Week 10, Southern Washington and Oregon

Welcome to week 10 with less reading and more pictures.  On the plate for the week- Southern Washington and Oregon.  The rain was crucial at the start of the week, but the only real damage it did was prevent a good view of Mount Rainier.  Once again, Allen, Bub and I have made it home safe and this is been written from the best of my memory.    

Here is a quick rundown of the week

Monday October 10th- Recovery day from Seattle and Vancouver 

Tuesday October 11th- Mount Rainier

Wednesday October 12th- Mount St. Helen's and Portland

Thursday October 13th- Portland

Friday October 14th- Waterfalls and Casino

Saturday October 15th- Oregon Coast

Sunday October 16th- Crater Lake National Park

Mount Rainier

After taking a whole day to regroup and staying at a really cool campground on a river near Olympia, Washington, we hit Mount Rainier National Park on the way down the west coast.  The Pacific Northwest is known for the rain, and combine it with the fog and we couldn't hardly see anything.  You could obviously tell that there was a mountain somewhere in the fog, but below is what we saw.  Bub had been to Seattle and the surrounding area a few summers ago and tried to go to Mount Rainier with no luck so we realized this wasn't just a one time thing.

The best shot of Mount Rainier

   

Mount St. Helen's and Trailer Parks

After Mount Rainier, Allen Bub and I ventured on in the general direction of Mount St. Helen's, just an hour or two south of Mount Rainier.  We couldn't find any campgrounds in the big RV book or by phone, so we said, "hey let's drive until we drive up on a campground."   We passed a sign for an RV park and pull in.  This looked more like a trailer park, but the manager said they had open spots for one night so why not give it a try.  We parked and realized, yep, we were definitely staying in a trailer park with people who live there full time.  With campers, you can obviously tell who is staying at the campground for only a couple nights (pull in the night of, don't set up much, and pull out the next day) and people who actually live there (flowers outside, patio furniture, decorations, etc.)

So all campgrounds have community bathrooms that we usually use.  Note I said campgrounds, not trailer parks.  The manager told me that he only let the permanent residents use the bathrooms because in the past, others have destroyed them.  "Hold on, what?  What good can come out of destroying a bathroom?"  I couldn't imagine someone actually doing this.  His response?  "I have had people rip the sinks off the wall and tear the shower heads off."  I didn't have a good comeback so I paid and walked back to my camper. 

In Seattle, we ran into a similar situation where we pulled into a trailer park/ campground looking for a place to stay.  There ended up being no open spots at this specific campground but Bub talked to a guy who lived there full time.  He didn't work there, but filled us in on the campground/ trailer park.  We almost got stuck backing the camper up in a tight spot and the guy was impressed with Allen backing up the camper to get out of a tight spot.  The following conversation actually happened.    

Bub:  How's it going?

Random Guy:  Awww pretty good, how you guys doing?

Bub:  Good, we were looking for a place to stay tonight, are there any spots open?

RG:  No, this is more of a permanent spot to live, not a nightly thing.

Bub:  Oh ok, well we might find another place to stay tonight.

RG:  Your friend over there can back up a camper pretty well.

Bub:  Yea, he knows what he's doing.

RG:  Wish I did, I have trouble backing my camper up.  I backed mine in here about 2 years ago and decided it was easier just to stay here instead of going somewhere else and backing up again, so, I haven't left.
Bub:  (Unsure what to say)  Well this seems like a great place, thanks for the help.   

Mount St. Helen's went off in the late 1980s and completely wreaked havoc on the area.  The top of the volcano was much higher prior to the eruption but sunk down about a thousand feet when it erupted.  We drive up to the visitor's center and checked out the vantage point.  The mountain had snow partway up and made for some good pics.  Afterwards, we wander in to the gift shop and realize a Mount St. Helen's movie is about to start.  This 20 minute video gave a quick history lesson of the volcano and then showed what happened during the last eruption.  The movie ended, the screen came up and the entire wall was glass with a direct view of Mount St. Helen's.  We had just taken 20 pictures of it a few minutes ago and were still in awe of its beauty.  I have to get one of those theaters/ view of Mount St. Helen's at my house.  Best Buy is bound to have them.  

Let's bounce back to the recovery day on Monday to a thrift store visit.  Not only did I add another blazer to the collection, but I also found a $2 Aerosmtih Greatest Hits CD.  10 weeks in and the first CD is finally played in the truck.  Allen and I stumbled across this huge sombrero for $5.  This thing was too cool to pass up, so paper-rock-sissors and the loser had to buy it.  I won the game, but almost regret doing it because the hat turned out to be a hit.  This thing is so big that is has to be folded down when going through doors. 

Portland

Portland receives an incomplete on the report card due to plenty of rain.  What we saw of it was awesome, and the city itself was clean and situated right on the river very close to the Washington and Oregon border.  We stayed in Portland two nights, the second night basically because I was having an extra debit card sent to me.  Where did the other one go?  I have no idea, and my inability to keep up with personal items only hurt us in this instance.  I had already lost my credit card earlier in the trip so I was down to only my checkbook and the money left in my wallet.  I decided against using my checkbook the entire rest of the trip and instead rejoined the 21st century with the plastic by having a replacement sent overnight to the campground.    

Yea, and speaking of campgrounds, I had a serious beef with the one we stayed at in Portland.  I showed up the morning after arriving to pay for my spot for the night.  Since I had no credit card or debit card, I figured I would just pay with cash.  Well, this campground didn't accept cash.  (That is not a typo)  I attempted to pay someone cash because I owed them money and they wouldn't accept my money.  So wait a minute, you don't take cash?  I was almost in shock and didn't even know what to say to the lady.  She was not a very nice person to begin with and I didn't even feel like arguing with her so Bub threw in his card and took care of business.  Hmmm, you don't accept cash, what nonsense.  

Portland reminded me of Asheville but on a bigger scale- a cool, happening city with a good music and beer scene downtown.  Portland is a pretty big city population wise, but it didn't have a big city feel to it.  Maybe Portland will get a mulligan sometime during the travels.  On a side note, Bub did make a crucial purchase in a vintage jean jacket.  He had been searching all trip for one and has been living the dream ever since.  All denim with the American flag bandana is the only way a patriot should travel these days.  Throw in that mean mustache he has and he is a force to be reckoned with.  

Bub's Canadian Tuxedo 

Multanomoah Falls, Columbia River Gorge and a Casino

The 3rd tallest waterfall in the United States was about an hour east of Portland.  The park had a paved trail that led to a few sweet overlooks of the falls, and I really don't have much else to report on it.  You know you're having a good road trip when a couple hundred foot waterfall get 4 sentences.  

The last thrift store blazer I bought won me money at the casino.  I tried a casino without it the time after, and lost everything.  This time, new jacket, new casino. (This one is black with pinstripes, and I paid a whopping $5 bucks for it)  I put up a good battle, but in the end, the dealer prevailed.  That marks two losses in a row.  The west coast casinos have turned on me.  I need to go back to the original blazer.        

The Oregon Coast

Shortly after the falls , it was off to the Oregon Coast for a few hundred miles.  The Pacific Coast Highway led us right down the coast through multiple cities and provided plenty of good views.  The coast is very rocky in some places, with cliffs having a couple hundred foot drop offs in certain points.  On the other hand, there were beach access areas scattered up and down the coast.  The North Carolina and South Carolina coast is so much different from the Oregon Coast and Northern California coast, but hey, the whole point in traveling is so see what you can't see at home.  

The weather was hard to argue with- mid 70s and sunny in the middle of October but the water is so damn cold on the west coast.  I was in central California three summers ago in May and the water was still too cold to get into as summer was approaching.  The California and Oregon coast may be great, but ya gotta love the Atlantic Ocean and the warm summer water.  The humidity may be awful, but at least the water is warm.  

An early afternoon debit card game landed Bub and I a free smoothie courtesy of Allen.  The game goes like this.  Everyone orders something, say a meal, beer, snack, etc. and then everyone agrees to put their debit card through some sort of random selection to see who pays for all the items.  So in this case, I had a 2 in 3 chance of landing a free smoothie and then a 1 in 3 shot of having to buy 3 smoothies.  Allen took the 3 cards, threw them behind him, and then we agreed that the card that landed furthest to the right was the loser.  Allen was unfortunately farthest right.

Sea Lions

   

Crater Lake National Park

Situated in southern Oregon, Crater Lake features the darkest blue water I have ever seen in my life- it looked more like ink.  A huge meteor hit here thousands of years ago and led to the formation of the lake.  It was in the low 40s and windy, so a drive around the lake was a suitable plan for the day.  As far as picture taking goes- it doesn't get much better than this.  This is the epitome of letting pictures speak for itself.

Rip JHW 3

Week 9- Seattle and Vancouver

Ok so I haven't put out a blog post in like two months now.  I kept up (well, sorta) for the first half of the trip and I got so far behind that I said, "Screw it, I'm just going to wait until I get home to write the rest of the posts."  The rest of the posts get the benefit of hindsight and the good stories stand out even more.  Here are a few quick theories could explain why I was delayed so much in writing.  


1.  The trip abruptly ended in Las Vegas and we spent 6 weeks walking home.   


2.  The camper got pawned off to pay for gambling debts and I spent months running from collection agencies.   


3.  Bub's mustache took human form and took over.  


4.  We lost a member of the crew and were afraid to say anything to our parents so we stayed in Southern California.


5.  The camper was driven off the side of a cliff and my computer was in the camper. 


6.  Curiosity killed the cat aka we went to Mexico and messed with the wrong people.   


I can only confirm that that #6 did not happen, but after posting 8 weeks worth of stories, pics, and videos, I realized that I have never shown the inside of a camper.  I will show it to everyone that to prove that we didn't leave Marion and immediately drive to Key West to stay for 3 months instead of traveling the United States.  

The magnet collection

After taking plenty of time off from writing, let's get back to it.  Expect 2 posts a week from now until Christmas (hopefully) and what can I say, enjoy the stories.  Without further ado, week 9 with my girlfriend Kaysee and Bub's girlfriend Sarah.  

After 2 nights in Canada, it was back to the United States, for now anyway.  We entered the United States in…… Idaho!  Wait a minute, what's in Idaho?  I'm not even sure to be honest.  Decisions are made on the fly during the trip, so sorry Idaho, maybe you receive more attention in the future, but for now, it's on to Washington.  

It happened to be raining the entire day, so we stopped at a thrift store shortly after crossing into the United States.  I bought a 3 dollar blazer that might just be a good luck charm in the near future.  If you have never been to a thrift store, you are missing out.  Don't go to the ones in Raleigh, it is the upperclass of thrift stores, which amounts to not much of anything.  Goodwills are almost too nice.  You don't want to go somewhere and spend $25 bucks on used items.  Go to the random places where blazers are $3 and other nice used stuff is $5.  

We continued to head west for the night before stopping at..... gasp, a casino.  What else would it be on a rainy day?  Making its first appearance, the new blazer!  I was certainly making no fashion statement by wearing this blazer, because, well, I wore it with shorts and sandals.  I was only interested in making money for the night and had a feeling from the get-go that the blazer was good luck.

This casino was a battle.  It took me over 3 hours, but the money was doubled.  Time to walk away from the night and buy the crew Applebees.  They retreated to the camper about halfway through and sat in a parking lot while I did my thing, so why not buy them a decent meal?  

The Pacific Northwest is known for rain, and it didn't stop the next day.  We knocked out about 3 hours the day before and 3 again today to get to the Seattle area, but the rain limits opportunities outside.  On the opposite side of Lake Washington from Seattle is Bellevue and we drove through the city before heading towards the airport.  On the way through, I could have sworn I saw Kenny Mayne on the street.  Kenny is a reporter for ESPN and used to be on Sportscenter all the time.  I could have sworn on my life it was him, so we parked at a nearby Wendy's and went to search for him.  This didn't pan out to anything, but I will let the picture speak for itself.  On his wikipedia page, it says that he is from the Seattle area.

Kenny crossing the street with Bellevue in the background

Hey, he lives in the area.  I think it's him

The girls were flying in and out of Seattle, and the plan for the weekend to go north to Vancouver first and make our way back to Seattle before Sunday night.  Because of the rain, two things came up to do until they flew in that night.  First of all- let's see if there is an indoor putt-putt course and if not, let's find another casino.  The casino we found, or that I found was a hole in the wall place connected to a bowling alley.  The whole place didn't have a good vibe from the start, but we decided to venture in anyway.  

Allen sat down with me for awhile while I spotted Bub a few chips to cover a hand or two.  It started out horribly, the dealer went on a crippling run of cards to shorten the chip stack.  I made a comeback to even or a little more, but then lost it all.  The hard work from yesterday basically amounted to nothing.  I tried to push my luck in the state of Washington without the new blazer and it backfired on me.    

We ventured on to pick up the girls from the Seattle Airport.  No one has seen each other in 8 weeks, and was it sure a good feeling to see Kaysee, and I'm sure the Bub would say the same for Sarah.  Let's hope the beards didn't throw any snags into any relationships.    

All they have heard are stories from us and the daily happenings of life on the road.  Taking showers in random places and sleeping in a different location every night is a strange way to live.  But hey, let's see what they think of it for a few days.  The stop for Wednesday night- Everett, Washington- about 45 minutes north of Seattle.  We stopped in at pub about 1/2 mile from the campground to grab a round of beers and wings before heading in for the night.

The next morning, instead of 3 people moving around and trying to get ready, there were 5.  It was a little bit of chaos, and if we didn't like to sleep anyway, the girls had to adjust to the 3 hour time change.  Check out was supposed to be at 11, but we weren't even close to be ready to go by then.  If the campgrounds actually care what time you check out, it can be a problem.  These people were on top of the game on the campground manager scale.  When this happens, it is totally improvisation on what to say to these people.  I just hope that whatever reason/excuse I blurt out actually works.  One bathroom was closed from 10-12 so this was the excuse today.  I told the guy driving around in the golf cart that I didn't see the other bathroom and was waiting for the one to open.  I kept repeating that I didn't see the other bathroom until the guy got bored and drove away.    

We headed north into Canada for the third time of the trip.  Within 24 of getting to Seattle, Kaysee and Sarah had made it into our neighboring country.  We ended up just south of Vancouver in nearby Richmond and got a hotel for the night.  The sky train that serviced the Vancouver area went right into the heart of the city and was conveniently located about 3 minutes from the hotel.

Vancouver

The evening led to a walk around the city and a little exploring.  We went to the waterfront and then into the historic "Gas Town" section of the city before grabbing dinner and watching the Vancouver Canucks hockey game at an upscale sports bar.  If you are unaware of what goes on in Canada, hockey is huge there.  Put it this way, the city of Vancouver rioted last summer when the Vancouver Canucks lost in the Stanley Cup Finals.  They didn't riot to celebrate a major sports title like US cities do..... they rioted because they were unhappy with losing.  I want to be part of a riot at some point in my life, and I think I need to plan better.  What if on the night of "The Decision", (the night where LeBron infamously said he was taking his talents to South Beach) I had been in Cleveland?  I'm thinking that could be fun.    

The US has Reese's, while Canada has Reese

My middle name is Hastings.  Streets in Vancouver are named after me, it's not a big deal or anything.

Vancouver Waterfront

Vancouver showed us a good night and the next morning started with a breakfast buffet.  This wasn't the greatest buffet in the world, but it was still a buffet.  Good buffets (especially Chinese buffets) are pretty damn hard to beat.  Hey, we are going to make like 40 different kinds of food, and if you pay what you normally pay for a sit down meal here, you can have as much food as you want.  Who thought of this amazing idea?

We headed through Vancouver across the water to North Vancouver for the day to check out the rainforest.  Washington state and British Columbia have rainforests because of the mild temperatures for the year, not the tropical kind you think of in South America and Australia.  Rainforests are an unusual ecosystem because plants and what not grow everywhere because of the abundance of water and rain.  You never really think about rainforests being in the United States, nevertheless Washington state, but just add it to the list of all the different kinds of scenery for the trip- mountains, beaches, lakes, grasslands, flat stretches of nothing, Kelly DD, the desert, Canada, casinos.  We drove the camper through Vancouver (driving through the city with a camper isn't the most ideal thing, but there weren't really too many options.)  We spent the afternoon exploring the place and maybe even learned a thing or two about these rainforests.  A river ran right through the forested area and the two sides were connected by a huge suspended bridge.  The place had huge walkways built through the trees that gave some great views of the area.

The restaurant for the evening was a nice place with televisions everywhere.  I'm not sure if it is the Canadian way, but everything is nicer is Canada, even the sports bars.  Maybe we should all move to Canada, well except it is way colder than the South.  

The group headed south back to the US in order to catch a whale watching tour the next day.  We tried to do this off the coast of Maine, but it was canceled because of weather conditions and our lack of planning.  We got a reservation to go off the coast of the San Juan Islands in Washington the next day.  We had to catch the 10 am ferry to get there the next morning, so we decided to stay at the closest RV park.  We played a Monopoly game that night to show the girls how a game is actually finished.  I have been constantly complaining about my bad luck in the game but this took it a step further.  After we all traded and everyone got monopolies, it was my roll.  The very first roll after all this, I roll, hit Kaysee and am out of the game.  Monopoly has it out for me.  Kaysee came all the way to Seattle to...... knock me out of a game of Monopoly.     

The ferry that took us to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands took about an hour and a half, easily enough time to grab a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the snack bar.  To put the ferry into perspective, this was a ferry you could drive a car on to and had room to carry hundreds of people.

We booked a whale watching tour through a random site on the internet that claimed they had a 90% sighting.  Who knows how true this was, because well, if I owned a company that did whale watching tours, I would claim I had a 100% sighting.   We showed up to the dock where we were supposed to meet at 11 to find our guy and boat for the day.  The day before when we called to book the trip, he said that this was the last tour day of the season.  This was the first 2 weeks of October, and it's about time that the weather was getting cold.  Luckily for us, we beat the rain for the whole day.  The area from Washington through Oregon to Northern California experiences plenty of rain so anything you do outdoor relies heavily on the weather cooperating.  We lucked out on no rain for the day, although this would not prove to be the case for the rest of Washington and Oregon.

I had never been whale watching, and really didn't know what to expect if the whales actually showed up.  Our captain for the day showed up and said that we had a 99% chance of catching some whales for the afternoon.  I'm no mathematician, but that sounds like pretty good odds to me.  He told that the people running whale watching tours were all in close contact and the word easily spread whether conditions were good or bad for the day.  Even though they competed for business, working together benefited everyone in this business. 

On the boat were the 5 of us, one other guy and the captain for the day.  The boat was about the size of a normal sized passenger boat that an everyday person would own.  It had an enclosed area in the middle for the captain and anyone who was cold and then an outside deck on the back for good pictures and anyone who wanted a cool breeze.  (And by cool breeze I mean low 50s on the back of a boat, pretty damn cold.)

Our captain heard there were multiple packs of Orca Whales in the area for the day and we headed towards the promise land right away.  We stopped on the way to catch a pack of sea lions hanging out on the rocks.  These guys are huge and make loud, weird noises all the time, but they weren't there to cause problems, only to lay on the rocks and make noises.   

Whale watching consists of a few steps

1.  The captain contacting reliable sources to figure out where the whales are at that specific time

2.  Driving a boat to that general area

3.  Getting as close to 100 yards to the whales

4.  Watching the whales until they are out of decent viewing range 

5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 as time permits

After about 30 or 45 minutes, we make it to the whales, and man, was this cool.  We had one point during the afternoon where they swam to within 20 yards of the boat.  The protocol for whale watching is staying at least 100 yards away from the whales in a boat.  But if you drive 100 yards from them and they swim closer, then hey, forget that protocol.  The whales are really loud swimming by trying to breathe and right before it happened, the captain who did this for a living said, "Get the cameras out for this one, it doesn't get any better than this."  It is a mind-blowing to think that you can see such a small percentage of an animal and truly enjoy it.  Unless the whale jumps out of the water, you can only see a small part of his body….. the upper part of his back near the face.  We managed to see a few jumps along the way and got plenty of good pics and videos.

 

The ferry ride back was pretty rough.  Kaysee found a puzzle and tried to talk me into helping her put it together.  This happened to be the hardest puzzle ever made and because of the early wake up call, I felt like a zombie around 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  I talked my way out the puzzle after not being able to concentrate and talked my way into a nap for the last 30 minutes, right by where Bub and Sarah were stretched out across 2 seats on the lower deck.  I apologized to Kaysee for not helping out any, but this puzzle seemed impossible at the time.  

Next up- a Saturday night in Seattle.  Navigating with a 6,000 pound camper is always an issue, and it took quite awhile to find a place to stay anywhere near Seattle.  We eventually decided on a Holiday Inn, the 3rd official hotel stay of the trip.  The girls had to be at the airport around 9 o'clock the next night for their flight that flew through the night and arrived in Raleigh on Monday morning.

In order to accurately judge a city you must

a) check out what the city has to offer during the day
b) catch the sunset in a cool location
c) enjoy the nightlife

We arrived in Seattle about 9 o'clock at night, so why not knock out the nightlife portion of a city right away.  Seattle had a train system that had a stop right by our hotel so we decided to take it into the city.  We might have gotten off a stop or two too soon, but we eventually found a place with loud music to hang out in for the night.  The train stopped running at 12:30 and the bars shut down at 2.  Either take the early train or catch a fairly expensive cab back late in the night.  We chose the latter of the two and slung it around it a little bit.  Needless to say, we had a good night.  

We caught an early lunch the next day and watched a few minutes of a few football games, given it was a Sunday.  Because of the 3 hour time difference, college football starts at 9 am on Saturday mornings and pro football starts at 10 am on Sundays.  It is a little strange at first, but pretty cool on the other hand.  Sunday afternoon was spent checking out the city to get a feel of it during the day.  We walked down to the market right on the water and entertained ourselves for awhile, looking at everything from seafood to souvenirs to street performers.  I ended up purchasing a leather toboggan, something I would describe as a 1950s pilot's helmet, but then again, I don't know what a pilot's helmet would look like in the '50s.  Actually, it was more like an old school football helmet.

We also made sure to visit the original Starbucks near the market in Seattle.  This doesn't look like a normal Starbucks and I wasn't quite sure what to do when I got there, considering I don't like coffee, so we snagged a few pics and kept on.  On a side note, the founder of Starbucks used to own the Seattle Supersonics basketball team.  He put the team up for sale about 5 years ago and sold the team to a group who then moved the team to Oklahoma City.  The city of Seattle now hates the guy because he sold the team knowing that the future owners had every intention of leaving.     

So throughout the trip, we have watched plenty of movies in the camper at night.  Our collection was about 30 random, good movies.  A crucial part of the collection that is missing is the movie Kingpin.  Kingpin is an all time classic and one of my favorites.  Woody Harrelson at his finest in the mid 90s as a washed up bowler who, through a strange series of events, gets an Amish kid to leave his farm to bowl in a tournament in Las Vegas to save the Amish land from being foreclosed.  We have been looking for Kingpin since day 1 and in Seattle, we finally found it at a random movie store in downtown Seattle. 

Making its first appearance on the road trip..... Occupy Wall Street in whatever city you live in.  Or go stand out on the streets with signs and try to get people to honk their horn at you.  It would be awesome if something like this succeeded, but how effective the protests are remains questionable.  Half of the people on the sidewalks looked genuinely mad and wanted to do something, while the other half looked they were out there just to do something and smelled of booze.  We met quite a few characters out there- people telling us all kinds of stories and asking us if we wanted to make a sign and yell.  We passed on the sign and yelling and decided to head out to the Space Needle before we got sucked in to something crazy.  

As I have mentioned plenty of times before, getting to the highest point in a city or a good observation deck is hard to beat, especially if it is right near sunset.  The Space Needle had an inside area with food and a gift and then a circular observation deck on the outside with a 360 degree view of Seattle and the surrounding area.  The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World Fair, can withstand winds over 200 mph, and has 25 lightning rods to prevent lightning damage.  (Note:  I had to look on Wikipedia to figure out the last 3 facts.)

We caught the sun going down on the city, snapped some good pictures, and then split 2 massive pizzas before the girls headed to the airport and we continued on with the trip.  Having someone join the trip was something new and it definitely breathed some life into the group.  Kaysee and Sarah caught a great part of the trip, seeing Seattle and Vancouver, going whale watching, and experiencing life in a camper for a few days.  Kaysee, I can't imagine what it is like dealing with me on a regular basis while I'm traveling, but thanks for all the patience and understanding you have had with me.  

Occupy Seattle

RIP JHW3