Spring Training Day 4

Tuesday March 6, 2012 Day 268

Harris awoke to another gorgeous baseball day, sunny and warm. Judy has been keeping him abreast of the Lake Stevens weather (cold and snowy although the sun was out today). He misses Judy, but not the weather.

Taking the baby rollerblading

Harris went on a low key 1.5 hour bike ride to scope out the area around the RV park. Two interesting sightings were photographed to share. While stopping at Safeway he picked up a rainbow trout and Uncle Ben’s 90 seconds wild rice package for dinner. He packed it in a paper bag with a little plastic bag of ice sitting atop it to keep it cool on the back of the bike for the ride home.


This would make a great 2nd car

After lunch he headed to Peoria once more to take in a game (Mariners vs Reds). He doesn’t think this routine will get old any time soon. It was fun having Ichiro (3 for 3 today) batting behind Kawasaki and to see them on the bases together although it wasn’t very fun to watch Ichiro overrun Kawasaki on a single and be tagged out at 3rd. The crowd blamed the 3rd base couch for the “little league” theatrics that resulted.


Today's lawn seat (check out who's pitching---King Felix)

Tonight the wind has picked up and the dust is flying. It should be an interesting day tomorrow.

Ichiro And Kawasaki on base together--WOW!

Total miles driven today =22

Monday March 5, 2012 A perfect weather day for baseball

Day 267

Mariners win 13-7!

Today's lawn seat

This morning Harris checked into his new home for the next two weeks at North Phoenix RV. He will keep it warm until his baseball bud Rick can arrive.


Iwakuma had a solid inning that included 2 errors

Harris borrowed a ladder from a fellow RVer and took down the Nanostation from the roof because it was continually rebooting. It looks like it will need a new Ethernet cable end so until he gets home he’ll simply use it with a shorter emergency patch and balance it on the couch inside Howie when needed to pull in weak wi-fi signals.

Kawasaki was fun to watch

Today’s weather was perfect baseball weather, 82 degrees and cloudy with a slight breeze. No worries about overheating and looking for shade. The game itself was one of the better games. Mariners are hitting right now, but errors are a big problem (4 yesterday and 5 today). It was a treat to see Munenori Kawasaki, the new infielder work. He worked his magic with solid hits (one of them, a suicide squeeze), a nimbly fielded ground ball and a double play. Edgar Martinez was in the house and Iwakuma (pitching prospect) had a solid day (and got the win). Harris’s lawn seat today was even with first and he saw some great action from there. He’s moving just above the Mariner’s dugout in the late innings for a different look which came in handy for the suicide squeeze play. Tomorrow will be yet another game at Peoria.

This is an excited Edgar Marinez

Total miles today = 33

Sunday March 4, 2012 Day 266

There seems to be a mysterious draining of battery power on the two house batteries. With only the propane valve and a few electronic monitors drawing about 1.2 amps, the batteries will drain in several hours which means it is time to call Pleasureway and see if they have an insight to the cause.

Some Padres fans tailgating before the game

Meanwhile the weather was very pleasant at around 80 degrees. Harris spent some time talking to tailgaters and volunteers before the game. The cob salad was especially tasty for lunch since he’d been several days without greens and the O'Doul’s was especially refreshing in the 7th inning. The Mariners were ahead through 8.5 innings and then let the Padres tie the score in the top of the 9th with several errors. About half of the crowd remained to see the M’s come back with back to back hits to take the game back with a walk off single. Perhaps this is a sign of the coming year (one can only hope).


20+ years of volunteering at the ball park

Tonight is going to be spent at the new nicely designed Peoria Municipal Complex which is across from the police station which should make Judy happy. Tomorrow Harris and Rick’s reservation opens up in a nearby RV park so Harris will make the move to his new baseball home base.


Pretty hard to miss this ball

Today's seat at the game

Total miles driven today=9
Peoria's Municipal center...Howie parked to the right of there

PS... A public apology for calling Gerda Greta in a previous post (Harris has never called her by her given name--only Mom) so sorry

First Mariners Game 2012

Saturday March 3, 2012 Day 265

It sure is nice to have water pumping once again! Harris was restless last night so he decided to head off toward Peoria. After driving a couple of hours he stopped at one of the exits along I-10 on the westward side of Blythe, CA. The stars were out and trucks looked like a line of lighted ants on some sugar trail in the night. It was quiet except for the wind rushing through. All in all, a great place to have stopped.


A Howie Sunrise

At 7 in the morning the temp quickly rose from 42 to the mid 50’s and so he was able to make some breakfast before he took off. He stopped at Quartzsite, AZ to stretch his legs and check to see if there were any bargains—there weren’t.

A quick stop at Quartzsite

He pulled into Peoria where it felt like winning the lottery to purchase diesel at under $4 per gallon (3.95) and parked Howie across from the Peoria stadium. The temperature crept into the mid 60s and Harris changed into shorts for the first time this trip.

Nice to be back at the stadium

After a quick lunch he headed to the stadium to buy a lawn ticket (he’ll save the good seats for when Rick comes). The weather was the highlight of the game. Ichiro, in his new batting stance and new 3rd in the batting order position struck out 2x and hit a weak fly, but he did make a spectacular catch in right field. And it was nice to see Jay Buhner’s bald head glistening in the Arizona sun.

Are you blinded by Jay?

There was a block party after the game featuring Seattle bands in the street in front of the stadium where game ticket holders got in free. Harris thought it was funny that people who didn’t go to the game were paying $10 or $25 to be able to enter a roped-off area so they could spend even more money for food, beer, and rides. The best locations to hear the bands were outside that area where you could sit down on cement block walls that lined the street. Inside the area you had to pay $25 to be able to sit down on plastic chairs and hear the concert. Since Harris could hear the band from Howie, he gave his ticket to someone who wanted to enter. Time to find a place to stay the night.
Miles driven 280





One of the Seattle bands at the block party

Spring Training 2012

Days 260-263

Harris was looking forward to another spring training with baseball buddy Rick. Unfortunately for Harris, Rick is into Belgrade HS Girls basketball and the team has made it to the state tourney which means that Rick will be delayed for a week supporting the home team. Harris will have to settle for going to the games solo until the girls win state.


Spending the night in Yreka

The line up to head north up the pass

He left on a Tuesday morning after bidding Judy farewell and with the weather forecast predicting snow in Southern Oregon/Northern Calif. The plan was to beat the snow over the pass into California. He almost made it. Near the top of the pass snow was falling and sticking to the roadway. The closer he came the more there were 18 wheelers pulling off the roadway to chain up. As Harris neared the summit, there were several trucks jackknifed in the middle of the roadway. At 3 miles per hour he threaded his way around them and gave thanks that Judy was not there to witness the adventure. It was very quiet at the summit and Harris felt some of what a mountain climber must feel when victorious at the top of a difficult ascent.


And more trucks lined up

Feeling great and grinning to himself as he went down the other side, he entered California. At the state inspection station a gal told him that there was an accident further down the highway at Weed. She suggested to try to get past Yreka where the last pass that can have snow was located. Harris was 95 percent through the “ mood changed when he spotted a trooper directing all traffic off the freeway into the town of Yreka. Dang! Off he went and joined the other rigs finding spots in the parking lots to spend the night. The night was COLD and the heater was continuously turning on to keep up with the cold. At 6 AM he joined the trucks onto I-5 south heading toward Weed. Twenty miles later there was a flotilla of trucks pulled off to the side and a flashing sign “CHAINS REQUIED”.


Jeri, Gerta, Jim, Harris,Bill

The choice was wait and see if the restriction is lifted or head back and buy some chains. Since Harris was due to see his high school friend John in Salinas that day and snow was forecast for that day and the next, he headed 20 miles back to buy some chains. Forty miles later he was back at the same spot joining the trucks in chaining up. During the 10 mile ascent over the pass the road was great about an 8 on a 10 point scale. He had to continually slow down to stay at 30 mph. There might have been an inch of snow on the road and after the experience last night (that was a 2/3 on that 10 point scaled in terms of how easy the road was to drive) Harris felt cheated in having to buy chains for Howie. On the way south of Weed there was a ten mile plus line of trucks and cars being inspected for chains as they traveled northward. It was great to be past the snow zone and headed toward Salinas.



John, Mom, Harris, Dad

He pulled into Salinas around 7 that night where he met John’s brother’s wife Jerri. John’s brother Jim came home for dinner at 7:30. Since Harris hadn’t seen Jim for 30+ years, Harris felt like he was meeting 2 new folks for the first time. John pulled in about 2 hours later and everyone caught up on everyone else’s life. The next day Harris went to visit his “2nd set of parents, Bill and Greta who took high school senior Harris stayed behind in Thousand Oaks when his family moved to Seattle. Harris also found out that the water pump in Howie stopped pumping water so he had to find some help with fixing it. Jim took Harris and John for a tour of the TV station where he is the meteorologist in Salinas and wowed them with his on air skills as Jim provided the viewers with the weather at 5 and 6 PM.



John's family icon

On Friday morning Harris discovered that the only place that had the part he needed was in San Bernadino which was 400+ miles away and closed at 6 PM, he had to cut the visit short and hit the road 10AM . Jim and Jeri were terrific hosts and it was nice to catch up with John and see what great shape Bill and Greta were in at 92 years. They extracted a promise from Harris to see them at least once more “before they go” and to bring Judy.
It’s now 9PM and I’m in the Camping World parking lot after putting in the replacement part. McDonalds is just across the street so Harris can upload a blog update (finally). Then it’s off to sleep and see if he can catch a game tomorrow in Peoria.

total miles 1400

Sandpoint, Idaho

October 14-16, 2011 Days 258,259 260

Sandpoint, Idaho


Our good friends, Candy and Rick Lubansky, asked us to meet them in Idaho, approximately half way between our house and theirs in Belgrade, Montana. Harris is always eager to go, regardless of the weather…(except perhaps if there is snow in the passes.)

This trip could be called Unfortunately/Fortunately…..

Harris replacing the turbo resonator on Howie



We planned to leave on Thursday, the 13, to give ourselves a nice, easy trip over two days. We were waiting for a part to arrive, so we could fix the hot water heater. It was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, so that would be no problem. Unfortunately, we forgot that Monday had been a federal holiday, and the mail was delayed. Fortunately, we had an extra day to get the part and do the work. Unfortunately, we had had our mail held starting on Thursday. So, while we were waiting for the mail to arrive, it never did for us. Fortunately, Harris was able to get to the mail annex where mail is held before closing and pick up the part. He put it in, and we packed up ready to get an early start on Friday.


Our spot at Farragut State Park



Which we did! (For us!) We were on the road by 8 AM. It rained some, seemed gray and uninviting, but we hoped things would improve on the eastern side of the mountains. The fall colors were beautiful, even in the rain. Lots of gold and yellow, and bits of red, especially just over Stevens Pass. But the temperature was dropping fast. It was actually 34 at the top of the pass, and there were some snowflakes mixed in with the rain.
We did a quick stop in Leavenworth, then on we went on Highway 2 through Wenatchee. We dropped down to Interstate 90 near Moses Lake. Fortunately!


The "Payoff Breakfast"



As we were going along, Harris kept looking at a gizmo on the dash and frowning. When Judy queried him, he said that Howie wasn’t responding like he should, and we were losing power. Not good. What did he think it was? Fortunately, Harris does lots and lots of reading on the internet, and knew that the turbo resonator could be responsible. Also fortunately, Harris had an extra one in Howie, just in case this ever happened. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the right tool along to fix it.
We stopped someplace for internet access, and Harris looked up the nearest Dodge dealer. Fortunately, there was one in Moses Lake, and we weren’t too far from it. We drove there and Harris talked to someone named Dan, who lent him the tool, and even helped him replace the resonator. Yay! It worked! We were on our way in less than 30 minutes with full power and no repair bill or hassle. Harris did give him a good tip for his help

Chef Rick and Sous chef Candy



So, on we went. We were headed for Round Lake State Park, near Sandpoint , Idaho, and we reached there about 6, just before it was getting dark. We discovered that the water had been turned off to the park, so no showers or flushing toilets, or water from the taps. Hmmm. We called Candy and suggested that we meet in Farragut State Park, about 30 miles back. It is a much larger park (actually it is h-u-g-e) and we were sure it would be more suitable for all. We got there just before the office was closing up, and secured a site that would hold us both. It had power, but, unfortunately, the water was turned off there as well! Time to get ready for winter, we were told. By this time it was getting dark, so we drove to our site and cooked our dinner. We called Candy with specific directions to find us, because, as mentioned, this park is h-u-g-e, and if you miss certain turns, you’ll be lost!


Green algae on the lake



Unfortunately, Candy and Rick did get lost. Fortunately, our new phones get service and we were able to help them find their way back in the dark. They arrived about 10:30. We talked for a brief time, then everyone headed for bed.
Harris and Rick had both become disgusted and discouraged with the Mariners and the Twins baseball teams. (Meaning their losing seasons.) So, just to keep their interest going, they had made a bet on which of the two losers would have a better overall record. Who would have guessed the Mariners? Harris did, and Rick had to cook a breakfast for the four of us the next morning. And what a breakfast!
Steak, grilled over charcoal, scrambled eggs, hash browns, fruit cups, and huge cinnamon rolls they bought earlier at Wheat Montana. It was a feast!

Judy and Candy in the early morning



After this brunch, we decided to go back and check out Round Lake again, since neither park had water. Once there, we picked our sites, plugged Howie in, and set off for some geocaching around the park. The weather had turned sunny, and it was great to hike around, although it was still cold! After we found four, we headed into Sandpoint to do some exploring.
Sandpoint turned out to be a much bigger town than we expected, and we enjoyed looking at some shops, doing a little more geocaching, and trying out the local watering holes. We found one place that was pretty empty at about 4:30, so we ordered drinks and played cards while watching Texas beat Detroit for the AL title. By 6, the place was filling up fast, so we decided we had to relinquish our table for families coming in for dinner. Harris had brought some chicken enchiladas for dinner, but we snacked so much in town that we didn’t need dinner that night. So, back at camp, we just ate cookies and played more cards. (Harris wants it noted that out of four games, he didn’t win one. Judy won one, Rick won one, and Candy won one. He says Judy always whines about his luck, so please put this in.)


Candy and Rick "adopting" Jacob



Did we mention we are starting to believe Candy and Rick are directionally challenged???? When they left Howie to return to their rig, (Goldie), they got lost! Fortunately, they had headlamps, so they found their way back to us. Judy grabbed another flashlight and showed them where they were parked….on our left….
It was another cold, cold, night, and we were grateful for power and our little electric heater!
Sunday morning, Harris cooked an excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast for us all. We walked around the park and lake a bit in the sunshine, and then Candy and Rick had to head home. (We can’t convince Candy to retire just yet, and she has to go back to work Monday morning. Poor thing.) We decided to drive towards home and see if we wanted to stop anywhere along the way.
Instead of going back up to Sandpoint and over to Highway 2, we turned left out of the park and met up with Highway 2 at Priest River. It was a gorgeous drive through the wooded countryside, following rivers and streams. We stopped at one geocache a few miles from the camp and found it rather quickly….it was rated a 4 out of 5 for difficulty so we felt smug.


Harris and Judy by Round Lake



As we drove west through the sunshine, we kept saying that if the temperature rose just a bit more, we’d consider stopping somewhere. It did get up to 64, briefly, but then the shadows started forming and the temps started dropping again, so we decided to just go all the way home. We stopped in Spokane for a bit of gas….good thing because when we stopped again in Monroe, we were down to our last gallon! Harris has a lot more faith in the “empty” signal than Judy does! We also stopped in Wenatchee for an early dinner, splitting a breakfast at Denny’s. Harris wanted to make it snappy, because the last game between St. Louis and Milwaukee was due to start on the radio. We listened to most of the game before we made it home about 8. The weather was great except just west of Stevens Pass we ran into heavy fog and a bit of rain.


Stopping at Albeni Falls dam in Idaho



(Side note: before the games, we were listening to Tina Fey read her book “Bossypants”…hilarious and informative!)
It was a quick trip, but fun to see a new part of Idaho and as always, to spend time with good friends.
Day 1 miles driven =393
Day 3 miles driven =393
Total miles =786 Wow!

Wenatchee to see the Olsons

October 3, 2011 to October 5, 2011 Days 255- 257

Wenatchee


Where the hitch snapped





Our "bike rack" while heading back home



Judy’s sister and brother-in-law, Marilyn and Gene, were going on a 2 week camping trip, and making a stop in Wenatchee, which is just over the mountains for us on highway 2. So, of course, Harris says, “Why don’t we go join them?” Any excuse to go in Howie, right? (Or is it the fact that Judy usually makes oatmeal raisin cookies for our trips? Hmmmm.)

Our first spot at Wenatchee Confluence State Park



We started off from Lake Stevens rather late on Monday morning, since we knew Marilyn and Gene wouldn’t get to Wenatchee until the afternoon anyway. We stopped in Monroe for gas and groceries. Good thing we did! As we were leaving the parking lot, going slowly over the big speed bumps, we heard a great crash. “What in the world?” we both said, looking in the back of Howie, and then in the mirrors. We saw our bikes lying on the ground in the parking lot! Our bike rack had just broken off, clean in two, at the hitch! We pulled over and grabbed our bikes which seem to be okay. BUT!! We were just so thankful that it happened in the parking lot and not on the busy freeway going over Stevens Pass! We could have caused a very serious accident.

4 or 5 people fishing?



. We put the bikes inside Howie and went back home to unload them. Then we left again. We didn’t arrive in Wenatchee until about 4 PM….cocktail hour. We met Marilyn and Gene at the Wenatchee Confluence State Park. It is a great park situated where the Wenatchee River meets the Columbia River. We were surprised that it was so full. After all, this was a Monday in October, and the weather was just so-so. The sites are spread out across grassy fields, and our first site was a little ways away from Marilyn’s. (The next day we were able to move right across from them when someone left.)

Wish this sign was posted on more trails



Harris cooked a great meal of barbequed chicken, salad, bread, with Judy-baked oatmeal cookies and spumoni ice cream for dessert. It was a little chilly, eating outside, so we went inside Howie to play cards afterwards. Harris beat us all at Quarters.

We spotted a White Heron on our walk



We discovered our electric hot water heater wasn’t working, so we had to use our gas heater to get hot water. No problem there, just wondering what’s wrong with the device Harris installed a year ago to use electricity to heat the water. About 5 AM on Tuesday morning, the carbon monoxide alarm went off! That woke us up in a hurry. We had windows open already, but opened the door and the ceiling vent and tried to mute the alarm. It stopped, we went back to bed, it went off again! We did the drill one more time, but this time Harris took it apart and shook it around a little and that seemed to do the trick. But of course, we were up for the day at that point.

A side benefit of "Click Clack" cache site



Tuesday was a bit of a cloudy day, but not bad. We went for a morning walk on a nature trail around the park with Marilyn, Gene and their dog, Trix. Then Marilyn wanted to go into Leavenworth , a cute Bavarian tourist town about 10 miles back toward the pass to shop. She hadn’t been there for many years. Harris decided it wasn’t his cup of tea, and he stayed back in camp to relax and do some geocaching.

A clever cache near a Home Depot



While Marilyn, Gene and Judy shopped their feet off, Harris borrowed Gene’s bike and found about 11 caches. Using the bike, he was able to find caches along the train tracks, some others scattered around a nearby commercial area, and on the way back to camp loop through a couple of riverside parks. Harris had a great time.

Low lying morning clouds (at least it was dry)



We met up again for dinner, which we ate inside this time, and cards. We played Whist, which Judy and Gene won. Then Gene almost beat us all at Quarters, except! We added a new rule that if you hit a multiple of 100 during the game, your score reverts to zero….which Marilyn did. So, she was the winner.

Another clever cache hiding spot in a small park



It rained a lot that night, and we discovered a new leak by the ceiling fan the next morning. As it continued to pour, we decided to skip the garden tour we had talked about doing and just come on home. We hoped for better weather, but of course, that’s silly. If it’s raining in eastern Washington, it’s raining even harder in Lake Stevens! But at least we got out a little bit. Even though we call ourselves Sunseekers, we do go camping in the rain…..now that we have our little House on Wheels!

Our 2nd camping spot



Total miles driven over 3 days (including extra 34 for bikes = 286