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.
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.
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