Another day of not having any responsibilities allowed us to go exploring again today. We decided to try a spin to Samish Island, a few miles west of our camping spot. On the way we passed through Bow and a dinky town called Edison which has some cafes and small restaurants that folks must like because there were plenty of prospective customers there.
We continued west until we got to Samish Island which appears to actually be a peninsula. It is a nice place with lots of second-growth timber and estates that extend right down to the water. Being from California, I am surprised each time I see where private owners here can own and fence a portion of the shoreline next to a public body of water. In my crybaby home state, the state owns the shoreline and everybody has access to all of it except the parts the Marine Corps owns at Camp Pendleton and the Navy owns at Point Loma in San Diego.
We returned back to Edison and turned north on WA-11. This road skirts Samish Bay and is very nice; it reminds us of coast roads through the redwoods although the trees aren’t nearly as those on Avenue of the Giants. There are rock bluffs along the east side of the road and dizzying precipices overlooking the Samish Bay portion of the Strait of Georgia on the west. There are very large cedar trees here.
We passed through an area called Chuckanut which is an Indian word meaning ugly condominium or big ostentatious house. Many big houses built on very steep terrain look out over the Strait. The streets here are pretty steep so not many folks can use their garages because they can’t get their cars into them.
We eventually made it to the city of Bellingham and, after only a short period of confusion about our route, continued northwest toward the Lummi Indian Reservation. The Lummi live on a very pretty peninsula that protects Bellingham Bay from the raging fury of the winter sea in the Strait. We took the perimeter road that skirts the water around the peninsula. The landscape is gorgeous but there are a bunch of folks living here on the rez that have retained everything they ever acquired in their life. They store this stuff in their front yards. Directly across from their places are million dollar views of the Bay, the Strait and the San Juan Islands on the horizon.
Just a bit offshore lies Lummi Island and you can catch a ferry there from the south end of the Lummi Nation’s peninsula. We were a bit late for this activity so we didn’t go. It looks very nice and if we return to this part of America we will give the Island a try.
We turned toward home from the Lummi Nation but stopped to get diesel before we left the rez. Diesel is much cheaper here than at spots off the rez.
We got a few photos that you can see if you click here

A clear schedule offered us an opportunity for aimless wandering today so we decided to take a spin around a nearby lake called Lake Whatcom. It is not What.com. We headed north toward the lake which is located southeast of Bellingham. We skirted the west shore of the lake for about 10 or 15 miles until we came to an area near the town of Geneva.
The state must have sold the land right down to the edge of the lake because people have purchased little slivers of land between the lake and the road. These slivers are all fenced from right down at the water line on one edge all the way around between the sliver and the highway and back to the water line on the other side. They are very tiny; I don’t think any of them are bigger than 1,000 square feet and most are smaller. They can’t build houses or even garages on the slivers but they can barbecue, set up outdoor furniture and wade out to their boats in the lake. Some of the spots have mini-sheds of about 40 square feet for some purpose other than habitation. Maybe they should call it Lake Whatzat? There is no waterfront public access to the lake and even if there was, there would be no parking. I am not sure having private ownership of public lake shoreline is a real good idea.
We drove around the north end and continued down the east side of Lake Whatcom. We finally ended up in the town of Sedro-Woolley (no kidding) which is a very nice little village with some gorgeous residential architecture. We wandered around the back streets for a while, admiring the beautiful houses until we started to see the same eagle-eyed local drivers for the second time which worried us may soon involve a long conversation with a local cop. We skedaddled and headed back to our RV spot near Bow.
All the roads we drove up the west side and down the east side of the lake pass through beautiful territory with large expanses of healthy standing timber. There are some great lake views although finding a place to stop and look is a bit problematic since there are no pullouts nor parking areas along the roads due to private ownership.
During our drive we shot some pix and you can see some of them if you click here

It was departure day at Birch Bay RV Preserve so we buttoned up our stuff, hooked Charlotte to the Barbarian Invader and pulled out of the park by 10:45 AM. We turned east to I-5 and merged onto the freeway southbound toward Bow, WA. About an hour later, we pulled off the freeway and into the Mount Vernon RV Preserve, another Thousand Trails facility. Strangely, the Mount Vernon Preserve is closer to the town of Bow than it is to the town of Mount Vernon. I can’t even speculate about why they named it as they did.
The campground has lots of nice RV spaces but only a very few have sewer hookups so we will be stopping by the dump station upon departure on the 23rd of August. There is a nice pool, playgrounds for the kiddies, big spaces and lots of vegetation between RV spots. It is quite shady for most of the day in our space, F-1. There are lots of birds here so we set up our feeder and the trough was soon lined with the little flying critters.
We had a short drive today so we were all set up in our space early in the day. We also noted on the literature provided by management that there is a Camping World where I could go to replace the wonky water pressure regulator in the Invader. We bought the wonky unit in South Dakota about a year ago but I took the receipt and the faulty regulator into the store and lined up for the service counter. The rep told me after I reached the counter that Camping World was uninterested in replacing the old unit because they figure they are off the hook after 90 days. I whined that the old regulator went screwball about 10 months ago and I merely had not had an opportunity to return it to Camping World due to logistical issues. The rep grinned at me and I trudged off to purchase a new unit.
We headed back to the trailer and I was able to get a lock on a satellite with our dish in spite of the trees and heavy brush around our campsite. The Olympics are on and we tuned in for the whole evening’s coverage. Go U.S.A!
Peggy shot some pix of our camping buddies. You can see them by clicking here

Peggy and I got up before 8:00 this morning which is pretty early for us retirees. We were taking showers, watching the news and Olympics and rustling up a breakfast when we got an incoming phone call from a number we could not identify. With a bit of apprehension, Peggy answered the call and found it was from National General Insurance Company, the carrier for the Good Sam Club’s RV insurance. She listened for a bit before handing the phone over to me.
Back in early June, 2016, we were visiting Monument Valley. It was over 100 degrees outside during the daylight hours and did not cool down very much at night. The second day we were there, the converter, which runs all things electric in our fifth wheel, sort of blew up. There was much smoke and apprehension but no fire. The failure of the converter eliminated the use of all the 110 volt stuff in our trailer like the microwave, fans, the TV and DVD player, all lighting except the on-board 12 volt lamps and, most importantly, the air conditioning.
I called and filed a claim with our insurance the night it occurred. Not a peep has been heard from the insurance company since that evening. This morning, an agent with a name like Gner or Kzap called us back and that is when Peggy handed the phone to me. I was not really prepared to be nice so when the agent started talking, I interrupted and asked if it was normal policy for National General to wait 10 weeks before responding to insureds’ claims. Gner/Kzap indicated that the claim had been lost in someone’s in box which was a poor selection of possible answers I was prepared to hear at the time. Stupidly, I then informed Gner/Kzap that National General’s treatment of policyholder claims is quite substandard and I was surprised they were still in business. I suggested their service was terrible, their adjusters were possibly mentally retarded, their recent ancestors may have been troglodytes and even relatively low premiums could not justify their miserable and rotten service. My language during these pithy descriptions of the company and its service was a bit more blunt than written here. I promptly hung up after regaling Gner/Kzap with all my observations without giving he/she/it a chance to get a word in edgewise.
Soon thereafter, Peggy brought up the fact that I should have allowed Gner/Kzap to at least tell me whether the bandit insurance company was going to cover my loss before rudely terminating the call. We called the company back and, after only about 15 minutes of waiting and entering numbers signifying what language I spoke and what department I wanted, I was connected to an actual human who told me that the company would not cover our claim so I did not feel so bad about giving Gner/Kzap both barrels during our short conversation. I do not regret even a bit of it although I wish I had been given more time to formulate an even more creative and harsh statement.
I’m not usually in the insurance company rating business but, if I were, I would give National General a grade of D minus for their service. This is the second time we have had to deal with their claims department and both times it took two months or more for them to respond. I am glad I did not need emergency road service since the same carrier also covers that aspect of our risk while travelling. We would still be broiling on the Arizona / Colorado border awaiting their tow truck.
Other than the phone fun this morning, we did the laundry. Peggy takes the lead on this task primarily because I am a pitiful clothes folder but I am good at packing the voluminous gobs of laundry into and out of the laundromat.
We had a bit of time left after our laundry fun so we took another trip around the peninsula in the Strait of Georgia where we are currently camped. We started with the same trip route we took a couple days ago. We went again to Semiahmoo Spit which divides the Strait from Drayton Harbor. The spit was bordered by wide expanses of bay bottom today because the tide was out a long way. We noted that there are no boats moored in most of Drayton Harbor because the bottom is lined with big, hull-ripping boulders that project up from the sandy bottom.
We then took another spin to Birch Bay where we cruised a few days ago. Peggy had me pull over in town for a reward which, in this case, was ice cream and a sizable chocolate and peanut butter cup that were very tasty. There are many distinctive and pretty beachfront homes there and most of them are pretty small although there are also some big McMansions above Birch Bay State Park. A quick internet search indicated that the tiny houses go for about $300,000 and up which would give them a per foot cost of about $750. We won’t be buying here although it would be nice because this part of the world is very pretty. The adjacent state park has a shady, serene campground in the cedar forest just above the beach. There are maybe 120 campsites here and some are big enough to take a fifth wheel trailer the size of ours although there are no hookups of any sort. Water is available in the campground but you will need some kind of container to take it back to your campsite. No electrical or sewer was spotted.
We ended up our day by returning to our trailer at Birch Bay TT and had a rough afternoon reading and sipping craft beer in our chaise lounges in the shade. It was brutal.
We shot a few pix along the way and you can see them if you click here

There is very little to report today. One of the issues encountered while traveling full-time in an RV is restocking the food and liquor cabinets and today was the day for us to address this onerous task.
Fortunately for us, there is both a Costco and a Trader Joe’s in Bellingham which is about 25 miles from our RV park. We got away for less than $400 today which was great. Maybe the food stocks will last for a while but I have little hope that the liquor will have the same fate.
We have a book of Washington maps called a DeLorme Gazetteer which allowed us to travel on skinny back roads all the way to and from Bellingham so the drive was quite pleasant. I can tell you for a fact that there are a couple refineries, a power plant and the Lummi Nation reservation on these back roads. The Lummi Nation also has cheap diesel so we filled up on the way through for about fifty cents less per gallon than you would pay off the rez.

Washington’s Cascade Range of mountains is sprinkled with volcanoes and Mount Baker, a snow-covered 10,781 foot tall cone stands off on our eastern horizon. We chose to go for a spin to this mountain today and, on the map, it looked like it was close to where we have parked ourselves for the next few days.
A few blocks south of our park we turned east on the Birch Bay – Lynden Road and passed over I-5 into the town of Lynden about 10 miles from the freeway. From Lynden we followed a series of Washington roads through Sumas about a half mile from Canada where we turned east again and passed through tiny towns called Kendall, Maple Falls and Glacier. This road skirts the Nooksack River and starts climbing steeply toward Mount Baker above Glacier. We have no idea what a “Nooksack” might be but it sort of sounds like a purse carried by a pimp although it could also be an Indian word for something. The river is gorgeous as it squiggles around through the mountains. The state highway guys were out oiling some of the roads and that led to some delays and black wheel wells but we persevered.
The portion of the road above Glacier is bordered by fantastic stands of old growth cedar, fir and hemlock trees with regular peeks of the river through the wooden columns. About a half hour above Glacier, we pulled over at Nooksack Falls. There are multiple waterfalls here cascading from both the river and some intersecting streams that have slashed through the fascinating andesite formations that fill this area. The rocks here look like big stockpiles of pentagonal and hexagonal columns stored in contact and on end.
We finally climbed through the treeline where we pulled out at a visitor center building built back in the day by the Civilian Conservation Corps and they did a fabulous job. The little building looks on the outside like it should be located in the gorgeous rocky spot it is because it just fits. The interior is all pine siding and framing and it is very attractive, too. They sell books, trinkets and postcards here and that is a bit problematic because they have no electrical power so they use a battery-powered cash register that makes tortured, pitiful sounds when they try to ring up your purchase.
From the parking lot the views are spectacular of the surrounding glacially-formed landscape and the glaciers on the side of enormous Mount Shuksan to the east. However, Mount Baker lies behind some ridges to the west of the parking lot so it is not visible. From the visitor center, another section of road goes up another 1,000 feet to a place called Artist’s Point and, Alakazam and Zowie! there is the giant active volcano. Mount Baker sticks up 5,700 feet above Artist’s Point and the eastern flank is completely buried by glaciers. It is awe-inspiring. To the south we could see Baker Lake down a long valley. Baker Lake’s other end is down by Concrete, a four or more hour drive from here.
We ate a late picnic lunch at the top of the hill before taking a short stroll around the area and then descending back the way we came. The scenery was just as gorgeous going back down. The lack of construction progress road crew was just about done with doing whatever they could do while invisible so we only ran into one short delay. We weren’t going very fast today and you can tell because the round trip took around eight hours despite what our map shows. We enjoyed every minute of it.
We got some pictures as we passed through this spectacular part of the world and you can see some of them if you click here

Today was a travel day. We disconnected all the utilities and hooked up the trailer for the short drive to the dump station at the La Conner Preserve exit. This campground does not have more than a few full hookups so almost everyone ends up making a stop at this facility before departure. We then turned onto Snee Oosh Road, east on WA-20 and north on I-5 headed for a Thousand Trails campground called Birch Bay.
Almost to the Canadian border, we turned west to the campground which is across a beautiful bay from the town of Blaine, WA. The campground has full hookups, satellite TV reception but only a wi-fi hotspot nowhere near where we pulled in to set up our beloved Barbarian Invader fifth wheel trailer. The drive to our new location only took a bit over an hour so we were all set up with little to do by 1:00 PM.
We had lunch, set up the satellite antenna, programmed the switch and were soon watching TV. We watched a bit of the Olympics and checked out the stories about Donald Trump’s political Tourette’s before deciding we really did not want to watch commercials on the tube.
We hopped back into the truck, this time with Peggy driving, and took a spin around the perimeter of the little peninsula where our RV park is lpocated. The peninsula sticks out into the Strait of Georgia. Views to the north are of of water with the Canadian city of White Rock across the water. To the west is Vancouver Island in B.C. and Birch Bay lies to the south. We started out going north to a strand of sand with a golf resort at the end called Semiahmoo Spit. I’m not sure I would want to live anywhere with the word “spit” in its name but this prong sticking out to divide Drayton Harbor from Semiahmoo Bay is just bristling with gorgeous scenery. The waters of the ocean here are beautiful and, surprisingly, quite tranquil.
We continued our counterclockwise circuit of the peninsula, passing by very nice, upscale homes, gated communities for the paranoid, pretty stands of timber and some flat agricultural land. At a tiny town (actually just an intersection with a water slide park) called Cottonwood Beach, we turned south along the coast, passing through the town of Birch Bay on our way to Birch Bay State Park. The park is a nice spot and many Washingtonians were taking advantage of the fabulous weather along the beach. Many dogs were spotted and they were very happy playing in the water. Other than boaters, not too many folks were in the water because it is freezing.
We turned around at the state park and headed back to our RV spot. We have never been to this part of the US but were suitably impressed with this impressive scenery here. The roads are adequate, the views are spectacular, the traffic is very light and the circuit today was great.

More exploring was on the schedule for today. This time, we decided to take a stab at the country south of La Conner. We drove from our campground on Snee Oosh Road into La Conner so Peggy could go to the Quilt & Textile Museum in town before we embarked on any distance driving. I’m almost completely unawares and uninterested in such things so I let her go in alone.
Peggy was out again in a remarkably short amount of time, particularly since all things cloth interest her and the museum is full of them. She returned to the truck with only a very small amount of cloth thingies she uses for something. I was very proud of her.
We then fired up the truck and crept around a few La Conner hillside streets admiring the residential architecture. There are an abundance of gorgeous little houses above the commercial part of town and many of them have a great view of this little seaport. Across a short expanse of water, we could hear the Indians on the rez on the other side that were pounding away on some big drums while having some sort of get together. It looked like everyone there was having a good time. On the La Conner side it was pretty quiet except for tourist noises.
We finally got on the road, heading south about 30 miles to the town of Stanwood. There we turned west on WA-532 for a loop drive of Camano Island, sandwiched between the Washington mainland and Whidbey Island. We were able to find our way around the north half of this beautiful island that has some farmland, great views of the Sound to both the east and the west, large sections of timber and stunning flowers everywhere.
At the south end of our loop, we took a short spin into two separate sections of Camano Island State Park which were very nice with some stands of old growth forest. As you drive the park’s steep and winding roads, you can look through the magnificent stands of trees and out over the blue waters of the Sound.
We then turned up the west coast of Camano Island, passing through not less than 6 places ending in “Beach”: Cama, Indian, Woodland, Rockaway, Sunset and Madrona before turning east across the top of the island and back to WA-532 and the road north toward home.
Peggy had a sudden fit of memory, remembering that our return route took us near a fruit and vegetable stand we had visited two years ago on our first trip to the Pacific Northwest. Amazingly, she was able to find the stand again despite it being on the far side of I-5. She has an uncanny knack for finding her way to such businesses and today was no exception. She supplemented our enormous horde at home such that we will probably have to go vegan to consume the fruits and veggies before they sprout hair.
Just when I thought we were done with today’s excursion, we remembered there was also a really good seafood market near La Conner TT Preserve named Black Rock Seafood we tried two years ago and Peggy hopped on the throttle to get us there before they closed at 6:00 PM. We got in under the wire and it only cost $70 for us to walk away with some sea bass, salmon, clam strips and mussels. Along with some very sweet corn from the veggie stand yesterday, half the clam strips and a pound of mussels were devoured at dinner tonight and they were superb. Black Rock is a place all seafood lovers should visit when passing through this part of the world. It is very close to WA-20 a few miles east of Anacortes.
There are some pix you can see from today’s explorations by clicking here

Exploration by car was the task for today and we started out by driving into the part of the La Conner area called the Indian Reservation. It borders the Sound around the bay from the upscale tourist hell of La Conner. While the houses on the rez are spartan an unremarkable, the houses in La Conner proper are beautiful old Victorian and Craftsman classics located on the steep hills above the commercial district. Many of them have great views but the diesel is much cheaper on the rez so we filled up there. We could see some of the gorgeous houses from the filling station.
Peggy then drove us to a fruit and vegetable stand a few miles west of La Conner where we stocked up on corn, apples, zucchini, tomatoes and, for some reason, beets. There was no attendant at the veggie stand but there was a closed room with a loud TV inside and a box outside indicating that customers are on the honor system and should cram the appropriate amount of money to cover their purchase into a slot in a metal box that appeared to have come from a dismembered grocery store kiddie ride.
Groceries on board, we then drove north a few miles to WA-20. We turned west for a couple miles until we exited the highway for a frontage road running along the shore of Padilla Bay and around the north edge of Anacortes. Anacortes has a pretty substantial waterside industry and also a gorgeous downtown main street. The residences near town are quite attractive and views of the Sound from almost everywhere in town are stunning. Looking east in today’s beautiful weather, we could see an enormous volcano nestled in with many lower but no less attractive mountains across the water.
Anacortes occupies the north part of Fidalgo Island and we took a long leisurely counterclockwise drive around the whole island. There is a nice city park on the west side of town offering great views of the Sound and international shipping plying the waterways. After finishing our circuit of Fidalgo Island, we got back on WA-20 for the short drive to the two gorgeous bridges crossing Deception Pass, the quick way to the Sound from the boatyards and marinas on the east side of Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands.
Once over the two bridges, we were on Whidbey Island which runs almost all the way down the Sound to the Seattle area. You can access Whidbey by the route we took or by ferry. There are ferries to Seattle, Mukilteo and Port Townsend over on the Olympic Peninsula. I suppose you may be able to fly in as well but I’m not sure. I know the Navy guys fly in because there is a naval air station on the Island. We turned east off 20 onto Truxell Road which was a loop giving us great views of the Sound with the Cascades as the backdrop.
We finally turned around and headed back toward La Conner but took a detour around a bunch of refineries and a deep water oil port on the east side of Anacortes. There is no leaving the road but the views along this road are tip-top. We were bad and went to the local casino operated by the Swinomish and had dinner in their restaurant. I also almost instantaneously lost $5 in a slot machine that I had no idea how to operate. The money was gone faster than I could have burned it. The machine is faster than the eye.
We took some photos along the way and you can see them if you click here

Today was a travel day. We have been at Leavenworth Thousand Trails Preserve for nine days, an unusually long stay anywhere for us. We like to move around. I had already taken care of the water and sewer hookups yesterday so we merely had to do some cleanup, retract the slideouts, disconnect power, attach Charlotte to the Barbarian Invader and drive away. We were out of the space about 25 minutes after we went to work.
We turned out of the park onto Chumstick Loop, then WA-207 until we again got onto US-2 westbound over Stevens Pass. A couple thousand feet of climbing and we were over the pass for the 4000 foot descent onto the coastal plain. We went east over this pass back in April and there was lots of snow near the summit. There is no snow there now but the forests alongside the road look very happy and the drive through the pass is astounding. The terrain is extremely rugged.
We bottomed out near Puget Sound where we turned north on I-5. We sort of regret leaving US-2. We have followed it here from Glacier National Park in Montana. Sadly, US-2 just sort of craps out at I-5 near Everett. It has been an amazing road all the way from the Rockies to the west side of the Cascades.
An hour north on I-5 and we turned off at Mount Vernon onto the section of WA-20 which runs west to Anacortes and La Conner. Near La Conner, we turned south onto a back road called Snee Oosh Road and soon arrived at the La Conner Preserve, another Thousand Trails campground where we do not have to pay for camping, other than a $600 yearly fee. I think we have stayed in a Thousand Trails facility more than 500 nights during the last 26 months. Total TT yearly fee outlay has been about $1200 and, assuming a $30 minimum charge in any campground, we have not had to pay $15,000 for the nights we spent at Thousand Trails. It has been a good deal for us west coast full timers. We also belong to Passport America ($44/year) and RPI ($135/year) which also give us substantial camping discounts. We rarely pay full price.