bobanddenisewanderlust

Fri. Sept. 13- Mt. Vernon WA

We left to go to lunch with friend Audrey Lamoureux in Everett Washington. We met with her at Anthony’s, a nice seafood restaurant right on the waterfront. We had a nice lunch and even nicer visit. From there we went to Fred Meyers to pick up some fruit and sandwich meat. We stopped at the Camping World for a couple of items and returned to the motor home. We walked the dogs, watched TV and generally just relaxed.

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013- Mt. Vernon to Black Diamond WA

We left the TT in Mt. Vernon around 9 AM, driving south on I-5. The farther south we drove, the heavier that the traffic became. We continued onto I-405 for about 16 miles and turned off on Washington Hwy. 169 to go about 16 miles to Black Diamond and the Lake Sawyer resort. This was an RPI resort, but it was not a place we will ever go again! The drive in was stressful, with very narrow road, rotary circles, and lots of traffic.

What was advertised in the RPI book and the park amenities were not the same. It was my fault for forgetting that we were supposed to dump prior to arrival, so they charged us to dump, even though we did not need to dump. Then they put us in a site where we had no satellite or sewer hook-up. I seems that part of their septic system has failed, so we were placed in a site with no sewer, although, there was a hook-up there. We did have 30 amp electric and water. No cable, even though they advertised that they had cable TV. Talking to someone in the park later we found that they have just closed down this area to make sure that they have less that they have to pump out.

We set up camp, ate lunch, and took off for Pike Place Market downtown. It took us about 45 minutes to get to downtown Seattle. We wandered through the market, buying some nice bacon for breakfast tomorrow, beer for Bob, and Lime Pepper Jelly for the halibut.

We returned to the motor home, stopping on the way to pick up some nice Chinese food at  a little carry-out on the way. I ran two loads of laundry over to the RV park Laundromat, $ 1.50 to wash and $1.00 to dry. I only did one load of clothes and one load of undies! We ate dinner and watched some TV shows on the I-Pad.

Sunday, Sept 15, 2013- Black Diamond WA.

We ate a nice breakfast, paid bills and we did two more loads of laundry, since it was relatively inexpensive. Just the bath towels and sheets, since they are harder to do in our little washer/dryer.

After lunch, we went to Tacoma. The original plan was to go to the Washington State Fair in Tacoma, but it was rainy, so we changed plans. Instead we went to the Camping World to look at toilets. We need a new toilet. Our toilet has two foot pedals. To flush, you press down on one of them. This summer, we have had to press down, then use our foot to pull it back up. Bob had tried to fix it, and has sprayed it numerous times, but we still have the problem. We finally decided that when we get back in the lower 48 we will buy a new one. Camping World is having a sale and a sale on installation, so we went to do research. We found what we wanted, now Bob is making a reservation to have the toilet installed in Denver when we arrive back there. Although, the Camping World is in Golden, which is in the foothills. It depends upon the flooding situation there. Golden is not far from Boulder.

The drive to Tacoma took us on the route we are going to take when we leave tomorrow morning. This is a much better route to travel!

We returned to the motor home and cooked the halibut chowder again. This time I did the recipe as written and it was still delicious. We also had stopped at Fred Meyer to purchase a bread to bake, oh, was dinner good!

We watched more TV on the I-pad this evening.

Monday, Sept. 16, 2013- Black Diamond to Vancouver WA.

We drove out of the site at about 8:45, and headed over to the dump station. We did not need to dump, but since they charged us for it we were going to use it!!

The park is small and crowded, so as Bob turned the corner, he had to stop and back up to let another motor home through .They had done the same thing that we were doing. They had also hooked up their tow car at the dump station. So Bob went around and then turned around, which was tricky, but he was able to do it. We dumped and then pulled the CRV behind the motor home. While hooking up, another guy came over to talk to Bob. He was in the park through Coast to Coast and he was planning to complain about the services and what was advertised also. We are going to slam them on RV Park Reviews and he is doing it through Coast to Coast.

We drove out to Rt. 18, which was an easier drive to I-5, then we turned south on I-5. Traffic on I-5 was heavy through Olympia. We don’t think we will return to this area. If we return to Seattle, we will stay on the Olympic Peninsula, and take the ferry across the sound. Traffic on the Seattle side is just miserable and there are not a lot of RV parks that are close to the interstate.

We stopped at a rest area for lunch, then continued south. The weather kept trying to rain, it was mist, then heavy mist, then clear, then start all over again. We exited at exit 7 off I-5 and pulled into 99 RV Park. about 0.6 miles from the interstate.  I had called for reservations and they had not answered their phone. I had left a message, but no return call. That is not unusual for RV parks. The sign said “no vacancy” and since we would have to turn around anyway, we pulled in and the guy had one site that he put us into. We used our Escapees discount, as they do not honor the Passport America discount until Oct. 1. We paid $25 per night for FHU, 50 amp with free WiFi.

We set up camp and Bob contacted his Uncle Gary Turpin, his mothers brother, who we are planning to visit while we are here.

Tuesday Sept. 17, 2013- Vancouver WA

We left the RV park and went to visit Bob’s Uncle Gary at his home in Vancouver. We had a nice chat then all went to lunch at Silver Star Diner, close to Uncle Gary’s home. Exactly the kind of place we like to eat, a local diner.

After lunch we went to the Post Office to mail a book and a DVD. We dropped off Uncle Gary and I took this picture of these two good-looking guys!

We returned to the motor home, walked the dogs, ate dinner and watched TV.

Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013- Vancouver to Salem, via Junction City 

We drove south on I-250, continuing on I-5 south to Junction City OR. We drove through heavy traffic, even though it was after 9:30 AM. No where near as heavy as Seattle, but still more than we like. South of Salem,  the road went down to two lanes each way and the traffic thinned out.

We stopped at a really nice rest area, in fact, one of the nicest ones we have ever seen! We continued south to the exit for Junction City, turning south again on Hwy. 99S for 13 miles.

Once in Junction City, we easily found Davis Cabinets. Shaun and his brother, whose name I can never remember, had installed our new MCD shades in January in California. The day blind in the front of the slide stopped working. We do not put the day shade up very often, just to wash the window, so we were concerned. They were so nice! We parked and I walked about two blocks back to the McDonalds on the corner to pick up lunch. We had forgotten to buy bread, so we had nothing for lunch.

Right after I returned to the motor home, the brother showed up to fix the shade. The problem is not with the shade, it is that our valence is too close to the wall. We were concerned about this when we had the shades installed. He took down the shade, and fixed the roller, then he and Bob put it back up.  Easier said then done, as the valence is so close to the wall. I have never really liked our valences, so we are going to make a change.

We left Junction City and returned north to Salem, stopping at a 76 for diesel, $3.65/gal! Wow, the cheapest we have seen in awhile!

Our destination was the Elks Lodge in Salem. We had called ahead, which was a good thing. Since we had called, the gal had saved us the last 50 amp FHU site. Wahoo! Four rigs has just shown up, but she saved the site for us since we had called ahead. The instructions said call, they had the camp hosts cell number in the book , so all we did was follow directions!

We settled in and went grocery shopping. We returned, put the groceries away, and went to dinner at the lodge. We had the Wednesday special steak dinner, $9.50, for salad, rib-eye, potato, green beans and garlic bread, plus Black Butte Porter for Bob and White Zin for me. It was a very nice meal.

Thursday Sept. 19, 2013- Salem WA

At around 11 AM we left to go to the Honeywood Vineyards tasting room. When we arrived at the tasting room we realized that we had been there before. This was the same one we went to in 2011. We knew we had gone to one, but did not remember that it was in Salem. We bought another case of wine. From there we went a few blocks to the Great Harvest Bread company to purchase some bread. We ended up talking to the owner who was fascinated with our living in the motor home and traveling. We have a Great Harvest Bread Company frequent buyer card. Since we had gotten it in Fairbanks, the owner knew the owners of the Fairbanks and Anchorage stores, he gave us a free Chocolate Chip cookie. After having a nice conversation with him, we returned to the car and put our purchases into the vehicle.

We went to lunch a the Old Spaghetti Warehouse. We had been to the Old Spaghetti Factory before, but this was not quite as good as the Factory. We ate lunch then went to Costco. We joined Costco and shopped. We got back our membership fee in over-the-counter medications. They were having a sale so we bought about a years worth.

We went to Fred Meyer to round out the shopping, then returned to the motor home to put the groceries away. We ate dinner in, grilling chicken and eating some leftovers. 

Friday, Sept. 20- Salem WA

We closely watched the weather report, as they are anticipating a Pacific storm coming in later today. It looks like it will not be too bad today or Saturday, but Sunday is going to be windy and rainy. We decided to keep to our plan of leaving tomorrow, as we need to be in Bend for an appointment on Monday.

We went to Mt. Angel for lunch at the Glockenspiel Restaurant. We had been there before. I had the lunch Wiener schnitzel and Bob had a brat Ruben. After lunch we stopped at the outlet stores and bought a few items. We returned to the motor home and took a short nap. At around 4, the phone rang. It was friend Debbie Abernethy. She and Tom were just down the road, so they came up to the Elks to join us for dinner. At about 5:45, we went to the Lodge for the Prime Rib special. $25 ea couple for prime rib, potato, salad or soup, corn and garlic bread.

We sat talking until almost 9. It is always great so visit with friends on the road!

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