On the road again to Idaho!

Our Wapato Campsite



Saturday, May 16th
The weather is perfect with temps in the mid 70’s. Sun, sun, sun..even a little breeze now and then so it doesn’t get too hot. Marilyn and Gene went fishing this morning. We went for a walk. Marilyn finally beat Judy at Bananagrams, but this wasn’t the thing that made Judy unhappy. We were sitting under a tree filled with birds, enjoying their songs. We did not enjoy a few other natural occurrences. After the 3rd “deposit” we decided we’d better move the game before real disaster occurred. When they went out for a walk with the dogs, we went geocaching up in the hills. We found 2, but decided to forgo the ones that were 12 miles down bumpy dirt roads. (since we’d already been on one). When we returned, Harris took Judy on a longer bike ride, the 3.6 mile one, and she actually finished it without resorting to walking her bike up any (admittedly small) hills. Then he took off again for a longer ride. We also took the boat out for some drifting in the sun. We watched the fish jump, but no one seemed to be catching any. We all debated about going to another winery or two, but were too comfortable to move. Marilyn brought salmon along for dinner…good thing since the trout aren’t plentiful! They are going to be packing up to go home tomorrow, and we’re heading north a bit towards Winthrop. Sure hope this weather continues! Sunseekers are happy.


Judy directing the boat toward camp


Friday, May 15th
Finally, some sun and temps in the upper 60’s! It’s a gorgeous morning. Marilyn and Gene went out fishing early in the morning. Marilyn caught a rainbow trout. We went for a short walk with Harris deciding that finally it was time for shorts. Harris then decided to try out the bikes. He went on the 3.6 mile loop, came back huffing that he was out of shape and promptly took off to do it again! Judy went on a much shorter ride later, agreeing with him about being out of shape. But we enjoyed the rides in the sun. We hung around the camp all day, reading, boating, biking, walking with the dogs, and eating good food. Marilyn provided the steaks, and Harris grilled them to perfection as well as providing some grilled prawn appetizers. Strawberry shortcake for dessert was an unexpected treat! Judy beat Marilyn at Bananagrams twice. We taught them Chicago Rummy, and Marilyn won that game. Harris lost big time which goes to prove that Judy doesn’t always lose at cards.

Harris driving back from geocaching


Thursday May 14th 2009
It rained during the night and the repair of the bath room vent seems to have worked in keeping out the water that had been seeping through. The weather was cold and breezy today but people kept telling us that it was due to improve for the weekend. The first order of business was for Gene and Marilyn to buy fishing licenses so they could catch dinner for all of us. Then it was off to the wineries. Marilyn and Gene are true wine connoisseurs and drink wine daily whereas the two of us drink it occasionally. Well, Harris drinks it whenever it’s served but can do without it. We were shown how the wine drinkers buy wine at a winery. After tasting the wines, Marilyn and Gene would put their heads together and moments later the order would sound out. Three of this and this and this and that. A case would be packed and put on the card and it was off to the next stop. If wines were good across the samples, they would sign up for the wine club and it was off to the next one. Since we took our van it was easy to stop and make lunch for the 4 of us. We picked one of the wineries to be our lunch spot and it was scenic as well as quiet. Back at the campground they rented a boat for the next 3 days and were off fishing while we went on our walk.
Marilyn made dinners for us on this trip. Wednesday night was spaghetti, Thursday night was a wonderful chicken marsala. They were tired after all the wine tasting, so we had an early night. Harris and Judy watched the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in stages…some here, some there…and enjoyed it.

Harris in charge of the yacht


May 13th 2009
On the road again!
Harris was itching to go someplace in Howie and was delighted when Judy’s sister, Marilyn, mentioned a fishing trip that they were going to take in the Chelan area just before Memorial Day weekend. Candy and Rick wanted to go camping during the holiday so we decided to do both. Sure is nice being retired!
The spring in the Seattle area has been dismal. Might as well call it fall with all the wind storms, hail, rain, and lack of sun. There have been just enough (like 6 days) of warm sun to string us along thinking that spring was just around the corner. It’s been kind of like the Mariners this season which started off with a bang, (timely hitting, good pitching, great bull pen and first place for the first 6 weeks) and then found that someone had turned off the “play good baseball” switch and reverted to their untimely hitting, error laced fielding, anemic hitting, and what seems to be a major league record of hitting into double plays over a 10 game period. Anyway, getting back on topic here, we were more than ready to head over the mountains out of the gray and into the sunlight.
We had a couple of extra hours because Marilyn and Gene had to drive around via Tacoma. So we were able to take our morning walk and ease our way onto the highway. Even so we forgot a couple of small things like a cutting board and Tums. We really should make a list but Judy is so good in “Mommy mode” (did you pack …) that we keep putting it off. As we drove over the pass on highway 2 the trees reflected the recent dusting of snow and since traffic was light Harris decided to slow down and see how the mileage improved over the pass. Will note it when we fill up. As we approached Chelan we heard from Marilyn that their trip got off to a poor start with having to change a trailer tire before they left and while on top of Snoqualmie Pass suffered a tire blow out on yet another trailer tire. Gene thought that perhaps 11 years on a set of tires was pushing it. I agreed.
Since we had some additional time, we did 7 geocaches on western approach to Chelan. These were easy pull off and find caches but we were amused by the Frankenstein geocache which was a rectangular rock that was painted to bring out the Frankenstein features. We reached Kamei campground on Lake Wapato and were directed into 2 nice sites that was near perfect with nearby bathrooms and hot showers. All we need is THE SUN!! We arrived and the sun went away and the wind picked up. Harris and Gene took the dogs for a walk. While Judy supervised Marilyn cooked a great dinner of spaghetti, salad and bread. We just sat around, shooting the breeze for a while, then decided on an early night instead of cards. Marilyn and Judy did play a couple of games of Bananagrams while the guys were on their walk. Marilyn almost won, but Judy would not allow cheating.


Frankenstein Rock

Back home (At last or darn it?)

Westward Ho



Thursday, April 9, 2009
We stopped yesterday afternoon after only a couple of hundred miles. We went by a Sierra Trading Post outlet outside Boise and decided to check it out but found out that the prices were the same as their catalogue so we came out with nothing. We found a great little RV campground for $12 using our discount and decided on grilling a steak as our “last dinner” of the trip. Afterwards, we played some cards and watched a little TV on our last night on the road. (Harris won again…by some incredible score this time. Something like 400-70). This whole trip back went incredibly fast lasting only 6 days. Although we were hoping for sun, heat, and wearing shorts, we lucked out by dodging several major storms that predicted high winds, rain, snow, and flooding in many parts. We arrived home a little after 7 PM and as we turned the corner of the walkway we were surprised by a welcome home poster on our door created by our neighbor/house caretaker Lynne. We felt warmly welcomed home and grinned as we scoped out the pictures from our blog that bordered the sign. Judy was tired, but Harris, who has done all this driving, was ready to go out again in search of the sun. He loves this vehicle. He loves driving. He loves traveling with it. Judy loves Harris. Still.
Final stats:
Miles= 7912
Gallons =393
Ave Mpg= 20.2 (range from 18 to 24)
Ave cost of diesel 2.02 (range from 1.79 in OK to 2.32 in West Virginia) cheapest in WA was 2.29 on 4/9
Cheapest campground $12 (several using CampClub USA to $34 in UT)
Days=39

Welcome Home

In Idaho

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Today we decided to make it a shorter day. We wanted to beat the storm that was coming into Utah, so we left very early in the morning. (for us!) The day started out in the 60’s, but continually dropped into the 40’s. Snow flurries were predicted for Utah, but we made it over the pass into Idaho before they came. We got some rain, but no snow! We’re stopping outside Boise for the afternoon and evening, hoping to get some good sleep before going home tomorrow.



Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The weather didn’t improve much, so we drove and drove today. It was sunny, but cold, cold, cold. People debate the route between Denver and Salt Lake City, the choice between route I-80 and I-70. Most people choose I-70 even though it’s about 2 hours longer because of the dramatic scenery; They also describe I-80 as being boring and desolate. We chose the shorter route and found that the scenery was anything but drab. We drove all the way across Colorado and Wyoming today. The eastern part of Colorado was flat, scrubby land. We climbed very gradually to the mountains, and through the continental divide at 7000 feet. The view out our windows changed from dry scrub land, to bits of snow on the sides of the roads, to totally snow covered hills and mountains. After we crested the divide, beautiful wide valleys ringed by those snow covered mountains made us wish we could stop and stare. We finally stopped about 9 outside Ogden, Utah for the night.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Monday April 6, 2009
We woke up and decided to go as far as we could since the temps were hovering around 30 degrees. Wind gusts were constant and sometimes threatened to push us over a lane. Of course the winds were headwinds which brought our gas mileage down to the lowest levels of the trip. The clouds cleared and with the heater on we could pretend it was a pleasant spring or summer day until we stopped. The wind would try to snatch the door from our hands and it would be a tug-a-war to control it. We put on 650 miles today (St. Louis, Missouri, through Kansas and into Colorado). If the weather warms up we will slow down, otherwise it’s onward.

We were in 4 states today!

Lunch at a ballfield (with no game in progress)


Sunday, April 5, 2009
So, no snow yet….yet! It’s predicted for tonight and tomorrow…so we’ll still see!
We drove through Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and we’re in Missouri now. We’ve been following I-64, then I-70 after St. Louis. Sounds impressive, but it was done in about 10 hours. It was cool but sunny when we left. Harris kept a running commentary going about the temperature, grinning when it hit 74! BUT! That was short lived. As we headed west, a storm was moving east. It started to rain, and the temperature started to fall. Rain turned into a torrential downpour, (with lightning), so hard and fast we almost couldn’t see even with the wipers going full blast. We were just about to take the next exit off the freeway and wait it out, but the exit was closed! So, we bumbled on, and then it began to lighten up a bit. The rest of the trip was just “regular” rain, although it’s coming down pretty good now at our campground. Current temp, 40 degrees and falling fast. We must be eager to get home, cuz we’re not stopping to see any sights….either that or we’re just fair weather tourists!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Leaving DC, heading west
We broke camp at 8:30, the earliest on this trip, on a sunny but very breezy morning. Winds must have been gusting to 40 to 50mph as we drove. Harris felt that his arms got a workout by the end of the day. Once we were out of the city, Maryland was beautifully rural with large expanses of green. Driving through W. Virginia on interstate 68 (National Freeway) was very scenic. Judy read that WV has the highest mountains of any state East of the Mississippi and it showed. We could imagine what fall colors must be like as we traveled west, as some of the trees still had colorful leaves on them. Other trees were full of white blooms, and pink ones were starting to show. It was almost like being on a giant roller coaster…up a mountain, down a valley…up a mountain, down a valley…repeat across the whole state. When we crossed into Kentucky, on I-64, it seemed like spring was definitely here. More trees were turning green. There was lots of green underbrush along the road. We loved seeing large horse pastures with white fences. We pulled into Carter Caves Resort State Park around 6:30 and it was nice to be out of the wind. It seemed like a long day, but we only went about 460 miles. Home is a long way away! It’s a pretty morning as we prepare to leave. We listened to the St. Louis forecast on our XM radio…snow showers. Judy suggested going south. Harris thinks we can do fine… I guess we’ll see! (gulp)

We

In Washington DC

The Capital Building as seen from the Washington Monument


Washington DC March 27th - April 3rd


We are here and the wet/cold weather finally caught up with us. Although we can’t complain too much when we check the Seattle area weather. We’ve had temps in the fifties and lower 60’s with occasional showers. We found a national park called Greenbelt which is only 13 miles outside of DC. Around DC distance is measured in time instead of miles. When we first drove from downtown DC to Greenbelt, a distance of 12.5 miles according to the GPS it took just over an hour. We can see why people use mass transit here. Greenbelt National Park is within 2 miles of two separate metro stops (College Park and Greenbelt on the Green line) and Judy has become an expert in determining route of travel including transfer points to the various other red/blue/yellow/orange lines. On our first trip, Kyle met us at our Greenbelt stop and showed us the ropes of getting a smart card. We were jealous of his Obama smart card and so he took us to the metro center where we were able to purchase our very own Obama card (for a $5 surcharge). When we were stopping at other RV resorts, our rig seemed very small in comparison to most of the other RVs. When we have been traveling on the highways next to big trucks, our rig has seemed very small. When we drove through the heart of DC to Kyle’s apartment and out to the campground, our rig seemed huge! Harris did an excellent job of negotiating the horrendous traffic on city streets.

White House from a distance


We have seen some of the sights. On our second day here after Kyle dropped us off at the aforementioned Metro Center we continued on to the Mall getting off at the Smithsonian metro stop. It was a cool pleasant day. We strolled the mall coming up on the Washington monument around closing time. A family thought they had extra tickets from a packet they found on the lawn and gave us a couple and so we found ourselves riding up the monument just before closing time without having to come early in the day and lining up for the tickets. The view was great even though the glass could use some cleaning. You look out one window and see the White House. Look out another and see the Potomac River where you can rent paddle boats. Look out another and see the Lincoln Memorial and finally look out yet another you can see the Capitol building. It was a very impressive beginning to our sight seeing.

The buzzer Judy pushed!


We’ve seen Kyle’s acupuncture school, the American Indian Museum, the Portrait Museum, the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, The White House Visitor Center, the National Building Museum, all the war memorials. We walked by the White House and Judy pushed the buzzer at the front of it but no one answered. We figure that we will have to speak with our congressman and get tickets to see the inside. We spent parts of our days walking 14 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, Old Town Alexandria, and some of Georgetown. We have walked our little tootsies off and then some. If we had to pick our favorite, it would be the American Indian Museum. It is the newest and we have seen the others before (although we enjoyed seeing the gems including the Hope Diamond again). There was so much more to see in the Indian museum than we could cram in the few hours we were there.

"I don't care!" statue at the Indian Museum


Judy is rethinking the name of the van. We thought it was going to be Howie but she is considering The Turtle because we carry our belongings in our little house wherever we go. Right now it is a TBD. One morning when Harris turned off the generator, all the electrical circuits in the house part of the van went dead and he couldn’t turn anything on including the generator. After checking the circuit breakers and finding nothing tripped he was worried that something major was wrong with the van. He called Pleasure Way and they told him about another set of circuit breakers that might have been tripped by a power surge that sometimes happens when turning off generators. Sure enough, that was what happened. He reset the circuit breakers and the circuits were all back on line!

As close as we could get w/o tickets


We took a day off sight seeing to visit Mike and Eileen Donahue. We’ve known Mike since he was a kid in Juneau and Harris had him in his class as a seventh grader. They live in a very pleasant neighborhood that was only 20 minutes away from our campground and it was great to catch up on their lives. We thought it was very appropriate that after Mike’s dad served on the Juneau School Board, Mike should be on his son’s school board. It’s now been a week that we’ve been in DC and it’s time to start back home. We are thinking about sticking around for the Cherry blossom parade on Saturday before we leave. As we post this on Friday morning, we are on our way to pick up Kyle and take him to his school for an appointment and it’s raining like crazy (but it’s warm—in the lower 60’s). Hopefully it will be sunny and warm tomorrow for the parade.

Marine One?? seen from WWII monument


The hardest/saddest part of our trip occurred here. Kyle and Jen are breaking up and it has been hard on them and us. It’s been awkward as well as difficult for all 4 of us. We can only hope that there is a positive for each of them that comes out of this emotionally wrenching time.


Kyle and Judy