Today we had some more family stuff on the agenda. Peggy’s sister, Tonie, has returned from the seemingly endless family heirloom sorting marathon in Coos Bay and we met her and her husband, George, at Scuttlebutt Brewery in Everett.
They serve a tolerable porter here and the seafood plate I had was pretty good. It came with clam chowder, clam strips, shrimp and two pieces of fish for $15. Our group got together about 11:30 but there was ample bullshit to catch up on so we were still seated as the lunch time crowd filled all the other inside and outside tables and ate. We were still there as some of the other tables emptied out. After no small amount of four way chatter, George and I took a stroll over to a nearby marine supply store so he could get some stuff. It was a nice store with little stainless rigging blocks smaller than a mouse that only cost $78, brass piping priced somewhat above Home Depot’s brass, neat electronic gear and other fascinating boat stuff. George and Tonie have a sailing boat on which they spend quite a bit of time exploring around the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada.
Taking a stroll with George is always fun because he has a unique but squared away view of the world coupled with a delightful, dry sense of humor. I believe he and I could get into some serious trouble if left unattended by our spouses. Tonie and Peggy kept up a continuous stream of sister and girl stuff and they were still at it when we returned from our trip to the store. All of us took a little walk around the land near the brewery and scoped out the local boats. There is a gorgeous old converted tug and a towed submersible along with some pretty spiffy sailing and motor yachts in the adjacent marina.
Peggy and I finally said “Adios” and drove back to Monroe where Peg got to have some more federal and state tax fun while I finished up some alleged data entry and picture downloading.
There’s a couple pix if you click here

Today was a maintenance day. We took the truck to Brien Ford in Everett about 20 miles away for an oil change. They changed the oil, slowly. It was at this time I noted there seem to be some irregularities about Ford service facilities. Some just change the oil and do other stuff I want and then hand over the truck. Others, like Brien Ford, seem to believe they should spook you by telling you about a host of problems they have detected although no other Ford service center mechanics have noted anything wrong. The folks at Brien made up an estimate indicating there was some $2000 worth of stuff that needed to be done on the truck. Some of the items were fuel and air filters were observed to be dirty although I just changed them 3 months ago. I thanked them, paid them $120 for the oil change and split for the Everett Trader Joe’s without debating the merits of their observations.
We hauled our Trader Joe’s loot home and Peggy started serious work on the taxes. I’m sure my readers do not want to hear about 1040 preparation so I’ll cut it off right here.

Today we decided to go up WA-2 through Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range east of Monroe, WA. Our very tentative schedule has us going to Leavenworth, WA, in a few days which is only about 100 miles going through Stevens Pass, maybe 225 miles going through Snoqualmie Pass or about 400 miles going up the Columbia River. Going up the Columbia is basically a flat land drive but Snoqualmie Pass is 3000 feet and Stevens is 4000 feet at their respective summits. Stevens looks like a good way to go but the weather may stymie that route. If it snows a little, Snoqualmie may work out. If the weather turns completely to shit, we’ll be heading up the river.
Today we left our camp spot at Thunderbird RV Resort in Monroe and headed east up the pass on WA-2. It is a one-lane road through gorgeous stands of timber, flower-filled meadows, dramatic mountains and spectacular, clear rivers. We passed through little communities called Sultan, Gold Bar, Baring and Skykomish as we putted up the pass. On the way up we passed a cataract of water that crosses under the highway called Deception Falls. About 5 or 6 miles from the summit, the road got quite a bit steeper and we entered snow fields on both sides of the road which got deeper the closer we got to the pass. People were skiing at the top.
We turned around just past the summit and headed back down the hill toward home but stopped at a small parking lot for Deception Falls where we hiked up to the falls and ate lunch. There is a great deal of water coming down the cataract under the highway bridge such that speech is pointless because all you can hear is crashing water. This is a great place for a picnic. There is a lot of spray – wear boots or waterproof shoes.
We pulled off the highway and went on a little sightseeing tour at Skykomish which is a cute little town of about 100 folks with a unique train station right in the middle. One side of the train station has regular BNSF train tracks, some with parked train track snowplows and track repair equipment. On the other side of the train station some locals have built a garden railway that has tiny little tracks and tiny outdoor model train equipment. There are also a couple of old wood hotels and some Hobbit-sized houses here that are very attractive.
After a while we got back on WA-2 westbound and drove back down to Monroe, arriving about 5:00 PM. We have some neighbors and friends, the Merbachs, that live across a small canyon from our residence in San Diego and they have a son who lives in Monroe so we barged in on them for beer and food. Skyler and his wife, Jess, have a brand new daughter who’s name is not able to be spelled by idiots like me but she is a cutie. This is the first time we have seen these long-time friends in 2 years and the first time ever to see the baby. All three seem content here in the gorgeous little municipality of Monroe. We all walked (well, one got to ride) to a restaurant / bar in Monroe called Adam’s where the prices were fair and the food was good. Peg and I walked the Merbacks back home before bailing and going back to Thunderbird to sleep. This was about maximum activity for one day for us old people.
There are some pix of today’s fun if you click here

We left Tall Chief RV Resort in Fall City this morning headed north on WA-203 toward Monroe, WA. It is a relatively short drive of about 35 miles but the road is single-lane so I had to actually pay attention to keep the entirety of our stuff from becoming a fixture in some hobby farmer’s pasture. Many rivers and creeks were crossed, all with terrible bridge approaches which make the trailer jump into the air due to the terrible paving.
In Monroe, we pulled into a TT facility called Thunderbird RV Resort which is nestled alongside a river in a nice grove of Douglas fir trees. The campsites are not very far apart but the facility has full hookups and, after merely three tries, I was able to point our dish through a tiny clearing between the trees at a satellite and get TV reception. Due to the short drive from Fall City, we were all situated and set up by 1:00 PM so we called our daughter, Dana, in Mukilteo about 30 miles away and went over there to take her to lunch and see where she lives.
We picked her up at her new place and took her to Diamond Knot, a brewery and pub right on the water next to the ferry landing between Mukilteo and Whidbey Island out in Puget Sound. The prices were not cheap but the food and porter was tip-top. Peggy got an albacore sandwich which actually had a big slab of albacore instead of tuna salad like she received from the lousy fish joint in Newport, OR. I got a superb pizza and we shared some poutine, a Canadian dish which is made from seasoned french fries, cheese curds and brown gravy. The stuff is definitely unhealthy but very tasty.
Dana is contemplating a house purchase in the area but when we offered some suggestions on financing a $500,000 house on a combined income of $6000 a month, she became very nasty about it and started hollering at us and dismissing our ideas outright. She obviously does not need our help and made it abundantly clear we should butt out, which we did, returning to our nifty trailer at Thunderbird.

Today we went exploring again and it was delightful. We started out the day by heading for Snoqualmie Falls, a spectacular cataract that drops more than 200 feet over a brink onto jagged rocks below. There is no calm pool at the bottom because the water coming over the falls gets launched back into the air by the jumbled rocks below sometimes squirting about 50 feet back up before landing in the lower river. It is very impressive, especially when we were there since the flow was around 11,000 cubic feet per second or more than 80,000 gallons for those of us not on the metric system.
After lingering in the spray for quite some time, we hopped back into Charlotte for a drive a bit further up the road to see a house that Peggy’s sister, Tonie, and her husband, George, used to own in North Bend, WA. It was a very nice place with a huge front yard but the part I liked the most was view out the front window. Rising out of the valley floor is Mount Si, a giant chunk of rock that offers many amazing views as the light changes during the day. Mount Si is very steep and evidence of rock slides and avalanches are plainly visible as areas without any form of flora whatsoever are left after all the rock or snow clears the terrain right down to mineral soil.
From North Bend we hopped on I-90 east to check out Snoqualmie Pass which we may be required to traverse as we head for the Great Basin. The road was wet and there was abundant snow alongside the road but the actual road surface was good right up to the pass at 3000 feet. Our other option, if we do not go back south and go up the Columbia River, is Stevens Pass which is on US-2 starting in Monroe, rising to 4000 feet and coming out over by Leavenworth, WA. More of Peg’s relatives are there so we could probably stop in near their place if they don’t see us coming first.
There’s a couple pix if you click here

After yesterday’s terrifying drive through the Seattle area we found we were perfectly satisfied to loaf and recuperate today. Big tasty breakfast, fortified coffee and movie watching filled our morning and I heard no complaints,
After a while, however, Peggy noted we better get going on our tax form preparation so we can make our annual contribution to Uncle Sam. We went down to the facility clubhouse to get hooked up to the internet so we could effectively strangle any fun for the day, instead of doing something we wanted. I do not like tax time and I imagine Peggy really hates it since she is the bookkeeper and does most of the work. It is our yearly reminder that the federal and state governments, hungry for our money, are still out there with their hand out on one side and a gun in the other hand.
Tall Chief RV Resort is a nice facility with large, mostly level spaces, an empty pool in April, two clubhouses of which only one is open, a laundry, nice restrooms but no sewer hookups or wi-fi. Tall Chief is an Encore park which is affiliated with Thousand Trails, our regular campground membership. TT members get 30% off at Encore parks but we actually did our research properly and found that Tall Chief is also a Passport America affiliated facility so, using our Passport America membership we got to stay here for the paltry sum of $11.11 per night which is quite reasonable compared with the $45 per night for non-members and a bit less using our TT discount.

By 10:30 AM we were all picked up in Sandy River RV Resort and on our way into Washington. Just a few minutes after departure we were on I-205 on the east side of Portland and not too long after that we crossed the Columbia River which separates Oregon from Washington.
The southern part of Washington was very beautiful, particularly in those spots where you can glance to the east and see what is left of Mount St. Helens which gave many Washingtonians a big surprise in 1980 when it erupted and blew 1300 feet off the top of the mountain. A bit further up the road the view to the east is the snow covered Cascades and west is the snow covered Olympic range on the peninsula of the same name.
When Peg and I traveled through this part of the world in 2014, we stayed at a campground called Paradise in Silver Creek and also at Chehalis, both Thousand Trails facilities where we do not have to pay to stay with our elite campground membership. Unfortunately, Paradise does not open until April 22 this year and Chehalis campground has some sort of water issue so it is closed, as well. We bypassed both of them and continued into the driving hell of the Seattle area.
Despite it being a Saturday, the transit was a nightmare this year. Many folks here do not believe it is necessary to look over their left shoulder when entering the freeway from a ramp creating terrifying high-speed standoffs with those cars already on the road. Other folks here make lane changes without verifying available space in the adjacent lane before veering over which makes for loud horn-honking concertos and wild finger waving. On one section of road, we were preceded by a tattooed biker and his portly girlfriend who surprisingly decided to stop their bikes on the freeway without notice or signalling, generating a wild scramble for those behind trying to avoid flattening them. Long sections of highway were slow moving, bumper-to-bumper crawls where Washingtonian driving habits have resulted in catastrophes which they all had to leer at before proceeding. Nowhere north of Olympia was I required to worry about speeding since I would have had to accelerate just to get to the ridiculously low speed limits. I sometimes try to be open-minded about places we visit but the traffic here is a horrible nightmare and I seem to remember saying I would never come back through Seattle again. Stupidly, we returned and were rewarded with the same horrifying antics that made us want to avoid this area.
Eventually we turned off the crazy and unpredictable highways and on to county roads near the east end of Lake Sammamish. A short distance later but without the elimination of the very same stupid behavior we noted on the interstate we turned up a big hill and pulled our traveling show into the Tall Chief RV Resort in Fall City, WA. We were met at the gate by Bill, a former Marine and campground host who checked us in and opened the gate. We drove around the campground a bit before selecting a nice, sunny spot between the ample supply of trees and settling in for a three day stay.
The only issue we had with the resort was some jerk parked across the road with about 4 or 5 uncontrolled little dogs that seemed to think it was okay for them to bark, whine and make wounded dog noises incessantly. Fortunately, Bill noticed the dogs were making an unauthorized amount of noise and told the guy to put his dogs inside his RV or face expulsion. Gotta love those Marines.

We started the day with a drive up the Sandy River which is a very scenic road with roadside waterfalls, very narrow bridges, big stands of old-growth timber and dramatic cliffs alongside the road and river. Then, we were pleased to eat breakfast today in one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Dean’s, in Clackamas. Dean’s has what I consider the best chicken-fried steak breakfast in the land with a plate stacked with two pretty big steaks, 3 eggs, a generous serving of hash browns and a separate plate with English Muffins. It is now and has been in the past the best $9.25 breakfast extant in my opinion. Dean’s is a tiny place inside what used to be a house with barely enough parking that does not take credit cards or debit cards but they take checks and like cash. It was fabulous.
After that we drove back towards our park in Troutdale, stopping at the local Camping World to get important stuff like toilet paper and tank disinfectant. The RV toilet paper at Camping World is far superior to products we have obtained elsewhere. Sometimes the alternative TP dissolves when in contact with anything other than air, resulting in disastrous failure when put into use. From there we headed home and were making campground reservations on the computer when Peggy went outside and noted a substantial amount of water emanating from our external water piping. Upon investigation, I found that the plastic case for my auxiliary external water filter had broken for reasons unknown. Fortunately, we are near the Camping World so I can make a second visit to Camping World and get a replacement unit. I wish the thing would have crapped out a bit earlier so I could have acquired the filter on my first visit today.
The problem is minimal and the repair will be easy. This is really the first thing that has suffered a strange failure, other than my ancient body, in our 23 months of travel so I guess I really can’t complain much. I’ll dump waste tanks today, fill up the on-board water and get ready for transit to Washington tomorrow.
Another of Peggy’s nephews, Adam, stopped by the trailer for a beer this evening. It was cool.
For a picture of Dean’s fine breakfast, click here

We awakened pretty late this morning and took our time getting ready to leave Newport such that we just barely got out of the park by the check-out time of 11:00. I am not sure how they enforce this rule but since we were gone, it made no difference.
We took OR-20 through the coast range emerging in Philomath / Corvallis area in the Willamette Valley. Although our maps show the route as being non-RV friendly, we think they may have made a mistake because the road was fine. Once in the valley, we turned north on I-5 through Salem and Portland where we turned up the Columbia River on I-84. We exited the freeway in the town of Troutdale, driving down their main historic street on our way to the Sandy River RV Resort which is between Beaver Creek and the Sandy River on the sides of the park and the Columbia just a bit north. The park is not affiliated with any of our myriad park discount organizations so it cost $83 for two nights.
Sandy River RV Resort is very well maintained with excellent roads, wi-fi, nice restrooms and activity buildings, creekside or riverside back-in spaces and numerous pull-thrus, all of them pretty close to each other. They advertise cable TV with HBO but we were unable to make our state-of-the-art TV receive more than just a few channels although the HBO came in very well. The park is almost full.
After lounging around for a while we decided to drive down and take food for dinner to Peggy’s nephew and his family about 15 miles away. We stupidly selected 5:00 PM as the travel time and we were almost immediately hamstrung by absolutely horrible traffic, spending about 30 of the 45 minute drive time waiting at long red lights. We stopped at a Safeway and picked up barbecue-type grub which they graciously prepared while we sat around drinking porter. Peggy’s nephew, Ben, his very sharp spouse Emily and their two kids, Jack and Abby entertained us old people and took us on a tour of Ben’s man cave. It is a high-bay steel building behind the house equipped with a 55-inch flatscreen, neat wall decorations like vehicle front ends with working lights, traffic signals and the best man cave restroom I have ever seen. He has a shower, a toilet, a urinal and a sink his bathroom which is more than I have in any bathroom in my house. We finally left these folks alone at about 9:00 since they have to work but we don’t. Hahahahaha.
Got a couple pix you can see by clicking here

The Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport was our destination for the day. Since neither Peggy nor I are old enough to get a senior discount, we passed $23 a head to the lady at the desk for admission. After visiting the place, we decided the price was definitely fair.
A good portion of the exhibits are outside in the weather but since it was absolutely sunny and gorgeous outside we thought that was okay. The first building we entered was a section called “The Passages” which are glass tubes passing through an enormous aquarium with sharks and rays in one tank, rockfish in another and shoreline critters in a third. The views of an aquarium are much better from the bottom than they are from above the surface of the water or through a glass partition from the side. It is a bit chilling when a big, toothy shark swims about 4 inches away from you. Watching how rays propel themselves through the water is pretty neat, too.
Emerging from the tubes we went outside and found an exhibit with Oregon aquatic birds and they had all the sort of uninteresting types but they also had crested puffins which are very spiffy looking guys with big orange beaks, long feather tufts that look like enormous eyebrows and short tails all mounted on their little almost-spherical bodies. Normally, only fishermen and oceanographer types get to see puffins because they only nest and mate on offshore islands, cleverly avoiding humans. Some of the other aquatic birds gave us demonstrations of how well they can swim underwater. These guys were like little torpedoes.
We continued on to the pinniped or seals and sea lion enclosure. They were hauled out on rocks within their enclosure enjoying the magnificent weather by sunning themselves while loafing on their backs. Very little movement was detected here because it was not feeding time. Right next door, however, they have a large orange octopus who was very active while showing us all sides of himself including completely spreading out across the entire viewing surface of the glass by gripping it with his sucker things on his 8 arms.
After quite a while of watching the octopus squish about, we wandered over to the sea otter enclosure to watch our favorite aquatic animals of all. As usual, the younger members of the collection were engaged in continuous roughhousing while the older members of the clan were drifting around on their backs periodically pushing themselves through the water using one lazy back foot. We hung out for a while here because feeding time was imminent and the otters became very active once the marine mammalogist (no kidding – she does not discuss breasts) entered the enclosure packing buckets of fish and clams. Otters eat about 25% of their weight in food daily which these otters proved by instantly gulping the small chunks and giving the big fish a few chomps before swallowing them. They let the clams sink initially, finding them and ripping them open to devour the contents after the fish is gone. These animals appear to live a very fun life.
I stopped by to check out some turkey vultures (certainly not aquatic birds) before moseying into some more exhibits they have covering shoreline and tide pool critters like crabs, shrimp, moray and wolf eels, starfish, urchins and anemones, sea cucumbers which are not food, reef fish that are extremely colorful along with all kinds of other bizarre critters.
The Newport aquarium is not very big but their exhibits are great. This place is worth a stop. Allow not less than 4 hours. From the aquarium we went to a local crab and fish stand for some grub. For those who may be interested, the name of the joint was South Beach Fish Market and I can state for a fact that the prices were high, the portions small and overall satisfaction was nil. Peggy ordered an albacore sandwich, expecting a slab of fish on Dave’s Killer bread. Instead, she received a tuna fish salad installed between two pieces of bread that had mysterious, unbreakable nuggets in them for $9. For about $13, I got ling cod and fries. The ling cod was tasty but the six microscopic pieces they gave me seemed almost invisible. The fries were okay. I give the place a D based on the crummy menu descriptions, exorbitant prices and puny portions.
After getting half a fish meal, we went back to the Barbarian Invader to prep for departure tomorrow. We will be leaving the Pacific coast when we go although we are scheduled to get another glimpse around Seattle in a couple weeks. Our proposed route will take us through Portland and then the Seattle area.
Pix are available by clicking here