On the road

September 27, 2007 Westward to Grand Coulee, WA. Very small town with a famous dam on the mighty Columbia River. They do a narrated laser light show every night on the wall of the dam about the mighty Columbia River. Very kitchy.

It rained

September 29, 2007 We overnighted on a downtown street in Everett, WA near the shipyards. Then headed north to Ferndale, WA.

and rained.

September 30 through October 2, 2007 Ferndale was our homebase. Took a day drip into Vancouver, BC on Oct. 1st.

and rained.

Left Ferndale for Tacoma, WA for brake service. We spent one night in BJ’s Bingo parking lot near the Port of Tacoma, then visited Peterbuilt the next morning to find out that they needed to order parts so we headed for the Olympic Peninsula for October 3-9, 2007. We stayed at a small and lovely RV park in Sequim, WA (pronouced “squim”).

One of the many highlights of this particular segment of our trip was a ferry ride to Seattle. We visited the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, a Frank Ghery designed piece of architecture that is absolutely mind blowing, which is what it’s supposed to be because it is a showcase for artists such as Jimmy Hendrix, Nirvana and Soundgarden.

The next day we were hiking through snow in the Olympic National Park on Hurricane Ridge. We could see Victoria, BC when we reached the top of the mountain. The lack of any sounds was astounding. Pure quiet. Ahhhhhhhh!

On our last day in the area we tried to hop on a ferry to Vancouver, BC but they were full so we ended up having a great drive out to the most Northwest point of mainland USA. Had to hike to the end of the land. It was spectacular. Jim was especially overcome by the experience. The name of the area was Cape Flattery, after all.

and rained

After one overnight in the Peterbuilt Truck bay while they worked on our rig, we had to spend the next night at a stinky Clarion in Tacoma. Our holding tanks were full, so we had to evacuate! We couldn’t drive the beast because they broke off the studs from the differential to the torsion bar arm.

So, thousands of dollars in repairs and a day later, we hit the road for Centralia, WA.

and rained.

October 11 through 14, 2007 we resided at the Midway RV Park in Centralia, WA. Small town charms, such as the taco stand made from a converted MCI bus, that still had the pull cords inside.

And a funky artist’s yard art.

We visited Mt. Rainier for a short hike.

October 14, 2007 Departed Centralia WA for Portland, OR, with an afternoon spent at Mt. St. Helens. Learned some fun facts about volcanos.