Currently in Monitor WA (Low 73 Sunny and HOT 101)
After we got here Monday it rose to 103 degrees, Tuesday was 106, Wednesday 104. No relief in sight until we get to Saint Mary Montana in mid-August.
When it is this hot we barely do anything and when we do it is early. With our site orientation we need to get back and get our awnings out to help with the heat load. We haven't done much but we had probably our best Costco experience.
The parking lot was immaculate and we parked close, great in the heat, shade would have made it even better but alas no shade. Bob got his glasses cleaned and adjusted with barely a wait. The checkout lines went fast but the fastest line was the food court. Never have we seen a Costco food court operate so smoothly. Jo got a chicken bake, chunks of chicken in a ranch type sauce with bacon in bun baked with cheese on the outside.
Bob tried the turkey sandwich on a torta bun for the first time, sliced turkey, basil mayo, tomatoes, provolone.
Both were excellent and for about $8. In fact all their food is pretty darn good from the hot dogs and the polish and the berry yogurt sundae. Haven't tried the pizza yet but that is on our list.
We visited the Pybus Public Market during a farmers market day. We have also eaten a great breakfast at the Wild Huckleberry. Jo got a Belgian waffle with huckleberry compote and mascarpone, Bob got a granny smith omelet with german sausage, apples, mushrooms, onions and a biscuit and gravy. A very good breakfast and a place we may hit again. When life gives you lemons you eat, at least we do :-)
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Monitor WA (Low 70 Sunny and HOT High 104)
We left Bothell yesterday and headed to Monitor just west of Wenatchee. Because of the wild fires in the area we decided to take the longer route along I-90 instead of Washington Highway 2. It was approximately 150 miles.
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We left the partly cloudy skies near the coast and headed inland toward sunny skies, which is good, but much hotter temperatures, which is bad. We will be in the 100s for a few days here. Don't know how much sightseeing we will do as we both really do not like the warmer temps. At least it is a nice park, Wenatchee River County Park and we have 50amps for both air conditioners. This is from the web, not our Cameo but couldn't resist.
It is right along the Wenatchee River. In the cooler moments we will be enjoying the river.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Bothell WA (Low 55 Sunny Currently 59)
Heading to Wenatachee WA (Currently 70 Sunny High 99)
We thought we would show you the park that we stayed at for the last week. Here is a shot showing the RVs backed up to Lake Pleasant, more like a pond but still water.
We are in a nice backin site with a forest behind us, which is great for our back window orientation.
The view towards the right.
To the left.
The Cameo from the rear.
Here you can see the tree that we talked about that blocked our satellite signal. We moved to avoid it and even with all the trees that you see on all the photos we are getting a great satellite signal.
This is a really nice park and once you get here it is hard to believe that you are in the Seattle-Tacoma metroplex.
We "plan" to head to Wenatchee Washington today, Lord willing and the slideout comes in.
Till next time,
THE END (one of the ducks on the "lake")
Bob and Jo
Currently in Bothell WA (Low 55 Mostly Sunny High 81)
On one of the recent rainy days we went to see "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes".
We really like this rebooting of the Apes movies that started with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". It is 10 years in the future and apes and man are drawn together after living separately all those years. We don't want to give anything away in case you haven't seen the movie so that is all we will say about the plot.
The actor that played Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy plays Caesar the lead ape and the animation is amazing, you really believe that they are apes.
We really liked this movie, probably the best action movie so far this year. Of course they setup a sequel which we are looking forward to.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Bothell WA (Low 52 Sunny and Patchy Clouds High 77)
We finally got a sunny day so we decided to take a trip down memory lane. Just about every year from 2001 until Bob retired in 2008 we took a vacation around our wedding anniversary in July to Mukilteo Washington. Since we were only 15 miles away we decided to visit.
First we had lunch at Arnie's where we both got the cedar plank wild King Salmon. Here is the view of the waterfront from our seats.
Here is the Silvercloud Inn where we stayed.
We walked to the waterfront park and sat and looked at the water and read for awhile. The Mukilteo Lighthouse is a short distance from the Silvercloud Inn.
An up close shot of the Fresnel lens.
We like this shot because it shows the lighthouse and the ferry.
Here is the ferry by itself.
From the archives a sunset photo we really like, taken from our room in the Silvercloud Inn.
We got a tanker of Ivar's clam chowder to go and headed back to the park. It was great taking this trip down memory lane, so much so that if we are ever in the area we plan on visiting our old stomping grounds.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Bothell WA (Low 52 Partly Sunny High 72)
We know we are always extolling the virtues of living fulltime in our Cameo and traveling this great country. We do blog about the mechanical issues we sometimes run into which is normal considering our home is on wheels and travels 65 miles an hour down bumpy roads. But there are a few other issues with the lifestyle.
The weather is a big issue that for the most part you cannot control. Here is a photo 'borrowed' from Merikay's blog that we just love showing the weather. It is from their time in Nebraska, we try to only visit the Midwest in the fall to avoid scenes like this.
The last couple of days it rained all day, and we only had about 4 hours of sunshine the entire week we were in Long Beach Washington. The walls start getting closer and closer when you have to be inside all day. There are things that you can do, like yesterday we went to a movie that we will blog about later. Moving around even though getting rained on still helped the closed in feeling.
Another issue with this lifestyle is that there are a lot of self inflicted wounds. We dropped the fifth wheel onto the truck bed and drove around the country for a few months looking like this :-(
We have forgotten other things in our departure routine and been rewarded with a mess on the inside. We had a horrible day on our trip here. Bob could not back up the truck to get it hooked up to the Cameo. Done it a hundred times successfully but he was having a huge brain cramp. We finally get hooked up and get to the park. We are told that our site is ok for our roof mounted satellite dish. There is a forest out our back window
and one lone tree on one side that could cause problems. Bob said the site should work so we didn't need to check the phone app. Well you guessed it, the satellites were on the other side of the single tree from the dish and that is exactly where we parked. We couldn't have got that bad alignment any better if we tried. So with no signal thru the tree we had to hook back up and pull a few feet, Bob did a better job this time :-) We hope to always follow the advice of President Reagan in the future, "trust - but verify".
Finally, then there are the times when there is a family event that due to your location in the boonies and distance it just isn't practical to attend.
We didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer but maybe we are painting a more realistic picture of living fulltime in our RV, a lot of good times for sure but some issues do come up now and then.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Bothell WA (Low 54 Mostly Cloudy with Sprinkles Sun High 76)
Yesterday we left the beautiful Harmony Lakeside RV Park in Silver Creek Washington and headed to Bothell Washington and the Lake Pleasant RV Park.
It was approximately 145 miles, here is the route we took.
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While here we plan to visit the Mukilteo Washington area and eat some great clam chowder. Last night after setting up Bob went to an Ivar's Seafood Bar that is real close to our park and got some clam chowder and fish and chips. Have to say that this clam chowder and also the fish and chips are our all time favorites. Here is a photo of a Seafood Bar from their website.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Silver Creek WA (Low 49 Partly Sunny Currently 54)
Heading to Bothell WA (Currently Cloudy 59 Times of Clouds and Sun High 74)
No, we are not in another cellular dead zone, we are talking about a sports dead zone. This week is the beginning of the end of a long dry spell for us sports wise as the NFL training camps are kicking off. It won't be long until we will have pro football games to watch and we both like the NFL.
We have limited interest in what is offered sports wise after March Madness is over. Here are our views of the sports in the dead zone.
Baseball; We used to really like baseball, even went to Comiskey Park before it was tore down, but one players strike too many soured us. Compared to other sports the season is too long and the "best of" playoffs can't compete with the lose and go home of the NFL playoffs and March Madness. We are getting a little more interested now that we are going to Spring Training games in Arizona.
NBA; for someone who likes college basketball the NBA seems natural but again too long of a season and "best of" playoffs. Plus it only seems to matter during the playoffs.
Auto racing; although we like NASCAR in general it is not something that we have to watch each weekend. We have a little more interest when the race is in Phoenix while we are in the area because we get a little swept up in the excitement.
Tennis; we occasionally will watch tennis but again it is not something that we have to watch each weekend.
Golf; we agree with Mark Twain in that "golf is a waste of a good walk" and with Bill Cosby who said that when he hits the ball he wants somebody else to chase it. Watching golf is worse, here is an example, where is the golf ball?
Soccer; futbol, enough said :-)
When the NFL is in full swing and college football season is also happening it is great for both of us but especially Bob. Then there is a brief period where college basketball is starting up and you have all three it is pretty special. But the top for Bob is probably March Madness, NCAA Basketball Tournament time. Thankfully this dead zone is about over.
Today, Lord willing and the slideout comes in, we are heading to Bothell Washington.
We will end with a picture of our Cameo at Rifle Gap State Park while we were in a cellular dead zone in Colorado just because we have to show scenery don't we :-)
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Silver Creek WA (Low 50 Clouds and Sun possible Rain High 77)
Yesterday we drove to Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and it blew us away :-)
From Wikipedia, "Mount St. Helens is most notorious for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980. It is the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive landslide triggered by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale caused an eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft to 8,365 ft, replacing it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater. We drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, part of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument that was created to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied.
The observatory has a great film and a lot of exhibits. It was eerie in that some of the people interviewed for the videos showing outside of the film did not survive. A before and after photo is illuminating, this is posted near the observatory.
Here is our first glimpse as we drove in.
Further along the drive in.
A closeup showing the crater.
We like this one because Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier are in the same photo, although you might have to click the photo to enlarge and look carefully on the left side of the photo.
Here we are with Mount St. Helens in the background.
The view from the observatory is incredible. What is really neat is that when the film ends they raise the curtains and from your seats you get this view.
There is a tree killed by the eruption.
A final look before we leave.
We really enjoyed this part of the trip but our day was not complete. We stopped and had a late lunch at Patty's Place at 19 Mile House.
Always seems like everybody has great flowers around here. Liked the dead tree, no doubt from the eruption, used as a planter.
Known for their elk burgers and chicken and dumplings that is we ordered and they both were very good. Patty's offers river view dining and this was our view while enjoying our meal.
Patty's is also know for cobbler so we had to try a couple of those; strawberry rhubard and mountain berry. Not really a cobbler like we know them from the midwest, this was a very good filling with a sugary biscuit on top. An excellent dessert but not cobbler in our minds.
By now it was getting to be a fairly long day so we headed back to the RV park to relax.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Silver Creek WA (Low 50 Partly Sunny High 74)
While in Mt. Rainier National Park we saw Narada Falls. Here is the stream leading into the falls.
The stream passes under the trail that you are on and then plunges down 168 feet. In the distance you can see the trail you walk down to the bottom of the falls.
Here is the falls from the side at the top.
Walking down a trail to the bottom of the falls.
Further along the trail.
At the bottom, notice the rainbow at the bottom.
We do like our National Parks and a waterfall is an added bonus, there is just something wonderful about water.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Silver Creek WA (Low 52 Sunshine but Cooler High 77)
Yesterday we headed to Mt. Rainier National Park after a good breakfast at Cody Cafe in Morton. This is the first glimpse that we were able to take a photo.
As we were getting closer.
The surrounding area is pretty cool too.
Our best shot.
We also got some great shots of Narada Falls which you will see tomorrow.
We are in a good location close to both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens, which we plan to visit Friday. Today we have more living in a sticks and bricks activities like haircuts and shopping and of course eating out.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
