Rich's RV and Shootin' Tour 2017

[RJ]

Took a drive around the Sequim area today. There's quite a few restaurants, so we picked The Oak Table for lunch, it was good.

The town reminds me of Anacortes, small, maybe 7,000 people:



Local farmers market on Saturday:





We took the doggie out to John Wayne Marina, 3 miles out of town. Very nice:





Oh, and the Mrs found her a Sailboat. She liked this one:



I have no idea how much these things cost, but I'm sure I'm going to be told at some point lol. Future plans of a condo in Punta Gorda FL, with a boat slip, have been mentioned.

(I did a 2.5 day compressed basic keelboat class in Oriental NC about 10 years ago. We used 22' C&C fire and aft rigged boats and crewed with three of us students and instructor.)

I'm sure we could manage one of these, just would need to get some time in before heading out over our head. This would be post-RV phase, 2-3 years down the road. We'll see.

In Airstream news, I think the fresh water pump inlet check valve is leaking again. I had 100% water in my 54 gallon fresh water tank overnight. It must have filled up past the valve.

Last month when this happened the solution was to run the water pump all the time with city water turned off. Will see how it is tomorrow.

[RJ]

Saw this cool image in Port Angeles yesterday:



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Kalakala

Very cool.

[Drang]

EDIT: Oops.

Everyone wanted to rescue the thing, nobody wanted to spend the bucks necessary...

[SeriousStudent]

.....

Oh, and the Mrs found her a Sailboat. She liked this one:

......

Avoid three-hour tours at all costs.

[RJ]

So we are headed out of Sequim WA tomorrow.

We really took a liking to the area. We reserved a spot in the RV Park for July and most of August 2018.

The town has pretty much what we look for: New Costco, clean Super WalMart, plenty of restaurant choices, a brand new Anytime Fitness and supporting infrastructure.

The region is in the Cascade 'rain shadow' meaning the weather in July is generally mild. It's 64F and sunny outside. It's been like that all week.

The Park is great; small with good services, including Cat 5e LAN DSL. It's nicely landscaped and super clean. Location is across the street from a Kroger with the cheapest Diesel in town. It's only 0.5m from the center of town.

We spent the last few days exploring. We drove up to the spectacular Cresent Lake:



Just lovely, fresh and clean.

We ordered a new set of step rugs for the AS, in a nice blue upgrade to match our new Accent Rugs inside.



The old gray ones (at left) dated from our 2016 27 footer and were getting pretty sad looking.

Tomorrow we do laundry and get a propane refill at our overnight stop in Shelton at the Casino (same one). We do three nights in Silverlake WA on our way down to Portland. We are a week in Tualatin OR, visiting with my nephew, as well as doing the match in Dundee OR on July 22.

[RJ]

Quick location update.

Thursdays stay at the Casino in Kamilche WA was fine. We ate at the buffet, did our laundry, and filled up with fuel and a propane tank at the Trading Post. It's a good spot for a few days, really, even tho we did 1 this time.

There's not a lot other than the Casino, though. It's the biggest employer in Mason County, apparently.

So Friday we hopped down I5 about 65 miles to Silverlake WA. The camp is 7 miles down Spirit Lake Highway, on (of course) Silver Lake.

We stopped for a photo of Mt. St Helens:



Very nice. It's a 75 minute drive to the overlook, and we might do that Sunday.

Had dinner in (Chili, yummy) and played a round of Backgammon. We found this older travel set at a thrift shop in Sequim for $5:



No big plans this weekend, might give Sunnydays a bath, and check out the Outlets in Centralia.

[RJ]

Soooo...and sometimes the Campground sucks lol.

We are without WiFi, and our Verizon signal is poor at best. I'm on 'Extended' or '1X' Verizon, which I've never seen before, but can't be good.

We're situated next to the Family from Hell; three generations, 3 vehicles, multiple tents and screens, bikes and camping gear strewn hither and yon, yelling starting at 7:30AM, granddaughter finding it amusing to set off the car alarm randomly, 60 lb chocolate lab running loose, and (of course!) a smoky wood fire for the obligatory marshmallows commencing at 9pm lasting well into the night.

You have to laugh.

Or get relaxed; we are trying a local 2016 white. We paid $14.99 at the winery but it drinks like an $7.99 box from Trader Joe's. :/

Oh well.

Today we drove the 47 miles (47 miles!!!) to Johnston Observatory Overlook to get a view of Mt St. Helens. It was great.

I was in College at UVA in 1980 during the eruption, and vividly remember the vial of ash my relatives in Tacoma sent me in Virginia. I took some good pictures but it will have to wait until we get to a connection faster than 300 baud dial up.

Not sure about the morrow; between the Belt Sander Races, Squirrelfest or the Lavender Festival, we're spoiled for choice.



Or we might try and get the hell out of here.

ETA: I really should not post after the second glass of wine before dinner.

[SeriousStudent]

Look at the bright side. When I have sucky neighbors, they stay for years.

[RJ]

Mt St Helen's:



I doctored this one up; as I imagined it might have felt in 1980:

[NEPAKevin]

I think the late Ansel Adams would have approved.