The weather here in Long Beach, Washington changes quickly. Yesterday started out dreary, with fog and heavy overcast. The fog was enough to interfere with our online connectivity. The campground wifi and our Verizon Jetpack were intermittent.

I unloaded the scooter from the trailer while Donna tried to get some work done. I cleaned the windshield and mirrors on the motorhome and just puttered around all morning.  While I was cleanin,g I noticed the center cap was missing from the left front wheel. What happened here? I have no idea how the cap came off.

Center cap gone!

Around noon we went for a ride. We stopped in the downtown area and had lunch at a fish market/cafe. It was still cloudy but the fog lifted and the sun was trying to break through.

Donna ordered a pound of Willapa Bay steamer clams. I vacillated back and forth over the rockfish tacos or rockfish and chips, I finally decided on the fish and chips. The tacos would have been healthier, but the lunch was delicious.

We rode down to the marina in Ilwaco. This is near the mouth of the Columbia River. Ilwaco is a hub of fishing activity. There are commercial fleets and sportfishing boats for hire moored there. There are also markets selling the freshest fish you’ll ever find.

Marina at Ilwaco

We parked and walked along the marina. We made our way to Jessie’s retail store. Jessie’s is a wholesale fish processing plant but they also have a small retail market selling seafood that just came off of the boat. Donna bought a filet of King (Chinook) salmon and 8 large scallops.

Jessie’s retail storefront

We rode back to the RV park and put the food away. Now it was mostly sunny out. We continued our ride up the peninsula to check the area out. Unfortunately, most of the beachfront is private with only occasional areas of public access. In the public access areas, you are allowed to drive vehicles on the beach! There are signs advising to stay on the upper hard packed areas. We decided against riding the scooter on the sand.

We rode about 10 miles up through the town of Surfside. There are numerous RV parks to be found along the way. Most of them are just narrow lots with RVs parked side by side. We stopped and looked at one that had good ratings in our guide. Anderson RV Park has a great location, right on the beach and only a few miles from town. However, the sites are all back-in sites and very tight. I’m not so sure if this area will be a destination for us again.

By now the day was sunny with temperatures in the 70s. By evening it clouded up, then cleared again.

After we returned, Donna had a writing project to complete. While she worked, I loaded the scooter and repacked the trailer. I opened the awning to allow it to dry in the sun. When we left Burlington yesterday, I had to roll up the awning in the rain. While I was working, I had a cedar plank soaking to cook the salmon on. We had cedar planked salmon with lemon and Herbes de Provence seasoning with roasted corn on the cob for dinner.

After dinner we walked to the beach. As we were walking, I realized we were missing what was sure to be a fantastic sunset. There were a few high clouds tinged with red. We couldn’t see the sun. We had to walk past the hotel and down a path to get to the beach.

I was walking quickly and started to jog in order to see the sunset. I wanted to capture an image of it. We were a few minutes too late.

Sunset missed on beach trail

I rolled the awning up when we returned. It would be wet by morning with rain or dew. When I entered the coach I felt a wet spot under foot on the carpet. Oh no! I looked under the kitchen sink and saw water dripping from the lines to the faucet. I ran outside and shut off the water supply. I relieved the system pressure by opening the outdoor shower valve. I found the unions over the PEX compression fittings were loose. I tightened them and turned the water back on. How do plastic fittings on PEX plumbing lines work loose? I checked the other fittings for tightness. We had a space heater and fan blowing into the cabinet under the sink and over the carpet all night.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain drops on the roof. I’m glad I did most of the packing yesterday, I only have to dump the tanks and disconnect this morning. Today we are heading down to Lincoln City, Oregon. I’ve made an appointment at the Les Schwab tire dealer there to replace our tires. Maybe they’ll have a replacement center cap for the left front wheel. We also have a reservation at the Chinook Bend RV Resort on the Siletz River, just outside of Lincoln City. We’ve booked five nights there.  We should have an easy 125 miles ahead of us.

I didn’t post to the blog yesterday. We broke camp in the morning and had a long day planned. Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll tell you about our Labor Day.

Our grandchildren, Lainey and Gabi, stayed overnight with us Sunday night. Monday morning I was up around 7:20am.  I tried to wake the kids up. They need to get in the habit of getting out of bed early since they start school this week. They didn’t get out of bed, but they were semi-awake.

We took our time and cooked up a big breakfast. Donna made huckleberry pancakes and eggs while I cooked bacon on the grill. It was another sunny day. We really lucked out on the weather.

Most of the other campers in the RV park were pulling out. I guess their long weekend was coming to a close and it was time to get home and back to work. As the park quieted down, we took advantage of the indoor heated pool and hot tubi.

The hot tub was the deepest I’ve ever been in. It had to be at least four feet deep! It was also very hot. I got out of it after about five minutes and felt a little dizzy. I think the temperature was too high. I swam with the kids for about 20 minutes and that was it for me.

My daughter, Alana, joined us before we went to the pool. After the girls were done swimming, they took Donna shopping. They found a western wear shop in Mt. Vernon called “The Bony Pony.” While they shopped, I re-organized the trailer and loaded the scooter.

When they returned, Donna had a new pair of cowboy boots. They’re quite fashionable and the price was within reason, especially when taken in context of the prices at the boutique in Kalispell, Montana.

After shopping, the girls all played a round of miniature golf. Donna was the clear winner. She even made a hole-in-one!

Lainey and Gabi playing miniature golf.

Alana’s mother, LuAnn (my former wife), invited us to join her and her husband,  Jerry, for dinner. We left a little after 5pm and arrived at their house in Arlington about half an hour later.

We enjoyed a cocktail and hor d’oeuvres at a picnic table in the backyard. LuAnn and Jerry love gardening. In addition to the nice landscape, they also grow herbs and vegetables. Our snack and dinner included many garden fresh veggies.

Later we all sat together at the dinner table. The food was excellent and we talked for a couple of hours. The conversation was great and it was a very enjoyable evening.

Alana took us on a tour of Arlington before she drove us back to the campground. I lived here from 2001 to 2005. The old downtown doesn’t look too much different, but the development on the south and west parts of town is surprising.

After we returned to our motorhome, Alana sat and talked with us for about an hour. We’ll come back this way again, but we’re not exactly sure when that will happen.

Yesterday I woke to the sound of rain falling on the roof top. I wished I’d put up the awning the night before, but I didn’t. The rain was intermittent showers, but it came down hard at times. I really don’t like breaking camp in the rain, but I didn’t have any choice.

We drove away at 10am. We exited I-5 at Highway 20 and headed west to Fidalgo Island. We crossed Deception Pass which brought us to Whidbey Island. The Deception Pass bridge is narrow and the road bends to the right when driving on to the island. My timing was all wrong. Just as we entered the curve, a big semi tractor trailer rig came around in the oncoming lane. He crowded us as his trailer crossed over the center line. I braked and moved over to right as far as I dared. I heard a light scraping sound just as I cleared his trailer.

We continued on down the island through Oak Harbor and Coupeville to the Keystone – Port Townsend ferry. There were signs advising reservations for the ferry. I’ve been on this ferry many times and never heard of making reservations for it.

There are 22 ferries on Puget Sound operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation. The ferries serve walk-on passengers and vehicle traffic. This provides a way to cross the sound to the Olympic Peninsula without driving all the way around. They also travel to and from many islands, including the San Juan Islands. It’s the largest ferry fleet in the USA and third largest in the world.

We made it to the ferry at 11:40 and there was very little traffic. I paid $68.10 for our 50-foot rig with two people on board. Before the ferry sailed form the dock at 12:30, I inspected the coach. I found a light scrape in the paint at the bottom of the front basement compartment. I think I can rub it out. Halfway across the sound, the ferry slowed. This was unusual. The captain announced why were we slowing. There was a big freighter crossing the channel in the fog right in front of us. It was a large ship, but difficult to make out in the fog.

You can just make out the superstructure of a large freighter in the fog.

We each had a cup of clam chowder from the ship’s galley. A few minutes before we docked at Port Townsend, we returned to our coach. I was surprised to see our Rand McNally GPS indicating our position on the ferry. It showed our speed at 14mph.

Our Rand McNally RVND 7720 GPS knows we’re on the ferry in Puget Sound!

We left Port Townsend and followed Highway 20 to Shelton. From there, we made our way west until we found Highway 101. This brought us to our present position on the Long Beach Peninsula. They claim it’s the longest beach in the world. We’ll explore the area on the scooter today.