20260228 Saturday, February 28, 2026- Twin Harbors State Park Clamming Day 3

20260228 Saturday, February 28, 2026- Twin Harbors State Park Clamming Day 3

The weather looked pretty decent in the morning with scattered clouds and frequent sun out as we started our day.  We ran the generator to charge up the batteries, which had drained to 43% overnight.  After making coffee and tea, the generator stopped as our external 20# LP tank had run dry.  This was all the excuse we needed to make a run into Aberdeen to get a propane refill.  On a prior trip, we did this at the Tractor Supply Store, but this time, the attendant noticed that our tank was out dated (manufactured in 2011) and he said nobody in Aberdeen recertifies outdated tanks.  Back home, our local Cenex has done this for a $15 fee, but the Aberdeen Walmart was right next door, and they had Blue Rhino LP exchange bottles for $19, so we did that.  With LP at about $4/gal, it was less expensive to do the exchange this time. The replacement tank had a manufacture date of 6/2025, so that should hold us for a number of years.  

While in Aberdeen, we had lunch at the Jack in the Box, which had a $4.99 lunch special with a cheese burger, fries and drink.  Our hometown Jack in the Box doesn’t do these lunch specials, so we jumped at the opportunity.  Oddly, the guy working the counter said they were out of hamburger patties for the cheese burgers, but that they could substitute the chicken patty instead.  It’s hard to imagine a burger place being out of hamburger patties, but then again, our hometown KFC used to always be out of fried chicken before they went out of business.  They guy behind the counter even upsized our fries to make up for being out of cheeseburgers, so that was a bonus.  

Although today’s low tide was at 4:41pm, we headed to the beach early at 2:30pm to see if arriving earlier might prove more successful.  We did find some shows high on the beach, although many were small clams.  As the tide went out further, there were new shows that appeared 50-100’ above the wet zone, and as the tide got lower, there were more shows with larger clams.  We were successful in getting our two limits (total 30 clams) by 3:45pm, so it was nice to be able to get that done and back to the RV before nightfall.  

We ran the generator to use the induction cooktop to process the clams.  The induction cooktop brings water to a boil much faster than the LP burner.  After getting the clams unshelled, we shut the generator down while we did all the cleaning.  After the clams were all processed, we ran the generator again to use the microwave to heat up dinner, which was another round of the prepared baked cod, rice pilaf and carrots meals and then switched to convection oven mode to toast the last of the Costco baguettes.  

When we shut the generator down, the batteries were at 74%, which should hold us through the night with no problem.  

Tomorrow’s low tide will be -0.5’ at 5:26pm, which is just before sunset.  We’ll probably go out about 2:30-3pm again to take advantage of the daylight and hope we find some clam shows again.  Tomorrow should be our last day of clamming this trip.  We’ll head home Monday during the day and try to avoid the rush hours.