Spring Training 2015 part 1

 Sunday March 1- Saturday March 7 (Days 399-405)

Another spring means another Spring Training trip! Harris has been busy preparing Howie (the last 11 months if you ask Judy)  for the trip. And this year marks Howie's 10th birthday, 7 of which were with Harris and Judy. Howie has 110,000+ miles and it seemed time to install a second set of new tires. Since the last set of General Grabbers HTS went 55,000+ miles and still had tread left, Harris did his usual price negotiation to get his best deal on another set.

As has become a ritual, Harris left early on Sunday morning (4AM) to beat Seattle traffic and to get into California by nightfall. He briefly considered going via Boise because there wasn't snow on the ground just to change things up, but night temps in the 20's quickly convinced him that the “same old drive” down the warm throat of California (night temps in the 50's) wasn't bad at all. Diesel prices were climbing compared to a few weeks ago, especially in California, but were still much cheaper than years past( 2.59 in Portland/2.99 at Costco in Bakersfield/2.49 in Phoenix)

 A fellow sprinter  at a rest stop

To not be totally a creature of habit, Harris went via a different route from Bakersfield to bypass the whole Los Angeles mess.

The Route:

I-5 down to Bakersfield,

hwy58 to Barstow

then I40 to Needles.

Hwy 95 and then Hwy 62 which was hilly and very scenic down to Parker.

Hwy 60 to Wickenburg and then to I-17 and south to North Phoenix RV

 New neighbor provided dinner the 1st night at the RV campground

Harris stopped at a rest stop just a few miles north of Patterson, CA for 6 hour sleep.  Before leaving Seattle, Harris showed Judy how to track his movements on the “Find Friends”  app so he didn't try to leave too early the next day. The worst weather he encountered was just before arriving in Phoenix. Torrential rains and lightning added excitement as well as keeping him awake from Wickenburg to I-17. Luckily there was little traffic along that route.

Unlike previous years where Harris was in shorts before nightfall in central California, he didn't don them until Wednesday for the first baseball game. Also unlike previous years the RV park was almost completely full. Luckily he found one spot that has a tree for shade being held for someone arriving later and since Harris has been coming for several years the manager swapped the spots so he could keep the tree!

Harris had one day to relax before baseball began which was fortunate because Howie had several problems. The fridge wasn't working when plugged into shore power before the trip. After using google to troubleshoot he found that the fridge AC heating element was bad. He did find out that the fridge worked just fine on propane. Since no one had the element in stock at a reasonable price he had  it shipped to the RV campground from an online source. The other problem was that Howie's sliding door handle wasn't working resulting in him having to enter the van via the front seat. More troubleshooting online while camped at the site showed him how to dismantle the handle and rehook the lever to open the door. The handle is now working (knock on wood). The third problem occurred when plugging into the pedestal at the RV site (the one with the nice tree!). It worked fine the night before, but when plugging in the following morning there was no power. Harris wasn't sure which wire was the ground, neutral, and hot on the cable so he took Howie to an RV dealer just down the road and a very nice guy helped him troubleshoot it. Nothing wrong with the cable and Howie got power from the RV dealer just fine. Therefore there was a problem with the site power. Long story shortened...Harris figured out the 50 amp plug in worked fine while the 30 amp didn't. Problem solved! Hopefully Howie will be fine for the rest of the trip.

He is making short work of getting into his baseball groove/ritual. So far the Mariners are 2 for 3. The highlight was meeting up with Judy's brother and sister-in-law for the second Spring Training game. The game had it all...30+hits, good defense...shouting...errors...extra inning...and a walk off single for the win! A great start to another Spring Training.

 The first game!

 Ralph and Charlotte cheering the Mariners

 Ducks snacking on morsels coming at them down the canal

 A great geocaching bike route

Mountains to Sea in September Part 2

Friday September 12 - Tuesday September 16th -   (Days 395- 398) Pt2

Another picture of a marmot....this one was right beside the trail and entertained many hikers.

After the hike we had a late lunch at one of the picnic tables scattered around the lower overflow parking areas for the visitor center. Not a bad view for a parking lot!

On Saturday, a very large and noisy group moved in to a spot across from us...and kept us up....even though Harris asked them to quiet down at 11PM. The bad thing about camping this time of year is that there aren't any camp hosts around to help out. So, we moved camp in the middle of the night to one of 3 spots left in the last loop, and got some sleep.
On Sunday, Harris decided he wanted to watch the Seahawks play....(when did he get to be such a football fan???). Where could we go? Since we were on the way to the Oregon coast, we decided to call Judy's brother and see if he was going to watch the game. Of course! Come on over! So, we detoured to Battle Ground, watched the game, and stayed for a delicious salmon dinner. The company, salmon, and wine took the sting out of the poor performance of the Seahawks.

Ralph and Charlotte told us their favorite spot on the Oregon coast was Ecola State Park. So after dinner, we drove on for 2 and a half hours to find it. It was dark by the time we reached it, and so we must have missed the sign that said Day Use only...if there was one. So we had to retrace our route (which was very twisty, up and down, and dark),...and search on. We ended up at Nehalem Bay State Park. It is a huge park, and was surprisingly only about half full.
On Monday, Judy explored Cannon Beach, and Harris went geocaching around the town. He found one geocache that was billed as "the prettiest sewage treatment plant in the world".... and it was!

This cache got bonus points for cleverness. It was inside the electrical box.

You have to walk over a dune or two to get to the ocean, but you can hear it at night.

Monday afternoon the clouds rolled in. Judy tried flying her little pocket kite, but the wind was too strong.

These 2 showed up later that evening, got out with bullet proof vests and rifles, and started down the path next to us. We didn't ask them any questions....

 Guess they don't take too kindly to trying to skip out without paying for your campsite!

Tuesday found us going up the coast toward Washington. We stopped for a last look at the Oregon coast while eating our lunch. We looked at Cape Disappointment on Long Beach, or should say we tried to look at it. We wanted to drive through and see the campsites, but the ranger wouldn't let us unless we paid the day fee. All the beach spots had been taken, so we just drove up to the city of Long Beach. We rode our bikes along the path there and found a few more geocaches before we started home.

This was a startling sight for us....this huge cruise ship was docked at Astoria...it looks too big to go up river! We listened to the Mariner game on the way home, and enjoyed the fact that traffic wasn't bad going through Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle that time of night! Harris really enjoyed the fact that the Mariners won beating the LA Angels 13-2.

Mountains to Sea in September Part 1

Friday September 12 - Tuesday September 16th -   (Days 395- 398) Pt 1

The month of August was beautiful, but alas, we didn't go on a trip with Howie. Harris was busy painting the trim of our house, and we went to Juneau at the end of August for 2 reasons. We went to wedding, and visited our wonderful granddaughter, River.

So, after we returned, we decided that as long as the good weather was still there, we had to take a trip. We decided to go to both the mountains and the ocean.We headed to Mt. Rainier first.

Passing this place on the way to Paradise always makes us smile. Although much bigger and fancier than Howie, the rooms no longer moved.

Our campsite at Cougar Rock. We left early on Friday morning, hoping to get a spot for the weekend. We arrived about 11:30AM, and were lucky to find several spots open. So we shopped around, looking for the most level spot. As the day went on, Cougar Rock filled up..although, luckily for us, it didn't fill up all the way. (more on that later)

We took an afternoon walk from the campsite down the trail to Longmire lodge.

Sitting on the porch, admiring the view from one of our favorite Mt. Rainer spots!

As we sat there, the clear top began to cloud over a bit. The wispy clouds just formed and floated away.

We started talking to our "porch neighbors", Larry and Libby. They love traveling, especially going around the world listening to folk music. We reminisced with them about the music in Irish pubs.

We always love to look at other people's rigs. Greg who is a CEO of a not for profit Hospice care provider set up his little tear drop camper next to us, and we had fun getting to know him.

Harris took this "artistic" shot of Howie and us in the mirror-like surface of another (much newer) Sprinter next to us in the parking lot at Paradise.

On Saturday morning we went up to Paradise to do some hiking. These little fellows looked up with interest when Judy whistled.

Views along the way....not much snow on top in September!

At Glacier View Point we stayed awhile to admire the view.

Off to Mt. St. Helens (part 2)

Wednesday July 23 - Thursday July 24th -   (Days 393- 394)

 

Today was a little cloudy and drizzly, just perfect weather for a hike. Marilyn had one all picked out for us called Goat Creek. So, after breakfast, off we went, east toward Morton. The route to the trailhead had us going up a forest service road that was extremely rough, and we were glad Gene's truck had four wheel drive.

 

The hike itself was great. We climbed through a forest and after about a half mile came to a rather unique waterfall. There was a huge rock cliff, with a cave underneath. The waterfall was like a curtain of water coming off the cliff in front of the cave and the trail went behind it. So we ducked through the water, admired the cave and went further on. The trail itself was about 5 miles roundtrip, with a lot of ups and downs but not too hard.

 

At the turn around spot, Marilyn and Gene found the creek, but Harris and Judy didn't want to wade through the mud to get to this last resting spot. 

 

We turned around and stopped at the waterfall for our lunch.

 

We just made it back to the truck when it really started to pour.

We returned to our camp, had a rest, and then ate the wonderful garlic chicken dinner that Marilyn prepared. We played cards in the evening, as we usually do. Gene won the game of “Oh, hell”.

The weather started clearing up as night approached..it'll be a sunny day tomorrow when we leave.

Off to Mount St. Helens

Monday July 21 - Tuesday July 22nd -   (Days 391- 392)

 

We were headed out for a short camping trip with Marilyn and Gene, and decided to add an extra day to go to Battleground. Judy wanted to visit her brother, Ralph. Monday was a gorgeous warm day, and we had a leisurely start....meaning we left around noon. We weren't expected before dinner, so that was all right.

As we neared the town of Kalama, our little sat-nav, Tom-Tom, told us there was a traffict jam up ahead, that might add an extra 20 minutes to our trip, so we decided to ask Tom-Tom to find us a detour. Hmmm. We left the freeway and climbed and climbed and climbed on a road up Green Mountain, then came down and down and down back to the freeway about 3 miles further than we had been....a detour that took us 20 minutes! But we did get to see this gorgeous view of the valley.

 

Ralph and Charlotte fixed us a great dinner of salmon, corn on the cob, sweet potato julienne fries, and homemade rolls. They had their granddaughters from New York visiting, so it was an extra special visit for us.

 

We camped in the driveway, and the next morning Judy talked the girls into playing Banangrams with her. It was fun watching them come up with words and they did a great job with very little help.

 

We left Battleground around 11 and drove north about an hour and a half to meet Marilyn and Gene at our campground at Mossyrock. This is a Tacoma Power Park, not a state park, and is situated on a lake formed by the Mossyrock Dam.

The loops by the lake were pretty full, but our loop, up above was full of open spaces..and much quieter.

 

This little deer was browsing near our spot when we drove up.

 

We took a short walk around the campground and down the road about a half mile to a quilt shop we had passed. This house along the road obviously doesn't welcome people!

 Judy couldn't resist checking out the quilt shop just outside the park entrance.

 

Marilyn made us a terrific dinner of beef fondue, salad, garlic bread and fresh tomatoes from her garden. As we've said before, camping with her is definitely gourmet all the way!

 

The sunset was made dramatic because the clouds were rolling in. It started raining in the night, and kept it up, all the next day!

 So, on Tuesday, we decided to put off the planned hike and drive up to Mt St Helens, even though we knew we wouldn't see the mountain itself. We stopped at one visitor “center” (more of a gift shop) and we all bought these great jackets that were on sale. We decided to wear them right there and then, because it was definitely getting colder...and rainier....

At the Johnson Observatory Center, we watched a movie about the explosion in May of 1980. At the conclusion of the movie, the screen recedes, the curtain opens, and you're supposed to be awed by the sight of the mountain...which was covered in clouds at this point!

 

But, on our way back down the road, the clouds began to lift and we had to stop to take a few shots of the mountain...quickly before it got covered up again!