20230815 Tuesday, August 15, 2023; The Long Drive Home

 Tuesday, August 15, 2023; The Long Drive Home

Having power last night was nice since the temperature didn't fall below 80˚F until after midnight.  The parking spot with the 30A power outlet was situated between the house and shop, both of which had porch and security lights.  These caused quite a bit of light pollution.  The prior night, we were parked out in front of the house and shop so the RV actually blocked the light, affording a view of the night sky to the north.  So we didn't stay up to see the Perseid meteor shower.  

Because we were a relatively short drive to Janet's brother's house, we decided to have Janet drive the RV while Ben tried to pinpoint a knocking sound in the RV coach that is most noticeable at slow speeds.  We retracted the slide and drove off.  About 2 miles from the Toledo Boondockers Welcome site, someone following us honked their horn and when we came to a stop sign, the driver came up to our window to tell us we were dragging our power cord.  Doooohhh!  Although the cord itself wasn't visibly damaged, the plug at the end was severely damaged, and will have to be replaced.  Somehow, Ben didn't do his customary walk around before driving off.  Guess we'll need to stick to a pre-flight check list every time. We did circle back to check on the outlet, which was fortunately undamaged. 

Janet's brother lives in a log cabin that he built with logs harvested from his own land.  Over the years, this has developed into a small complex of multiple log buildings.  He and his wife had been holding log building construction classes over the last many years, but retired from teaching them very recently.  We had a very pleasant short visit and did some catching up.  They had just returned from a European cruise vacation and are preparing for a future cruise to Asia. 

We headed north and made a stop to visit one of Janet's high school friends in Kent.  After another short but pleasant visit, we stopped at a Dairy Queen for lunch and found several new Heinz SauceAmerica state themed condiment packets, which we have been collecting as part of a Heinz promotional drawing.  There are packets celebrating all 50 states and each features an item of local cuisine. We found mustard packets for Mississippi featuring a Slug Burger, Iowa Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, Illinois Chicago Dog, and Ohio Chili Dog.  

Our next stop was to see our daughter Ciara to give her something to take to Chicago on her next trip and to also pick up some move out items from her apartment since she needs to be out by the end of the month.  
As we headed north on I-5, traffic came to a near complete stop around Boeing Field.  We were stuck there for over an hour because Vice President Kamala Harris was visiting Seattle, so they closed I-5 so that her motorcade could take her to and from some political event.  It was 104˚F, so we had to leave the motor running to run the air conditioner.  

Once they reopened the freeway, we were back on our way, and met Ciara in the parking lot of Chiang's Gourmet, our favorite Seattle area restaurant.  We would have had lunch there except that they are closed on Tuesdays, so we exchanged items and hugs in the parking lot before continuing our trip home.  

Even though it was a week day, and we were driving through rush hour, the traffic heading north was bearable, particularly after having suffered through waiting for the Vice President's motorcade earlier in the day. 

We emptied our holding tanks and took on some potable water at the Smokey Point rest stop to prepare the RV for its next trip, whatever that may be.  Then we hit the Angel of the Winds Casino to fill up on diesel.  The price there was a whole 30 cents per gallon less expensive than even Costco's.  

Our last stop was in LaConner to fill up 10 buckets on our rear cargo carrier with compost for use at home and around the barn.  We managed to arrive back home in time to have dinner and retire early.  When we get the RV back to the barn, we'll have some projects cued up- replacing the 30A plug at the end of the shore power cord, replacing the rear view monitor camera and display, and trying to hunt down the source of the slow speed knocking noise which is coming from somewhere below the RV cabin floor. 

20230814 Portland Mission Accomplished

 Monday, August 14, 2023

We got an early start and were on the road by 7:30am.  Traffic heading south into Portland was surprisingly not terrible.  We did see plenty of "unhoused" tents set up in the grassy areas along Portland's freeways and highways.  Interestingly, there were many places where trash bins were set up in proximity to these tents so there was much less in the way of prolific trash heaps that you see all over the similar areas in Seattle.  If providing free municipal trash pick up is a Portland strategy to lessen the blight of unhoused communities popping up all over the city, it seems to be working because the Rose city, at least on the surface, appears less trashed than the Emerald city.

Our first destination was Bob's Red Mill in the Portland suburb of Milwaukee.  Bob's Red Mill is an employee owned company which produces foodie grade milled grain products.  Janet had heard about it from someone who highly recommended the factory tour, but since the pandemic, the tours were discontinued.  But there is an extensive gift shop, displays and restaurant.  We arrived just as they were opening at 8am.  It was a very pleasant 72˚F as we walked across the parking lot and toured the store and ordered breakfast at the food counter.  The menu is pretty extensive for breakfast and lunch items.  Janet had a breakfast sandwich on a biscuit, while Ben had the chicken and waffles.  The chicken and waffles was excellent with the chicken tenders being generous in size, country breaded and and the waffles were crispy and very delicious.  We had to buy some of the Bob's Red Mill pancake and waffle mix, and received a secret tip from one of the cooks.  She substitutes club soda for water to add lightness and crispiness to the waffles, and even uses 7-up when she makes large batches for events.  This produces sweeter and crispier waffles.

There was a new REI store in the Clackamas Mall so we stopped in and found some nice walking shoes in the clearance racks.  Then we headed across town to the Washington Square Mall where Ben picked up his new laptop and accessories at the Apple Store and Janet found a new cruise outfit at Macy's.  Our last Portland stop was the Costco near PDX airport for diesel and shopping.  The temperature had hit 114˚F by late afternoon.  Walking from the RV into the store was like hiking through a Scandinavian sauna.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!  

On our way back from Portland, we stopped in Longview, WA where our friends who own one of the Chinese restaurants at home have an uncle who owns the Golden Palace restaurant.  We had dinner which included appetizers, soup and two entrees.  Much to our surprise, instead of two small bowls of soup, they brought out a full tureen that could have served 4-6 people, and each entree was a full platter, so we ended up taking most of it home in take out containers after eating all that we possibly could.  Our advice for anyone considering a meal there is to come hungry and bring friends and family to help eat it all.

When we arrived back at the Boondockers Welcome host in Toledo, two of the other guests' rigs had moved on, so the site between the house and garage with 30A power was available for us.  It was still 103˚F when we arrived, so it sure was nice to be able to plug into her 30A power and run the air conditioner to get the RV cooled down.  We'll see if we can manage to stay up late enough to look for shooting stars again, but we may end up falling asleep before it gets dark enough tonight.

20230813 Portland Shopping and Heat Wave

 Sunday, August 13, 2023

There's no better excuse for a road trip than going on a sales tax free Portland shopping trip.  Ben's laptop is pushing 12 years old, and an upgrade is needed to allow Vlogging for an upcoming extended cruise trip.  So Ben placed an order on Apple.com and even though the drive to Portland takes time and diesel, it's an excuse to hit the road with the RV.  It turned out that one of our friends also needed a lift down to the Olympia area to pick up a truck he was buying from a friend for his son.  He also wanted to check out used camper in the Portland area.  So we picked him up on our way down.

We made a stop at the Tulalip Cabelas for a merchandise return, Marysville for DQ lunch, and then the Costco in Lacey for diesel, pizza and rotisserie chicken to stock the RV fridge.  Traffic had been decent until we hit Lakewood, where an accident backed up traffic for miles.  Our friend's destination took us in the vicinity of the Mima Mounds, which are a peculiar geological curiosity in south central Washington state. We dropped him off and continued our way south.

Our destination for the night was a Boondockers Welcome host in Toledo, WA.  There are several hosts in this stretch of I-5 including a site at Grand Mound and another in Castle Rock.  This host is a recently retired full time RV'er who has now settled into a sticks and bricks home, but who wants to stay involved in the RVing community through hosting.  She has several sites on her property including one with optional power.  When we arrived on a Sunday afternoon, she had 4 guests including us that she was hosting.  It was very kind and generous of her to allow us to spend two nights- one for us heading south, and the other for heading back north.  All of the sites are nice and level, and gravel surfaced.

The weather was beautiful and sunny, but a heat dome was building over the Pacific Northwest, and record high temperatures were predicted for this trip.  When we arrived at the host site around 5pm, the temperature was 90˚F.  She did not have a site with power for us, so we parked so our generator was facing the road and ran our generator to run our air conditioner until the outside temperature had dropped to below 80˚, which was about 8pm.  Since there were clear skies, the temperature actually dropped down into the upper 60's overnight, and we were comfortable opening the windows and using our MaxAir fan to create a cool breeze through the RV overnight.  

The Perseid meteor showers just happen to be peaking this weekend, so after then sun set, Ben set up outside with a tripod and lawn chair to try to capture some on camera. But it's a great big sky and it proved nearly impossible to catch a falling star.  Some did streak across the camera's field of vision, but proved too faint to register without massively overexposing the background stars and sky.  But between 10pm and midnight, Ben did managed to see about a dozen falling stars, despite not being successful in capturing many.

Small meteor streaking through the handle of the Big Dipper