Our plan for Donna to take advantage of the bicycling opportunity in Vancouver, Washington didn’t pan out. It rained off and on while we were there. That’s June west of the Cascades in Washington!
We pulled out of the Vancouver Elks lodge before 10 am and headed up I-5. We planned on a short drive of about 105 miles, stopping at Cabela’s in Lacey. I didn’t want to drive through Seattle on Friday afternoon. We thought it would be better to stay overnight in Lacey, then head up to my daughter Alana’s house on Saturday morning.
We’ve made overnight stops at this Cabela’s store in the past. They have a large lot and allow overnight parking in the west lot. They also have a dump station. Nally – our Rand McNally RVND 7720 GPS – directed us to exit at Martin Way and follow it west to Carpenter Road NE. This wasn’t a familiar route and I wondered how it would work out. It was a different way to Cabela’s because Britton Parkway had been extended to join Draham Street. In the past, we couldn’t get to Cabela’s from the west side, we had to continue east to the Marvin Road exit and backtrack west to find Cabela’s.
We found a few other RVs and a couple of 18-wheeler trucks in the west lot and claimed a space. Donna and I went into Cabela’s and had lunch in the restaurant there. We shopped for a bit then I headed back to the coach while Donna continued shopping. It was pouring rain when I went back to the coach.
When we stayed here before, later in the season, Donna picked blackberries in the woods to the west of the Cabela’s lot. Not this time – we were here too early for the blackberry crop. Saturday morning Donna went back to the Cabela’s store and bought sandals. Her receipt showing her purchase entitled us to a code for the use of their dump station. If you aren’t a Cabela’s credit card holder or haven’t made a purchase during your stay there, it costs five bucks to dump your holding tanks.
I dumped our tanks and we were out of Cabela’s lot before 10am. We had another 110 miles to go before we reached Alana’s place in Arlington. It was a good choice to avoid Friday afternoon traffic in Seattle. Saturday traffic was bad enough. On the south side of town where I-90 meets I-5, there’s always a traffic tie-up. It’s one of the most poorly designed stretches of interstate highway I’ve ever encountered. There are four lanes of northbound traffic plus a carpool lane. The carpool lane ends, forcing that traffic into the left lane of northbound traffic right where the left lane becomes an exit only lane to downtown Seattle. At the same point, the far right lane becomes and exit only as well, forcing all northbound through traffic into two lanes. This is followed by traffic exiting I-90 coming into I-5. What a nightmare.
There’s a similarly flawed design north of Everett where the trestle from US2 joins I-5. Left lane must exit followed by right lane must exit while traffic is merging from US2.
We pulled off I-5 at WA530 and I took a right turn at 59th Avenue. This is the back way into Alana’s neighborhood and I found it easier to navigate in our big rig than the usual way of coming in from 211th to Ronning Road. What I didn’t think about was the direction we would be facing when I backed our rig into her driveway. I had to get us turned around to get the trailer into the driveway. This isn’t easily done here as all of the side streets are dead ends. I was able to pull into a side street and make a three-point turn to get us oriented in the proper direction.
Alana’s driveway is long enough to accommodate our 64′ length. We were set up by 12:30pm.
Our moochdocking spot in Alana’s driveway
When we stayed here last year, I wired up a 50amp electric service plug to her panel in the garage, so we have electricity and don’t need to run the generator. The four nights of boondocking to get here resulted in about 20 hours of generator run-time.
We’ll be moochdocking here for a couple of weeks. Our granddaughter, Lainey, graduates from high school this Thursday. Alana has a graduation party planned for Saturday at her mother’s house which is only a couple of blocks away from here.
As soon as we were set up, Donna and I rode the Spyder over to the Boys and Girls Club where our other granddaughter, Gabi, had a softball game. We sat with Alana’s mother and step-dad, Luann and Jerry, and watched Gabi’s last game.
Gabi getting her game ball signed by the coaches
Alana is an ER nurse at Providence Hospital in Everett. She got off of work early and came home around 5pm. Donna made crispy tarragon bread crumb cod for dinner and served it with a side of black rice and sauteed spinach with lemon. We all sat outside and ate around a card table in lawn chairs.
Crispy tarragon bread crumb cod, spinach with lemon and black rice
It was cool outside – the high was only 62 degrees. Sunday was a warmer day – the high hit 70 degrees and we had sunshine. I watched the Moto GP race from Catalunya, Spain and the Formula One race from Montreal, Canada. Meanwhile Donna rode her bicycle up the Centennial Trail and got 25 miles in.
For dinner I grilled Argentina pink shrimp that Donna marinated in a jerk sauce for dinner and served with mango salsa, brown rice and broccoli for dinner.
I had a nice IPA from Pelican Brewery in Tillamook, Oregon. This IPA is made with a single hop type – Mosaic. It’s unusual to brew IPA with only one type of hops and I think they made a winner here.
Mosaic IPA
Donna had an American Blonde Ale, a farm-to-can ale brewed with local lemons that she bought in Corning, California when we stopped at The Olive Pit. It was Lemon Meringue Pie ale from Old Glory Brewing in Sacramento, California. She loved it.
Old Glory Lemon Meringue Pie ale
This morning we have a light misty rain falling. There’s rain likely in the forecast for the next week – it’s western Washington in June, right? My other two daughters, Jamie and Shauna, will be coming here in the next couple of days. It will be the first time we’ve all been together since Shauna’s graduation from law school in May of 2015.