Month: September 2018

It was awesome to see Randy and Kristen rolling into the campground on Friday. We’ve known them for quite a while and always have a good time when we’re together. Craig and Randy worked together for many years at JR Automation, and although Kristen worked at the county too, she was in a different department and we didn’t meet her until she and Randy started dating.

These two were our inspiration to get on the road. In 2014, Randy agreed to work in New York on a machine installation for a year. He and Kristen packed everything up and lived in a RV for that year. After that they moved to Nevada and lived in their RV until buying a house two years ago. We went to visit them in New York and loved what they were doing. No house to maintain, new places to see and living simply. It took us a while, but we finally got there! We are enjoying the same freedom they felt when they took off all those years ago. We were so happy when they wanted to meet us anywhere for a visit.

We settled in at adjoining campsites and it felt like old times. Even their dogs Rhianna and Chloe got along well with Gus. It was easy and relaxing, our favorite kind of camping.

We made our way to Walking Man Brewing in Stevenson and Backwoods Brewing in Carson. At some point, Craig stated that the beer was very quaffable. We all kind of gave him a look and after looking it up, he indeed had used it correctly. We all busted out laughing when later we found a menu that used quaffable to describe a beer. To us it was really funny and made for a running joke all weekend.

Saturday was the Hood River Hops festival. Craig and I had found it four years ago when we were in the area and were happy to find that it was going on again. We tried many fresh hopped beers and had a great time even though it down poured for a short time.

Sunday we relaxed and enjoyed not going anywhere. Craig and Randy can talk for hours on end so Kristen and I settled into their trailer and watched a movie and drank some beer. The boys finally decided they could break from their chat to make us an excellent steak dinner. They brought so much great food and fed us well the entire time. They also gave us a 12 pack of Two Hearted which is one of our favorite beers from home. We can’t thank them enough!

We didn’t have a plan after Sunday so when we mentioned we were going to the Ape Cave a little bit north, they were in. We moved our camp to Eagle Cliff Campground and found a pretty sweet spot. It wasn’t busy, it was cheap, and we had a flush toilet right next to us. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Tuesday morning we got up early and got to the Ape Cave before it got busy. The Ape Cave is a lava tube located just south of Mt St. Helens. It’s the longest continuous lava tube in the continental United States at 2.5 miles. It felt weird walking into a big hole in the ground.

Once inside we were all in awe. It was amazing to think about lava running though making the tunnels. All the different formations, ridges and lava balls were cool. We had to climb up and over and jump to get through it. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get through it and was a pretty good workout.

After the cave, we drove up to Windy Ridge which was located on the northeast side of Mt St. Helens. Craig and I had been to the north side the previous week so it was neat to get a different view of it. As we drove up, we saw so many dead trees still standing 38 years after the eruption.

At the base of the mountain is Spirit Lake. It’s a beautiful pristine lake that took the brunt of the landslide when it erupted. The landslide buried the lakebed and raised the water level by about 200 feet and doubled the lake’s surface area. Logs and debris slid into the lake turning it into a bacteria-laden, ash filled lake with no signs of life. Logs are still visible floating in the lake today. Within 3 years, the lake unexpectedly began to recover and more aquatic life is in the lake today than before the eruption.

We all decided we were up to the task of climbing the 503 steps (Randy counted them) up to the lookout. Gus lead the way and made it almost easier than we all did. The views from the top, late in the day were breathtaking. From the lookout, you could see Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake, but also Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt Hood. We were thankful for a nice clear day to enjoy the views.

Eventually the fun had to end. Randy and Kristen and their 2 dogs packed up Wednesday morning and headed for home. We are planning on spending Thanksgiving with them in Nevada so the goodbye was a little bit easier knowing that we’ll see them again soon.

We packed up and headed to Bend. We drove east and crossed the Columbia River by The Dalles. The landscape was different than we had pictured. Huge brown rock ledges with farmland scattered in and around it. We got a better view of Mt Hood and commented how different this view was from where we had been just a few hours earlier.

We made our way to McKay Crossing campground. We had found the campground on our trusty app and picked it because it said there was no fee and it’s right on a river. The 2 mile gravel road in was almost worse than anything we’ve been on this entire time. The chatter bumps were huge and going faster didn’t help at all. We finally made it there and picked a pull through. We were disappointed to find how dusty it was. Our feet were covered in dust almost instantly. We took a short walk to find a beautiful waterfall. That made us like it a little more but the thought of staying for the weekend didn’t sound good to us. Everything would be a mess.

In the morning I took Gus for his walk and came across a campsite right on the river that had been occupied the night before. It was now empty and I was so excited to tell Craig that we had to move. The site had crushed stone and wasn’t nearly as dusty as the first site we picked. Add the soft sound of the rushing river right next to it and we were sold. We got everything moved and are content to stay here through the weekend.

We took the Jeep into Bend on Thursday and went to Earth Cruiser. We had talked to Joe, their salesman, at the RV show in Portland and wanted to see more of what they have to offer. We are only 4 months into this adventure and we already know we need to change things up for the next one. Earth Cruiser seems to have almost everything we are looking for with their truck camper model. We aren’t even close to buying anything yet and will keep looking at all our options but it was fun to see their shop and watching their campers in the build stage. We appreciated the time Joe spent with us and all the information we got.

We went to a few breweries because, well it’s Bend. They are known for having awesome beer. We went to Deschutes Brewing first. We had been there four years ago but it was a busy Friday night and we didn’t really enjoy ourselves. This time we enjoyed the quiet bar and the fresh hopped beers. Randy and Kristen had gone to Worthy Brewing and recommended it so that was our next stop. They definitely had excellent beer. It was “worthy” of the stop.

We ended at Crux Fermentation Project on recommendation from Joe at Earth Cruiser. They are located in an industrial area but have an awesome view of the mountains and we happened to be there as the sun was setting. The beer was amazing and the atmosphere, although busy, was pretty cool. We could see ourselves hanging out there a lot if we lived here. They had a huge outdoor area with cornhole, picnic tables and lots of dogs everywhere. Gus was happy to be out of the Jeep and was excited by all the action going on around him.

The weather has been awesome. It’s chilly in the morning and warm during the day. It’s supposed to cool off this weekend. Hopefully we can get in some nice hikes with Gus, read a bunch of books and enjoy our nice spot free campsite.

Relaxing by the river…

We found a little gem in the super small town of Cathlamet (Cath-lam-et), Washington. The Elochoman Marina was a little farther west than we wanted to go but we are happy we found it. It’s a small little marina that also provides many options for campers. We chose a dry camping spot which wasn’t too bad for the price. We were happy to find a place right on the Columbia River and enjoyed some amazing sunsets. I was also able to do multiple loads of laundry and take showers in a nice big shower. They also had a huge book exchange offered in the office and we took advantage of that as well.

Our favorite thing was that River Mile 38 Brewing was within walking distance and although the website said they were closed, we saw the open sign blinking bright. I went to ask about the hours and if we could bring Gus to sit on the patio. The bartender said “bring the dogs, bring all the dogs. Inside, outside, we want to see them all.” How cool is that?

So we brought Gus into the bar and he did very well meeting other dogs and although he had a couple small accidents, we think the social time is really good for him. We were told they were open until 5 pm but when that time came and went and the bar was still packed full of locals, we stayed and enjoyed talking to many of them. They were curious how we ended up in their little town and we enjoyed learning about their community.

Monday we were bummed to learn that the local mechanic was too busy to take a look at the truck. After some phone calls, we drove 40 minutes east back to Longview and dropped the truck off at a diesel repair shop. They were the only ones in town that could look at the truck within the next day or two. We resigned ourselves to sleeping on the air mattress again and lived out of the trailer for the next two days. I don’t know how the Burnhams slept on that for a week but we appreciate that they never uttered a word of complaint. Rest assured, that thing is going away when we get home!

Tuesday was Craig’s 49th birthday! We drove to Astoria, Oregon which is a cool town that we discovered four years ago on our 15th Anniversary trip. We were happy that the sun was shining and enjoyed the short drive there. We went to Fort Stevens State Park and saw the Shipwreck of the Peter Iredale. There wasn’t much there to see but the beach was beautiful and it was interesting to think about how much was buried.

We headed to Buoy Brewing where Craig got a free beer thanks to a by the way mention that they were in the company of a birthday boy. Hey, unless you ask you never know.

We popped into Reach Break Brewery and the mention of a birthday got us nowhere. We did enjoy a nice conversation with a guy who lived in Washington, worked in Alaska and now lives in Reno. We ended up at Fort George Brewery, a favorite of ours, and made our way upstairs for beer and pizza. Again, just a quick mention that Craig was the birthday boy got him a beer on the house. We hadn’t been upstairs before and quickly realized it was busy, noisy and super hot. So after dinner, we ventured downstairs to the more pub like atmosphere and weirdly enough, Craig got himself another free birthday beer. It was a really fun day and I’m glad we could celebrate Craig somewhere that we really liked.

The truck was done Wednesday. Craig was correct and it was the front passenger wheel bearing. We had both sides done since we had never done them in the time we owned the truck. We got back to camp and put everything back together. It rained just briefly right when we got back but thankfully cleared up so we could finish repacking stuff and make ourselves a nice dinner and finish off some wine that the Burnhams left us.

We made our way to the Mt St. Helens Visitor Center and unloaded the Jeep there. We drove up to Johnston Ridge Observatory and were pretty amazed at the sight of Mt St Helens. We went into the Observatory and learned a lot about the May 1980 eruption of the mountain. We watched a short movie explaining the process of the volcanic eruption and saw actual footage of it. It was fascinating to read some of the stories of the people who were in the vicinity of the mountain when it erupted and how they survived. There was a lot of other great information about how they are tracking the seismic activity today.

We decided not to stay in the area. We didn’t find anywhere to camp that worked for us so we went back to the Gee Creek rest area on I5 where we had stayed before. After a few nice quiet days at the marina, we were okay with another night in a rest stop. It was definitely a very busy rest stop and louder than most.

We got up this morning excited to meet up with our friends Kristen and Randy. They made it to Bend, Oregon last night and were on their way this morning. We got to the campground about the same time and after a few hugs and happy tears, we enjoyed a beer together which we hadn’t done all together since 2015. They moved away a few years ago and although Randy gets back to Michigan for work, Kristen hasn’t been able to come back with him. We are looking forward to a great weekend with them!!

Hanging out with the Timmers…

This week we were really looking forward to having good friends come out for a visit. They wanted to see the ocean, whales and of course us! So I researched all the campgrounds on the Olympic Peninsula and came across a spot on iOverlander that listed a campground as “Nice couple’s home”. We read the reviews and felt instantly like this was our kind of place and we were right.

We made our way to “Nice Couple’s Home” which was between Forks and La Push. We were greeted by Ray and Joan and were happy that the $25 a night camping fee included a shower, a flush toilet and no additional charges for extra vehicles. We were the only ones staying there and with the rain they were forecasting for the week, we figured we’d have the place to ourselves.

Michelle and Kevin finally showed up around 8:30 pm and we were so excited to see them! Michelle had started at the Sheriff’s Office a few years back and her office was in the same hallway as mine. We realized how much we had in common and became fast friends. It was even better that our husbands got along well too. Although a few years younger than we are, they are excited about our adventure and hope to do the same thing only in a sailboat some day.

Our first day it rained nonstop. We had set up a big tarp over an EZ up tent and were happy with our tarp city. We decided to go for a drive and check out the area for a few hours. We drove to La Push but because of the rain and fog we could see nothing. Michelle braved the rain a few times when she thought she saw a sea otter. After that we had fun pointing out anything and everything just to get a rise out of her.

We made our way back to camp only to see that the water from the heavy rains was too much for the EZ up tent. We had to re-evaluate and ended up with a smaller area to hang out in, but we were dry and that was all that mattered. We taught them how to play SkipBo golf and I had to be sure they knew the Rotman and Van De Weg rules. Both my mom and dad’s sides of the family love cards and are very serious, especially when it comes to table talk. We weren’t going to have none of that.

The rain stopped for a bit and Kevin found a huge slug! After looking around a bit more he ended up with a bucket full so we decided to watch them race…slugs are pretty boring but Kevin’s time-lapse video was pretty cool (at this time he was unable to get me the video to share, stay tuned.) Thankfully our week got way more exciting than slug watching!

The week was relaxing and easy. We got up when we felt like it, Craig made us breakfast and we’d hop in the car, raining or not. Thankfully we had some dry spells between the down pours and were able to see some beautiful sights. We had times where the sun would come out and we’d stop to walk on the beach and the rain would start again. We saw many rainbows because of it.

We found roads less traveled that brought us up into the mountains and driving through clouds. If you don’t know, Forks, Washington was the setting for a book series that eventually were turned into movies. None of us are big Twighlight fans, but we did comment on how eerie the weather was and that werewolves and vampires must for sure be hiding out in the misty forests surrounding Forks.

We went to Ruby Beach which was full of huge driftwood pieces. The rocks along the shore were awesome. It was fun skipping stones and exploring. We heard there was a dead whale a little further down the beach. We made our way there to check it out. It was pretty fascinating to see.

We went back to La Push for dinner and watched the sunset and looked for sea otters. There was a break wall of huge rocks and drift wood that we carefully climbed and balanced on to get to the end. The sunset was beautiful but you could see and feel the rain coming in. We got back to the car just in time.

A drive up to Neah Bay brought us to the Cape Flattery trail and the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States. We donned our rain jackets and hoped the rain would hold off which it did. The trail wound through beautiful big cedar trees and moss-covered rainforest. At the end of the trail, we found ourselves high on the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. So amazing and beautiful! On our drive back, Kevin spotted a golden eagle, “Not a cormorant Michelle!” Mr. Eagle was nice enough to pose for some photos.

Another day we hit Beach 2, Beach 3 and Beach 4. Each one was a little different and it was neat to see the different scenery. On Beach 2, we came across a dead sea lion. A ranger showed up to check it out telling us it had just washed up last night or that day. He said there was a dead sea otter down the beach too. Michelle was intent on seeing the dead things and found the otter and a dead bird.

Beach 3 is where Michelle and Kevin found live sea otters hanging out and had a great time watching them playing in the water. Craig found his talent of stacking stones and Gus and I enjoyed the sunshine.

Our time back at camp was always fun. We took Gus for walks, played cards, enjoyed cocktails and good food and starred in Kevin’s time-lapse videos. Ray, the owner of the campground, bought over a contraption and said it was a shotgun trap for moles and to be careful of it. The next day we heard it go off and he was happy to show Kevin the now dead pesky mole. More dead animals…

Our last day we made our way to Hurricane Ridge. The sights were supposed to be amazing and views of Mt. Olympus were supposedly breathtaking. Unfortunately, all we saw was misty fog. The weather did not clear at all so we saw nothing. But the drive was fun and we enjoyed a nice dinner in Port Angeles.

The Burnhams left Friday morning to head back to Port Angeles to go on a whale watching tour and then fly home Saturday. They reported that they saw 40-60 humpback whales and a pod of Orcas. So happy they were able to check that off their bucket list.

It was such a fun week with great friends. It was filled with so much laughter, fun stories, quite a bit of sarcasm and definitely memories that we will cherish forever. We are not ready to go home yet, but having a little bit of home come visit us was really great. Thank you Kevin and Michelle for coming out to visit.

It continued to rain off and on as we traveled south. Our plan was to hang out in Astoria, Oregon for the weekend. We woke up to a downpour just north of Astoria with the forecast not looking good for a few days. We decided to continue on to Portland to a RV show that was going on this weekend. It’s always fun to check out different types of rigs although most aren’t our style. We got to talk to the Four Wheel Camper dealer and see the new version of our Grandby. We also were impressed with Earth Cruiser and will take a side trip down to Bend in the next few weeks to see what they have to offer. It didn’t hurt that they were serving beer out of one of the rigs.

Camping in this area is very expensive. We ended up staying at a couple of rest areas overnight. It’s not great but considering it has just been raining, we aren’t missing much.

A new noise in the truck presented itself while we were driving to Portland and Craig thinks it’s a wheel bearing. We drove north out of Portland and found a little marina with an RV park and will settle here until we get the truck fixed. The sun is finally out, there is a dog friendly brewery within walking distance, and hopefully we find a good mechanic in the area. We aren’t sure how this week is going to go but thankfully we are meeting up with some more good friends in Hood River for the weekend and are looking forward to that.

Hanging out in Cathlamet, Washington…

We spent a few nights under a powerline in Whistler, BC before we headed back toward the states. Our campsites aren’t always beautiful but after a few long days of driving, it was nice to relax with no one around. Whistler was pretty busy going into the holiday weekend so we didn’t venture around too much. We went to a couple breweries and then hung out in the trailer.

We drove the rest of the Sea to Sky Highway Saturday morning and although so beautiful, it did a number on our brakes. A 15% grade descent was the worst we’ve ever driven. By the time we reached the border crossing, they were grinding pretty bad. The line at the border was a little long, but being a huge rig finally paid off. We zipped through the RV line with no wait and only a few questions. All of our border crossings went so smoothly, we wonder what people do or say to make them rip apart their vehicles.

I had contacted my friend Stacy who lives in Birch Bay, Washington. She was my roommate at the National Forensic Academy in 2009. We lived together for 10 weeks and got along so well. She was pregnant with her first daughter at the time.

In December of 2009, we were able to visit during a family trip to Florida and I got to meet her daughter who was born on my birthday. Her husband is in the Coast Guard so they move every couple of years to a different coastal town. I was happy to be able to touch base with her since I hadn’t seen her since the December visit. She now has two daughters and it was fun to hang out for the weekend.

We went down to the town festival and drank some beers, watched some really talented people do some pretty amazing chainsaw carvings and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day. We were welcomed at her friend’s house in the country and enjoyed food, laughs, and a make-shift ball game in the front yard with all of the kids. It was a lot of fun and once again we felt like we were at home. They even allowed Craig to do brakes on the truck and Jeep in their driveway the next day. We can’t thank Stacy and her friends enough for the hospitality.

While doing the brake job on the truck, Craig found that one of the calipers was hung up, but because it was Labor Day, we couldn’t get parts to fix it. This was so unfortunate because it would’ve been so much easier than what we ended up doing a few days later.

We stayed two nights but felt a little large parked on the side of her street, so we said our goodbyes and hope to be back to visit again in the future.

We made our way to the casino near by which turned out not to be too bad. It wasn’t very busy and they even had porta potties and a hand washing station available for the RVers. I’m sure they hope to lure tired travelers into the casino to spend some money. We did not fall into that trap and were content making our meals in the trailer and reading our books. Yay, us!

The truck needed an oil change and we had a truck tire that Craig had originally plugged while on the Dalton Highway that now needed to be replaced. We went into Bellingham and parked at the Costco after filling up on cheap fuel. It’s so nice being back in the land of reasonably priced fuel. We didn’t feel like dragging the trailer all around town so we unloaded the Jeep and ran our errands. Discount Tire did not have our tire in stock so that would have to wait. The oil change got done but by that time it was late afternoon so we headed back to the casino.

Wednesday we headed to Yakima, not only to avoid the Seattle traffic as much as possible but we also wanted to see the hop fields. Yakima is the “Hops Capital of the World” as it produces 75% of the nation’s hops and are used by brewers around the globe. We went to Yakima Craft Brewing, Wandering Hop, Bale Breaker Brewing, and Valley Brewing. Bale Breaker was our favorite. Not only did they have amazing beer, they had a beautiful building in the middle of the hop fields. It was cool to see.

After a fun day of brewery hopping, we settled in at the Fred Meyer parking lot where we weren’t 100% sure we were allowed to stay overnight.

In the morning we were intent on getting out of there before being asked to leave, when I noticed another one of the trailer tires was soft. Craig pulled it off while I went to get us coffee. He could not find a leak anywhere. He put it back on, pumped it up and off we went. The drive toward Bonney Lake, where the Discount Tire had a truck tire in stock, took us through Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a pretty drive, although a little smokey from the wildfires. We did get a peek at Mt. Rainier which was beautiful.

We stopped at a rest area and Craig checked the tire again and it was losing air pretty quickly. We got to Bonney Lake Discount Tire and they were great. They assured us our truck tire was covered since we had road hazard on it and we only had to pay for the mounting. They took a look at the trailer tire and found a crack in the wheel. This was a brand new spare that we had put on just outside of Prince George when we had two tires with ply separation. We are severely disgusted with Lions Head Tire and Wheel at this point and a strongly worded email will be sent out soon. With a new truck tire and trailer wheel we headed out again.

Our next plan was to find a Napa to buy a new caliper and do the work in their parking lot. The Napa we found had a tiny lot and was on a busy street and of course, there was a carnival in town so it was ridiculously busy. We finaggled our way through the busy streets lined with cops directing traffic and decided to pull into a Fred Meyer parking lot. We found a spot that wasn’t busy in the back with some shade. After weeks of rain and chilly days, it was in the 80’s, which is nice until you’re trying to work on a vehicle on pavement. We unloaded the Jeep, Craig removed the caliper from the truck, drove to the Napa, came back and did the work in their parking lot. We got a few looks from people but didn’t get kicked out so we give Fred Meyer five stars! At this point, we are sick of dealing with tires and brakes and traffic. We have had enough tire issues and hope to go a few days without any problems. I know…I just jinxed us.

After all that, we got on the highway and slowly made our way west. At this point the traffic was annoying and probably not even close to as bad as it gets, but we just hate it. We got past Olympia and were finally able to relax and enjoy the drive to the coast. I found another casino on iOverlander that offered free RV parking at Quinault Beach Resort and Casino near Ocean City. We were happy to find they had separate parking for RVers away from the casino. We found a quiet spot in the corner with views and sounds of the Pacific Ocean and watched the sunset. This casino was successful in luring us in this time with a $2.99 breakfast which was pretty good. They still failed to get us to put any of our money into a slot machine so we’ll call that a win for The Vugs again.

We have friends flying in this weekend and we will head up the coast where we found a place to camp outside of La Push. We are so excited to have our first visitors! Although the forecast is calling for rain almost the entire week next week, nothing can dampen our spirits for their visit. It will be great to see familiar faces and enjoy their company.

Waiting for the Burnhams…