9/21/08 to 9/27/08

First of all, I've made the decision to just update the blog once a week unless something interesting happens.

John's sister, Bonnie, and her husband, Butch, were headed up to Sequim, WA for an Aliner rally and met us at the Columbia Riverfront RV Park. Here is a picture of their Aliner in front of our fifth wheel. We all got a good laugh at the size difference. To think it all started with our Aliner for us and where we live now. Bonnie said that she really liked having neighbors who let them watch TV and shower in their rig. She said she hoped their next neighbors would be as gracious.

It was nice spending some time with Bonnie and Butch as we haven't seen them since we left Sacramento around the first of May. We took them to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge on Sunday afternoon but all it did was rain; not too much wildlife to see. We stopped for pasta/pizza and had leftovers for another day. On our way home, we spotted Osprey, Red Tail Hawks, and some smaller hawks all sunning themselves as the sun had finally come out. Now that was a great sight!

On Monday, we took a drive out to the Columbia River Gorge. We saw some waterfalls, the largest of all was the Multnomah Falls pictured below. The falls were beautiful and we took the trail up to the bridge. There were no takers to take the trail higher up to the top of the falls. Here is a picture of Butch, John, and Bonnie in front of the falls. Such a good looking threesome, don't you think?
We stopped for lunch in Hood River at a place called Charburger Country. Wow! The food was very good (all four of us had burgers) and the staff was very friendly. If we are ever in the area again, we would definitely stop there.

After lunch, we checked out an RV park in Salmon, WA. The RV park was nice and clean and wouldn't be a bad place to spend a few days to be able to take in all of the Gorge's sights. Maybe the next time we are in the area. We then stopped at the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery. The fish hatchery is an interesting place and first rate operation. Much larger than the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Rancho Cordova. They have some huge rainbow trout and sturgeon that can viewed. We had fun feeding the rainbow trout as it got them quite worked up. Here is a picture of Herman the Sturgeon. He was something like 10 feet long and weighed around 600 pounds. The picture does not do him justice - he is magnificent.

After the hatchery, we took the short drive over to the dam. It was very interesting watching a few fish come up the ladder. We watched a couple of movies on the dam and the locks. We were talking to the volunteers and got ran out of the facility because it was closing time. Boy, the time just got away from us. We must have been enjoying ourselves. Once home, we settled in for some left over pizza, salad, and TV.

Come Tuesday morning, Bonnie and Butch were back on the road and were going to stop at Northwest Trek a wildlife park. We heard back from them and they said they really enjoyed it and was glad we had recommended it to them. We think the place is fabulous.

On Wednesday, we moved down to Newport, OR to stay the week at South Beach State Park. The spot we chose was long enough for us but proved to be a bit of a challenge to get backed in. As this is only the second state park we have stayed in, we have learned to be a bit more picky about site location than just being concerned with site length. Live and learn!

On Thursday, John and I both got a haircut. I went back to a short cut. I've been growing the hair out over the past year and a half. The cut was a bob which was suppose to be easy to take care of and something hair stylists couldn't mess up too much. Well, neither was true. I've come to realize that I don't like having hair in my face and with thick straight hair, I was really feeling weighed down by my hair. Now, I feel pretty ... oh, so pretty.... Well, maybe that is a stretch but I do enjoy having short hair again.

Over the weekend, we took a drive up the coast and were delighted with the viewing of gray whales in their migration south. We were able to watch about three whales in the same general vicinity feeding. Just blowing water and backs visible for a while was our treat. A picture of one is below. You can see the spray and part of its back. Old eagle eye (John) asked me to check out something near the ocean's horizon through the binoculars as he wasn't sure what he was seeing. Sure enough, there were two whales that were breaching. I must have seen them breach three times each. John said he had been watching them for about five minutes before he said anything. That man's vision is amazing.

As we are so close to the beach, a quarter mile hike, we have often walked down there to enjoy a walk on the beach. We also took advantage of a beautiful day to fly a kite. I had purchased John a better quality kite almost two years ago. It has proven to be a challenge to him to get it up in the air for any length of time. Well, he is finally getting the knack of it. I have to keep reminding him to keep his arms down because every time he brings his arms up, the kite nose dives into the sand. John is starting to see the cause and effect not keeping his arms by his side. Soon, he will have it mastered.

Fort Clatsop - Astoria, OR

After a slow start to the morning, we decided to drive to Astoria, OR and visit Fort Clatsop. John wanted to visit Lewis and Clarks final stop on the Pacific coast.
First you take a walk to the reconstructed fort.

Inside the fort replica. The original fort took them three weeks to build while most of the Corps were sick. For the four months they were there, it rained everyday except for 14 days.

A replica of one of their canoes.

Then you return to the Visitor's Center which is very nice. We sat through three short movies on Lewis and Clark. All three were very informative. The artifacts and stories were very interesting. We now feel that we have come full circle with Lewis and Clark.

On our way back home, we filled up the truck with diesel - $3.83 a gallon. Whoppee! We haven't paid this amount for diesel since March.

Short move

We moved on down the road 22 miles to Columbia Riverfront RV Park. We were on the road for a total of 24 minutes ... this qualifies as our shortest travel day ever. We chose this location for the week so that we can watch the big ships go up and down the river.

After getting settled in, we sat outside enjoying the view until the wind came up. We went inside to have dinner and then decided to take a walk down to the park's private beach . Our views of the Columbia River follow:

Talk about a bad hair day! The wind was very strong and it got very cold. Time to go in.
View of a big ship from our kitchen window.
Sometimes the smallest of boat is noisier when they go by than the big ships go by.

Truck said "Wash Me!"

Now that we have a nice clean rig, it was time to wash the truck as it was filthy. We were able to wash it here in the park which was nice and saved us about $8. John had to do some modifications to the kayak covers as they had let water in to the cockpits. This required a trip to Home Depot.

It was quite warm here today and I was ready to turn on the air conditioners but held off as I was going to start dinner. After dinner, we sat outside as it was cooler outside then inside. Soon, it got a little too cool for me. One of the nice things about this area is that it does cool off nicely in the evening.

Sunday

Nothing much going on here other than a trip to Target and the grocery store. Yawn! The day sure passed by quickly as they almost always do. We did see where diesel was $4.07; wonder how long that will last thanks to Ike.

Scottish rites

I had seen the signs about the Kelso Highlander Festival that was taking place at Tam O'Shanter park over the weekend. As the park is only a little over a half-mile down the levee from where we are staying, we decided to walk over and take in the festivities. There were tents set up for the "Clans", food booths, vendors, entertainment venue, etc.

We got to see male and female athletes throw a ball on a chain. The women's ball weight was 28 pounds while the men threw 56 pound balls. Below is one of the women athletes throwing the ball. She was quite petite but way strong. The professional athletes had shoes with these four inch blades that they dug in to the dirt to keep their feet stationary that made quite the difference in the distance reached. One of the male athletes threw the ball 113 feet.

We then got to watch the athletes throw a 28 pound (women) or 56 pound (men) weight over a horizontal bar for height. Each athlete got three chances to make it over the horizontal bar at each height. Those that did make it over then had another foot added to the horizontal bar. The gentlemen below made it to 16 feet (look at the room to spare!) . The winning woman made it to 14 feet.

Next up was the caber toss. The women's pole was 12 feet long while the men's was 16 feet. The idea is to toss the caber end over end staying as straight to the tosser as possible. A perfect toss was 12 o'clock and was scored accordingly to its lie. You could tell the experienced ones from the rookies just by how they balanced the caber.
Kilts were definitely the attire for the day. Don't know about these guys but the athletes all wore shorts under their kilts. Here is a picture of the color guard.
Here is the parade of the clans along with the color guard and pipe band.
Even the Scottish Terriers get in on it . . . notice their kilts.
This guy was dressed to the hilt. He looked like something out of the past and very authentic.

We also took in some of the dance competition. Unless it is your kid up there, it gets old pretty quick. Still, it is nice to see that the youth is embracing their heritage. We did partake of some Scottish food. Me, a wrapped sausage while John had a meat pie. Neither was bad just rather bland for our tastes. We ate lunch while listening to a band from California. It was a fun atmosphere and we were glad that we took the time to enjoy it. We finally head home around 4 p.m.

Portland

We decided that we wanted to take a drive to Portland and see their "big" RV show. Why, you ask? We simply enjoy looking at the latest models and we are happy to say that we are still in love with our floor plan. We did see the new Veranda model from Country Coach Motorhome. It is quite innovative but for $852,000, I think we'll pass.

On our way home, we stopped at a RV park near Woodland that we wanted to check out. It is on the Columbia River where we could watch the big ships come and go. It is very nice and we are thinking that when our time here is up, we will head on down the road.

We got home and enjoyed the evening outside until it started getting cool.

Work, work, work

We decided to take advantage of our current location and wash our fifth wheel on Sunday. It took us four days to wash, check and replace any failed caulking, and wax. Whew! John worked high and I worked low. Now our home is once again shining beautifully.

Drive to the coast

We decided to take the drive to the Washington coast via Chinook, Ilwaco, and Long Beach. While on the road to the coast, we were treated to a large coyote running out in front of us carrying his/her lunch in its mouth (a rabbit, we think). Very cool.

When we arrived in Long Beach we were treated to a large traffic jam. It seems that Long Beach was having its annual End of the World Rod Run that weekend. What a traffic mess! We did see a lot of old cars while we sat in traffic and it was only noon. We had wanted to spend the afternoon on the beach but we could see that we had chosen the worst weekend so after lunch, we took a different route home.

We knew we would be passing the white-tailed deer reserve near Cathlamet so we pulled in and took the drive to see what we could see.

A portion of the refuge drive runs along the Columbia River and is very scenic. We were able to get a picture of a big ship as it was headed down river.

We were able to see several birds of prey doing their hunting. As we were leaving the refuge, John noticed a large grouping of Canadian Geese and a couple of bucks in the meadow right at the refuge center. We stopped and got out at the refuge center to get a better view. The young bucks seemed to be trying out their new antlers in a not too serious manner. It was enjoyable watching them pushing and shoving. It won't be long before their jousting becomes serious once rutting season starts.

In the picture below, you not only see the two young bucks but a couple of does near the trees.

We had a very nice time at the refuge and wouldn't mind going back.

Blue sky day

We woke up to a beautiful day. After a trip to the post office, Kelso Visitor Center, and the grocery store, we returned home to do not much of anything but enjoy our surroundings. :)

Move on down the road

We moved on down the road to Kelso, Washington. We left Rochester around 11:30 a.m. and pulled in around 12:30 p.m. We have really enjoyed these short travel days!

When we pulled in to Brookhollow RV Park, we were greeted by one of the staff asking if we were the ones with five slides. Us having five slides is quite the big deal as it gets mentioned a lot by fellow RVer's. John stayed outside talking while I checked us in. We offered to show the inside of our rig once we got set up. That offer was quickly accepted. We are very happy with our selection of this park and very well may stay longer than a week as originally planned. The sites are large with a lot of space between rigs with nice lawn and a picnic table. We have no rigs in front of us but rather a levee that is enjoyed by locals and RVers alike for walking, running, or biking. The area around is green and quite open . . . very much to our liking. All the trappings of civilization is just a couple of miles west but you wouldn't know it. It seems like we are out in the country.

During our evening walk along the levee, we were treated to a far amount of wildlife. The mallards in this picture seem to be interested in staying dry. Their legs are so orange they almost look red.

We were also treated to the company of a Great Blue Heron.
Shortly after getting set up, we saw this Red Tail Hawk soaring through the sky above us.
We think we are really going to like it here.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

We deliberately chose to stay at the Outback RV Park so that we could drive to the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, WA. We started seeing commercials for Northwest Trek after Melissa had visited. We would have loved to have taken her to this wonderful facility. Today was the day we went to the park. On the way to the park, we got a view of Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately the pictures we took were hazy so I did not include them here.

Northwest Trek ia a facility of Metro Parks Tacoma. For your $15 per adult admission, you get a narrated tram tour in the free-roaming area, walking tour on forested pathways with animals in large natural exhibits, and can participate in trailside encounters.

At long last, we were able to get pictures of a pair of American Bald Eagles. The pair are here because they were hit by cars and could no longer survive in the wild.

These are immature Golden Eagles. They, too, also had run in with cars.

These cute little guy is a snowy owl. His partner recently passed away at the ripe old age of 18.

Great Horned Owls
Barn owls. These guys really did not look real.
Mountain goat
Yes, I finally found Bullwinkle! Isn't he cute?

Roosevelt Elk herd. This big guy is already surrounding himself with the cows and rutting season has yet to begin. See the young bull in the background? Once the hormones kick in, he will be kicked out. We were told that during rutting season, the buck has two things on his mind . . . his cows and fighting the other bucks. The bulls are usually are so busy attending to both that they don't eat a lot. In the wild where they have to contend with predators (like Grizzly Bears) the predators take advantage of their weakened state.

Speaking of grizzlies, here is one. Life is tough for this guy. His big left paw was scratching his belly. The other grizzly in the exhibit was bigger than this one but was more lazy than this one because this guy actually got up and walked around.

Remember the 70's and the big hoopla over the Spotted Owl. Well, here is one of those guys. Unfortunately, he also had a run-in with a car. We were told that they only live in old growth forests and eat flying squirrels and some kind of moth. This guy, however, has had to learn to eat other things but that he still was a picky eater. He only weighs 1 1/2 pounds . . . his bones are hollow and he is mostly feathers. We also learned that before any bird flies off, the last thing they do is poop.

We also saw a darling Screech Owl that weighed only 6 ounces. He did not screech but rather cooed like a dove. Unfortunately, our picture of him turned out fuzzy but he was darling. He came to the park at the age of two pretty undernourished. His problem is that he is an owl who doesn't like to fly. He can but he chooses not to. It was amazing that he survived two years in the wild.

Here is a beautiful wolf.

A majestic cougar, puma or mountain lion (whatever you want to call them) that can leap up to 20 feet in the air. These felines can be found in North America, Central America, and South America.

John finally got to see his Big Horn Sheep . . . rams, ewes, and darling lambs.

This park has only animals that are native to North America. They have many more animals than represented here but I didn't want to overwhelm you with pictures of them. This park does a wonderful job in their presentation. We would highly recommend everyone to visit this fabulous animal park.

Rochester, WA

John was ready to make the move today even with it being the end to a major holiday weekend. There were a lot of RVs on the move. It took us almost 20 minutes to get through Hoquiam. Once we got out of town, it was rather smooth traveling. This was a short travel day - 48 miles and our latest start - 11:30.

We pulled in to our new home for a couple of days - Outback RV Park. We were stunned as we thought that there would hardly be anyone in the park but the park was 80-85 percent full. Luckily, they had a site for us for two nights but not any more than that as they were fully booked for the rest of the week. We called ahead to our next location to make sure that we wouldn't be caught without a place to stay.

After getting set up, we headed off for the grocery store. Along the way, we found this street sign and couldn't resist getting a picture. I do believe you can see why.

We aren't sure if it is AT&T or simply air wave issues but once again, we have poor cell reception. We are going to seriously look in to a cell phone amplifier because it is most inconvenient to have to travel somewhere so that we can make a call. A number of RVers seem to have them and we can now understand why.