Into Washington

Friday 7/12 Charleston, OR

Off and on clouds this morning, clear when we started our walk, but some fog rolled in before we finished. Listened to the Weekly News Round-up on 1A on NPR and watched F1 practice recorded earlier this morning. I ran the slides in and checked the tire pressures on the trailer. Everything looked good on the Pressure Pro, but I wanted to bring them all up to 70 PSI since a couple had drifted down a few pounds.

Lunch at home and mid-afternoon we drove into town to Gibbs RV to pick up a gallon of AquaChem. Then we stopped at Empire Bakery to get some sandwich bread. A new discovery, wish we had found this place earlier!

Saturday 7/13 Charleston, OR

Cloudy first thing this morning, but the sun burned through mid-morning and it was another beautiful day here on the coast. After our regular morning walk we watched F1 qualifying and then  drove into the Empire Bakery to see what fresh bread they had. Nancy picked up a sourdough loaf. Wish we had found this place sooner! On to Walmart to pick up a few things. After dropping the groceries at home we went on out to Cape Arago at high tide. Pretty waves but still nothing as spectacular as we saw out here last year. Lots of seals and sea lions at Simpson Reef.

Lunch at home and quiet afternoon, Nancy did some laundry. Late in the afternoon we drove over to Bastendorff Beach and took a long walk on the beach. Nice surf rolling in and masses of gulls out on the sand bar. South near the North jetty there was a flock of pelicans floating on the water and feeding. Sometimes the entire flock would take to the air and start dive bombing an area, other time a single bird would fly five feet and dive into the water for a fish. We sat and watched them for quite a while.

Stopped at High Tide Cafe for a delicious dinner, then home for the evening.

Sunday 7/14 Charleston, OR

Our last full day in Charleston, headed for Astoria tomorrow. Morning overcast again this morning for our morning walk around the harbor. A good number of trailers parked by the boat ramp this morning. Quite a few of the commercial boats that went out earlier in the week are still out.

Watched another good F1 race, the last three or four races have been pretty exciting, not foregone conclusions even though Mercedes continues to dominate. 

Quick run into Empire to McKay’s for a few groceries we forgot yesterday and also found that they had block ice for the cooler in the truck. The blocks last longer in the cooler compared to bags of cubes Stopped at Crabby Cakes on the way back for a few last minute goodies for lunch and later.

After lunch we took the car and the truck over to a vacant lot near Bandon Pacific Seafood and loaded the car.

Sunday night down had our usual pizza for dinner and watched a couple news shows and a new PBS mystery.

Monday 7/14 Astoria, OR

Morning walk around the harbor and then our usual drill loading up for the road. 232 miles on US 101 was probably a bit much, but it was not a bad day's drive. Other than the PIA traffic in Newport it was actually a fun drive. I really enjoy the truck on mountain roads, it climbs strong and the engine brake makes the downhills a breeze. Traffic was actually fairly light most of the way, discounting a few slow pokes here and there. I had figured 6 hours from Charleston - we pulled out of our space at 9:12 AM, stopped at Lewis & Clark Golf Resort and RV Park in Astoria at exactly 3:12 PM! 

Nice park, back-in site but easy access and a real nice view across a stream to the golf course out our back window. Park is pretty and very well maintained.

Since we ate a light lunch, sandwiches in the truck, we drove a couple of miles down the street to La Cabaña Raya, a nice little Mexican restaurant we discovered last summer, and had an excellent dinner. Back home by six and relaxed.

Tuesday 7/16 Astoria, OR

Took an early morning walk around the park and it was a good thing that we were early as rain and fog moved in while we were eating breakfast. Mid-morning we drove over to the nearby Costco and Fred Meyer. Back home for lunch and a lazy afternoon. Rain cleared off and it was a beautiful afternoon.

Walked over to a nearby food truck for dinner. The lady at check-in had recommended it and said “Tuesday’s special is French Dip, which is very good.” So we decided to try it. As we were leaving our neighbor was returning and Nancy asked him how it was he said he had the halibut, which Nancy wanted, and that it was greasy and “fishy”! Bummer. So we both had the French Dip, which was very good as advertised.

Wednesday 7/17 Astoria, OR

Light drizzle while we were taking our morning walk. I think this a the first consecutive rainy days we have had on this trip.

Pretty much rained all day, fortunately we had noting planned for Astoria so we just vegged. Left about 2:30 and headed into town, stopped at Josephson’s Smokehouse for smoked salmon and salmon jerky, then I dropped Nancy off for a pedicure while I waited in the truck. We did not bother to unload the smart this visit since we were not doing much. Had a pretty good Italian dinner at Fulio’s Pasteria, and then back home.

Thursday 7/18 Shelton, WA

Sunshine this morning, high 50’s. A lot better then much of the country! Loaded up for travel after our morning walk and headed out about 9:20. Short day today, only about 110 miles to Little Creek Casino. Light rain in southern Washington after we crossed the Astoria bridge. The roads we incredibly bumpy most of the way, not broken pavement, just uneven with whoop-de-doos and uneven patches. A lot of rockin’ and rollin’.

Arrived at Little Creek just before noon. Signage to check-in was non-existence. Toured around the whole facility, including a really tight parking lot at the golf club, before we found our way to the hotel check-in! No place to park the rig for check-in so I sat in parking lot while Nancy went in to register. They could not find the reservation! She came back out and got the printed confirmation (which was pre-paid) and went back in, a half hour later she came our with the site info! Turns out they were overbooked, so good thing we got here early!

Actually a nice place and only $20 with our Passport America discount, which is weird because the discount usually does not apply if you make a reservation, but they offered it when I made the reservation. It is actually a nice small RV park with pads and grass, unlike many casinos that are just in big parking lots.

Walked over to the casino for lunch at the Island Grille and strolled around the casino. Beautiful sunny afternoon.

In the evening we went back over to the casino and had a pizza at the Starlight Grille. (Anyone remember Joey Dee and the Starlighters? The Peppermint Twist?) Nancy had wanted seafood, but there was a waiting line at the seafood bar and the buffet.  

Friday 7/19 Chimacum, WA

Took our time getting going this morning as had a fairly short drive. Took our morning walk around the casino and hotel, very pretty and roads closed for construction around the main entrance explained why we had trouble finding the registration yesterday.  and got going a little after 10 AM and arrived at Evergreen Coho SKP Park a little after noon. A little bit of light rain along the way but it cleared off as we got farther north. SKP - is short for Escapee, the RV club we belong to and this park is a members only park. There are several of them around the country. This one is large and very nice, with mature landscaping and of course all of the residents are outgoing and friendly, a hallmark of the club.

As I said we arrived a little after noon and to turned out the office was closed for lunch. They want everyone to dump their tanks upon arrival - no sewer hook-ups in the transient sites - and the dump station was locked. So I unloaded the car and we had lunch while we were waiting. 

Late in the afternoon we drove into Port Townsend, walked around the town and had an excellent dinner at Silverwater Cafe. Along the way we found a nice bookshop (of course), William James Bookseller, and bought several more books! It’s a disease! Also found an interesting shop crammed full of automobilia and a few cars, including a neat Model T hot rod, Bergstrom's Antique & Classic Autos. I stopped in for a short visit just before diner, but he was getting ready to close.

Saturday 7/20 Chimacum, WA

Cool morning, 49 degrees, but sunny. Took a nice walk around the park, then after breakfast we headed in to Port Angeles. We are planning to take the ferry to Vancouver Monday morning and want to get a feel for the time it would take. Took us just an hour. We need to be there just before 8 AM Monday, so we need to leave here by 6:30 to be safe.

Went on west of Port Angeles to the Strait  of Jaun de Fuqa  Highway. Turned out to be anything but “straight!” Supposed to be a “scenic” drive, but their idea of scenic and ours are apparently different. It’s a 2 hour trip out to Cape Flattery and the only “scenery” we saw for the first hour was trees! The road was very twisty and hilly and the farther we went the worse the pavement got. After an hour of bouncing around on rotten roads I pulled into a turn-off and said “I’ve had enough of this s***!” Nancy agreed, so we went back into Port Angeles and had some pretty good BBQ for lunch at Coyote BBQ Pub. The trip west was not a total loss though. West of Port Angeles there were big signs announcing that US 101 would be closed from 9 AM to 11 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday! 

We had tentatively planned on going that way when we leave here on Wednesday, but were debating about going the shorter way back south on the route came up here yesterday. Going west and out around the peninsula is 200 mile to Hoquiam, which is not really long day for us, but these are not normal roads and the local map we picked up says 200 miles - 6 hours! And we are measurably slower with the truck and trailer compared to a normal car. The road construction makes the decision for us. We’ll take the 125 mile route on Wednesday.

Back home Nancy did some laundry and we relaxed. Dinner at home,

Sunday 7/21 Chimacum, WA

Good long walk around the entire park, up and down every road this morning. A lovely morning, blue sky, low sixties. After breakfast we drove a mile into Chimacum to the Farmers Market. Small market of course, small town, but we found some fruit and berries and an excellent loaf of fresh French bread! Wonder if they will do mail order!

The market was in the parking lot next to the Chimacum Corner Farmstand, which looked like a typical roadside fruit and vegetable stand, they had a sign for fresh melons, so we walked over there. They also had a small grocery inside, which upon investigation turned out to be an excellent small grocery/gourmet/organic/health food store! A good selection of wine, beer, cheese and packaged meats! A bit of a surprise.

Stopped back home to drop off our purchases, then went into Port Townsend. As I mentioned, a bright sunny day with a nice breeze. We walked around town, spent some time along a public observation pier. Even though it is the Puget Sound it looks like, and is treated almost like, a lake. There is ferry service her to Whidbey Island, and another ferry from there to just north of Seattle.

We took a walk around the pretty yacht harbor, some really nice sailboats moored there. Nancy stopped at Port Townsend Winery patio for a drink while I walked over to Bergstrom's Antique & Classic Autos I saw the other day, but it was closed. So we sat and watched the water and boats for a while and then went looking for Fairwinds Winery that we had seen in a brochure. Turned out to be a ways out of town, a tiny little place with just the winemaker there to over a rating. Nancy did the tasting and selected two bottle that she liked. One interesting thing, he had two cabernets, same grapes from the same vineyard from two different years and he said one was much better that the other. Turned out to be true and we bought one of the better vintage. After that we headed home for the evening. 

On the way home we came over a hill and in the valley ahead I could see cars stopped on both sides of the road and traffic slowing. As we got closer we could see a small airplane in the bushes just off the road. There is a small airport there (Jefferson County International airport!) and the plane apparently came down short of the runway. Several people were helping people out of the airplane and another mile or so down the road we met a sheriff and ambulance on their way to the scene. Local news report later said the Cessna’s engine had failed just short of the runway and the pilot and two passengers just had minor bumps.

Monday 7/23 Chimacum, WA

Up early and left at 6:20 to catch the ferry in Port Angeles. Light traffic, but it still took us 55 minutes to get there. So we were there at 7:15 for the 8:15 departure - suppose to be there by 7:55. Plenty of time to park the car, pick up our reserved ticket and take a short walk around town. After the ferry arrived, while we were waiting in line to board we could get a glimpse of the cars and trucks coming off and there were probably 70-75 hot rods in the group! On the Victoria side while we were coming off the ship we could see another huge number of hot rods in the queue. As it turned out while we were waiting in line for customs and I was able to stand right behind a gate and have a rolling car show as they were driving into the ferry! The one common denominator I notice was all the drivers were men over 50 accompanied by long suffering wives. Turns out there was a massive car show here on Sunday, Northwest Deuce Days, with 1,400 cars registered! Our neighbors here at the RV Park went over on Sunday and they said there were massive crowds! 

It was a lovely day in Victoria, sunny in the 70’s with a light breeze. We made the short walk to the Royal BC Museum and spent a couple of hours. Quite a nice museum. Walked over to the visitor’s center on the harbor to find a place to eat. Ended up at Commons one of a pair of adjacent restaurants. We both had a beer and a salad, good, although a bit on the skimpy side.

We walked over to the Maritime Museum, only to find that it was closed on Monday. Discussed the Bug Zoo, but decided to take a pass. Took a walk through downtown, but my feet were giving out by this point, so we grabbed an ice cream cone from a stand by the harbor and sat in the shade on the steps of the Victoria stature in front of Government house. We were amazed by the number of people taking pictures of the statue.

Walked around The Empress Hotel, looking for a bar, finally found it off the second floor lobby, where we sat for an hour or so and nursed a couple of drinks. Then we walked over to Kitchen, the companion restaurant to Commons, for dinner. The menu outside showed steak tartare, which drew my interest, but it turned out they had not updated their outside menu (!) and it was not available. At lunch next door they could not do a medium rare burger, but here they can! Guess it’s because they grind their own beef here. So I had an excellent burger and Nancy had halibut and chips, which was also very good.

Just enough time after dinner to get to the 7:30 ferry back to Port Angeles. Still quite a few hot rods on this load as well! Arrived Port Angeles a little after 9 PM. Pleasant, smooth ride both ways of the Black Ball Ferry MV Coho. Stopped at Walmart and back home about 10:30.

Tuesday 7/23 Chimacum, WA

Slept late this AM and took a short walk around the park. Sunny at first, but then it clouded over. We took it easy today, skipped another trip into Port Townsend as it was overcast and cool all day. Nancy did some laundry and I loaded the car, ready to hit the road tomorrow. Five more nights in Washington and then we are headed east.

Dinner at home and a quiet evening.