got to put a good soak on the batteries, too. Not bad for $12, except for the fact that both heaters and air conditioners are forbidden here due to the limited power. The weather is mild right now, though, so no problem for us last night.

In a few minutes we will head out and cross the Columbia into Vancouver. We'll spend tonight at Peninsula Glass/Motion Windows, who made our operable windows, so we can get some new screens made tomorrow, as well as have them look at a leak.

Photo by drburtoni, used under a Creative Commons license.

Gateway to the Gorge

We are at the Flying-J truck stop in Troutdale, Oregon (map), a town that bills itself as the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge.

We've been here many times before, mostly to fuel. Troutdale has three truck stops, and they usually have the lowest diesel price in the Portland area, if not the whole state. Not true on this visit, and we are here because we needed water and a place to spend the night. What we did not realize on our earlier visits was that this lot is just two blocks from the historic little downtown Troutdale, with shops and restaurants; last night we had dinner at the very tasty yet inexpensive Ristorante Di Pompello, which was packed on a Friday night. The short walk to downtown makes this a more appealing stopover, and there is also an outlet mall right across the street.

We had actually expected to end up someplace east of here last night on US-26. It was snowing as we rolled through Government Camp, where we could find no water. Nor did we find it in Rhododendron, Zig Zag, or Sandy, and finally we decided to just continue here. Of course, had I known for sure we would divert here to the Flying-J, I probably would not have spent the $2 to dump in Redmond, as the one here is free. At least we did not have to haul the extra 3/4 ton over the pass. Or, for that matter, out of the Warm Springs valley, which was quite picturesque as we drove away from the casino.

I was able to connect with my friend Terry here in Portland, and we have plans to get together with them this evening. So from here we will roll over to the Gateway Elks Lodge (sort of a Gateway theme today, I guess), which is not far from their house. The lodge has power (and water -- oh well), so we'll get a chance to top up the batteries and use the electric heat to take the chill off overnight.

Photo by SarahMcD ॐ, used under a Creative Commons license.