Just Another Bold Adventure

Today we drove up to Cape Flattery. It was a beautiful drive. We stopped along the way and let the dogs play and swim in the ocean. They had a terrific time, and it was wonderful for all of us. I picked up a few agates on the beach. Very small agates, but they're pretty. The view from that beach looks out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, towards Victoria Island to the north, and a beautiful point to the west, covered in towering trees with a beautiful white building by the shore. Eye candy in every direction.

From "our beach" we went on to the town of Sekiu. We stopped and got a soda and some fries to go from a cafe, and while we waited we watched some people playing fetch with a tennis ball and their chocolate lab by the docks. The lab was having way too much fun and it was great to watch while we waited.

Then we headed out to Cape Flattery. The drive was gorgeous. It's windy and narrow through a hallway of white alder trunks, with plenty of pullouts so we could stop and look out on the strait. Once we finally got to the parking area, we realized that as much as we wanted to do the walk down to the edge of the cape, it wasn't meant to be. The parking lot was full and it's about a half mile walk to the lookout point. We thought that our four dogs and that many people on a trail leading to a cliff with a dog who's obsessed by the ocean, might be one more potential disaster than we were up for. We had visions of four dogs knocking old women off the trail followed by Gary pulling us over the edge of the cliff into the ocean.

But there was a dirt road that went back to town- and since it wasn't marked, it didn't look like too many people were taking the road less traveled. So we decided to have an alternative adventure and headed up the road. Shortly after we started a red truck started tail gating me. So I pulled over and let him pass at the very first opportunity. Good idea.

After about another quarter of a mile, we came to the biggest rut in the road we'd seen, but I'm a desert girl with lots of 4WD experience. No problem, I made my way through with skill and style. The red truck had disappeared around corners and behind berry bramble and was well out of sight. Then, as I was skirting a big ditch that was working it's way into the roadway, I turned a corner and there was the red truck. Not moving, but with his backup lights on. Ruh Roh. He was gesturing for us to go back. I couldn't see what had stopped him, because the road is extremely narrow and nearly overgrown, and his truck blocked whatever obstacle was ahead of him. I had no choice but to back down the road at least back to the point where I'd let him pass me.

When I reached the previously mentioned rut again, I knew I was in for a challenge. On one side of the very narrow path there's a big ditch, on the other side a bigger ditch. I knew I had to angle the Jeep so I could pass through the rut without taking off my back bumper or falling into either ditch. I stuck my head out the window as far as I could without putting an eye out on a berry bush and had Paul do the same on his side so he could give me distance to doom on his side. I managed to get the rear wheels through the ditch with minimal crunch, but was angled too close to the bigger of the ditches on my side of the Jeep, so I had to go forward again, which required shifting down to 4WD low. I managed to pull us forward again and find a more manageable angle and very slowly and awkwardly backed my way out of harms way and back down the road to where I could turn around. (the former passing place and only wide spot in the road)

Once we got back on pavement I noticed the "service 4WD" light wasn't on. It's been on for about a year and I've taken it to mechanics (one being a dealership) that couldn't fix it. The system had been serviced, but no one could get the sensor to reset. Unfortunately, it's all connected to the cruise control and so I had been without cruise control for all that time. (I LOVE cruise control, I wasn't happy)

After stopping to let the dogs play at a beach again, and stopping to pick up Chinese food in Forks, it's still working. I think I fixed the sensor. Either the part where I thought for sure I was about to high center us or just by virtue of putting it in reverse while in 4L, it's fixed. Might have been the big bump, or not. I think I've thumped it pretty hard since the sensor went out, but I don't remember backing up in 4L. Normally I never retreat, and I don't think 4L reverse has ever been used. If it ever happens again, I'll try 4L reverse before I try to come as close to high centering as possible.

Tomorrow we're headed closer to the border. We'll be staying at Port Townsend for a couple of days before we take a ferry to Bellingham. From there we'll head on over to Canada.

Washington and Forks Folks

Today was a travel day. We got up and seemed to get on the road with relatively few problems. We went to Fred Meyers for diesel, this time without mishaps. (last time was not such a pretty picture!) We got the Jeep attached to Priscilla and headed out over the bridge from Astoria towards Washington.

The bridge is spectacular. It starts out VERY high over the water. And fortunately for us, there was construction so we were stuck at the highest part for a few extra minutes. Normally construction delays aren't anyone's favorite thing, but I'm growing fond of them. The view from the top was spectacular. I could see for miles. It was something to savor, and it felt all too soon when the flagman switched his sign and it was our turn to move across the bridge.

I've grown to love construction on the 101. I love to get to sit and stare at the ocean and trees and watch birds. It's like bonus points as far as I'm concerned. I keep hoping I'll get to see a sea mammal spout while waiting my turn to go. So far, none during construction waits, but I'll keep hoping. A girls gotta daydream.

The Washington side of the Columbia is as spectacular as the Oregon side- except there seemed to me to be a lot more recent logging that hadn't grown any trees yet. So there were some ugly looking mountains. Logged areas look like a scar. The road wound through some very recent sites that were painful to look at.

It's hard to look at once you've spent time walking in the forest and appreciate what it means when you see a denuded hillside. I know it's a necessary evil, and there's no getting around it, but it still makes my heart hurt. I love the forests here. It's an incredible experience to walk through them and hear the trees creak in a breeze and see the flowers and berry bushes in their glory. There are animal tracks everywhere, and all kinds of animal signs. The forest vibrates with life. After it's been clear cut, it feels like a morgue.

The areas that haven't been cut though, are even more spectacular than our part of Oregon. The trees seem bigger and more diverse. It's one "zo my gawd that's a big beautiful tree" after another. Not as incredible as the redwoods, but still, amazing. I don't know, but I suspect we drove through some forests that are older than the one's we're used to. Either old growth or ones that weren't logged in more than a lifetime. I don't really know which. The forests that are the result of having been replanted totally lack diversity. They plant all one kind of tree, eliminating a lot of ecological niches. It's better than the old school, just leave it to erode and be barren for generations, but it's still less than ideal in my opinion. The trees we drove through today were a variety, not a specific fast growing ideal for quicker harvest single species.

We had a big weird noise happen while we were driving down the road today. Neither of us had a clue what it might have been. I stopped immediately and we couldn't find the source of the sound. Paul checked out everything and nothing seemed wrong. After a while he tried to use the bathroom and the toilet wouldn't flush. The pedal was stuck. So we figured it was some plastic heat fatigue and some plumbing had come undone. Later on, he found one of Gary's tennis balls stuck under the pedal. So that was that. We still have no idea what the really loud noise was. I imagine we'll figure it out at some point in time. It didn't sound like a noise we could identify and it wasn't familiar. I hope it's nothing too dreadful.

We ended up in Forks WA, of Twilight fame. It's very much like I pictured it while reading the books. Not particularly glamorous, but the scenery around it is spectacular. The RV park is divided down the middle by a strip of pavement. On one side there's a row of rather tragic looking single wide mobile homes. (yes mobile homes, none of these are new enough to have been made since they became "prefab" or "manufactured" homes) On the other side of the pavement is a row of very expensive RVs. We watched a group of about six kids playing with two bicycles for several hours while we set up the RV and rested after the drive.

When I took Sookie for her "constitutional", they approached me and asked if they could pet the dog. Since they sort of came charging up as fast as their little legs could follow the leader on one of the bicycles, Sookie was terrified. She's scared of bicycles (and strollers, vacuum cleaners, skateboards....) so I told them no, but I have a dog they can pet. I traded Sookie for the more intrepid Gary. The kids loved him up for 20 minutes. One of the kids wrapped his arms around Gary's neck and hugged him. Then another, smaller kid wrapped his arms around Gary and leaned into him so hard, Gary just went to the ground. It was like a slow motion tackle. Gary just took it all in.

The oldest of the kids, I'm guessing is maybe 8, the youngest was 2 and barely talking. There was no adult supervision at all. They were just playing like kids did when I was a kid, except my mom didn't turn us loose when we couldn't talk yet. I thought they were not quite old enough for that much freedom, with a steady stream of strangers parking their cars across the street everyday. In spite of that, they were all very polite and sweet. I didn't pick up on any anger or aggression that would make me think they were abused or neglected terribly much. The oldest child told me that one of the neighbors killed the dog she used to have because he hates dogs. She said she wanted another dog, in fact she wanted Gary because her mom doesn't know where the pound is. I told her she could pet Gary, but she couldn't have Gary because it would make me too sad because I love him so much.

After I finally tore us away from the herd o' children and came back inside so I could make dinner, we watched the kids climbing the tree across from us and riding their bikes and running. It seemed they were a really good group of kids, who care a lot about each other. They didn't fight and they took care of the littler ones. Eventually the older girls disappeared, I'm guessing they had to go inside, and the two year old boy and the other two boys played in a puddle. The two year old sat down with a stick and pounded the puddle with it. I think one of the other boys took the stick away from him so he just slapped it with his hands for a while, making big splashes that must have somehow worked with whatever game he was playing with the other two boys.

It all felt a bit like an alternate reality. Polite sweet kids, with not very many toys and a lot of imagination, and no adult supervision. I genuinely hope that somewhere in at least one of those trailers, there was a mom watching out the window.

Fun day

Today started out good. We headed up the road to Astoria. I've wanted to see Astoria ever since I saw the movie Goonies. Not so much to see the places they filmed the movie, but because I was distracted by the scenery while I watched the movie.

So in Team Frog Dog style, we googled the microbreweries in town, and headed out with the dogs in the Jeep. Once we got there, and after some navigational challenges, we found appropriately the "Wet Dog Cafe and Brewery". We had an appetizer with Oregon shrimp. Generous with horseradish the way I like it, and the Oregon shrimp were succulent and wonderful. They're bay shrimp, but they're the Cadillac of bay shrimp. The fish and chip combo was great too, it included tuna, cod and salmon. They normally have a strong ale, which I wanted to try, but they were out. I had a porter instead. It was excellent.

We left the dogs in the car for lunch, but we could have taken them with us and eaten on the patio. Back in the car, they howled. Not for too long, but still, I know it freaks people out to hear them when they're carrying on like a pack of werebanshees. We didn't know about the patio until we were settled down at a table and neither of us felt like going back for the howling dogs. It's a challenge we were both too hungry to face.

The Wet Dog is on the docks and we had a wonderful view of large ships sitting at anchor in the bay. As the tide started to come in, we watched the closest one turn from facing due north, to due west as it was swung around it's anchor line. Lots of tug boats went by and we could see several other ships in a similar fashion to the one we could best see. I love the ocean and ships and the view across the bay was beautiful. I think this will be a favorite brew pub in the future, the view alone makes it exceptional.

One of the coolest things was that they have on the menu hamburger patties for $1 for dogs. I've never seen that before and thought it was a great idea. We bought four patties to go and took them to the dogs. It made up for being so cruelly abandoned for more than 10 seconds. We totally redeemed ourselves with those.

We headed up to the Astoria tower after lunch. The parking lot was packed, and since we'd just had a howling dogs moment, we decided to just enjoy the view from the parking lot. We put the two "kids" on leashes and let Murph and Kelty out on the grass in front the parking lot. No one else was down there and we got to relax and see the bridge and city without any worries.

On our way up to the tower, while again having navigational challenges, we saw the COOLEST Victorian house. Paul thought it was so amazing we had to go back and see it again. It's about to fall down, there are flowers growing out of the chimney, but it's unique and amazing. I really wish I had a picture of it, but the camera was MIA at the time. I found it later, but all I had at the moment was the iPad and it's not the best camera. I might try and get a picture of it tomorrow. It had a rounded glass corner window. I've never seen one like it. In a city made up of Victorian homes, it stands out. Not just because it's so run down it looks haunted and it has flowers growing out of it's chimney, but because it's a great variation on the theme.

At this point I was thinking we'd leave and move on down the road tomorrow. But on the way back to the RV we decided to check out a beach. It turned out to be one that allowed cars on the beach. Dogs and cars aren't a great combo, so we only spent a half hour or so there. The water was the warmest I've found in Oregon and the air temps were the warmest I've felt on the coast. The sun was shining and I could see islands off in the distance. Other than the cars on the beach it was wonderful. Gary was out in the water swimming instead of just running up and down the surf. It was divine. Except for the part where I had to keep rounding up dogs so cars could drive by. That part was not so good.

So we hopped in the car and decided to stop at a nearby park to use the facilities. (nature calls!) I think it was one of the most fortunate parts of the whole day. The park is a trail head for a couple of trails. We wouldn't have stopped there if we hadn't "had to go". So glad we did!

One trail went down to a view point and the other trail goes several miles back to a State Park. Initially we went to the view point. I have pictures, it was a terrific 1/3 mile trail. On the way back we took an unmarked trail and went another 1/2 mile or so. The trails are through the dunes, which are covered in tall grass and sweet peas. Incredibly beautiful. The dogs had a wonderful romp in the grasses and on the trail. Paul and I were overwhelmed by how beautiful it was and by how much fun the dogs were having. Bliss.

We loved it so much that tomorrow we're going back and taking the other trail for a couple of miles. I'll take pictures.

Prologue- first time I tried pictures. I don't think I can control where they land and I hoped I could caption them, but I guess I can't. I wanted to take one out because without a caption it's pathetic, but I can't figure out how to remove pictures once they're loaded. I'm still trying to find my voice for writing this, and I'm still trying to work out the mechanics of the blog itself... hopefully time will help with both.

Maiden Voyage

This my first blog entry about our big RV adventure. We set out in Priscilla, our 40' RV, from Yachats Oregon, bound for unspecific destinations somewhere in Canada. We're about a week into our adventure and so far, we've learned a lot more than I can write about in a reasonable number of paragraphs. It's been fun, but there's much to learn about Priscilla and much to learn about this style of travel. At times, we have been completely overwhelmed by our ignorance and mistakes as well as mechanical malfunctions and repairs.

As for this blog idea, I'm struggling to decide what direction to go with. I suspect it will either fizzle out or evolve with time. Among other things, I'm partially motivated by a desire to share the joys and frustrations of traveling with four big dogs. The dogs themselves have been almost nothing but a joy, but RV parks haven't been an all positive experience.

We've found so far that many places are not willing to accept four big dogs. And while most post their dog policy clearly, not all do. It seems that two big dogs is a nearly too generous limit at most parks. And after going through an exceptionally prying check in process at one park, we found that they had a limit of one big dog and one small dog. This after listing NO limitations or restrictions in their Good Sam listing or in their office. Paul had answered questions for 15 minutes before she got to the dog question and were unceremoniously booted out of the park. "No YOU CAN'T STAY HERE!".

We then moved on to another park, where we only volunteered that we had two dogs and they fortunately didn't ask their size or breed. We made it a point to only take two out at a time and to load them up into the Jeep as fast as humanly possible. In a way I'm glad we didn't end up in the first park. It seemed like a too tightly run ship, and I'm not ready to relive my days next to the neighbor from hell and their direct line to the HOA, days.

Tonight, we're in our third RV park. This one is smaller than the other two, and less fancy, but very clean. All of the parks seem to have full time residents, and this park seems to be mostly full time residents, but not at all shady looking. I met someone walking her dog wearing scrubs as we moved Priscilla into her parking slot. I imagined a traveling nurse, but I didn't ask.

As a general rule, people who walk dogs are friendly and nice. We exchanged dog owner niceties when she observed that Sookie had jumped up onto the dashboard, so she could see the other dog, and be seen by the other dog. Sookie sometimes mistakes herself for a cat or a small dog and behaves accordingly.

At this point, the dogs have had their dinner and are all sitting around in their usual zen like state of contentment. It's hard for me to accept that they aren't welcome in so many places. Then again, I have met lots of dogs who's people have failed them and who don't have any manners. And I have Sookie, who sometimes acts as if she doesn't have a clue. Although lately she's been doing so much better, I know not to expect too much from my "special ed" dog.

They all have their foibles, just like the rest of us.

The other important part of our trip is food. I'm an unrepentant foodie. Right now, I have pork ribs simmering in a slow cooker with kimchee from a terrific Asian market I shopped at in Tigard. I added a bottle of beer some onions and potatoes. I know the potatoes aren't as traditional sounding as rice, but it appealed to us, so there they are. A few drops of sesame oil, and rice vinegar to finish it off and I think we have a decent, though stinky, dinner. The broccoli steaming along with it isn't making it smell better either, but its a healthy enough offering. Lots of veg, a bit of meat and tons of flavor.

I expect we'll mostly do slow cooked foods on nights when we're in RV parks. We can save propane that way, so we have it for nights when we stay in more rustic campgrounds. We prefer the rustic ones, but they're not always accessible for Priscilla.