Alana, Kevin and the kids headed over to eastern Washington on Wednesday. Our granddaughter Lainey had to move from her apartment in Pullman where she’s a student at Washington State University. They would be back on Saturday.
Thursday and Friday, Donna and I drove over to their place in Arlington to feed cats, water the potted plants and pick up mail and packages. It was uneventful on Thursday, but on Friday we found evidence of raccoons ransacking the cat food.
On our way back on Friday, we made a stop at Little Mountain Park. Donna discovered this park on one of her bicycle rides. Little Mountain Park is a 522-acre park just outside of town on the south side. The road into the park rises steeply to the parking lot at the summit, 934 feet above sea level. There are 10 miles of hiking trails in the park – most of them have steep climbs or descents. There are two viewing platforms – the south platform is adjacent to the parking lot and the north one is a short hike from there.
The south viewing platform overlooks the Skagit Valley with views of Puget Sound, Camano Island and Whidbey Island. On a clear day you can see the Olympic Mountains across the sound. We didn’t have a clear day – there was a lot of haze which you can see in the photos below. We’ll have to go back on a clear day.
Looking west-northwestView Southwest – Camano Island on the left, Whidbey Island on the rightView south-southwest
One of the packages I picked up at Alana’s house was a tripod I ordered from Amazon. I used a great little tripod to mount the Comet GP6 antenna for my ham radio – very sturdy. I wanted to order another one to put up the Diamond CP-610 antenna for the 6-meter and 10-meter bands, but they were on backorder. So, I found a different one and ordered it.
I assembled the antenna and put it up on Friday. I wasn’t entirely happy with the new tripod – it seemed a little flimsy compared to the first one. The neighbors must think we have an antenna farm – they keep sprouting up.
Another antenna sprouted up
The Diamond antenna is a bit of a beast. The actual antenna is 21 feet tall and has radials that extend about three feet, mounted on a 10-foot mast. After hooking it up, I played around on the 6- and 10-meter bands but couldn’t find a signal. Later, I took the antenna down – I didn’t trust the set-up in case it got windy overnight.
Saturday morning, I put the antenna back up. Just as I got it in position, I was distracted by Ozark the cat coming out of the coach. I’d left the door open – Ozark usually just stands or lays on the steps and looks outside, but she jumped out onto the grass this time. I let go of the antenna mast and went to retrieve Ozark. The antenna wasn’t stabilized and came crashing down, damaging the radials. I was lucky that it fell straight back across our site and landed in the grass without hitting anything else.
I disassembled the antenna and boxed it up. Lesson learned. I found a sturdy tripod on Amazon and won’t use the flimsy one again. Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be able to order a couple of radials from Diamond. The radial extensions shouldn’t be much money and it’s an easy fix.
I’ve been having a blast with the ham radio. I found a repeater in Sequim – about 42 miles across the sound as the crow flies from here. This repeater is linked to something called the Winsystem. This links repeaters across the country and around the world allowing me to communicate over great distances by hitting the repeater 42 miles away! I had discussions with guys in Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. It’s incredible, but I really want to try to make distant contact over the air – that’s why I got the bigger antenna.
The weather has been variable. We went from sunny and 85 degrees on Thursday to partly sunny and 78 on Friday, then cloudy and 76 on Saturday and they say we’ll be back in the mid-80s today with rain coming tomorrow!
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
Donna and I met up with Alana, Kevin and our granddaughter Lainey Monday afternoon at North Sound Brewing Company for a couple of cold ones. It’s a little strange getting used to the idea of having an adult beverage with my granddaughter! The brewery is only about a mile from the Mount Vernon RV Park on Memorial Highway. They had plenty of outdoor seating.
Tuesday I had a project to take care of. A few weeks ago, I noticed some strange wear patterns on the cargo trailer tires. One of them looked bad. On Monday, I walked down the street from the RV park to the Les Schwab Tire Center. I ordered four new ST type trailer tires. They said they would have the tires first thing Tuesday morning.
It was a bit of a chore putting the trailer up on jack stands. I used my floor jack and placed two jack stands per side and pulled all of the wheels off. Alana and the grandkids, Lainey and Gabi, came by to go for a walk with Donna. I used Alana’s VW Atlas to transport the wheels to Les Schwab. They had the new tires and got on the job right away.
This was the worst tire – note the shoulder wear and wear bars in the outer treadsThis tire had much less wear, but still had excessive wear on the shoulders
Examining the four old tires, I saw they wore very inconsistently. These were Chinese made Rainier brand tires. I always kept the tires inflated to 50psi – the maximum load pressure indicated on the sidewall. The excessive shoulder wear looked like they had been underinflated, but I know that wasn’t the case. The tire guy at Les Schwab asked about inflation of these tires and I told him I always maintained them at 50psi.
The new tires were mounted quickly and while I paid the bill, the tire guy loaded the wheels in the Atlas. Before I left, I asked him what the tire pressure was – he said he set them to 50psi, just like the old ones. Here’s the thing – the old tires had a 6-ply rating – an antiquated rating system. They were more accurately called load range “C” tires. Load range “C” tires are rated for maximum load at 50psi.
The new tires I bought were 8-ply rated or load range “D”. These tires were rated for higher maximum loads. Load range “D” trailer tires are rated for maximum load at 65psi. These tires can carry 300 lbs more load per tire than the old tires, but they have to be inflated to 65psi. I let it go – I figured I could deal with it later before we hit the road.
Before I re-installed the wheels, I checked the wheel bearings for excessive play. I thought maybe if there was too much clearance in the wheel bearings, the hubs might walk back and forth making a slight wobble in the tire, causing the shoulder wear. The wheel bearings were fine. I think the tires were just cheaply manufactured and had inconsistent wear. I had put about 28,000 miles on the old tires.
Later, Donna and I went to Alana’s place. Kevin was working – he’s an paramedic with the fire department and works 24-hour shifts. He does two 24-hour stints with 12 hours off in between, then has five days off. I cooked a salmon filet on Kevin’s Traeger and Alana added boneless chicken thighs. She also made home fried potatoes, asparagus and broccoli.
We visited on the back patio over dinner and had a black-tail doe come through the yard. Lainey had to go back to Pullman where she’s a student at Washington State University. She had to move out of her apartment by Thursday night. So, Alana, Kevin and the rest of the family went to Pullman on Wednesday to help her move. They’ll be back Saturday afternoon. It was getting a bit late by the time we left and we didn’t get back to Mount Vernon until 9pm.
I’ve been playing with my ham radio and I’m getting more comfortable with the program settings and being on the air. I found a repeater located on Mount Seymour which is north of Vancouver, British Columbia. This powerful repeater reaches well into Washington as well as covering western British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada.
Without getting too technical, I need to explain something about repeaters. A repeater is a remote station that receives a radio signal and re-transmits that signal at a higher output power. The thing is, it has to receive the signal on a certain frequency, then re-transmit on a different frequency. If it tried to receive and transmit on the same frequency simultaneously, garbled noise would result. The difference between the receive or input frequency and the transmit or output frequency of the reperater is called the offset.
Well, when I found the signal being transmitted by the Canadian repeater, it was transmitting a net or network of users called the Rainbow Country Net. They log in with the net operator at 9am every morning for group discussion. I listened for an hour or so, then the net operator called for anyone that hadn’t checked in to give their call sign, location and name. I keyed the microphone and called in. I was welcomed and told I had a clear, strong signal.
Later, I realized that I had just stumbled upon what I thought was the repeater transmission while I was scanning frequencies. I didn’t have the repeater information, so I hadn’t programmed an offset frequency to transmit into the repeater, I thought I was just monitoring the output. So, what happened was although I thought I was listening to the net from the repeater, I was really capturing the signal going into the repeater and when I transmitted, my signal didn’t go through the repeater – it went directly from station-to-station.
Later, I looked up the repeater online and found the offset. This morning, I joined the net again and told them of my error the day before. The net operator told me he was unaware that I transmitted a simplex station-to-station the day before, my signal was that good.
I had to come up with a way to store the new radio gear. Storage when you’re a full-time RVer is always an issue. I ordered a couple of foam-lined hard shell cases intended for camera equipment to use with my ham radio gear.
I added the Yaesu radio sticker to the large caseYaesu FT-991a radio packed in the case
The protective cases will make it much easier to store the gear. My radio is made by a Japanese company called Yaesu. I’ve been in a quandry over how I should pronounce the name. Most native English speakers say “YAY-sue.” But that’s not how a native Japanese speaker would pronounce it. They say it with more of a three syllable sound although the second and third syllable are often slurred together. They say “YAH-eh-zu.” YAY-sue sounds kind of country bumpkin to me. Maybe I’ll say a hybrid YAY-eh-zu.
My ham shack-in-a-box on the picnic table in our site
The weather forecast around here seems to change on a daily basis. We were expecting some cooler temperatures, but yesterday we hit 81 degrees and now they’re calling for 85 today. For what it’s worth, the forecast says we’ll see around 80 degrees each day through the weekend.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
The probability of rain in Friday’s forecast didn’t materialize. In fact, by late afternoon, the skies were mostly clear and the thermometer reached 75 degrees. Around 4pm, I went to the car show at the Burgermaster in Mount Vernon. My friend and former colleague, Ed King, told me about the show. They had a good turnout.
I was standing by a car, admiring it, when a guy I’m guessing was a millenial came up to me with his wife. He said, “We saw this car from across the lot and had to get a closer look. What is it?”
I told him it was a 1969 Hurst/Olds. These were a variant of the Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 – fewer than 1,000 were made in 1969. He said he never heard of such a car.
1969 Husrt/Olds
I saw another rig that I saw at a car show in Arlington last year. It’s a custom that started out as a 1948 Ford cabover truck.
Ford cabover custom job
There was a very clean 1965 Corvette that caught my eye. The 1963-67 C2 Corvettes were the first to use the name Sting Ray. In 1968, the name was changed to one word – Stingray. I had a 1965 Corvette with a 396 cubic inch engine and 4-speed transmission for a few years. 1965 was the only year they used a 396 big block.
1965 Corvette
I thought one of the coolest cars there was this 1950 Chevrolet Deluxe Styleline. I don’t know why – it just really appealed to me.
1950 Chevrolet Deluxe
I expected to see Ed King at the car show, but he hadn’t arrived by the time I left around 5pm.
Donna and I hit the Skagit County Farmers’ Market Saturday morning. It was just across the bridge from the RV park – less than a mile away on Main Street. They were practicing social distancing and face masks were required.
Farmers’ market
Donna found fresh produce there that looked really good and was priced right. The farmers’ market is right on the Skagit River. The Skagit flows right through Mount Vernon. Downstream from town, it splits into two forks. The north fork flows into Skagit Bay which connects with the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Juan De Fuca at Deception Pass.
The south fork flows past Conway where it breaks up into smaller branches and empties into the south end of Skagit Bay.The waterway extends south through a strait between Camano Island and Whidbey Island that joins Puget Sound.
Skagit River – looking upstream at the Division Street bridge by the farmers’ marketRiverwalk and Skagit River downstream from the farmers’ market
Later, I drove over to Walmart to pick up a couple of things. I noticed really heavy traffic going the opposite way from me. Cars were backed up bumper to bumper from downtown Mount Vernon all the way out Freeway Drive to Walmart – about a mile and a half line of cars creeping along very slowly.
When I left Walmart, I tried an alternate route by going north, then east on Stewart Street to Riverside Drive. It seemed like a good idea until I got to College Way and found it was backed up as well from there to downtown. Meanwhile, Donna was out for a bike ride and found heavy traffic everywhere.
We wondered if it was typical for weekend traffic to be so heavy around here. Then we found out that I-5 was closed through Mount Vernon due to two traffic accidents. All of the traffic was diverted through Mount Vernon surface streets.
On Sunday morning, I drove over to Alana’s house. I was scheduled to take my ham radio exam at 10am with the Greater Los Angeles Area Amateur Radio Group (GLAARG) through a Zoom meeting. Alana set me up at a desk in my granddaughter Gabi’s room.
After checking in with the Zoom meeting, we had a lot of waiting as people checked in and some of them weren’t very computer savvy and had to be walked through the process. I was mildly surprised by this – I would think most hams are a bit geeky and technically oriented.
Eventually, I was directed to a virtual room – I guess you could call it a Zoom room – where four volunteer examiners greeted me. These examiners act as proctors administering the test material and observing the applicant taking the test – one applicant at a time. They had several Zoom rooms with volunteer examiners operating simultaneously.
First I had to move my laptop camera around to show I didn’t have any books, notes or other aids in the room, including on the floor or ceiling. I finished the technician exam in about five minutes. After the exam was graded – I passed easily – they asked me if I wanted to try the next level of license – the general exam. If I took it, I wouldn’t have to pay the usual fee and if I passed, I would be granted a General Amateur Radio License. The general license grants access to many more frequencies than the technician license. I went for it. I passed the general exam!
This morning, I searched the FCC database and found my license had already recorded. My radio call sign is KF0AZQ. Kilo-Foxtrot-Zero-Alpha-Zulu-Quebec. I can legally transmit now.
Later, Donna and I went back to Alana and Kevin’s place. Donna had prepped mojo marinade pork tenderloins which we bought at Costco on Friday. I put them on Kevin’s Traeger. Alana had country fried potatoes, a slow-cooked bean medley and corn on the cob as well as a garden salad. All eight of us dined on the back patio and had a great time.
I bought two bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne at Costco. Donna poured champagne for Lainey, Alana and herself to celebrate Lainey’s 21st birthday, Alana’s 40th and Donna’s 60th – which all occurred over the last month or so. It’s a milestone year!
We’re expecting a high temperature of 87 degrees today. The rest of the week should be a more comfortable 70 to 80 degrees.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
We had a nice visit with family Tuesday afternoon. Donna and I sat out in the back of Kevin and Alana’s place with our granddaughters, Lainey and Gabi and Kevin’s two boys, Nick and Kyle. Kevin and Alana are in the middle of a house painting project and had to run to the store. They arrived shortly after we got there.
Kevin put chicken legs on his Traeger while Alana made loaded baked potatoes, green salad and corn on the cob. We dined on the back patio. It was a good time – I sampled a few of the IPAs they had on hand and all of them were good. We got home just before dark – the sun doesn’t set until around 9pm at this latitude at this time of year.
We drove down again on Wednesday morning and traded Midget-San for Alana’s VW Atlas to drive to Everett for dental appointments. Donna and I had teeth cleaning and check-ups scheduled together at 11am. On the way back, we stopped at Home Depot where I bought a length of PVC pipe and then at Winco Foods where I stocked up on dark roasted Sumatra whole-bean coffee.
We gave Alana her car back and I had a 6-foot length of 1-1/4″ PVC pipe sticking out of the passenger compartment of Midget-San when we drove home. I had all of my new ham radio gear and I only needed to make a couple of cables with PowerPole connectors and assemble an antenna to test out the rig. The PVC pipe would be part of the antenna. I got everything assembled Wednesday afternoon.
While we were at Alana’s, she pointed out her neighbor’s antenna. He has a tower with a ham radio antenna that must be close to 100 feet high. It’s next to a shop building where he parks his boat. I told Alana that the shop must have a “ham shack” inside – that’s what hams call their radio room with all of their equipment. She thought it was pretty funny and said she would have to tell Kevin about ham shacks. I then told her the radio I bought is a multi-band, multi-mode unit that covers frequencies that would usually take two or more radios. They call this type of transceiver a “shack in a box.”
Yaesu FT991A Multi-Band, Multi-Mode transceiver and Samlex SEC-1235M power supplyDual band J-pole antenna
I wanted to mount the antenna high enough to be taller than the motorhome and trailer. I wish I had made the PVC section longer now – higher is better when it comes to antennas.
After I had everything set up, Alana and Lainey came over for a visit. While they sat inside with Donna, I played with my radio. Since I’m not licensed yet, I could only receive and listen – I can’t transmit until my license is granted. I’ll take the exam Sunday morning.
The Puget Sound area has a radio repeater network called a wide area network. It’s fantastic. By tuning into this network, I was able to listen to a guy in Alaska talk about the major earthquake that hit off the coast up there. A guy in Kentucky was asking him for more information – it was interesting. Yesterday, I listened to a guy at the Grand Canyon and another guy south of Portland, Oregon. This was in addition to local traffic. We found out the reason for the North Cascades Highway closure was due to a rock slide. A guy on the network gave an update – it looks like it’ll remain closed for a few more weeks.
Alana said she Googled “what do ham radio operators talk about?” The answer was “They talk about their ham radios!” I thought that was hilarious, but it’s only partly true.
Yesterday, I drove Donna to La Conner for her hair appointment. The salon is taking great precautions against the spread of coronavirus. They only had two hairstylists and only two customers in the salon at a time. This was her first haircut in about seven months. It took two hours for a cut and highlights.
Later today, we’re planning a run to Costco, then I want to check out a car show a few miles from here – weather permitting. The weather has been cooler than we’re used to. That coupled with the high humidity levels has us feeling a little cold and damp. Tuesday wasn’t bad as the thermometer hit 79 degrees. But on Wednesday it only reached 70 and yesterday was overcast and the high was only 66 degrees.
It’s only 66 degrees now with 62% humidity as I type this. The expected high is only 68 and we have cloud cover again. The forecast looks better – 75 degrees and sunny tomorrow with more sun and 80 degree temperatures as we head into next week.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
We left the Coeur d’Alene Elk’s Lodge Sunday morning. Our first stop was at the fairgrounds dump station. All three lanes were open, so we took care of business without any delays and hit I-90 westbound. Our next stop was two miles from the Washington border – I wanted to top off our tank in Idaho. Everything, including diesel fuel, costs more in Washington.
Once we crossed the border, we stayed on I-90 for about 22 miles through greater Spokane traffic. We exited at Airway Heights and took US2 which brought us west through farm land and small towns – Reardan, Davenport, Creston. On the west side of Wilbur we turned northwest on WA174. This took us to Grand Coulee where we dropped down into a gorge, then climbed back up again.
Grand Coulee
WA174 became WA17 at Leahy. After passing by the Chief Joseph Dam, we crossed the Columbia River at Bridgeport. We were on familiar ground when we turned west on WA153 at Pateros. This followed the Methow (met-HOW) River through the valley and up to Twisp and finally our destination for the day – the Pine Near RV Park in Winthrop. This was our fourth visit to Pine Near. We had an easy pull-through into site 7. We were only staying for one night so I connected power and water but didn’t bother with a sewer connection. We also didn’t try to hit the Schoolhouse Brewery on the river. Donna took a walk through town but couldn’t get there via the Shaefer Museum stairway – the museum was closed due to COVID-19 and the grounds were locked up tight. But on her way back past the museum, she spotted a deer on the grounds.
A deer found Donna on her walk
Winthrop is at an elevation of about 1,800 feet above sea level. We got an early start Monday morning and were on the road just after 9am. We only had about 150 miles to cover, but I knew it would be a fairly long drive. First up, we had to climb across Washington Pass on WA20 (North Cascades Highway) – it’s 5,477 feet above sea level. After reaching the summit of Washington Pass, the road descends quickly then climbs again to Rainy Pass at 4,875 feet above sea level. It’s mostly a downhill run from there.
Donna’s windshield viewTunnel near Newhalem
The area is very rugged with high mountain peaks still covered with snow in places. The Skagit River originates in British Columbia, Canada and flows into Washington where there are a series of three dams providing hydroelectric power to western Washington. They create three lakes – from east to west there’s Ross Lake, then Diablo Lake and finally Gorge Lake. The North Cascades Highway follows the Skagit River all the way to Puget Sound.
Diorama at the overlook depicting the dams and lakes
We stopped briefly at the Diablo Lake Overlook. We’ve made this stop a few times over the years and took a selfie photo.
Us – July 2020Us – July 2014Us – September 2013
There’s a small town west of the dams called Newhalem. It’s an interesting town as it’s owned by Seattle City Light – the power company. All of the residents are employees of Seattle City Light working at the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, or in local county, state or federal agencies.
We didn’t know the North Cascades Highway was closed west of Marblemount. We had to detour to the Rockport Cascade Road which is very narrow, twisty and not much fun in a big rig. We hit WA530 at Rockport and were able to get back on WA20 westbound. I don’t know why the road was closed.
I made a second detour on our route when we reached Mount Vernon. I didn’t want to follow the GPS routing through the old downtown area. I stayed on WA20 toward Anacortes instead and went south on Best Road and came around to Memorial Highway which brought us to the Mount Vernon RV Park. We pulled in around 2:30pm and set up in a 70-foot long pull through site. The sites are a little tight here and we’re right under a tree blocking my satellite reception.
We made a run to Walmart – Donna needed some produce and I needed to buy a new sewer hose. Our Rhinoflex hose had a pinhole. It seems to happen after a few years of use.
Later we drove over to my oldest daughter, Alana’s place. She was at work but we’ve had several packages delivered there and wanted to pick them up. We had so much stuff there that Midget-San was overflowing. The trunk was packed tight and a couple of packages were poking out from behind the seats.
I was like a kid at Christmas opening packages back at the RV park. I got the ham radio I ordered – A Yaesu 991A – and a bunch of other ham radio related goodies. Now I need to pass the exam on Sunday so I can use this stuff!
We’re about 30 feet above sea level here and no longer in high, dry country. The humidity here runs right around 50%. It really feels different after being in 15% or lower humidity for the last three months. The forecast looks good with temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees for the next week and little chance of rain.
We’ll head back to Alana and Kevin’s place this afternoon. Alana is an emergency room RN and has today and tomorrow off from work.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
Sunday was our last full day in South Bend. We rode our bikes across town at mid-day and found Linda’s Fish and Chips on the east end of town. It’s a popular spot and has a large parking area that can accommodate RVs. It’s just a food trailer, but the food is good and the property is nice with a large lawn area and several picnic tables with umbrellas. The view downriver from the lot is nice. We stopped for lunch and ate at one of the tables.
Old fishing boat displayed at Linda’sView downriver to South Bend
From there we rode across the lot to the bike path to Raymond. The bike path is mostly paved, but there are several short unpaved sections. Donna is loving her Trek Dual Sport 2 – it handles the dirt sections almost as well as my mountain bike. Her bike is faster than mine on the pavement though.
About halfway between South Bend and Raymond, we found a small RV park right on the river. It had about a dozen sites and was next door to a boat shop specializing in catamarans. They had two very large catamarans on the lot – I wonder how they launch these behemoths. They looked like you could easily live aboard and cruise the ocean. I could get used to that!
CatamaranPlenty of living space here
We stopped at the grocery store in Raymond and Donna bought cereal and bananas before we rode back. We were within a quarter-mile of our coach when my front tire went flat. I must have picked up a blackberry thorn. This close to the trailer I didn’t mess with it on the side of the road, I just walked it back.
Sunday evening, I watched the Moto GP race – it turned out to be one of the least exciting races of the season. I had most of our things packed in the trailer – I only left Donna’s bike and our camp chairs out to pack in the morning. Donna wanted to ride her bike to the market in the morning. Our new set-up in the trailer is working well, but I have a few items I’d like to find a better place to store. This photo illustrates why I wanted such a small car. Midget-San is small enough for me to open the driver’s door and exit without any trouble once it’s inside the trailer. I keep a car cover on it in case anything gets loose in the trailer.
Midget-San all tucked in under cover
We were on the road again by 10:30am Monday morning. As we headed toward Bruceport on US101, I was behind a few cars that were traveling about 50mph. I kept a distance of about 100 – 150 feet behind the car in front of me and matched their speed. Behind us was a tractor trailer rig. Apparently the truck driver couldn’t see the traffic in front of me and decided he needed to get past me. When I noticed him swinging out to the oncoming lane to pass, I was shocked. There was a downhill curve ahead and he wasn’t going to get past me before we hit it. I braked to 40mph so he could overtake us and get back into our lane. For the next 20 miles he was about 150 feet ahead of us. His dangerous maneuver netted him a two-second advantage.
We cut south on WA4 and WA401 to the mouth of the Columbia River where we rejoined US101 and crossed the bridge to Astoria, Oregon. We had planned a stop there to pick up beer at the Safeway store – I had scoped out the parking situation on Google. We also wanted to walk on the Astoria Riverwalk.
Our timing was impeccable. They were repainting traffic lines on Highway 30 through Astoria and traffic crawled through town. We could have walked the three miles to the store faster than driving there, but that wasn’t an option.
We parked behind the Safeway store by an abandoned building. A travel trailer was directly in front of the building, so we were partially blocking a driveway. The driveway had a cable locked to posts in front blocking access, so I didn’t worry about it.
The Astoria Riverwalk is a paved multi-use trail along the Columbia River. On the south side of the trail, there are a number of office buildings interspersed among townhomes and condos. It’s gentrified and appears upscale.
Astoria RiverwalkI think this was a cannery – abandoned now
There were eight cargo ships we could see moored in the Columbia. Most of the cargo ships entering and exiting the river are bringing cargo to Portland from other West Coast ports or the Far East.
Freighters moored in the Columbia
With few exceptions, ships entering the Columbia River are required to have a licensed pilot guide it through the treacherous Columbia River Bar. Pilots from Astoria take control of the ships and navigate past the bar. Then a licensed Columbia River pilot takes over for the remainder of the cruise to Portland.
When we got back to the coach, someone had unlocked the cable and managed to drive around us. I felt bad about us blocking it. Donna talked to the guy and he was alright with it though.
From Astoria, we continued south on US101 – it’s a scenic drive down the Oregon Coast. We checked in at Cannon Beach RV Resort around 1:30pm. They have a bit of a branding issue here – in some cases, the RV park is called Cannon Beach RV Resort, other times it’s called the RV Resort at Cannon Beach. In fact, their campsite map and information flyer has both names on it!
We dropped the trailer near the entrance. We decided to leave Midget-San in the trailer. We can ride our bikes to anywhere in town or up to the state park if we want. We have a full hook-up, 42-foot back-in site. It’s paved with a nice lawn area and the park is surrounded by mature trees.
I set up and immediately dumped and flushed our black tank. Over the last two months, I only got to dump it twice and both times, I couldn’t use the flushing system. With that done, Donna told me she was going to try the Dish satellite network. I thought “Good luck with that” as I eyed the trees. Five minutes later, she had satellite reception! The park wifi was also very good – at least at first it was. Verizon signal is not good here.
In the evening, when more users were on the park wifi, it totally bogged down. It was even worse first thing this morning. I’m typing this post on Word Pad, then hopefully I can successfully transfer it to WordPress for publication. I probably won’t try to post again until we move on to a better signal.
We’ll explore on our bikes today – I fixed my flat tire this morning. We’ll have another full day tomorrow before we continue south. This park is a little pricier than we usually like to pay, but that’s the coast in season. When we left Arlington, our first night at Cabela’s was free. Then we had three nights at South Bend for $10/night. So we averaged $7.50/night for the first four nights. Three nights here came to $165 with tax, bringing our total to $195 for a week. That’s an average of $27.85/night. Mixing it up like this keeps costs low. Thursday night we’ll boondock before we hit Newport and another pricey place.
The weather here is much cooler with highs in the 60s. The mornings are cloudy with a marine layer that’s expected to burn off in the afternoons.
The great weather here in Arlington continues. Saturday was mostly cloudy and a little cooler with the high in the lower 70s, but it didn’t rain. My daughter, Alana’s, best friend since childhood, Angie Meece, is visiting her parents in Darrington. She reached out to Donna and invited us to stop by on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday was a bright, sunny day, so we put the top down and drove Midget-San up to Darrington – it’s about 30 miles east of Arlington up highway 530. The Meeces’ house is on a beautiful property next to the 6,841-ft. peak of Whitehorse Mountain. When we pulled up to the entrance to their property, we were surprised to find it lined with a number of cars. Obviously something was up.
We pulled to the end of the driveway and parked and found a party! It was a surprise party with two purposes – first was a celebration of the retirement from the Darrington School District of Angie’s mother, Diane. Secondly it was a celebration of Angie’s sister’s graduation from university. Unbeknownst to us, both of Angie’s sisters, Michelle and Lisa, were also visiting.
They wanted to keep the surprise party secret, so they just invited a number of people to stop by for a visit without letting the real deal out. Too bad for us – we ate lunch before driving up only to find a feast was spread. They had a ton of hors d’oeuvres and fresh seafood. Angie’s dad, Mark, also had a keg of beer on tap. We had a good time mingling and I got to visit with many people I haven’t seen in nearly 20 years. I was so caught up in various conversations that I neglected to take any photos!
On Monday, Donna got busy in the trailer taking on one of my tasks. She started re-organizing and getting rid of useless things that I keep hauling around. She’s better at that sort of thing than I am. Alana and Gabi returned from their Hawaii vacation late Monday night.
I spent the morning on Tuesday looking at route options and thinking about where we wanted to be in August. Originally we thought we would head east to Coeur d’Alene, then south through Idaho. After thinking about it for a bit, I thought maybe going west to the Washington coast and making our way south on the Oregon coast may be the way to go. August is the best month weather-wise to travel the coastal northwest and going east would mean high temperatures.
August is also the busiest season for tourism along the coast, so we had to plan ahead and see if we would be able to find RV parks that can accommodate us. We managed to make a couple of reservations and also found boondocking sites that should work along the way. Our plan is to pull out of our extended mooch-docking site here in Alana’s driveway tomorrow.
The first stop will have to be at the dump station – I haven’t dumped our tanks since we arrived here in mid-June. Our course we’ve been using Alana’s bathroom and have been careful about how much waste water we’ve generated. I’m anticipating a somewhat late start as we have to load Midget-San in the trailer for the first time and I’m sure we’ll have to take our time securing the car. We may only go as far as Lacey and spend the night at Cabela’s before we move on to South Bend. We’ll spend a few days there before we head south to Oregon.
Meanwhile, I still have the Verizon data usage mystery. We’ve been consistent in our data usage for several years. We use about 30GB/month and rarely have we gone over our data limit. For the last two months, our data usage – as metered by Verizon – has shot up. Meanwhile, I’m getting e-mails and instant messages from Verizon advising me to switch to one of their new data plans.
I don’t know, but this seems fishy to me. The new plans require me to enter a new contract with Verizon. What accelerated our current data usage? We’ve checked for anything running in the background on our laptops and haven’t found anything.
Today’s high temperature should reach 80 degrees and tomorrow is expected to be even warmer. I think heading for the coast is the right idea. I have much preparation to do today but we’ll get it done. I’m ready for the road again.
As expected, rain moved in during the past week. Donna and I are taking advantage of our time here in Arlington, Washington by getting caught up on dental appointments. I had my cleaning and check-up on Thursday and now I have another appointment next Monday. Head and neck radiation well over a decade ago continues to take a toll on my teeth. The dentist tells me it’s to be expected and overall he thinks I’ve done a good job of caring for my teeth.
Periods of rain and thundershowers Tuesday evening through Friday had us lying low. I have a few projects to work on and managed to knock a couple of things off the list. On our coach, the dash heater had a leaking valve that showed up during the run from Oregon. I don’t know why the designers of a 40-foot motorhome install a heat exchanger in the front to provide hot air through the dash vents. The heat exchanger is sized for a car and would never provide adequate heat for the interior volume of our coach. It might put a little warm air over your fingers and toes, but if it’s that cold, something more is needed.
The heat is provided by pumping coolant from the engine – in the rear of the coach – all the way to the front cap area. The supply line goes through a valve that has four connections. One is the inlet for the coolant coming from the engine, another is a return line to direct coolant back to the engine without entering the heat exchanger when the valve is closed. The other two lines allow coolant to enter and exit the heat exchanger when the heater valve is open. This valve was leaking coolant.
Rather than track down a replacement valve, I just disconnected the lines and plugged them with barbed plastic 5/8″ plugs and one-inch hose clamps. We’ve never used the dash heat anyway.
Although it was a wet week, the daily high temperatures were comfortable as they reached about 70 degrees. The weekend forecast was significantly better with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-to-upper-70s.
My daughter, Alana, and her boyfriend, Kevin, planned a barbeque at Kevin’s place on Saturday. The event was a celebration of our granddaughter Lainey’s 20th birthday. The weather was fine as promised, so Donna and I drove Midget-San to Kevin’s house up highway 9 with the top down. It was our first topless foray in Midget-San.
Midget-San in Kevin’s driveway
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday before rain came later in the day, Donna and I drove Midget-San up to La Conner for lunch. On the way back, Donna got some familiarization time behind the wheel.
Kevin had ribs and chicken in his Traeger all afternoon and they were delicious. They also served mac and cheese and an excellent potato gratin. Alana made baked beans which simmered for more than 24 hours. After a great meal sitting in yard while the youngsters played badminton and volleyball, it was time for a birthday cake. Happy 20th Lainey!
Cake timeGabi, Alana and Lainey
We’re in for another fine day today. The skies are clear and the forecast high is 78 degrees. Donna took Midget-San to Marysville to play pickleball. I’ve been resting a nagging groin pull and have stayed away from the courts for a while. I hope to get over it soon.
The Spyder is still in the shop in Mount Vernon. I hope to have some news on Tuesday, then I can move forward with selling it. Until that happens, our future plans are on hold.
We borrowed Alana’s car on Friday morning and Donna dropped me off at Sea-Tac airport. When I did the Alaska Airlines online check-in, a warning popped up advising that due to construction inside the terminal, I should arrive two hours before departure. You just have to love commercial airline travel! The line at the security station was unbelievable, but I got through it – even with a butane torch cigar lighter in my backpack. Why was I flying to Billings, Montana? It’s a long story.
Lately, Donna has been dropping not so subtle hints about growing tired of dealing with helmet hair. Since we hit the road, our mode of local transportation has been a scooter or the Spyder which requires us to wear helmets. Getting a car into the trailer would be a challenge though.
First of all, I needed to find something small. Not only did it have to fit in the trailer, but I also needed to be able to get out of the car once it was loaded. It also needed to be lightweight. I thought about a few current cars, like a Smart car or a Fiat 500. But, there were issues. The Smart car checked the small and lightweight boxes, but its reputation for twitchy handling and general geekiness put me off. I just don’t see a Smart car as our style. I wanted something more fun and engaging to drive.
The Fiat 500 is small, but it’s portly with a curb weight of 2,700 lbs or so. I also wondered about reliability and serviceability of such a car. Modern cars are chock-full of electronic control modules and require expensive specific software to diagnose malfunctions. My recent episode with the Spyder illustrates this.
When I was growing up, cars made in the 1950s and ’60s were so much simpler. They had their drawbacks, but they also were fun and you could fix almost anything on them with simple hand tools. I bought my first car in 1972 when I was 15 years old. It was a 1959 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite.
1959 Mk I Sprite – picture lifted from Flickr
It didn’t run – the engine was seized. I pulled the engine in our garage at home and set about rebuilding it. I’ve heard experience is what you gain when you learn from your mistakes. Well, I gained a lot of experience building that engine. That car was fun to drive – it handled like a go cart. But, it wasn’t comfortable. In fact, it didn’t have roll-up windows and the only access to the trunk was by entering a cave behind the seats! My rebuilt engine didn’t last long. I replaced it with a junkyard motor and sold the car – I swore off British cars at that point.
The Mk I Sprite was built from 1958 to 1960. In 1961, it was replaced by the Mk II version, which did away with the Bugeye look and added creature comforts. It had roll-up windows and a trunk lid to access the boot – England’s terminology for a trunk. It retained the diminutive 948cc engine and four-speed transmission. The Mk II was also marketed as a MG Midget. The Sprite and Midget were built on the same assembly line, but the Midget had different trim and cost a little more. These cars were built side by side until 1971 and cars from this era are sometimes referred to as “Spridgets.”
By this time, the engine displacement had grown to 1275cc. The MG Midget was produced until 1980. The British car industry was struggling in the ’70s and cost-cutting measures made their situation worse. It was a downward spiral for British cars. They refused to engineer and retool to meet the safety and smog standards in their largest market – the USA. The Mk III Midget with chrome bumpers built from 1972 to 1974 are considered by many as the most desirable of the line. But, it still had an engine built on ancient technology, poor electrical systems and a four-speed transmission that had the engine buzzing at any speed over 60 mph.
But, the car weighs 1,600 lbs and is very compact. It’s under 10 feet long and only five feet wide. I started poking around. The Mk I Bugeyes are collector cars nowadays and command high prices. Not anything I would be interested in. Then I came across an ad in Hemmings Motor News for a 1972 MG Midget RestoMod. The Resto in RestoMod means restored. The Mod means modified, not to original factory specifications. This particular RestoMod had chassis tweaks and a Nissan A15 engine and Nissan 60 series five-speed transmission. I was intrigued.
It was located in Huntley, Montana. After exchanging a few e-mails with the owner, I was on a flight to Montana to check it out. The Nissan A15 engine swapped into this Midget came from a Datsun 210 – before 1984, Nissan cars were known as Datsun. This engine is well-established as a reliable power plant and production worldwide spanned about 30 years. This one is set up with a Weber DGV carburetor and a hall-effect type electronic ignition. All straight forward stuff – easy to maintain and work on. No computers anywhere in the car unless I’m packing a laptop.
The owner of the car, Larry, picked me up at the Billings airport in the Midget. We drove to his place about 12 miles away in Huntley. The car didn’t rattle or shake and I was amazed at how easy it seemed to drive. We even crossed a railroad track at 40 mph without a rattle. We spent the rest of the afternoon going over the car. We put it up on jack stands and I looked at everything. Here are some pictures from the Hemmings advertisement.
1972 MG MidgetNissan A15 engineInterior stripped and refinished during restorationDoor panels sealed and replacedSuspension restored with new springs and bushings – new brake componentsCustom stainless steel exhaust systemUpdated seatbelt with shoulder strap
After a bit of dickering, we made a deal just in time to have the titled notarized nearby. I was the new owner and had a 900-mile drive ahead of me. I hit the road around 5:45pm and headed west on I-90.
The car was impressive. I cruised at 70-75 mph with ease and it was so stable, I could take my hands off the steering wheel and it continued straight down the road. I planned to drive to Bozeman and stop for the night. It was not to be. When I reached Bozeman, there weren’t any motels with a vacancy! I pressed on to Big Timber. I found a flea bag motel that wanted $139 for the night. No way! I went on to Butte. The only room available in town was a suite for $369.
I asked the clerk what was going on that had all the rooms in Montana sold out. He said it was the start of the summer season – many families rent rooms as a base camp for day trips into the north or west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Who knew?
By 11:30pm, I made it to Missoula, absolutely exhausted. I found a room for $160 and paid for it. It was a king room with a jacuzzi. I cracked a bomber bottle of IPA and soaked in the tub. It was after 1am – I stayed on Pacific time for the trip – when I hit the sack. I woke up around 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep. After a Burger King breakfast burrito and coffee, I was back on the road by 6:30am.
I crossed a few mountain passes – Lookout Pass and Fourth of July pass in Idaho and the car didn’t skip a beat. I made gas stops every 150 miles or so and stretched my legs. Getting into and out of this little car takes some contortion. It’s not really suitable for anyone taller than about six feet or anyone with an ample waistline. I averaged only 31 miles per gallon on the first leg driving into a stiff headwind and climbing. Later I had 35 mpg and 37 mpg.
At a gas stop in Coeur D’Alene, a guy drove up and asked me if I wanted to sell the car. He said he’s been looking for a Midget, but not finding much. He asked me how I found it. I told him I did online searches. He said he doesn’t go online and doesn’t have e-mail – the government snoops on people that do don’tcha know! He said he was posting small ads asking for people to contact him with info about a Midget – he wanted the car to come to him! I wished him luck and drove on.
Not the way to find a car
At a gas stop in Wenatchee, a Toyota FJ SUV nearly backed into the Midget. The driver couldn’t see the car through her back window – the SUV was high and the Midget very low. It was a heart stopping moment for me – luckily, a bystander called out to the woman driving the SUV as I hit my horn and she stopped about 2 inches short of my rear deck lid.
After crossing Stevens pass on US2 and 10 hours on the road, I pulled into Alana’s driveway at 4:30pm. I was whipped, but driving the mountain roads was fun – mission accomplished. Donna had reorganized some things in the garage and made room for the car. I shot a picture of Donna next to the car to give a sense of scale – this is a really small car.
Donna isn’t big – the car is small
So, now I have to offload the Spyder and make room in the trailer for the Midget. Donna and I don’t normally name our vehicles but in this case we came up with Midget-San. San (sahn) is an honorific suffix in Japanese. It can be the equivalent of Mr., Mrs. or Ms. For example, if I had a old buddy named Tanaka, I might call him that. But if I were introduced to his father I would address him as Tanaka-San. If I was dating his sister, I would introduce her to others as Tanaka-San. Since our Midget has a transplanted Nissan drivetrain, Midget-San seems appropriate.
I managed to miss rain storms all the way back to western Washington. I don’t think that will last much longer – we’re sure to have rain here in Arlington, Washington. It’s inevitable.
We were up early on Friday morning and hit the road with what had to be our earliest departure ever. We were on the road by 7:30am. I’d snagged an appointment for a chassis alignment on the coach at Brazel’s RV Performance Center in Centralia, Washington. I thought I could make the drive in four and half hours, but you never know what you might encounter driving through Portland.
I decided to take the long way around on I-205 rather than going straight through downtown Portland in I-5. This turned out to be a good decision as we only had a couple of slow-downs and no drama. We made good time and I had enough time to spare for a lunch stop in Chehalis. I went to the Subway sandwich shop while Donna fixed a salad for herself. We arrived at Brazel’s at 12:30pm and dropped the trailer in a pull-through site in their RV customer lot. This lot has full hook-ups for about a dozen and a half rigs. They took the coach into the shop right at 1pm.
The alignment job was a comprehensive chassis alignment that began with weighing the four corner wheel weight of the coach. They adjusted the ride height, checked rear alignment and thrust – no issues there – and front wheel camber, caster and toe. The front toe needed to be reset. Meanwhile, Donna used their 5G wifi to get some work done in the customer lounge area. With the work completed, we rolled out of Centralia at 4:30pm.
We got lucky and kept the wheels turning through Olympia with only a couple of slow-downs. The traffic came to a standstill just past the Martin Way exit where we left I-5. Our destination was the Cabela’s store in Lacey. We pulled into their lot around 5:30pm and called it a day. We’ve stayed at this Cabela’s before. It’s a quiet, out-of-the-way stop and good for a one-night layover.
Parked for the night at the west end of the Lacey Cabela’s
I’d planned on using the Cabela’s dump station but found they had removed it! Where the old dump station was located, they had poured concrete over the dump station hook-up. I don’t know what prompted that.
Donna made a favorite for dinner – pork tenderloin medallions with a dijon sauce, sweet potato mash and steamed asparagus.
Pork tenderloin medallions
The sun doesn’t set until well after 9pm this far north at this time of year. Consequently, we stayed up later than usual watching TV. Saturday morning we didn’t get rolling again until 10am. Once again, I opted to go the long way around and took I-405 instead of following I-5 through Seattle. I’m not sure how much it helped – traffic was terrible through Tacoma before we even got to I-405. Then we had a number of slow-downs and and full stops along the way. Once we got through and rejoined I-5 in Lynnwood, the slow downs continued. I-5 through Everett is poorly designed with traffic joining the Interstate right where lane closures or exit only lanes appear. It didn’t matter that it was mid-day on a Saturday – traffic came to a halt several times.
We stopped at the Smokey Point rest area at mile post 207 and used the free dump station there. They have three lanes for RV dump stations and we didn’t have to wait. From there, we continued north to Mount Vernon where I dropped off the Spyder. The shop there had a backlog of work, so it may be two weeks before they get to work on the Spyder. It was our best option though.
Now we’re parked in my daughter, Alana’s, driveway in Arlington, Washington. Her driveway is long enough to back in our 65-foot length of coach and trailer and set up for a couple of weeks of mooch-docking. Getting the coach and trailer lined up on the narrow residential street is a bit of a chore, but we got it done. I had us leveled and connected to the 50-amp electrical service I installed here a couple of years ago when I found out I couldn’t get Dish satellite reception. I had to pull the jacks up and move forward about three feet before the satellite antenna could lock in the signal. It’s all good now, but next time I’ll try to remember to check the satellite before I set everything up.
Mooch-docking at Alana’s
The weather has been outstanding. Mostly sunny skies with the high temperature reaching the mid-70s over the weekend and should be the same today. But, this is western Washington in June. Rain is forecast to reach the area overnight and we’ll have rain over the next few days.
Today is Alana’s birthday. We’ll be going out to celebrate over dinner at The Bonefish Grill tonight. Happy birthday, Alana!
