Rhubarb is a type of produce which doesn’t normally flood my consciousness. Absent hints, it seems unlikely I would ever remember it as possible food. It even has a funny spelling. Nevertheless, Peggy had me stop in at a local androgynous person’s residence and garden where she bought some rhubarb. It looked like a bundle of sticks.

However, today she took that same bundle of sticks and chopped it into kindling, added a whole bunch of ingredients, whipped out a superb pie crust and threw the whole assembly into the oven. An hour later, a gorgeous basin of nifty odors came out of the stove and tantalized me while cooling on the counter in our kitchen/dining/living room. After exercising what I consider to be an admirable amount of restraint, Peggy served me a portion of the result and, abracadabra, I am now a big rhubarb aficionado. Rhubarb is very tasty and my spouse is a keeper because, in addition to several other admirable attributes, she can really cook.

The weather was sort of crummy today so we mostly hung around the trailer. Again, considerable restraint was demonstrated because some of the rhubarb pie was still visible when we went to bed. Maybe I can have it for breakfast tomorrow.

One of our neighbors pulled up next to our trailer this evening. He was driving some form of hybrid vehicle. It looked like a Range Rover / Jeep / Hummer / Jungle Jim combo with a four cylinder engine. To see this vehicle, click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z751uRcVhNL5N2xD9

This retirement stuff can be quite pleasant. This morning started cloudy and we thought that going exploring into the mountains was, therefore, right out. We settled in for some leisurely showering and our morning spine straighteners of coffee and Irish Cream. However, we soon became bored. Peggy started researching rhubarb pie prep and and I was wiggling around so we decided to take a nice drive due east to the town of Lynden, where there is a fancy Safeway grocery store.

Our intent was to acquire some corn starch and white death flour for the crust but Peggy foolishly allowed me to actually go into the store with her. The result was we ended up with two shopping bags full of stuff, plus a half case of Deschutes Black Butte Porter. Plainly, Peggy doing any shopping is more efficient and less costly when she is not burdened with my feckless assistance.

Leaving the super Safeway and passing by some weird Russian ORVs called Sherps (see pix), we headed due north for a few miles and soon found ourselves trapped in the striped lanes approaching the Canadian border. We turned around, an event surely recorded by many DHS CCTV cameras, because it was not our intent to enter Canada, at least not today. Instead, we turned west on a skinny road called H Street. H Street runs parallel to the border and the view out our right side was Canada. On our left we only spotted one Border Patrolman, dozing in his big Ford SUV.

After a few miles of dead-straight border frontage road, we drove into the gorgeous town of Blaine. It is located right up in the NW corner of Washington. Any further north and you are in Canada and any further west and you’re in the Pacific. We kept driving until we hit the bay which, for some reason, they call Drayton Harbor. Right close to the end of the road we came across a small food trailer called Alaska Wild Fish & Chips Co. We put in our orders for F&C and found some seats at a wood picnic table already occupied by a guy named Ray Cadman.

We asked Ray if he lived around Blaine and he said, “Only for the last 83 years.” He went on to explain that he moved to Blaine when he was three and had been there since except when he was in the Navy during the Korean War. We quizzed him on the food we were waiting for and he indicated he had driven a long way to get fish at this place. He had it right – our fish and chips soon arrived and it was excellent. The food was great but the conversation we had with Ray was extremely interesting. He told us several great stories about hanging out in the border area. One personal tidbit involved him accidentally hauling a trailer containing a small amount of cow manure residue into Canada when he went there to buy gas during the gas rationing in the U.S. during the 70’s. On the way back, he was stopped by Customs for attempting to smuggle Canadian cow shit into the U.S. and was harangued for about 30 minutes before being allowed to enter without having to sacrifice his plainly valuable and dangerous load.

Our dining ended up taking about an hour and a half but it was great getting to hobnob with a savvy local about this area. He warned us not to be fooled by the current, balmy weather. He remembers some winters with snow drifts as high as the streetlights and below-zero temperatures. I think we’ll keep on living in the southern half of the country in winter and up north in the summer. We’re too old and clever for that snow stuff.

On our five mile drive toward our current RV park, we cruised along the edge of Semiahmoo Bay. We could plainly see Surrey, B.C., on the other side. It looked very busy and crowded.

You can see the weird overpriced Russki ORV if you click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/b1Zsd94FKWABAWtr7

Today we did the laundry right here in the Lighthouse RV Park’s great facility. They have high-efficiency modern washers that sound like a turbocharger winding up when they do the spin cycle. The room was air-conditioned and they have a 55 inch UHDTV in there along with cable offering 175 channels. There are recliners to make your TV watching experience wonderful. I might spend the whole stay hanging out in the facility laundromat.

About the only other thing we did was to make a short foray to a local guy who sold us some rhubarb. We have bought from him before and he/she looked pretty old then. He looks extremely frail now, taking steps that are only about 7” long but the rhubarb looks good.

Today our task was to pick up some metal plates to cover a repair we are going to make to our trailer. It seems there was a sneaky leak up near the roof/front cap joint that was allowing rainfall drainage to take a shortcut through a crawlspace. It found its way to the plastic cap around the kingpin assembly and eventually formed a white hematoma about the size of a racketball which finally cracked and put out some former particleboard remains. We think we fixed the roof leak a couple weeks ago in La Conner but soon I must excise the popped zit in the plastic cap. The cap plastic itself cannot be patched with similar plastic so today I picked up some shiny aluminum diamond plate to scab over the zit hole.

I called a place called Carlson Steel in Bellingham and the voice at the other end said they probably didn’t have what I wanted (two 6.5” square plates) but they did have a huge remnant selection and they would be happy to make some $15 cuts for me if I selected the material. Peg and I hopped in the truck and headed down I-5 into town. There was a girl behind the counter that looked like she may have been an ironworker or jail matron who directed me into the shop to speak with the foreman. Soon I was rummaging through a great selection of various types of sheet metal. A relatively new employee took my selection, set his really nice shear and chopped out my stock to the dimensions desired. I took my two plates to the shop foreman, while he was standing under a sign indicating cuts cost $10 a pass. I expected to pay for two cuts and the cost of the metal itself but he asked if $10 for everything sounded fair. I immediately coughed up the cash and left thanking them liberally as I backed out the door. Our chore agenda for the day was complete at that time, so we made a short stop at the Bellingham Trader Joe’s and cruised through some neighborhoods with gorgeous houses before heading over to the coast to eat the lunch Peg had bought.

We ate the salads overlooking the sea, then turned north and west to follow the coastline through the lush Lummi Reservation. The Lummi are apparently doing well because they have nice modern-looking buildings and full service facilities for tribe members, including a college. I think they must have a casino. Their land encompasses some hilly terrain with conifer forests mixed in with ample bottom land bordering the Nooksack River. Everything was quite green except the river.

We then wandered into the dinky seaside town of Birch Bay which I read in the local paper had as many as 8000 residents although it doesn’t look like most of them live in town. They must be talking about the zip code. We left Birch Bay and I was surprised that I had closed today’s driving loop about a half mile after leaving the coast when we turned back into the Lighthouse RV Park. The weather here and the scenery in this part of WA is terrific. Looming just east of us is Mount Baker and its glacier-covered cone. I’m glad it isn’t erupting because we would be screwed with the ocean as our only retreat.

We got a few great wood house pictures you can see if you click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/S4u2RTdbF57vKVUq5

Today we reluctantly departed from the La Conner Marina RV Park and headed out on our last northerly segment of travel. We initially took WA-20 to I-5 North. For about 35 miles we passed over small forested ridges and through pastures between them, passing right through the local big town of Bellingham. Very close to the Canadian border, we pulled off at the town of Blaine and wandered around until we found the Lighthouse RV Park.

It’s a pretty nice park. They have adequately-sized spaces, full hookups, cable TV, WiFi and the usual campground amenities like a laundry and a rec room. If we could get clear of the trees, we would be able to look across Semiahmoo (no kidding! – I checked the spelling) Bay into White Rock which is in British Columbia. Peggy has issued a fatwa indicating I’ll soon be accompanying her into B.C. to see the city of Vancouver, the location of her mom’s childhood home and to hear the folks say “aboot” when they mean about.

Today was our last full day in La Conner. Peggy strolled over to the La Conner Quilt Museum while I did the dishes and fiddled around. La Conner is such a tiny town that Peggy legged it to the museum in about 15 minutes. While she was out wandering, I toughed it out in the shade with my Kindle.

Mark and his family, our former neighbors, moved out today. He was a great guy to talk with and I’ll really miss his supply of Whiskey Cream.

Today was a day of leisure. I’m getting quite accustomed to lingering around our wheeled house while reading, jawing with passing folks and sitting in the shade and enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having.

We met some nice folks from the trailer in space 10 (we are camped in 11). Mark, the neighbor, and his family are from British Columbia and he introduced me to something called Whiskey Cream. It seems pretty close to Irish Cream, which I used every morning to augment my coffee, and is available in Canada. We may have to head into B.C. to investigate this stuff. In exchange for his tasty glass of booze I poured him a couple small glasses of Herradura Blanco tequila which is unavailable to him at home.

Strangely, I ended up taking an early evening nap after the booze sampling.

Whidbey Island is not far from our RV park in La Conner and we took a spin over there today. Peggy’s sister, Tonie, and her husband, George, live on Whidbey and they graciously agreed to meet us in the neutral corner of Coupeville. They may have wanted to meet us halfway because they have been inundated with relatives for the recent past. Tonie and George are a bit older than us but they look a lot younger – the rats. From my view they also seem somewhat sharper, which is disconcerting.They have just finished a trip to Norway, Scotland and the Orkney Islands but show no signs of exhaustion.

We wandered down WA-20, crossing Fidalgo Island. We exited Fidalgo over the very high bridges at Deception Pass which is not a “pass” in the usual sense. Deception Pass is a turbulent waterway with a big rock at the center located in a steep ravine which allows boats to get from Possession Sound, Port Susan and Skagit Bay into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean without having to make a 100 mile cruise to the south end of Whidbey Island. The Pass has a considerable amount of water zinging through it every time the tide changes. One would be wise to avoid falling in the water anywhere near the Pass.

About 25 miles after crossing the bridges cruising through the city of Oak Harbor and across verdant farmland, we pulled off WA-20 and turned into the tiny town of Coupeville. Most of the metropolitan area of Coupeville is three very busy blocks of tiny businesses nestled right up to Skagit Bay. We met the relatives in a joint called Knead and Feed which is a bakery upstairs. Down the outdoors stairs is a tiny restaurant that, fortunately, has a fair selection of beer although the food was only nominal. Several beers and much hobnobbing later we finally relinquished our seats at a table that offered a fabulous view of the water but scant cushioning. Half of my butt went to sleep for a bit. I think Peg’s relatives thought I was trying out for a circus contortionist spot because I was obliged to rely on only one cheek.

On our way back from Coupeville we took skinny back roads that allowed us to skirt the east coast of Whidbey Island almost all the way from Coupeville to Deception Pass. We made a short visit to Deception Pass State Park at the south end of the bridges. There is a magnificent stand of old-growth timber here. There were Douglas Fir trees here of a magnitude unseen by me since I quit working for Weyerhaeuser 35 years ago. There are also plenty of massive Spruce and Cedar trees that make up a canopy keeping the park’s roads is deep shade around the clock.

There’s a few pix. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/YGpRDhLRDYBzXLWg7

We took it easy today. Very little got done other than us heading into La Conner to visit Tillinghast Postal which, despite the name is not a post office. It is nearly a post office, though; UPS, the U.S. Post Office and Fed Ex all make visits there to pick up all the stuff the nice ladies inside have collected during the day.

We sent packages home and to relatives. Anything to reduce the weight of our trailer is always welcome from a towing point of view.

Shopping has always been an activity that I truly loathe but traveling without eating is a bummer so we went over to Burlington today. We both went into Costco but quickly split up. Peggy went to fill her voluminous shopping list and I headed to the pharmacy to purchase my geezer meds. Peg is such an efficient shopper that by the time I had lurked around the pick up window, paid for my stuff and had the obligatory chat with the pharmacist, she was right behind me on the way out.

Contrary to my fantasies, we then went to a Fred Meyer store where Peggy went in and acquired another few cubic yards of groceries. The collective loot filled the truck’s back seat on the way home. We should be okee-dokee for food for a while. As a matter of fact, finding anything in the fridge is difficult because it is stuffed as are the food pantries. I’ll be happy if we can still pull the trailer with a mere 325 horsepower.