August 9, Tillamook

Ah ben ta 2 hog callin contest and a corn pickin contest but ah ain’t evr seen nuttin like this! WOW does this look like fun!!! We drove out to the dunes and it looked like an anthill that someone had kicked with all the ATV’s and dune buggy’s running around. We didn’t take our Jeep out on the sand because we needed a tall orange flag, plus a $10 permit, to drive out by the water. I’m also not too sure we have the right type of tires for the soft sand but we could let some air out. (how smart is that?) Another stop was the Munson Creek falls, the tallest waterfall on the Oregon coast at 319 feet; it is at the end of a steep canyon but it was worth the half-mile hike. The Tillamook Cheese factory was packed with people for a tour but the production lines weren’t running while we were there so didn’t get to see much. Their free samples however passed our taste test so we bought a couple of packages to take with us. Pacific City and Ocean Side are two neat towns on the coast with fabulous beaches that we perused. We found a nice spot in Ocean Side for supper before heading back to the RV.

August 8, Westport, Washington to Tillamook, Oregon

We had a beautiful drive down the coast of Washington and crossed the 4.1-mile bridge in to Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is the oldest settlement west of the Rocky Mountains as an important fur trading location. Lewis and Clark ended their 4,000-mile trek to the Pacific here and built Fort Clatsop, where they spent the winter of 1805. One of the early ship Captains built a Victorian home high on a hill that stayed in the family until it was donated to the Historical Society a few years ago. The home was mostly original and interesting. After a short trip through the town on the refurbished 1913 streetcar we drove to Tillamook, Oregon to an RV Park. This one has a WIFI system that works!

August 7, Westport

Putzed around this morning and then went downtown, all 3 blocks of it, and stopped in several tourist traps. Everything is the same in most of them and most of it was cheap junk made in China. (China today makes all the cheap crap like Japan used to make when I was a kid) Many of the restaurants weren’t open but we did finally find a place for lunch. You would think that somebody would be fixing fresh-caught fish but if they were they kept it a secret. Putzed the rest of the day away and tried to figure out just where we go from here and what to see. I think our next stop will be better.

August 6, Tacoma to Westport

I don’t know why we decided to drive to Westport unless it’s because it is on the coast. Westport is a small fishing town, both charter and commercial, but not much else and I don’t plan to do any fishing. We didn’t have a reservation but found a RV Park that had WIFI and after getting settled we found out it doesn’t work. That’s been a frequent problem on this trip. We ask if they have WIFI and of course they do, then we find out the signal is really weak and slow or as in this case, it isn’t working at all. The beach here runs for 18 miles and is really wide so we took the Jeep and drove down it There was an RV out there but getting it pulled out of the sand would be quite expensive so that didn’t look too smart. We did pick up several pieces of driftwood to carve but nothing really cool. Maybe we will find something better down the coast.

August 4, Tacoma, WA

Bob and Mary Ann took us sightseeing today and to try to pick up some driftwood for carving. Our first stop was Trader Joe’s for some 2 buck Chuck (which is $3 buck Chuck here). We found a few pieces of driftwood along the shore of Puget Sound but most of it was too wet so going to look when we get to the coast. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Alyn, at Leonard’s Restaurant, and had fish and chips. Across the street was a chainsaw carving shop so went there to browse after eating. They had some terrific stuff and offer classes about every week, with a limit of 3 students. Too bad we don’t live closer as it would be fun to learn. I’ve wanted to chainsaw carve for a long time but think I can find a teacher closer to home. We stopped by a new links golf course that looked like fun to play and also one of the city parks with huge flower gardens. Now we don’t have to feel bad about not going to Butchart Gardens in Victoria. Tonight we had pizza at a local spot that is very popular.

August 3, Anacortes to Tacoma, WA

We left the RV park this about noon and drove down to Tacoma to Bob and Mary Ann Richey’s. The traffic was heavy but we got in the HOV lane and just sailed along until we got to Tacoma and ran into an accident scene. We crawled along for several miles until we got past that. Got to the Richey’s about 4:00, just in time for happy hour….After eating they taught us how to play Texas Hold’em. It appears I have about the same luck at gambling as I do fishing. I’m going to have to watch ESPN and pick up some pointers.

August 2, Anacortes, WA

I got a haircut this morning, my first since we left Iowa. I was getting a little shaggy around the edges. When Michelle and Keith lived in Seattle we took a little trip to La Conner, which is where we purchased the stained glass window that we have in the dining room. La Conner is (was) just a small berg, but isn’t too far from Anacortes, so drove there for lunch. Wow, what a change. When we were there they had just a couple of stores and places to eat. Now the shops run for several blocks and no place to park. We went in the antique shop where we purchased our stained glass and they still have some left from what looked like the same batch ours came from. We didn’t stay in La Conner too long and drove to Whidby Island over the Destruction Bay bridge. We looked around in a couple more small seaport towns on the island, which was fun. Sure is different than Iowa.

August 1, Anacortes, WA

We made arrangements this morning to get in to the RV park here at the Casino so moved this morning and got settled in for a couple of days. Drove to the Anacortes ferry dock to see about taking the Jeep and going over to Victoria tomorrow. The terminal was a mad house but we found out that it’s a 2-hour ride to Victoria and we would have to go through customs (both ways). we would only have about 5 hours on the island to look around so we decided that wasn’t enough time and opted not to go. We’ve been to Victoria before, several years ago, but would have been nice to see Butchart Gardens again. Anacortes is a center for building commercial and private boats so drove to the shipyards. We saw them working on a huge ship and think it was a cargo ship or tanker but not sure. We found a marine hardware store that has to have been there 100 years or more. It was like a museum but they had everything from old parts to new. They specialize in parts for old wooden boats and I’d bet they have whatever you need. It was fun to wander around. We stopped at a little Hawaiian restaurant for a drink and met the owner, who is from Hawaii and just moved to Anacortes a year ago. Nice place but we went to the marina for supper and to walk the docks. There were several beautiful boats and we even picked out a few that we thought we could live on. We’re thinking we could become “Boat Potatoes”.

July 31, Lac La Hache, BC to Anacortes, WA. 316 miles

The drive today was one of the most amazing and grueling days I have ever had of driving. The scenery was incredible but it was hard to appreciate sometimes with the sun reflecting off my white knuckles. The road from Cache Creek, BC to Hope, BC had everything; amazing scenery, one curve after another, steep grades both up and down, lots of tunnels, several narrow bridges, and more semi-trucks than I have seen in my life. It’s one of only a couple of roads to the interior of BC so naturally that’s where all the trucks have to be. In our opinion Canada has the most beautiful mountains that we have seen. We didn’t get to see a lot of Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta because of the low clouds but what we did see, along with driving through BC, it’s the best. My picture today doesn't do it justice. We are in Anacortes, Washington tonight and will stay here a couple of days and explore. Having trouble finding RV parks with space so going to have to start planning where we are going to be. Hate doing that but tonight and last night we had to work to get a place to stay. Tonight we are boondocking in a Casino parking lot as we couldn’t find a park with a spot open. Along the coast of Washington and Oregon we may have a tough time finding anything so may be doing more boondocking.

July 29, Vanderhoof to Lac La Hache, BC, 243 miles

We could not find a tour of a saw mill plant anywhere! We tried plants in several cities along the way but they are all full for several days or we had to make arrangements several days in advance. All of the plants were extremely busy and had enormous piles of trees stacked up waiting to be processed. I think it would have been a fascinating tour but not this time I guess. We stopped in Quesnel, BC, left the RV at Wal-Mart, and drove the Jeep over to Barkersville, a restored gold rush town about 50 miles out of our way. It is also a National Historic Site of Canada but after getting there we decided not to go through the town. We looked at all the information and pictures and thought we had seen enough. It appeared to be very well done, similar to Living History Farms, but we drove back to the RV. The parking lot at Wal-Mart was full of campers by the time we got there but it was only about 4:00 so we drove on to Lac La Hache, BC to a park on the Lake. It’s a very nice park on a beautifu lake but not easy to get in to like the book said. This weekend is a Canadian Holiday so the park is full and we got the last spot.