Monday, April 11, 2016

We left Neskowin this morning after getting everything ready to go and then going down the road to the Hawk Creek Café for Breakfast.  When we got back we only had to hook up the car and head out.

We knew today was going to be a driving day and luckily we only had about a hundred miles to drive to Portland.  We arrived at Check-in time at 12:50 and the office was closed.  I guess they were serious about checking in at 1.  We would be staying for the next couple of days at the Columbia River RV Park right in Portland.

After getting set up we immediately got in the car and looked for Best Buy and Wal-Mart.  I had to have some tweaking done to the computer and we needed to pick up some essentials for the week.  It took about an hour at Best Buy having my “contacts” and “favorites” transferred from my old computer.  We also picked up a small inverter to keep our camera battery charged while we’re in the car.  We’ve searched and searched for a new battery for the Panasonic Camera but we can’t find one.  And the battery only lasts for about 10 minutes of solid shooting before it dies.  We are now on a “once in a lifetime” trip and we need the camera to work.  So we picked up the inverter to lessen the chance of missing things that we want to video.

I also checked the GPS to see if there was a Batteries Plus in Portland and I found one.  We’ll check over the next couple of days to see if they have the battery.

We got back home early in the afternoon and just sat and relaxed until Suppertime.  Sharon had purchased a pre-cooked Deli Chicken at Wal-Mart along with chunky mashed potatoes.  It was quite good indeed and it kept Sharon from cooking tonight even though it’s just as much work to get everything ready to eat.

We got our Dish working again after a little adjusting for the receiver.  We got a “receiver error” message on it about two weeks ago.  We’ve been able to work around it so far and now appears to be working normally.

We just sat and relaxed for the rest of the night while we caught up on some shows that have been on the DVR for awhile.  We managed to stay up until 11 tonight.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

We were up for a sightseeing day today and the weatherman predicted rain again for today.  It was overcast but we didn’t have any rain as of yet.

We took off about 9:30 after a light Breakfast headed for Fort Vancouver National Historic Site just across the Columbia River in Washington State.  It was a very short distance from our campground so it was quite convenient for us to get there.  We spent about an hour or so at the Fort looking around at the many buildings, some of which were being refurbished, and some which had already been.

We left and drove the 15 minutes to get back to the campground and ate lunch.  We sat around for about a half hour before we took off again.

This time we were headed to the Columbia River Gorge which is about 10 miles west of our campground and loaded with beautiful vistas of waterfalls inside the gorge.  We visited Vista House which is a marble building perched high atop the river where you have a panoramic view of 30 miles of river.  The most famous of the falls is Multnomah where a huge visitor’s center stands directly in front of it.  The water falls about 670 feet in two stages. It is the iconic view of the falls that everyone has seen.  After the gorge we got on the Interstate to take us back to the campground about 25 miles away.

Sharon whipped up a batch of Rigatoni and Meatballs for Supper tonight.  It was very good along with a loaf of french bread that she had picked up the other day for garlic toast.

After Dinner tonight Sharon took her Nook down to the office to hook up to the campground Wi-Fi so she could retrieve her programming.  For some reason when she rebooted her device, she lost all the programs that she had on it.  Eventually she managed to get it all loaded back on.

I, on the other hand, camped out in front of the TV for the night.  When Sharon got back from the office she joined me and the TV.  We lasted until 10:30 tonight before we headed for the feathers.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Today was planned to be another day of rest.  We’ll get ourselves and the motorhome ready for another jaunt tomorrow.  We’ll travel into Washington State and up to Mt. Saint Helens and then continue on to our campground.

I worked on the Newsletter for most of the day today but still haven’t created the mailing list to send it out.  I haven’t figured out how the new e-mail program works.  This is one of the reasons I absolutely abhor getting a new computer.  The main reason I haven’t created the mail list is because we’re approaching our maximum data usage for our jetpack and I don’t have the time to research creating a “mail list.”  Hopefully I’ll get it rectified over the next few days.  Since my computer crashed, I’ve had difficulty updating my website also.

We finally got the rain that they’ve been predicting for the last week.  It rained pretty good most of the day today.  We didn’t have anything planned so it didn’t affect our plans at all.  Hopefully when we leave tomorrow the weather will improve enough so that we get clear skies.

Sharon whipped up a “throw together” supper tonight with leftover chicken, mashed potatoes and corn.  She made potato pancakes with the potatoes and the whole thing turned out very good.

We planted ourselves in front of the Telly tonight and caught up on everything on the DVR.  We even started a movie, Kill Bill, Vol. 2, but when they buried Uma Thurman alive that was it for me. I found something else to entertain me for the night.

We stayed up until the cows came home last night, retiring only after we ran out of stuff to watch on the TV.  It was about 10:30 when that happened.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

We left the campground at a leisurely pace this morning.  Sharon even had time to make Egg McMuffins for us.  We knew this was going to be a short travel day with one stop at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.  Unfortunately for us the mountain was overcast today and we did not get a good view.  Although the State has a beautiful Visitor’s Center, while the National Park Visitor’s building was closed.  There was no sense in crying over spilled milk so we moved on.

Our campground, the Chehalis City Park, in Washington State, was only about 35 miles further up the road.  It would be an ideal base to visit Mt. Rainier tomorrow.  If the weather doesn’t clear, which its supposed to,  we’ll have the same view of Rainier, that we had of St Helens today.  That possibility we’re hoping doesn’t happen.  So far the weather has been holding out just fine.

After we  arrived at our campground, We headed into town to pick up some stuff at the grocery store and to eat a late lunch.  We looked for a nice family restaurant but couldn’t find one to our liking, so we stopped at Denny’s.  We both had the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs.  It also came with fried potatoes.  The meal was very good except they served it in a skillet that was still sizzling and cooking the food.  Sharon asked for an additional plate for each of us so we could transfer the food onto it and at least eat it.

After lunch and shopping we came home to no TV.  We couldn’t find the satellite earlier through the trees.  We just finished out the night with movies from the DVR.  There was really no point in staying up past 10 so we folded up our tents at that time and went to bed.

Friday, April 15, 2016

We were off this morning to Mt. Rainier National Park but having misgivings about whether we’ll see the mountain or not.  While the weather seemed to be co-operating with a nice sunny day, the skies were cloudy in the direction we were heading.

Sharon packed sandwiches and cokes so we wouldn’t be dependent on finding a restaurant when we got hungry.  Ham and Cheese sandwiches would be our fare along with a coke and then a couple of cinnamon rolls to chase it all down.

As we got closer to the Park the visibility was lessening by the minute.  By the time we entered the Park it was getting misty and the fog seemed to settle in.  We still had about 30 miles to travel and this was not looking good.  The roads were clear, but wet, and our elevation was increasing.  We arrived at the Jackson Visitor’s Center and couldn’t find it.  The 10 foot snowbanks had covered up all the signage leading to it.  And the building was closed, except on weekends, which was a huge disappointment.  The mountain was invisible and we had wasted a trip all the way up here.  But if we hadn’t driven up, we’d have wondered forever if we could have seen it today.

We started back down the mountain to the Longmire Museum where I could get my cancellation stamp for the park.  As we arrived, the Ranger was just closing up for lunch.  Since we had packed our lunch we settled in to eat it.

We checked out the gift shop but couldn’t find a thing we couldn’t do without.  By the time we finished there, the Ranger was back from lunch and we went back to the museum to get the stamp.

Our trip down the mountain was uneventful except for looking for a herd of Moose that we had seen on the way up.  At least we thought they were Moose cause we only got a glance at them, but it seemed like there were at least 15 of them.

We arrived back home early today but there would be no TV to watch, except for what’s on the DVR and Seinfeld tapes, because of the trees.

We had leftover Rigatoni and Meatballs for Supper tonight and the rest of the night was spent in front of the TV playing games on the computer and Sharon on her Nook.  We barely managed to make it to 10 before we got bored and went to bed.  It had been a long driving day today with not much reward.  I think we drove at least 180 miles there and back.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

We were up and had a quick Breakfast this morning even though it took us a while to get on the road.  We were in no particular hurry since our next campground is only about 64 miles up the road to Hoodsport, Washington.

As we approached Hoodsport we could clearly see Mt.Olympia in the distance.  Perhaps we’ll have better mountain viewing over the next couple of days.

We arrived early at our campground, the Dow Creek Resort, of course, and decided to go back into town and find a nice spot for a burger and a beer for lunch.

We stopped at the office because the guy who parked us said we’d need reservations to ride the ferry next week to the San Juan Islands.  So we stopped to get information about that before we went into town and check on the cable TV that was advertised.  We got the ferry information, but no cable TV.

After our burgers, which were good, but pricey, we found a couple gift shops to peruse.  We couldn’t, however, find a thing we couldn’t live without.

We stopped at a National Park information center on the way back to the campground to get some information about Mt. Olympia National Park.  We were there for 15-20 minutes and had gotten all the stuff we needed.

When we got back we read the information about the ferry and Sharon made the reservations for next week.

Because of a late lunch we decided against supper for tonight.  We’ll catch a movie or two on the VCR and then finish up the night with Seinfeld shows.  We’re up to the end of year seven and we’ve two more years(8 DVDs) to go.  There a nice touch to watch when you have nothing else.

But we struggled to stay up past 10 tonight but our bodies weren’t having it.  We both just ran out of juice.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Sharon couldn’t find a church this morning that was close enough to go to mass and get back in time.  We would be taking a day-long trip to Olympic National Park and back today and it was some miles up the road from our campground.  It was a scenic two lane highway that ran all along the Hood Canal until we were at the northernmost end of the Olympic Peninsula.  The Park entrance was in Port Angeles,Washington.

Sharon packed Chicken Salad sandwiches from leftover Deli chicken that we had the other day for Dinnner.  Along with a couple of Cokes and dessert and we were off.

It seemed like it took us a couple of hours to get to Port Angeles.  The traffic was mild but it seemed to move right along at 60 MPH.  We passed several little towns that were right on the water.  In fact the houses were butted up against a fence that separated the highway from the houses.

Arriving in Port Angeles we went immediately to the visitor’s center to get a map and the cancellation stamp.  The park is a drive in/ drive out arrangement. Not like other parks where you can drive through the park.  There are about 5 entrances where the situation is the same.  We took a road called Hurricane Ridge.  It was a winding, curvy road that was always ascending.  Good road and it took us up about 5200'.  Hurricane Ridge is higher than a few surrounding mountains and shorter than others.  We saw about 30 peaks after arrival and they were all named.

I also took a peeler going into the ranger station and skinned up a knee and a couple of knuckles.  We’ll stop and pick up some Neosporin on the way back home.  I hate to take a chance with this bad leg.  It attracts infections.

On our way back down the mountain we had a couple of cars holding us up, but they soon turned off so we could make some time.  We couldn’t find a pharmacy so we stopped at Wal-Mart for the Neosporin.  Sharon picked up a box of donut holes while she was there, cause I had already promised to stop at McDonald’s for ice cream, if we found one.  It took us a couple of towns but we finally found one.

We were back on the road quickly and headed south to the campground.  The traffic was less than it was this morning when we came up so I was happy since we could make good time on the way back.

No TV again tonight so we into the Seinfeld tapes again.  We broke into Season 8 tonight and have only one other season to watch, having already seen each episode about 8 times already.

We persisted to get to 10 tonight before we finally gave the TV the heave-ho.  It had actually been a long driving day today.  For one of us, at least.