Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Sunny Outside, Frosty Inside

The blue skies and warm weather returned yesterday. Summertime in western Washington – hooray! We had a chore to attend to though.

RV refrigerators are usually a heat absorption type instead of the household compressor type. This allows operation with electricity or propane. However, this type of refrigeration tends to build up frost on the cooling fins.

The climate here in western Washington has a high level of humidity. Humidity increases the amount of frost build-up in the refrigerator. I noticed the frost accumulating at an alarming rate since we arrived here. Something wasn’t right. I inspected the door seal and found a problem.

Door seal deformed and not sealing

The door seal was deformed. It looked like something must have been caught in the seal and the deformation set. We had to wait a few days to reduce the amount of groceries in the refrigerator before we could defrost it. Yesterday, Donna and I emptied the contents of the refrigerator into coolers and turned off the unit.

Frost build-up on the cooling fins

After Donna cleaned the inside of the refrigerator, I made a temporary repair on the seal. I used two short sections of rubber tubing and glued them into the groove on either side of the seal where it was deformed. The rubber tubing forced the collapsed section of the seal in place.

Rubber tubing forces seal back into shape

Rubber tubing forcing seal back into shape

While the refrigerator was defrosting, I checked the outside drain tube to make sure it was draining outside. These tubes can come off the fitting behind the refrigerator and the melting ice will drain on the floor under the refrigerator. I placed a cookie sheet on the shelf under the cooling fins to catch ice falling from the fins.

Hopefully my temporary seal repair will slow down the frost. Meanwhile, I’ll try to find a replacement seal. I certainly don’t want to replace the unit. Our refrigerator is a Dometic New Dimensions side-by-side unit. Replacement cost is about $2,700!

While the refrigerator was defrosting, Donna drove to Arlington and picked up our granddaughter, Gabi. When they returned, they went for a walk through the county park. Later, Gabi and I walked down to the lake and went out on the dock.

Gabi on the dock

Alana stopped by after work. We watched an old Austin Powers movie (Austin Powers 2). Gabi stayed the night. We didn’t pull the hide-a-bed out this time – she crashed on the sofa.

The forecast for today calls for another warm, sunny day with the temperature reaching the mid 70s. Donna’s going for a bike ride this morning. Later, I’m sure Gabi will want to spend some time in the lake. I’ll get started on organizing the trailer. We’ll be leaving here on Monday.

RV Awnings and Wind

Yesterday was another rainy day. We spent most of the day indoors. There was a short break from the rain around midday. Donna took advantage of the break by taking a walk on East Lake Goodwin Road. I drove Alana’s car to Costco and picked up a few items.

While I was out, I thought about wind. Although it’s been raining for two days, we haven’t had much wind. Wind can be a powerful and devastating force. This was demonstrated yesterday when a tornado touched down in a Virginia campground. RVs were overturned and trees were blown down. Two people were killed and more than 30 were injured.

I also saw a post on Facebook yesterday about a marina destroyed by a storm. There was a photo posted showing part of the dock on top of a boat.

The reason I was thinking about wind was because I left our awning out while Donna and I were away from the coach. Wind can quickly destroy an awning and damage an RV. I usually pull the awning in if we’re going to be away from the coach. I’ve become too complacent about it. With the rain, the awning is a nice convenience. It keeps the area around the door dry, making it nicer to exit and enter the coach while it’s raining.

Our awning is an AE WeatherPro power awning. The awning is electrically operated and opens or closes with the touch of a rocker switch. It isn’t hard to operate.

I prefer not to close the awning while it’s wet. If I have to close it while it’s wet, I’ll open it at the earliest opportunity to allow it to dry and prevent mildew. Although the fabric of the awning is mildew-resistant, dust and dirt can build up on the fabric and quickly create mildew if it’s rolled up wet.

The AE WeatherPro awning is supported by articulated arms. The design is clever. The support arm has a joint (the manual calls it a knee) about two and a half feet away from the coach. There’s an air spring that maintains pressure on the arm to hold the awning open and pull the fabric tight.

If the wind catches the awning, it billows up like a sail as the arm articulates at the knee (maybe they should call it an elbow), compressing the air spring. Once the wind passes, the air spring extends the awning back into position. This is a clever “bend don’t break” approach.

Linkage supporting the AE WeatherPro awning

Our old coach had a manually operated awning. The arms were rigid and locked into place. I’ve seen people tie down or hang weights on the ends of the arms to keep them from banging around in the wind. In my opinion, if it’s windy enough to need tie downs or weights, the awning should probably be pulled in.

With a manual awning, I would extend one arm out higher than the other. This caused the awning to tilt to one side. When it rained, water would run off the lower end of the awning instead of pooling on the fabric.

The AE WeatherPro has different spring rates on the air springs. When water pools on the fabric, the spring on the left arm (the one with the lower spring rate), collapses up to nine inches from the weight of the water and the water runs off the left end of the awning. This happened many times over the last two days!

The AE WeatherPro comes with a wind sensor. This device will automatically retract the awning if sustained winds above 18mph are detected (that’s the factory default setting and it’s adjustable). Our wind sensor was turned off when we bought the coach. I’ve read many complaints on forums about erratic wind sensor operation, so I never bothered to activate it.

After thinking it through, I think I’ll activate the wind sensor and see how it works. The AE WeatherPro manual says that erratic operation is most likely due to an obstruction blocking or partially blocking the sensor.

That’s what I know about RV awnings.

Last night, Donna thawed a package of sea food medley, marinated the seafood for five minutes in lemon juice and then sauteed it with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and white wine. She served it over whole wheat pasta. With a little grated parmesan and fresh basil, this simple meal was delicious.

Lemon-garlic seafood medley

This morning, I had written about 500 words of this post when it disappeared from my computer. I don’t know how it happened or why I couldn’t call up an autosaved version of it. All I could do was start over. Oh, well. I won’t let that ruin my day. Sunshine is in the forecast for today and the rest of the weekend.

First Year on the Road

Yesterday marked our first anniversary of hitting the road as full-time RVers. I’ve written 277 blog posts since then and I’ve slept in our motorhome every night for more than a year (we moved into our Gulfstream before we actually hit the road – we sold our bed the week before).

Leaving the sticks and bricks for the last time

The early days on the road have become a blur. We had planned to take a vacation to upstate New York to visit Donna’s family and also visit friends during the Lake Placid Ironman week. When I moved up my early retirement date, we carried on with our vacation plan. The only difference was that we didn’t return to Michigan. We took our home with us.

So we started our journey in the Northeast. From there we headed west. A month or so later, we were in the state of Washington. A month to get from New York to Washington may seem like plenty of time. But we learned that traveling by RV means you should plan for short hops and try to stop for at least a couple of nights at each place. Staying for a week or more in an interesting area is even better.

We utilized an America the Beautiful Pass to enter national parks along the way. We visited so many beautiful places and even had a few wildlife encounters. Posting this journal has kept the memory of these places and the people we’ve met fresh.

It’s also gratifying to know that this blog has inspired others to enter the RV world, just as other blogs inspired us to hit the road. We’ve been told that we inspired at least two couples to make the plunge into the full-time RV lifestyle.

By the time we made it to the Washington coast, the rainy season was looming. After visiting family for a week north of Seattle, we hit the road and headed south. We traveled down the coast through Oregon and northern California much too quickly, but still couldn’t beat the rain. When we finally made it to San Diego in late September and settled in, we found our groove.

Our first two months were exhilarating, but at the same time exhausting. We learned the ropes and could set up or break camp efficiently. We also realized that our choice of coach wasn’t ideal for our full-time lifestyle.

Three months in San Diego allowed us to get re-energized. I enjoyed re-connecting with old friends. Donna and I also have immediate family in the area which made our home feel even more like home. We plan to be there again this fall.

We’ve learned to dry camp – whether it’s an overnight stay at a casino or WalMart or in a state or county park or on privately owned land like Mumbro Park. Taking what we learned and researching coaches on the market, we found a coach that met our needs in Mesa, Arizona. We traded the Gulfstream in for an Alpine Coach.

Mesa was another long-term stay (for us anything over two weeks is long-term) of three months. Again, we were able to re-connect with friends there. That’s the beauty of the nomadic lifestyle. We can travel to great places and spend time with friends and family.

When we left Mesa in the spring, we had a better idea of how to plan our itinerary. We had reservations scheduled in places where we knew we wanted to spend time. We also had open dates between these reservations which allowed us flexibility and spontaneity. So far, it’s worked out great this summer.

We had an opening in our calendar recently that we filled with a stay in Winthrop, Washington that Donna said felt like a vacation. A week after we left there, the town was threatened by wildfire. People were evacuated from the area. There’s no electricity at this time for many of the small towns east of the Cascade Mountains. More than 150 homes have been destroyed by the largest wildfire on record in Washington. The fires have burned more than 250,000 acres of forest and towns.

We’ve had a mix of weather here at the Lake Goodwin RV Resort. During the first week of our stay, we had temperatures well above average. The weather deteriorated last weekend and we had a few showers. Yesterday we awoke to a thunderstorm. It rained all day and the temperature stayed in the low 60s. The rain made it to the east side, helping the fire fighters. With so much groundcover gone, the next threat east of the Cascades is flash flooding.

The park is becoming a pond

We spent the day indoors and played games with our eight-year-old granddaughter, Gabi. Alana stopped by after work. We ate fish tacos and visited for awhile and then she took Gabi home with her.

Gabi couldn’t stay overnight without her little friend, Beary.

This morning, the rain is still falling. I don’t have much of a plan for today. We’ll move out of Lake Goodwin RV Resort next Monday after a two-week stay. We might move over to my daughter, Alana’s driveway for a night or two before we head down to Portland, Oregon.

Friends and Family Time

Monday started off with a heavy overcast sky. While I caught up on the RV blogs I follow, Donna went for a walk. She started out on West Lake Goodwin Road and followed it south all the way to the end of the lake. At the south end of the lake, the road curves back and becomes East Lake Goodwin Road. She made a loop of the entire lake, a distance of just under six miles in about 90 minutes. Donna said the distance wasn’t bad, but the rolling hills made it challenging.

While Donna was out walking, the temperature rose to the upper 60s. The humidity made it feel sticky and much warmer.

Alana and the girls (Gabi, Lainey and Andrea) came over around midday. Alana brought lunch fixings. We sat at the picnic table and made sandwiches with sliced deli turkey meat and cheese on hoagie rolls. After lunch, the sky cleared. It was partly cloudy and the temperature rose to the lower 70s – not such bad weather after all! We spent the afternoon outdoors.

Donna had a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker all day with a barbeque sauce. So for dinner, we had BBQ pulled pork with grilled potatoes, peppers and onions and homemade corn muffins. We all sat together at the picnic table and enjoyed good food, good company and pleasant weather.

Andrea, Lainey and Alana on the left, Gabi and Donna on the right

Pulled pork plate

Yesterday, I was out of bed by 8am. Once again, the skies were overcast. I had a 10am appointment at Adventure Powersports in Monroe, to replace the rear tire on our scooter. After 5,400 miles, the original rear tire was knackered.

The ride to Monroe was a little over 30 miles from Lake Goodwin. The route I took made it a 50-minute ride. I rode through a couple of light rain showers on the way.

While the work was being done, I phoned my friend, Dan Wolanski. Dan lives a few miles away from the Adventure Powersports shop. He invited me to come to his place around noon. Dan and I spent a lot of time together in the ’90s. We were flying partners. We practiced flying aerobatic routines with giant-scale radio-controlled airplanes. Although we were both sponsored by Futaba and were close friends, we competed against each other.

Dan has a mechanical engineering degree from Michigan State University. He and his wife, Jen, moved to the Seattle area and Dan went to work for Boeing. Today, Dan owns a company called Mag-Knight. Back in the day, Mag-Knight produced magnetic motorcycle tank bras through a proprietary, patented process. Dan worked from a shop behind his home. We also built our giant-scale airplanes in his shop. He built up the Mag-Knight business and eventually left Boeing.

It’s been at least 10 years since I last saw Dan. In that time, he built a new house about a mile away from where he used to live. He also built a larger workshop behind his new house.

The Wolanski’s new 4,200-square-foot home

Although the Mag-Knight company still makes magnetic tank bras, the business diversified into die cutting and laser cutting. This is where the bulk of the business is today. Dan has several contracts as a supplier to major corporations. One of the products he manufactures is a ceramic fiber seal used in fuel cells. Ceramic fiber is heat-resistant and replaces asbestos in many applications.

Workshop behind Dan’s house

The die-cutting machines Dan uses were sourced from China. He told me the machines work well mechanically, but the software isn’t the best. It’s an area he’s put a lot of time into. He also bought a laser cutting machine. To learn its capabilities and shortcomings, he made a few hobby projects. One project was a model of the Seattle Space Needle. Another, more complicated model is a Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel has an electric motor operating a ring-and-pinion gear cut from plywood!

Seven-foot-tall model Ferris wheel laser cut from plywood

Like me, Dan eventually burned out on the radio-controlled aerobatic competition circuit. He hasn’t flown an RC airplane in years. He still has a passion for airplanes and flying though. He earned his pilot’s license and bought a Cessna several years ago – I think it was a 172. Since then, he’s become instrument-rated and replaced the Cessna with a speedy Cirrus SR-22. He flies regularly out of Harvey Field in Snohomish.

After catching up with Dan for an hour and a half, it was time to hit the road. I considered riding to Snohomish, where Alana, Donna and Gabi were poking around in the shops. It started to rain as I donned my helmet, so I decided to high-tail it home.

Alana, Donna and Gabi came home around 4pm. I drove Alana to her mother LuAnn’s house and brought her car back to the park. The plan was for us to come over for dinner at LuAnn’s at 6pm.

LuAnn’s husband, Jerry, is retired from the US Forest Service. During fire season, he’s often called back under contract to work as an administrator at wild fire sites. So far, this has been one of the worst fire seasons on record in the Northwest. Jerry is working at a fire site in Oregon. It was his birthday, so we raised a toast to him in absentia.

We enjoyed cocktails on the back patio as the rain showers had moved on early in the afternoon and the sun came out. LuAnn grilled alder-planked sockeye salmon and roasted a medley of fresh vegetables, many from her garden, as well as the bunch of garlic spears we bought at Pike Place. Donna also brought a couple of bottles of wine and a freshly baked marion berry pie she picked up earlier in the day from a bakery in Snohomish.

Dinner served buffet-style

It was a very enjoyable evening. We had after-dinner drinks and talked well past 9pm before we headed back to the RV park with Gabi in tow. Gabi spent the night with us on the fold-out queen-size hide-a-bed.

This morning we woke to the sound of heavy rain and a couple of thunder claps. The forecast calls for a rainy day. It looks to be an indoors kind of day.

Laid Back Sunday

Last week’s hot weather disappeared over the weekend. Under heavy, overcast skies we dodged showers all day on Saturday. On Sunday morning, we had a few showers early, but the rain stopped by 9am. Still, the clouds hung low all day.

I dropped Donna off at Alana’s house at 10:30am. Her plan was to ride her bike to Snohomish and have lunch with her colleague, Laura Leist. The ride to Snohomish on the Centennial Trail is about 23 miles each way. They met at Todo Mexican restaurant and enjoyed lunch on the deck overlooking the Snohomish River. Laura is an organizing and productivity consultant, speaker and author. She’s one of 25 leading organizing experts interviewed in Donna’s latest book, Secrets of Professional Organizers.

I came home and spent some time writing yesterday’s long-winded post. I put a pot pie in the oven and sat back to watch the Formula One race from Hockenheim, Germany, on the DVR. It was a great race with several battles for position, but I won’t spoil the outcome in case a reader hasn’t seen it yet.

At 3:30pm, I fired up Alana’s 2014 VW GTI. Just as I was exiting the park, Donna sent me a message saying she should be at Alana’s house in 15 minutes. Perfect timing. In fact, as I pulled into Alana’s neighborhood, I saw Donna riding up the street 150 yards ahead of me.

Last night, Donna made a pot of chili. We ate and watched the first episode of the 3-part mini-series, Klondike. I fell asleep before the end, so we’ll have to replay half of it. It was a long episode, but I think it’s worth another look.

We have cloudy skies this morning. The weather guessers are calling for a partly sunny afternoon. The forecast for the coming week isn’t too promising though. We may see more rain by Wednesday.

First Saturday Club Anniversary

My last post was a short blurb on Thursday, July 17th about computer trouble. I think this is my longest stretch without a post. My laptop runs hot. Several months ago, Donna bought me a Targus Laptop Chill Mat with fans to circulate cool air under the laptop. This seemed to help. Last week, my laptop started shutting itself off. When I restarted it, the laptop displayed an error message about a cooling fan not working and an overheat error message.

I bought this laptop about a year and a half ago. On Thursday, I rode down to Best Buy and talked to them about the issue. The warranty is only good for 12 months. They said they would need to send the laptop to their service center and it would take about 10 business days before I would get it back. The estimated cost to replace the fan was $150 minimum, plus any heat damaged components they find. This sounded expensive considering the laptop (HP Pavilion G6) costs around $300 new.

I was afraid to use the laptop. If it overheated and crashed, I might lose all of my files. On Friday, I talked to my friend and former colleague, Khaldoon Tufail. Khaldoon is very computer savvy. He told me fan issues more often than not are caused by dust and debris build-up on the fan itself. The fan is located underneath the keyboard. His advice was to start by trying to blow the area out with a compressed gas duster. If that didn’t work, I would have to open the case and replace the fan. I found instructions for this on YouTube. It requires nearly complete disassembly of the laptop.

I bought a couple of cans of compressed gas and blew gas through all of the vent openings for the fan and through the keyboard. After doing this several times, the laptop seems to function fine. In fact, I think it’s running cooler than ever. Thanks, Khaldoon!

My daughter, Alana, had Wednesday and Thursday off work at the hospital. We spent both days together with her and our granddaughters and their “adopted” friend, Andrea. Andrea is about Lainey’s age and she is currently living with them.

It was hot and sunny both days. They bought some floating mattresses on their way out to the lake. I cut the stem of a Presta valve out of an old bicycle tube and made an adapter to fill the mattresses with air, using our bicycle tire pump. This was better than trying to blow up four mattresses. The girls enjoyed time in the lake and we grilled dinner both nights.

We loaded Donna’s bike in Alana’s car and Alana drove Donna to her house on Thursday so she could ride the Centennial Trail, which passes near Alana’s house. The roads around Lake Goodwin aren’t wide enough for safe bicycling. Donna took a ride on the trail and put in 30 miles or so.

On Friday, Alana picked us up after work. She took us to a brew pub called Skookum Brewery near her home. We sampled a few brews and had nachos. Afterwards, Alana gave us her car for the weekend. We dropped her off at home and drove her car back to the Lake Goodwin RV Resort.

Donna enjoyed a hefe while Alana tried a sample flight

Donna enjoyed a hefe while Alana tried a sampler flight

Yesterday, our friends from Portland, DeWayne and Marlo Nikkila, were passing through the area. They had visited relatives in Bremerton and were taking the Bremerton-Seattle Ferry to continue their travels to Wyoming and South Dakota. The ferry would drop them off in Seattle at 11am.

We arranged to meet at an Indian restaurant called Bombay House. It was right on their route, just off of I-90 in the Eastgate area of Bellevue. DeWayne and Marlo are vegans and they love Indian food (as do we), so this restaurant fit the bill. We met at 11:30am and had lunch. I haven’t seen them since we visited them on a motorcycle tour back in 2010. They were living in North Bay, Ontario at the time. Donna and I rode our BMWs on an extended motorcycle tour that took us through Ontario. Since then, they’ve lived in Hawaii, where DeWayne was stationed, and now Portland. The last time Donna and Marlo were together was at a convention in Las Vegas in 2011.

We sat at our table and talked for over an hour. DeWayne is a retired military man now. We talked about adjusting to The Saturday Club (every day is Saturday).

Marlo and Donna

After we left them, we drove west on I-90 to downtown Seattle. I was a little concerned because there were signs warning of lane closures on I-90 and traffic delays. We took our chances and found the traffic was so light (everyone else must have heeded the warnings), we didn’t have any problems.

Our first stop was at the Esquin Wine Merchant south of the city center. This store is in an old warehouse. They have aisle after aisle of wine – great selection and great prices. Donna picked out a few bottles.

From there, we drove downtown and parked on the corner of 2nd and Pike. We walked down the street to Pike Place Market. Pike Place Market is Seattle’s original farmers’ market. It first opened on August 17, 1907. It’s located on a steep hillside overlooking Elliott Bay. You can find great prices on some of the freshest seafood there. Most of the vendor stalls are in a large building with six levels. The building houses vendors with everything from seafood, fresh fruit and vegetables to tourist trinkets, T-shirts and fine art to restaurants and bars. You name it, you can probably find it there.

Saturday crowd at Pike Place Market

There’s one fish monger in particular with a large selection of fresh fish. They always draw a crowd. While we were standing in front of their display, someone bought some fish. One of the employees hollered, “Four black cod!” He then picked up a large, whole black cod from the crushed ice and threw it to another guy behind the counter about 15 feet away. The second guy made the catch and wrapped the fish. This was repeated until all four of the fish purchased were caught, wrapped and delivered. It was a good show.

Fish monger

More seafood

We stopped at a fruit and vegetable stand and found garlic spears. These are like the garlic scapes we bought in Coeur d’Alene, but they are from elephant garlic plants. Donna bought a bunch.

Fruit and vegetable stand

We wandered among the stalls until I was feeling claustrophobic from the crowd. We walked outside the building and shopped across the street. Donna bought handmade cheese from a small store.

Fresh flower arrangements – from $5 to $20

After we left Pike Place, I drove us up to Ballard, a small fishing community north of downtown. I wanted to show Donna the Chittenden Locks (also known as the Ballard Locks). These locks are part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The locks connect the fresh water of Lake Washington and Lake Union to the salt water of Puget Sound. The locks maintain the fresh water levels 20-22 feet above the mean low tide level of the sound. This prevents salt water intrusion into the fresh water of the lakes.

We crossed the locks and went to the fish ladder. This is a unique ladder due to it’s location at the confluence of fresh and salt water. When the Corps of Engineers built the dam and locks, they blocked the natural flow of fresh water to the sound. The fish ladder provides flow from the lake for salmon and steelhead trout to return from the sea to fresh water. These fish hatch in fresh water. Then they migrate to the sea. At the end of their lifespan, they return to the fresh water to spawn.

The fish ladder has 21 weirs (or steps). The weirs are like large, square concrete buckets of water overflowing into the next lower weir. Each weir is about a foot higher than the previous weir. The fish are attracted to the weirs by the smell of the fresh water flowing through them. The fish jump up each weir, climbing to the level of the lake to continue their journey to the rivers, streams and creeks they originally came from. We could see fish in the weirs from the walkway above. We walked down to a special viewing room. Some of the weirs have a plexiglass wall, allowing us to look into the weir like an aquarium. We saw steelhead trout and Coho (silver) salmon working their way up.

Yesterday was a landmark day for me. Friday, July 19, 2013 was my last day of work at the office. I walked out the door, joined the Saturday Club and haven’t looked back. The time seems to have flown by. Paradoxically, it also seems like we’ve been so many places and have seen so many things, it couldn’t possibly have fit into a span of just one year. Wednesday will mark one year since we locked up the house for the last time and hit the road.

We ended the day by watching an old movie, Witness, starring Harrison Ford. All in all, it was a great anniversary of my induction into The Saturday Club.

Laptop Trouble

An internal fan in my laptop quit working. The laptop overheats and shuts itself off. It may be a few days before I blog again.

The Long Way Home

Yesterday was our first full day at the Lake Goodwin RV Resort in Stanwood, Washington. It was another great day weatherwise with blue skies and temperature above average. The thermometer hit 83 degrees here.

Our granddaughter, Gabi, stayed with us overnight. We all slept in and didn’t get out of bed until 9am. I haven’t slept that late in awhile. It felt good.

After breakfast, Donna and Gabi went for hike through the county park next to the RV park. I unloaded the scooter from our trailer. Donna needed a few fresh vegetables, so I rode the scooter to the Fred Meyer store in Marysville. Donna sent me a text saying they had seen deer near the road and to be careful riding in the area.

Deer on the roadside

The ride to the Fred Meyer store was longer than I thought it would be. The long ride included a section of road construction choking traffic on Smokey Point Boulevard down to one lane. On my way back, I decided to skirt the construction by taking a shortcut across 136th Street to 140th Street NW.

Many of the roads around here are dead ends because of the lakes. As I traveled west on 140th Street, I was trying to remember which avenue would take me to Lake Goodwin Road. I should have turned north at 46th Avenue, but I missed the turn. My shortcut took me all the way out to Kayak Point, then up Marine Drive to Lakewood Road, west of Lake Martha. This was a long loop.

That’s how shortcuts can be sometimes. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be a shortcut. It would just be “the way.”

It was 2pm by the time I returned from my quick run to the store. I had a late lunch and then I joined Donna and Gabi at the end of the swimming dock in the lake.

RV resort swimming dock

The dock extends well into the lake, but the water is only about four feet deep at the end of the dock. I lowered myself into the lake to join them, but I was surprised by the lake temperature. The water was cold. I didn’t understand how Donna and Gabi spent hours in the lake. After a few minutes, I had all the fun I could stand and got out.

The lake covers about 535 acres and is popular for swimming, fishing and watercraft. There are several lakes here in the northwest sector of Snohomish County.

Boats near the park dock on Lake Goodwin

Private docks and residences

Yesterday, our neighbors pulled out of the park. We had open sites on both sides. That didn’t last long though. New neighbors moved in. Our new neighbors to the west of us told Donna how they are having trouble finding a place to stay for a few weeks. They are from Tucson and own some kind of shop here. The shop flooded and they need to stay for a few weeks to repair it. They will be here in the RV park for a week and then they need to find another place to stay.

I’m still wondering why the park management won’t allow my cargo trailer to be in my site. I guess they think that cargo trailers will be an eyesore and degrade the park. I took a walk around and snapped a couple of photos yesterday. There are a few sites with rigs that have been here for a long time. If the management is concerned about eyesores, they should be looking at these sites and not worrying about a cargo trailer.

I wonder when this rig set up here

This looks scary – propane and extension cords

Having the trailer in the storage yard is a minor inconvenience. I’ll get over it.

Last night, Alana and her daughter, Lainey, and their “adopted” friend Andrea joined Donna, Gabi and me for dinner. Donna made her famous blackened tilapia fish tacos. For desert, we had black bean brownies. After dinner, the girls played a few rounds of Scattergories at the picnic table.

My daughter, Alana, has today and tomorrow off from work. We’ll get together with her and the girls and enjoy the lake.

Family Time

On Sunday, my daughter, Alana, and granddaughter, Gabi, visited us at the WalMart lot. We locked up the coach and Alana drove us up Lakewood Road to preview our next stop. I wanted to see the entrance and sites at the Lake Goodwin RV Resort. It’s always nice to know what you’re getting into. I’m glad we did. Then we drove to her house in Arlington. We visited for awhile, then drove around to see the area. We stopped and shopped at a great market called Haggen’s.

We shopped there when we visited the area last year and found many gourmet foods as well as a nice beer and wine selection. Haggen’s lost their lease and the store is closing at the end of this week. Everything is heavily discounted. Donna found some great deals – like sherry vinegar for $3.75 (she paid $16 for her last bottle) and black truffle salt for $3.75 (normally about $50 a pound, marked down to half price).

On Monday morning, Alana dropped Gabi off with us on her way to work at Providence Hospital in Everett. Alana is a nurse in the emergency room there. We invited Gabi to take a ride in the coach and spend the day with us at Lake Goodwin.

After some more shopping at WalMart, we pulled out around 11:30am and drove five miles to the Lake Goodwin Resort. The name is misleading. While it is on Lake Goodwin, it’s a stretch to call it a resort. It’s an RV park with tight quarters.

I had reserved a large 50-am pull through site. The site is long – about 70 feet. But it’s narrow and it isn’t 50-amp service – it’s 30-amp. Additionally, they don’t allow cargo trailers in the sites. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this. No mention was made of this when I reserved the site and told them my overall length with the trailer. I had to drop the trailer when we entered the park. A maintenance guy hooked it up to a tractor and pulled it into their storage yard. Getting set up required a few trips to the trailer to retrieve items.

There are several rigs in the park that haven’t moved in a long time. Some people are using the park as a long-term residence. We’ve found this in a few places. I guess it’s cheaper than the local rental market.

Donna and Gabi went for a swim in the lake. Gabi could have spent the whole day in the water. The water was warm and the air temperature was in the mid-80s. Donna was a trouper and allowed three hours in the lake. Then they went to the playground.

Gabi and Donna on the swing set

Earlier in the day, Gabi and Donna made a spinach dip. Gabi sat at Donna’s laptop station and read the recipe out loud to Donna. You’ll find the recipe at the end of this post.

Gabi at the laptop

Donna in the kitchen

While we were at Alana’s house, she gave us garlic scapes. She has locally grown organic vegetables delivered. They deliver a mix of vegetables and her last delivery included scapes. We found garlic scapes for the first time two weeks ago at the farmers’ market in Hayden, Idaho. Now we have them again!

Garlic scapes with black truffle salt

Alana and our other granddaughter, Lainey, joined us after Alana got off work. I grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs marinated with honey-maple dressing. Donna served it with a green salad and a delicious homemade red potato salad. After dinner, we had a campfire and roasted s’mores.

Lainey, Alana Gabi and Donna having s’mores at the camp fire

We rolled out the hide-a-bed and Gabi stayed the night with us. The forecast is calling for a few more warm days before the temperature drops back into the 70s.

The north side of Lake Goodwin from the RV park

The north end of Lake Goodwin from the RV park

Donna’s Spinach Dip

1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thoroughly drained and squeezed dry
1/2 package dried vegetable soup mix
1/2 cup jarred roasted peppers, chopped

Mix together and refrigerate 2 hours. Serve with raw vegetables.

Diablo Deja Vu

After our early morning wake-up yesterday, Donna walked to the bakery downtown and picked up breakfast for us. She brought me a sausage, cheese and egg sandwich on a biscuit and bought a cinnamon pull-apart pastry for herself.

We pulled out of the Pine Near RV Park at 11am and headed west on the North Cascades Highway (WA20). We drove over this highway last year in our gasoline-powered Gulfstream coach. I remembered it being a slow struggle up Washington Pass. This year, it’s unusually hot. I took it easy climbing to the summit at Washington Pass, holding 40-45mph up the steep grade and switchbacks. The temperature gauge was indicating just under 200 degrees Fahrenheit – the hottest I’ve seen our Cummins ISL engine reach.

Windshield view as we climb the North Cascade Highway – yep, that’s snow in July

The North Cascade Highway is closed from around mid-November to mid-April due to the amount of snowfall. I crossed it once in the spring after the road had been cleared. The snow banks along the road were over 20 feet high.

Once we crossed the Pacific Crest Trail at Rainy Pass, it was downhill into the wet side of Washington. West of the Cascade Range, the climate is very different from the east side. The steep Cascade Mountains trap moisture from the Pacific Ocean. In the Seattle area, measurable precipitation falls 150 days per year. It’s cloudy more than 200 days per year.

We made a stop at the overlook above Diablo Dam. We stopped at the same place and took a selfie last year. We shot another selfie to compare our look a year later.

Selfie over Diablo

There are a series of three dams – Ross, Diablo and Gorge Dam. These generate electricity for western Washington, utilizing the water cascading down to the Skagit Valley. The water has a unique hue to it. The color comes from the glacial run-off that fills the reservoirs. Glacial action scrubs organic and inorganic matter from the mountains. This matter is suspended in the water, giving it a greenish color.

Reservoir behind Diablo Dam

Once again, the two-stage Jake brake on our Cummins ISL made descending into the Skagit Valley a breeze. It was a white-knuckle affair at times last year with our gasoline-powered Gulfstream coach.

After we passed Marblemount, Donna started to look for a place for us to dry camp. We found a WalMart in Smokey Point, near my daughter’s house in Arlington. Donna called and talked to manager. He said local ordinance limits the stay to 24 hours, but realistically two nights are fine. This was perfect as we need to hang out for two nights before we move to the Lake Goodwin RV Resort where we have reserved a two-week stay.

Donna programmed Nally (our GPS). Nally directed us to take Highway 530 through Darrington. I lived in Darrington, a small logging town in the north Cascades, for 13 years. This is where my three daughters grew up. When I talked to my oldest daughter, Alana, a couple of days ago, I asked about the condition of 530. There was a devastating mudslide recently between Darrington and Arlington that destroyed more than 30 homes, resulting in deaths and many injuries. The mudslide covered a stretch of Highway 530. Alana told me the road was open. She said there was a slow stretch with narrow lanes, but it wasn’t bad.

We took 530 through Darrington. The last time I came through Darrington was for my youngest daughter’s high school graduation in 2005. My youngest daughter, Shauna, attended school from kindergarten through high school here. Today, she’s a law student at Cal Western University in San Diego.

As we made our way to the WalMart, we passed the Arlington Airport. It’s a small general aviation airport. I used to live near the northwest corner of the airport from 2002 to 2005. We saw signs for the EAA Fly-in. This is a gathering of members of the Experimental Aircraft Association that takes place one weekend every summer in Arlington. They have seminars, vendors and planes on display. They also put on an airshow with aerobatic airplanes, warbirds and experimental aircraft.

After we set up in the WalMart lot, we walked back to a steakhouse called the Buzz Inn. It’s located at the south end of the runway. They had tables set up outside. We found seats and enjoyed cold beer and food while we watched the airshow. I had no idea that the EAA Fly-in was this weekend. I also didn’t know the WalMart was by the airport (it didn’t exist when I lived here before). Serendipity strikes again.

Last night, Alana stopped by with her eight-year-old daughter, Gabi (Gabriella). Her other daughter, Lainey, was out camping with friends for the weekend. We enjoyed the visit and will join them again today. We’re looking forward to spending time with Alana and our granddaughters over the next two weeks.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Sunny Outside, Frosty Inside

RV Awnings and Wind

First Year on the Road

Friends and Family Time

Laid Back Sunday

First Saturday Club Anniversary

Laptop Trouble

The Long Way Home

Family Time

Diablo Deja Vu

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