Troy, Montana

I know I know, this update has been long time in coming.  Sorry.

We have been busy.  When we left Whidbey Island we meet my cousin Pat near Mt. Vernon, WA for lunch and he suggested that we take highway 2 east so that is what we did.  We were very undecided as to what direction we were going to go and even talked of going in Canada but when we left the parking lot after lunch the rv turned right onto U.S. Route 2 (click blue link) not left onto interstate 5.  So away we went.  Route 2 follows along the Skagit River.

Isn't the water color just beautiful?  It gets its color from glacial run-off.  

Wikipedia says this:  Glacial Milk

Rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of fine-grained, silt-sized particles of rock, generated by mechanical grinding of bedrock by glacial erosion or by artificial grinding to a similar size. Because the material is very small, it becomes suspended in meltwater making the water appear cloudy, which is sometimes known as glacial milk.

When the sediments enter a river, they turn the river's colour grey, light brown, iridescent blue-green, or milky white. If the river flows into aglacial lake, the lake may appear turquoise in colour as a result. When flows of the flour are extensive, a distinct layer of a different colour flows into the lake and begins to dissipate and settle as the flow extends from the increase in water flow from the glacier during snow melts and heavy rain periods.

As we moved into Eastern Washington we entered forrest fire area.  

We spent a night in the area of Washington's biggest fire ever.  And they get summer rains here so you know, first comes fire then comes rain and flooding.  The weekend before we got here they lost 3 houses to floods.

We had lunch at Grand Coulee Dam. Click blue link for info on GC Dam.

That day we drove across Eastern Washington, through Idaho and into Montana.  

This is the only picture I took in Idaho. US Route 2 is along part of the Louis and Clark trail.

I'm ending todays blog with a sad note.  

Tootsie, moms much loved kitten, died while we were in Eastern Washington.  Tootsie's health had been declining for some time and we knew that she could pass at any moment.  Still we were sad to see her go and we miss her very much. 

From Ghost Girl this is Evie, Joy and Rose kitty saying, thank you for reading and see you later.

Moving on to Whidbey Island

We have left Port Townsend and moved over to Whidbey Island.

The view from our spot in

Point Hudson Rv Park and Marina in Port Townsend

Two of the vessels that passed in front of our space in Port Townsend. 

The ferry we took from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island

Ghost Girl in the hold.

One of my blog readers who lives nearby suggested that while in Coupeville we eat at Toby's.

We did and it was delicious but I forgot to take a picture of lunch till it was to late.

My cousin Kirby and his lovely wife Freda who live in Coupeville and drove us around.

We had a lovely time on the island, it was warm and clear.  I have another cousin, Richard, who also lives on island but he was off island when we were here.  Sorry we missed you Richard.  

While in Oak Harbor I had XM Radio installed in the truck but I had to go off island to a Best Buy to get the unit that would allow me to remove the little XM unit and put into a larger unit with speakers so we could listen to it while in the rv or at home.  So today we went into Burlington to the Best Buy and Costco and Walmart.  We are in Anacortes, WA for next two days, after that we just can't decide where we will go.  We are kind of killing time waiting for the weather to cool down farther east of here.  We'll move on in a few days.

Home unit, playing a song by one of my all time favorite singers Sade.

Until next time, thank you for reading.

Evie and Joy

Don't forget to DREAM BIG!!!

Beautiful Port Townsend, WA

We're in love.  We are in Point Hudson RV Park and Marina.  Wow.  Land yachts on one side and sea yachts on the other side with two restaurants in between.  My idea of heaven.  And all this while looking out on the Puget Sound.  Port Townsend is the gateway to the sound so there is lots of activity, sail boats, motor boats and freighters being pulled by tugs.  What great fun.

The ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville on Whidbey Island.

We will take this ferry on wednesday.

It's hard to keep this water girl out of cool clear ocean water.

Look no litter.

Ahh

Some local wildlife.  Sea Otter.

Salad!!!  That's a shrimp on the far side of glass.

I had broiled salmon mom had blackened salmon.

No, we haven't had our fill of sea food yet.  We will be eating out every meal while we are here. Bummer we will only be here two nights.

Now I'm going to do some griping.

I was going to do a whole post about this but I have calmed down a bit so this will be short.

The state of Washington has the worst signage of any state that I've been in and I've been to most of them.  We drove all the way to see Mount St. Helens only to get near the visitors center to find it closed. This was on a long 50 mile road.  We went even though it was cloudy and rainy thinking that oh well the visitors center will have postcard and pictures and tons of info and such.  NOT.  Grumble grumble 

Devastation area from the May 18, 1980 eruption. 

WTF

That's all. 

 We are going to hang around cousin Kirby's area, Whidbey Island, and see about having a satellite radio installed in the Rv.  I'm going crazy, some might say crazier, without music to listen and sing along to.

We picked some black berries the other day and did some baking.  Yummmm

Dream BIG!!!

Meeting a New Found Cousin

We left the coast for a few days so we could see my friend Joy in Ryderwood, WA.  As luck would have it she was called away right when we had planned to see her but I wasn't going to be deterred. Mom and I drove into Ryderwood, which is at the end of a short state road.

Road going to Ryderwood, WA

The community center where there is coffee and donuts on weekdays 

and on weekends music where Joy's partner David plays with his band.

Corner store.

Joy's house with pretty lace curtains.

From there we drove south to Kelso, WA for the night.  There isn't any thing special about Kelso except it is about an hour from Portland where, the next day, tuesday we drove in to have lunch with my cousin, Carol.  We found each other on ancestry dot com.  Our great grandfathers were brothers.  We shared (well she did) pictures of her side of the family.  

Mom and Carol.

Finding a parking place in downtown Portland was no easy feat. But I managed to find two spots on 12th street only 5 blocks from her really cute apartment that is an old building.

Carol's apt. is on the 4th floor of the same building where Jakes Seafood Restaurant is.

Salmon with Horseradish sauce, garlic mash potatoes with green beans. 

After lunch we got back on the freeway and came back north to Kelso for the night.  Tomorrow we will head back to the coast via hwy. 12.  Tomorrow night we will be back near Aberdeen, WA. where will continue our trip north up the Olympic Peninsula.

One last picture.  A few of you requested a picture of 'Ghost Girls' ghost markings.  They are hard to get, the light has to be just right but I was able to get a shot of part of them.

Ghost Girl is a 2001 Winnebago, Minnie

Until next time.

Thank you for reading and all your comments are appreciated, even though I'm not around to answer them.  I do read them and I know someone is out there reading.

Mom and I have put 12,00 miles on our RV.  Yeah!!!

We Are in Hoquiam, WA

We are staying in the Hoquiam River RV Park right on the river complete with two river otters. Very cute but not able to get pictures of them.  But we were able to get a picture of a bull Elk.  I have to tell you, everywhere we go, no matter what state we are driving in, we see signs for ELK.  But after seeing at least a 100 signs we have only seen two herds, one in Colorado(when my camera was broken) and the herd that lives north of Eureka, Ca.

This bull was very far away that is why this photo is a little out of focus. 

But you get the idea that he is a big boy.  

He is one of the Roosevelt Elk herd north of Eureka, CA.

Our favorite fish shack on the fishing pier in Port Orford, OR

And just so you don't think that I'm exaggerating about it being a shack, here is the big picture. 

Note rear end of 'Ghost Girl" on left.

There is nothing more beautiful that the Oregon Coast.   But there are hazards to the area.

Just so you know where to go.

And let's don't forget about the stuff that is making its way here from Japan.

But it is very beautiful.  Lots of fresh water lakes next to the beach.

Lots of wild flowers still blooming. These are Sweet Peas and white Queen Ann Lace.  But Cleome are in bloom as well.  They look very etherial.  You can see them up ahead and it looks like a purple cloud, but when you get there they are so spaced out that a picture just doesn't do it.

And this is the Hoquiam River where we are tonight.

Today we also went over the bridge at Astoria, OR. Here is link to wikipedia all about it.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria%E2%80%93Megler_Bridge

It's a very beautiful and long bridge connecting Washington to Oregon.

We are going to spend two days here and then make our way east to Interstate 5 and go south to visit my friends who are living in Ryderwood, WA.  and then onto Portland to visit my new found cousin, Carol.  Internet has been very hit and miss.  Often not where we are parked for the night so not always able to post but will when I can.

See you in a few days.

Evie and Joy plus our kitties Rose and Tootsie.

It's August 4th and We are Back on the Road

Well it took us two months to get everything done that needed to get done at home and to the Rv but it's all done now and we are back on the beautiful highways of the west coast.  We left Willits, CA this morning at around 10 am and heading north drove right into Laytonville, CA. which is on fire. Not the town but all around it.  Two base camps are set up in town for the firefighters.  I couldn't get a picture of the first one but did manage to get a picture of the helicopter base camp.

Laytonville was a busy place.  Smoke was so thick that you could taste it.  But that wasn't the worst of it, just a few more miles north of there around Bell Springs Road the smoke was so thick that visibility was down to about 100'.  Couldn't even see the signs along the highway.  

The firefighters deserve a HUGE THANK YOU for all their hard work.

It took us 3 driving hours to drive out of all that smoke.  

My friends that live in Dos Rios and Piercy probably have lots of smoke in their area.  My wish is that the wind will blow it all away.

Away from the smoke and on to Eureka, CA.  where we found a free or dry camping or boondocking spot, places where you can park for the night and not have to pay.  A friend from the internet, Nan suggested a parking lot near the harbor but when we got there it clearly said No Overnight Parking so on we went to the yacht harbor.  I could see on google map that there were several parking lots and not to many cars so we drove over the bridge to take a look.  Well getting there was half the fun.  On the way the road goes through a tunnel with only 10' 2" clearance.  I'm 11.5' tall.  Mom starts yelling stop stop low clearance.  I stop get out and look the situation over.  There is no way we can go through that tunnel and the street is to narrow to turn this rig around.  The only thing to do is to back up about 50' back to the intersection.  Which we did, with most people giving me lots of room.  Once back on the main road I was going to go on till I got to a place to turn around and approach the it from the other direction but when I got out on the road I saw that because there was no traffic coming I could make a left turn that was only slightly illegal.  Which is what I did.  The harbor parking lots are great.  Practically empty and very quiet.  STOP THE PRESSES.  At 7:45 we were run out of the harbor, on to second choice, St. Joseph's Hospital parking lot.  I knew how to get there so off we went.

I was able to walk around the harbor and smell the salt air and see some great old boats.  Kind of reminded me of when I lived in Santa Cruz, CA  in the 1970's and several of my friends were fisherman. I spent many hours hanging out at the harbor doing the things that fisherman do.  And that's enough said of that.

Tomorrow we will continue our trek up the coast and on into Oregon.

See you later.

Evie

Home at Last, or at Least for Two Months

After spending one night in Truckee CA. we wanted to have lunch with a friend in Sacramento, CA. so I checked all my phone apps and found a small RV park and Marina in West Sac. Sherwood Marina and RV Park, on South River Road, West Sac.  A very cool place, as it is right on the Sacramento River. Most places along the river are below the levy but South River Road runs along the top of the levy so you can drive for miles looking at the river. We were there after Memorial Day Weekend so it was nice and quiet with only one other RVer there.  It is all grassy with lots of huge cottonwood trees for shade.  

Great Blue Heron fishing in the Sacramento River

After we had lunch with moms friend Kim we turned the RV towards home and after stopping for dinner in Clearlake Oaks for some of the best Chinese food in Lake county we were home by 6pm.

And this is what greeted me in my backyard.

 My Mock orange trees (Philadelphus coronarius) in full bloom.

Can you smell these flowers?

So we are home for two months at which time we will head north.  So for several weeks we will be playing catch-up on the yard work around the house and getting the RV ready for her next great adventure.  Oh and by the way, last week we passed the 10,000 mile mark.  We have put on more than 10,000 miles on the RV since we got it in November 2013.  Our next goal is 50,000 miles.  

So see you around August 1st.

Evie and Joy