Friday, the 15th of May, was Jackie’s birthday! Happy birthday to you, etc. etc. We went out after lunch to do some caching and found 6. Later in the afternoon we went into Medford so Jackie could have her birthday dinner at the Outback there. She loves the lamb at the Outback. I had a good time too because the Outback has King Crab, which is my favorite. We had a great birthday dinner! Saturday we drove into Ashland, Oregon, a small college town about 10 miles South of Medford. We have been to Ashland several times and love the laid back nature of the town. There are some really neat shops along the main drag and the Elks Lodge is right downtown and very friendly. We stopped in at the lodge for a couple of drinks, then went out and walked the town for a couple hours. After that we drove into Medford and went to the Elks Lodge there.
Sunday morning, the 17th of May, we left the Valley of the Rogue and drove up to the Keizer Elks Lodge. Keizer is a suburb of Salem, Oregon, the capital of Oregon. We had visited the lodge on previous trips through Oregon, but this would be the first time we stayed in their RV park. The park is great - gravel sites with paved patios, full hookups including 50 amp service and
sewer. All this for $17 a night. The lodge is very friendly and active. The next day, Monday, we went out and did some caching, getting 8 finds in the local area. We also drove down to Salem and did some exploring around the capital area. Tuesday we stayed around the coach doing some chores. We headed over to the Lodge in the late afternoon for a cocktail and when we walked out of the coach we ran into Pam Matthews in the parking lot. She and her husband Glenn winter in the desert and she works part time as a bartender in the Indio Elks Lodge. We were really surprised to find them at the Keizer Elks. Turns out they have a home in King City, Oregon, a Portland suburb and they were on their way home from the desert. They stopped in Keizer for the night so they would arrive at their house early in the day to be able to have time to open the house after a long winter and unpack the RV. We had some cocktails with them in the lodge. We also arranged to have lunch with them later in the week after we arrived in the Portland area.On Wednesday, May 20th, we left the Keizer Lodge and headed North about 20 miles to Aurora, Oregon, where there is a SpeedCo Service Center. SpeedCo is a sort of "Jiffy Lube" for large diesel trucks. It’s the same principle, drive in, get a lube, oil and filter change, and drive out. We have to get our coach serviced at least once per year. The service book also says at 15K miles, but we have never gotten that much in one year, so we usually plan on a lube - oil - filter change in late May or early June of every year. The first time we had the service, in June of 2006, we had it done at a Coach Care center in Elkhart, Indiana. Coach Care is a Cummins service center. We spent over a thousand dollars for the service. In June of 2007 we had it done at a Coach Care facility in Eugene, Oregon. This one was about $1,200. In June of 2008 we went to the Monaco factory service center in Elkhart, Indiana - again, over $1,000. Then I learned about SpeedCo
Centers from reading the online chat groups for Monaco Coach owners. We went to SpeedCo and had the oil changed, the chassis lubed, new oil filter, both fuel filters, the air filter AND the oil changed in the generator (also including an oil and fuel filter) and the grand total was $355!! And this included three gallons of antifreeze and two spare fuel filters just so we would be prepared for travel in Alaska. I cannot emphasis enough that if you have a big diesel pusher - DON"T go to a dealer or to Coach Care for simple lube, oil, filter services - it is a major ripoff! SpeedCo lets you watch them work, in fact they require you to be there when they torque the drain plugs so you know that they are properly fitted. I also learned where the various filters are on my coach, which could be handy in case of emergency breakdown. SpeedCo can’t do any repairs, only the same kind of service you get in any JiffyLube type operation, but for that stuff you can’t beat it. It only took two hours for the service and we were back on the road heading the last 20 miles to an RV park in Tualatin, Oregon, a Southern suburb of Portland.On Thursday, the 21st of May, we had lunch with the Matthews’ at a Chinese restaurant in Tualatin called Lee’s Kitchen. They had told us they eat there a lot and really like it. It was not a buffet, but rather a real restaurant. The food was wonderful and not expensive. We really enjoyed visiting with Pam and Glenn. After lunch we went down to the outlet stores in Woodburn, South of Portland and also to the Camping World store in Wilsonville. The next day we went out and did some caching after lunch, adding six finds to our list. Late in the afternoon we took Smokey the Cat to the vet! One of the things we learned about going into Canada was that if you had a pet it had to have a current rabies vaccination and a health certificate. Smokey just turned nine and hasn’t been to the vet since he was a kitten. He never goes outside and has always been healthy, so there has been no need to take him. Fortunately, there was a vet office right across the street from the RV park we were staying in, so we made an appointment for Smokey on Friday afternoon. We put him in the carrier and drove him to the vet’s office - he was not happy! Poor crying kitty, you would think he was being tortured. Surprisingly, once we got him into the exam room and out of the carrier he was a great patient. Didn’t fight the vet or try to jump off the table or anything. The vet - a very nice lady doctor - gave him a full exam and said he was very healthy except for some tarter on his teeth. He weighs in at just under 15 pounds, but the vet said he was not too much over weight, just a big cat. He also got his rabies shot and it didn’t seem to faze him a bit. He was less happy to be put back into the carrier for the trip home, but recovered quickly once we let him back out in the coach.
The next day, Saturday the 23rd, we headed into downtown Portland for the weekly street festival. There were a couple hundred vendors set up in an area along the Willamette River right in old Portland. It was mostly artisans and food vendors. We spent a couple of hours wandering through the various booths. We also had lunch at a regular restaurant in old Portland called the Thirsty Lion. It was an English Pub motif but we only had hamburgers, which were very good. We were originally going to visit a restaurant called Pause which is owned and operated by the son of my old boss at the Desert Princess, Lynn Gilliam. We have visited the restaurant on previous stops in Portland. Her son, Capron, has been very successful with the restaurant. Unfortunately, when I called to see when Capron would be in, the gal that answered the phone said he would be gone until the Tuesday after Memorial day, which was the day we were leaving Portland. So we didn’t get to visit the restaurant. Maybe next time.
Sunday, the 24th we stayed in so I could watch the Indy 500 and Coke 600 races. I got to watch the Indy race, but the NASCAR race was rained out and rescheduled for Monday. Monday was our last day in the Portland area so we went out to do some more caching and exploring. We
managed to find 15caches - a pretty good afternoon. One of the more interesting things we found while caching was a Monkey Puzzle Tree. The cache was hid near the tree, which was one of the strangest looking trees I have ever seen. It was very large, with about a four foot trunk and very tall, well over 100 feet. I did some research later and found that the tree is native to the mountains of Chile and is actually a conifer, the same family as regular pine trees, firs and other evergreens. A really odd sight.Tuesday morning we got up and packed the coach for the trip into Washington. We headed up the I-5 until Olympia, Washington, then went off onto US 101 headed North into the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. We stopped in a small town named Shelton, Washington, about 20 miles North of Olympia. Our book said the Elks Lodge there had RV parking so we decided to check it out. We found the Lodge was closed but there was an RV park in the back. The sites are on gravel and grass with only water and electric, but it was quite picturesque and we were only going to be there for two nights. Since we got there early and didn’t have to set much up for only two nights, we went out and did some afternoon caching. We found seven caches in just a couple of hours in the small town. Shelton turned out to be a very nice place to visit. One of the caches was located inside of the local history museum so we learned a lot about the history of the area, which mainly revolved around logging. The area is also known as the Christmas tree capital of the country, although we didn’t see any Christmas tree farms in our travels around the area. The lodge pin for the Shelton Elks Lodge is a Santa Claus, so they take the Christmas tree thing pretty seriously.
On Wednesday, the 27th of May we embarked on one of our famous "Elks Pub Crawls" for the South Puget Sound area. The Shelton Lodge was not open on Wednesday, however, as we were leaving for our adventures I noticed that the front door was open. I found the Secretary working inside so I was able to get a lodge pin even though we weren’t able to visit the lounge in the
Lodge. We then headed South into Olympia, the capital of Washington. After some sightseeing in the area around the capital we found the Olympia Lodge - Unfortunately, they were closed until 4:00 p.m. Undaunted, we decided to drive up to Tacoma, Washington, about 30 miles North of Olympia on I-5. I had been told by a number of people that the Tacoma Lodge was one to visit because of the facilities they have. We arrived at the lodge and found that it was, indeed, a very large building with a very large parking lot. Their RV parking was in their parking lot, but they had a number of spots set up with electric service boxes. There was no water or sewer on the sites however. We went into the lodge bar and there weren’t very many other members there, but the bartender was a member of the lodge and told us a lot about it. She told us that the Tacoma Lodge has the distinction of being the largest Elks Lodge in the country as far as the physical structure, and until recently they were the largest in terms of membership as well. They have over 3,000 members! Apparently they were recently beat out in membership by a lodge in Montana which was created when three lodges merged into one.The bartender asked one of the other members who happened to be there to take us on a tour. The building has the largest lodge room I have ever seen. According to the building code sign on the wall it seats just under 1,000 people in the theater style seating. The lodge also has full workout facilities, weight room, spa, Olympic size indoor pool, AND an eight lane bowling alley with commercial type auto pin setters. The restaurant and lounge are huge - the dance floor is bigger than some lodges we have been in! This was a very impressive lodge. After a couple drinks we headed Southeast to the Puyallup, Washington Lodge (pronounced Pew-allup). Puyallup is a suburb of Tacoma. We found a nice lodge, not real big, but very friendly. Almost everyone in the place - and it was pretty busy - took the time to introduce themselves and say hi. We had a couple of drinks and chatted with folks for quite a while. We then headed West to another Tacoma suburb called Lakeland. This was another medium sized lodge, but the atmosphere was just the opposite of the Puyallup Lodge. The bartender was lazy and listless and not a one of the other people in the bar bothered to even say hi. We had one quick drink, got our lodge pin and left.
Our final stop on the Pub Crawl was the Olympia, Washington Lodge. The lodge was not very big, but when we got there it was packed. It seemed that once a month a very large amateur jazz group comes into the lodge and plays a concert. They had also had a concert that afternoon from a local middle school band. The bartender was very friendly, but since there was a concert going
on we didn’t get much conversation with any of the members. We finally left the Olympia Lodge and headed back up into Shelton. Since it was now close to 7:00, we went into town to find something to eat. We stumbled unknowingly into one of the nicest little steakhouses we have found. It was a place called The Strip Steak House and is located right on the main drag through Shelton, Railroad Avenue. The food was moderately priced and excellent. We both had great steaks, cooked just right. We recommend the Strip anytime you pass through this area. When we finally made it home we had five new lodge pins and nice dinner to remember the day by. Yea!The next morning we closed up the coach and headed North on US 101 for the 80 mile drive to Sequim, Washington, on the North end of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. We have been told for years by friends who have RV’ed in this area that Sequim and the surrounding areas are wonderful places to visit. We were fortunate to have one of our membership parks, Diamond Point RV Resort, located just a few miles from Sequim. We got settled in by late afternoon and
just relaxed. The weather was clear and cool and the surrounding area is very pretty. In the late afternoon we were sitting outside the coach having our cocktail when a deer just wandered past the coach, only a few dozen feet away. Very relaxing place to stay. On Friday morning, the 29th of May, we decided to just spend the day sightseeing around the area. We first went to the Sequim Elks Lodge for lunch. It was a very nice lodge, although the folks there for lunch were not very friendly. Maybe the evening crowd is more outgoing - we will check that later in the week. After lunch we drove through Sequim, then out to the shore. The town is only a couple of miles south of the banks of the Strait of Juan De Fuca which is the primary route for shipping into the Puget Sound and Seattle. A few miles across the strait to the North is Canada, specifically, Victoria Island. We got to visit Victoria on the last day of our Alaskan Cruise two years ago. After looking around Sequim for a while we headed West 20 miles on US 101 to Port Angeles. Port 
Angeles is the "big" city on the Olympic Peninsula, with almost 20,000 population. Sequim has about 5,000 or so. Port Angeles is where you can catch the ferry to go over to Victoria Island. After driving around Port Angeles for a while we headed back home, stopping for a while at one of the Indian casinos. Didn’t win anything, but didn’t lose much either.And that, loyal readers, brings up to the minute with our travels. We will be here in Sequim a week, then spending another week in Blaine, Washington, just South of the Canadian border on I-5. That will be our last stop before heading into Canada on or about the 11th of June. We hope to have at least periodic internet access during our travels through Canada and Alaska, so I hope to be able to keep the blog updated on a timely basis - but no promises. We will have our phones turned off in Canada (international cell calls are very expensive) but will be checking our voice mail from time to time, so if you call - leave a message and we’ll get back to you when we can. Until the next update, live - love - laugh, and enjoy life to the fullest!
