Welcome back. Our last chapter
concluded on Tuesday, August 30th, when we traveled from Bothell,
Washington, near Seattle, east to Moses Lake, Washington. Wednesday
was a chores day. We left the coach after lunch and did laundry
first, then did a Walmart run, our first Walmart in several weeks.
We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Thursday, September 1st, another of our
several anniversaries, this one perhaps the most memorable. Eighteen
years ago on this date is when I moved from Phoenix, where I lived
most of my life, and moved to Indio, California to be with Jackie.
We have been together since and I think have only spent five or six
nights apart. We went out to do some geocaching and had a great
afternoon, getting 20 new finds. We went back to the coach and
relaxed a bit before going back out about 6:00 to a nice place called
Michael's on the Lake for an anniversary dinner. We had a great
table at the window overlooking the lake and watched a light rain
fall while we enjoyed a great dinner. After dinner we headed back to
the coach for the rest of the evening.
Friday was another travel day. We left
Moses Lake early, about 9:15, and continued east, heading to a little
town called St. Maries, Idaho, about 186 miles away. The trip took a
little longer than normal because we had to make several stops to get
fuel, then propane and then to have lunch. We arrived in St. Maries
about 3:00. We are here to participate in a rally with the Overland
Trailblazers Chapter of FMCA. We joined OTB, as they are known, in
January when we were at the Western Area FMCA rally in Indio. A
number of friends and acquaintances are members of the group and we
thought it would be fun to join. We are going to spend four days
here, over the Labor Day weekend and then travel back to Astoria,
Oregon to spend another five days at a different rally with the same
group. The accommodations here are primitive, we are parked in a
grass field with only 20 amp electric, but we are with the group and
ready to party. We got parked and set up and then rested for an hour
or so.
St. Maries is a small town of about
2,500 in north-central Idaho, along the St. Joe River right at the
southern end of Coeur d'Alene Lake. It started as a lumber town,
the high school teams call themselves the Lumberjacks. Now it is
more a water activities place with the lake and the river so close
by. The group is having a rally here because this weekend is the
town's Paul Bunyan Days celebration. They have a carnival and lots
of activities, including fireworks. We left the coach about 5:00 and
went with the group to the Eagles lodge for their Friday night
hamburger bash. There is also an Elks here, right across the street
from the Eagles. We will visit them another night. We had a great
dinner, but didn't stay too long because we were both pretty tired
from the long day. We went back to the coach and crashed for the
rest of the night.
Saturday, September 3rd, we had an
opportunity to sleep in and we did. We left the coach after lunch
and headed to the fairgrounds on the edge of town for the demolition
derby. Apparently this is one of the traditions for Paul Bunyan
days. We watched four heats and they didn't hold back. It was lot
of fun watching them bash each other. Looked like the LA freeway at
rush hour. I bet it has been twenty years since I saw one of these,
and I always enjoy them. After the demo derby we stopped on Main
Street and walked a couple of blocks of the local shops, which were
having sidewalk sales in conjunction with the weekend celebration.
After walking around the shops we
stopped at the Elks Lodge. We first found a geocache in the parking
lot and then went in for a drink. It appears to be a nice lodge with
almost 500 members. We had a couple of drinks and got our first new
lodge pin in quite a while. We then went back to the camp site and
had happy hour with the group. We had a campfire and all sat around
enjoying the afternoon and talking. After happy hour I went and got
a pizza for dinner at one of the local places. It was very good and
inexpensive as compared to some we have had. They had fireworks at
9:00, but it wasn't the “big” show, so we just stayed in and
listened to it while we watched TV. The big show is tomorrow night,
and we will go out for that.
Sunday we went out after lunch and
walked around the fair for a bit. There were not a lot of booths, so
we were only there about a half hour. After the fair we did some
geocaching, getting five new finds and one new DNF. We went back to
the park and at 5:00 went out for cocktails with the group. We sat
around the campfire for an hour or so and then had a quick dinner
before going back out to the campfire. Around 8:00 we walked over to
the area of the fair, which was only a couple of blocks, and got our
seats set up for the big fireworks show. Because one of the people
running the fireworks display was a member of our group, we got front
row seats, literally 50 
yards from where the fireworks were set up.
The show started around 9:00 and I have to give credit, it was one of
the best fireworks shows I have seen. However, since we were so
close we were looking straight up for most of the show. I wish we
had a blanket to lay on rather than chairs to sit in. The fireworks
went for an hour, after which we went back to the park and sat around
the campfire with the group until about 11:00 when we went in and
went to bed.
Monday, September 5th, Happy Labor Day.
We left the coach a little before 10:00 and drove down the Elks
Lodge. The Elks is right on Main Street and a perfect location for
watching the town's parade. The Elks had biscuits and
Tuesday was a travel day. We were on
the road about 10:00 or so and, for the most part we backtracked 180
miles west into Washington. We stopped at an RV park in a little
town called Connell and spent the night. We are doing a series of
one night stops on our way to another Overland Trailblazers rally in
Astoria, Oregon, which starts on Friday. We didn't even unhook the
car tonight, just watched TV and went to bed. Wednesday we drove
another 140 miles southwest, this time stopping at the Lepage Park
Corps of Engineers RV park on the confluence of the John Day and
Columbia rivers. We had a nice spot right on the river and spent an
hour or so outside with our cocktails looking at the river. This too
was a one night stay and we never left the RV park. We only unhooked
the car because we needed to in order to get into our spot. We
watched TV and went to bed about 10:30.
Thursday, September 8th, another travel
day and another one night stand. We left Lepage Park about 10:30 and
traveled about 100 miles west to Fairview, Oregon, a suburb of
Portland located along the Columbia River. This is a very nice park
in which we stayed in September of 2005, or first year on the road.
We did unhook the car tonight after we got set up and went out for
some Mexican food. We had a great meal at a place called La Costita
in Troutdale, another Portland suburb. We then stopped at Albertsons
for a few supplies before heading back to the coach for the rest of
the evening.
Friday, another travel day. We left
Fairview about 10:00 and started the final leg of our trip back to
Astoria. Today's trip was about 106 miles and took us briefly across
the Columbia River back into Washington on I-5 before we headed west,
crossed the Columbia again and headed to Astoria. We arrived at the
Lewis and Clark RV Resort about 12:00 and quickly got settled in. We
have a very nice site overlooking the golf course, very relaxing. We
had to make a quick run to the store after we got the basics hooked
up on the coach. Jackie needed some groceries and I needed a part to
fix a leaky water hose. After we got back I made my repairs and we
finished setting up the coach for our six night stay here in Astoria.
We are here for another rally with the Overland Trailblazers group,
however we are in a couple of days early because there is a big car
show in Long Beach, Washington, across the bridge.
We are parked just a couple of spots
down from our good friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock. They also
recently joined the Trailblazers Chapter and are here for the rally.
They arrived only a few minutes before us after coming up the Oregon
Coast. We last saw Peggy and Vernon at their house in Mineral,
California back in July. You can check the blog archive to read
about our time there this year. We relaxed for a while and about
5:30 Peggy and Vernon came over, along with their little Aussie dog
Belle. Our young cat, Benji, really likes Belle and Belle, who is
not a big fan of cats, tolerates Benji. We had cocktails, outside
for a while, and then when it got cold back in the coach. We spent
some time catching up and then Jackie served a chili relleno dinner,
which has become the sort of “welcome back” dinner when we meet
up with Peggy and Vernon after an absence. We had a great time and
about 8:30 the Bullocks went back to their coach and we watched TV
for the rest of the night.
Saturday, September 10th, we left the
coach about 9:00,with Peggy and Vernon in our car, and headed north
to the Rod Run to the End of the World car show in Long Beach,
Washington, across the Columbia from Astoria. The show was at the
north end of the Long Beach Peninsula, about 30 miles from our RV
park. This is a large show that has been going on for 33 years now.
We arrived and got parked and started looking around at the several
hundred cars on display in a huge grass park. The girls went off to
check out the vendor booths and Vernon and I walked around the cars.
There were some really nice cars, as is usual, but there were a few
unusual pieces as well, especially some nicely restored old trucks.
We spent about an hour and a half at the show before leaving and
going down into Long Beach to Chen's Chinese restaurant for lunch.
We had been here back a few weeks ago when we were here in Long Beach
and Peggy and Vernon wanted to try it out. They were quite happy
with the food and we all took leftovers home.
We drove back to the RV park and spent
a few hours in the coach taking care of some chores and relaxing.
About 5:00 we had happy hour with the Overland Trailblazers group.
The rally doesn't really start until tomorrow, but there were already
about ten rigs here in the park, so they had an informal happy hour
just so people could mingle. We were there about 90 minutes before
we headed back to Peggy and Vernon's coach for a snack of shrimp
cocktail. We had some shrimp, another drink, and talked until about
8:00 when we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.
Sunday, September 11th, Patriot Day and
the fifteenth anniversary of the terror attacks in New York,
Washington and Pennsylvania. Hard to believe it has been that long.
I went out and got a Sunday paper, so we relaxed in the morning with
the paper and coffee. About 11:00 we and the Bullocks left and drove
into Astoria for lunch. We finally settled on a place called Baked
Alaska, which was on an old cannery pier on the river bank. We had a
great lunch and then drove around Astoria a bit before heading back
to the coach where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
At 6:00 we went to the activities room
for our first group happy hour. There are about 24 rigs here, so it
is a big group. They put out some nice appetizers, shrimp, cheese,
crackers and wine. Everyone socialized for a while and the the
President of the group gave a little speech before turning the group
over to the rally master. He spent a half hour or so going over the
itinerary for the rally. After the happy hour we sat with the
Bullocks for a little while before heading into the coach for the
rest of the evening.
Monday, we were up and out early. The
whole group left the park in a caravan about 9:00 for several
activities and tours. Our first stop was the Astoria trolly. The
trolly is a 1913 electric trolly car which was built by the American
Car Company in St. Louis. It was in regular trolly service in San
Antonio, Texas until 1933, when it was laid up in a transportation
museum in San Antonio. It was not well maintained, but has now been
fully restored here in Astoria by a non-profit foundation which
operates it on three and a half miles of abandoned rail track running
along the waterfront. To provide electric power for the traction motors, a large generator, similar to those on our motorhomes, is mounted on a small rail car coupled to one end of the trolly. This was much less expensive than putting up poles and running power wires along the route. The ride was fun and the conductor and motorman (driver) were very knowledgeable about Astoria history. We also stopped and took some group photos.
After the trolly ride the entire group
went up to the top of the hill to the Astoria Column. I wrote in
some detail about the column in the most recent previous episode of
the blog, so I won't repeat it here. After the group saw the column
we went down the hill to a local pizza parlor for a salad and pizza
lunch, provided by the rally. The pizza was OK, but not the best I
have had. At 1:00 the group met again at the Astoria Maritime
Museum. The group was given a guided tour of the museum by volunteer
docents and then we had time to look around on our own. There is a
lot of stuff about the history of Astoria and the other Columbia
River cities, about the fishing industry that used to thrive here,
and about the river itself. The mouth of the Columbia is considered
one of the most dangerous places for navigation because the forces of
the huge river pouring water out and running up against the ocean
waves and tides create huge standing waves at the mouth of the river. Over 200 large ships, and many more small boats, have been lost over what they call the Columbia Bar, the shallows at the mouth of the river. The museum also has one of the old Columbia light ships, a floating lighthouse, moored next to the museum. We didn't have a chance to go tour it, but it looked neat. These boats used to be moored on the ocean side of the Bar as a warning to ships. They no longer use lightships since radar and other navigational aides have been perfected. After the tour of the museum we went back to the park and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails with the Bullocks about 5:30, but there was no official happy hour with the group because everyone was wore out from the busy day.
Tuesday, September 13th, we were up and
out of the RV park with the whole group at 9:00 again. Today we were
going to a nearby attraction, Fort Clatsop, which is a part of Lewis
and Clark National Park. Fort Clatsop, which is also where the Park
HQ and Visitor's Center sets, is only a couple of miles
from the RV park. This area of Northwest Oregon and Southwest
Washington has dozens of sites dedicated to Lewis and Clark. For
those not familiar with the story, President Thomas Jefferson decided
in 1803 to send an exploratory party to the unknown areas west of the
Mississippi River, among other things to locate the Northwest
Passage, a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He selected Army
Captain Meriwether Lewis to put together this Corps of Discovery.
Lewis chose his friend, Captain William Clark, to be his second in
command. They put together a group of 31 explorers, mostly Army or
former Army enlisted men, and in May 1804 they headed west on the
Missouri River. They endured a lot of hardships, including finally
realizing that the Continental Divide would preclude a water route to
the Northwest, arriving on the north bank of the Columbia River near
the mouth of the river in November of 1805.
After talking to the local Native
Americans they decided that the best place to winter would be on the
south side of the river where the land was more level and there was
abundant game to hunt. They built Fort Clatsop, named after the
local tribe, and hunkered down for the winter. According to the
guide with the Park's Service who gave us a talk, they were in the
fort for a hundred days, of which only six had sunshine. They have
built a replica of the small fort which our group got to tour. We
also spent some time going through the visitor's center. This is a
“scattered” National Park with a dozen different individual sites
on both sides of the Columbia marking areas of historic importance to
Lewis and Clark's visit here. It was quite interesting.
After the tour of the park HQ we and the Bullock's went out and had lunch in Warrenton, the small
town across the bay from Astoria. We did a couple of geocaches and
then stopped at Costco for some supplies before heading back to the
RV park for a relaxing afternoon. About 5:00 we had happy hour with
the group, followed by a pot luck. The rally masters provided some
raw oysters for the group, as well as a big batch of cooked oysters
and clams. Jackie did some baked beans for the pot luck. The meal
was great, no one went hungry. We sat and talked for a while after
dinner, and about 8:00 we were back in the coach watching TV until
bedtime.
Wednesday, September 14th, the last
full day of the rally. There were no organized activities for today
except for tonight's dinner. We left the park with the Bullock's
about 11:30 and went out to lunch again on the Astoria waterfront.
We ate at a very nice place called the Bridgewater Bistro. It was a
fairly high end place with great food and great views. After lunch
we went out and did some exploring of Astoria and some geocaching.
We were able to get five new finds for the afternoon. One of the
places we visited was the site of the wreck of the Peter Irendale on
the pacific beach side of the peninsula. The Peter Irendale was a
285 foot, four masted sailing ship which ran aground in a storm in
October 1906. All of the crew got off safely, but despite great
efforts, they were unable to get the ship re-floated and she ended up
partially buried in the sand of the beach and the owners just
abandoned it. Because the ship had an iron and steel hull there are
parts of the ship still visible 90 years later on the beach. A part
of the bow, now mostly just frames, as well as a couple of the steel
mast collars are still above the sand.
After our exploring we went back to the
coach and relaxed for a while. I took down the screens and did some
other work in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We have to
leave early because we have an appointment in Keizer, near Salem,
Oregon, at noon to have a new windshield put in the Jeep. We got a
bad crack a couple weeks ago. About 5:30 we joined the group for
happy hour and our last group dinner. Tonight the rally hosts put on
dinner and brought in a caterer who made BBQ salmon and chicken.
There were also a couple of side dishes and desert. Everyone had a
great time and the food was very good. About 8:00 we were back in
our coach and watched some TV until bedtime.
Thursday, September 15th, we were
actually packed up and on the road by 7:45 today. We are traveling
130 miles southeast to Keizer, Oregon, a suburb of Salem. We are
headed to the Elks Lodge and have an appointment with Safelite Glass
to put a new windshield in the Jeep. Most of the trip was on two
lane highway, but the trip was pretty much uneventful. We made a
fuel stop and still arrived in Keizer at about 11:30. Unfortunately
for us, there were no sites available at the lodge's RV park. They
have 42 sites, but none were available. We had the glass guy coming,
so we had to stay at least for a while, so we found a place in the
lodge parking lot, unhooked the car and parked. We had lunch, did
some research on where to go, finally settling on trying the Salem
Elks Lodge, which had a few openings.
A little after noon we saw a coach
leave and the camp host came over and told us a spot was available.
We looked at it and thought it looked a little tight, but we tried it
and got in without too much trouble. Yea, we got a spot. This lodge
is good because the sites are 50 amp full hookup, even sewer. Right
after we got parked the glass guy showed up. Perfect timing. We
continued to set up the coach and he fixed the windshield. By 3:00
we were done setting up and Jeep was done. We just relaxed the rest
of the day, tired after our early start and long day.
With our arrival here in Keizer we
begin a couple of weeks or so of travel on our own, no rallies no
friends with us. So, it also marks a good place to close out this
chapter and get it published. Until next time, keep this in mind.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a
mistake when you make it again. See ya soon.
