Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Newport – Seafood City

We pulled out of Tillamook around 11am Friday and continued our journey south on US101 along the Oregon coast. It’s such a scenic drive. We drove past the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge and went through Lincoln City. Back in the early ’90s, we used to hold annual Volkswagen dealer meetings there at the Salishan Lodge – a great full-service resort with a golf course. The route is quite hilly with several short, steep grades and steep downgrades. Most of it is heavily forested on the east side and rocky on the coastline. There are some stunning views from the tops of bluffs.

South of Depoe Bay there’s a steep climb followed by a long descent into Newport. Before we left Tillamook I asked Donna for the address of the RV park. I programmed it into Nally, our Rand McNally RVND7720 GPS. It was a simple route – South on US101 to Newport, but having the GPS is helpful with speed limit warnings and also it will advise us if we are overweight for weight-limited bridges or too tall for overhead clearance.

As we drove into Newport and headed toward Yaquina Bay, the GPS display zoomed in to our destination. I glanced at it and thought it didn’t seem right. I was sure we had to cross the bridge to the south side of the bay, but the route was taking me to the north side. I wondered what Nally knew that I didn’t know.

We went past the Elks Lodge down a steep hill and entered a busy street with apartment complexes. I saw the RV park on the left ahead, but it didn’t seem right. I pulled into the RV drive and had a sinking feeling when I read a sign that said “Dead End – No Turn Around.” What? Who would make an RV park with no way to turn a big rig around.

I figured out what had happened. When we were looking for a park to reserve in Newport, Donna called several places. As we were leaving Tillamook, she looked up the address for the park name she had written down, not realizing that it was not where we made our reservation.

Now I was in trouble. I had to back the trailer into a busy, relatively narrow street and get it turned 90 degrees so I could make a two-point exit. Donna got out and directed traffic. It was more like a six-point turn, but we got it done and headed back to US101. I put the correct destination into Nally and we drove across the Yaquina Bay Bridge and found the Port of Newport RV Park and Marina.

The port has two RV park locations. One is right at the marina and is paved with 50-amp full hook ups. It also has some paved dry camping sites. The other location is a couple of blocks away. It’s an older dirt and gravel park that was once privately owned, but the Port of Newport owns and operates it now. It has 30-amp full hook-up sites and that’s where we managed to reserve a site for a week.

I thought I had enough room to back the trailer in and drop it at our site. I pulled Midget-San out of the trailer and started to back the trailer in. It wasn’t going well – it was a lot tighter than I initially thought and I didn’t have much room to maneuver. A guy came over to help direct me, so I wouldn’t hit a boat trailer across from our site. Then he offered to get his truck and hook up to our trailer so he could position it in our site. I took him up on it and he got it done. Getting back out when we leave on Friday shouldn’t be a problem.

Newport is all about the fishing and almost everyone in our section of the RV park is here for the fishing. All of the guys occupying the five sites in the row across from us have fishing boats at the marina. The bring their boats and RVs here in April and leave them here until October.

The guy that helped me with the trailer is named Vern. He invited me to to come over for a cold one and meet his fishing buddies. They told me they had caught 24 albacore tuna that morning. They have been catching albacore, salmon and halibut.

On Saturday, Donna and I took a ride in the Midget. We drove across the bridge and cruised SW Bay Boulevard on the north side of Yaquina Bay. This is the old harbor district and the narrow street is lined with historic buildings housing seafood markets and many restaurants. From there, we drove to the farmers’ market near the courthouse. Donna bought fresh produce there.

Our next stop was another historic site called Nye Beach. This was a cool, old neighborhood that reminded me of Ocean Beach in San Diego.

View to the north at Nye Beach – that spit of land is Yaquina Head and there’s a lighthouse at the tip

We stopped at a small park with beach access at Nye Beach. To the north at Yaquiona Head, we could see a lighthouse that I would soon learn about.

We drove through the beach side neighborhood south to the Yaquina Bay Recreation Site. This is a public park and it also has an old lighthouse.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was only operational for three years – 1871 to 1874. I wondered why that was . We toured the lighthouse and I found out why. It turned out that the lighthouse could be seen from more than eight miles out to sea – unless you approached from the north. The ridge at Yaquina Head obscured the lighthouse and confused sailors.

In 1874, a new lighthouse was completed at Yaquina Head – the one we could see from Nye Beach – so the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was shut down.

Looking south from the lighthouse – the jetty is the entrance to Yaquina Bay

We reconnoitered more of the marina area by car before we came back home. Later, Donna went out for a walk and found a market nearby that has fresh fish and is also a small cafe. She also found the Wolf Tree Brewery Taproom we were looking for earlier in the day. Apparently, we drove right by it!

On Sunday morning, I watched the Moto GP races from Spielberg, Austria. All three races were superb with lots of action and close racing. In the afternoon, we walked to the lot across from the RV park where the Rogue Brewers on the Bay brewery and taproom is located. It’s a large warehouse type steel building right on the bay. Rogue has been making ale in Newport since 1988.

Donna had a sampler flight of four stouts – she liked all of them but ended up ordering a glass of double chocolate stout. I went for the Dead Guy ale – it was one of my favorites about ten years ago. Rogue also has a distillery here at the marina in another building.

The weather has been very agreeable. The clouds burn off in the late morning or early afternoon and the temperature has been reaching the upper 60s. Nights are cool with temps in the mid 50s. Today we plan to cruise north in Midget-San to Depoe Bay and have a look around. It seemed like a cool town when we rolled through it on our way here. On the way back, we’ll take the Otter Creek Loop – a scenic drive with a small state park. The forecast calls for a high of 71 today – of course we’ll cruise with the convertible top down!

The Goonies

On Tuesday afternoon, we rode our bikes through town. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was – this is the height of the Oregon Coast tourist season. The sidewalks were crowded like a Disneyland street. Bicycles were probably the best way to get through town.

We went north across Ecola Creek on Fir Street then found Ecola State Park Road. The park is on a bluff and the road climbs steeply. About half a mile up the road – maybe halfway to the park – it became steeper with sharp curves. I dismounted and asked Donna to remind why we were doing this. We decided to turn around and go to the beach access at the end of 5th Street.

Another view of Haystack Rock and the beach at Ecola Creek

Although it was cloudy and the temperature was only in the low 60s, there were people on the beach. Not this San Diego boy! We rode back into town and stopped at the bike shop – I wanted to buy a tube patch kit. The store owner was the only guy working there and he had his hands full. One large family was renting bikes while another family was returning rental bikes. When I mentioned the steep entrance to Ecola State Park, he told me that not only was it steep, but it’s dangerous. He said cars whip through the curves on the narrow road. I was glad we bailed on it.

We made another stop at the Tuesday farmers’ market in town. It was smaller than we expected, but Donna bought some produce there. Donna had posted some pictures from her walk earlier on Facebook and a few people mentioned the movie The Goonies when they saw where she was. On Tuesday night, we watched that old movie. Although it’s supposed to be set in Astoria, Bird Rocks and Haystack Rock are prominent in some of the scenes. We thought the movie was a bust.

On Wednesday, Donna took another bike ride, this time to the south toward Tolovana Park. She shot another photo of Haystack Rock.

Haystack Rock on the right, Needles on the left

In the afternoon, we rode our bicycles to Pelican Brewing for a couple of cold ones. Pelican has been brewing since 1996 and they have some great beers. They have three brew pubs on the coast in Pacific City, Cannon Beach and Tillamook.

Speaking of Tillamook, we loaded up Thursday morning and pulled out of Cannon Beach RV Resort. We headed south on US101 – it’s very scenic. We went about 50 miles to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. This is a country store featuring a deli, wines, cheeses and assorted gifts. It located right on US101, a couple of miles south of the Tillamook Creamery. The property is an old farmstead and they offer free overnight dry camping.

We found a level spot to claim and went inside to check in. They gave us a parking pass and a list of rules. They allow up to two nights of dry camping – no tents. They have farm animals and lots of fowl – chickens, turkeys and peafowl along with goats and sheep. It’s a popular lunch stop for families and lots of kids enjoy the animals. We had a very good lunch at a table inside. The deli service is a little slow, but the food was great.

In the late afternoon, the cloudy skies finally cleared and we had the first sunset we’ve been able to see in days. Today we’ll continue south on US101 to an RV park right at the marina in Newport. We’ll be there for the next week.

Across the Columbia

Sunday was our last full day in South Bend. We rode our bikes across town at mid-day and found Linda’s Fish and Chips on the east end of town. It’s a popular spot and has a large parking area that can accommodate RVs. It’s just a food trailer, but the food is good and the property is nice with a large lawn area and several picnic tables with umbrellas. The view downriver from the lot is nice. We stopped for lunch and ate at one of the tables.

From there we rode across the lot to the bike path to Raymond. The bike path is mostly paved, but there are several short unpaved sections. Donna is loving her Trek Dual Sport 2 – it handles the dirt sections almost as well as my mountain bike. Her bike is faster than mine on the pavement though.

About halfway between South Bend and Raymond, we found a small RV park right on the river. It had about a dozen sites and was next door to a boat shop specializing in catamarans. They had two very large catamarans on the lot – I wonder how they launch these behemoths. They looked like you could easily live aboard and cruise the ocean. I could get used to that!

We stopped at the grocery store in Raymond and Donna bought cereal and bananas before we rode back. We were within a quarter-mile of our coach when my front tire went flat. I must have picked up a blackberry thorn. This close to the trailer I didn’t mess with it on the side of the road, I just walked it back.

Sunday evening, I watched the Moto GP race – it turned out to be one of the least exciting races of the season. I had most of our things packed in the trailer – I only left Donna’s bike and our camp chairs out to pack in the morning. Donna wanted to ride her bike to the market in the morning. Our new set-up in the trailer is working well, but I have a few items I’d like to find a better place to store. This photo illustrates why I wanted such a small car. Midget-San is small enough for me to open the driver’s door and exit without any trouble once it’s inside the trailer. I keep a car cover on it in case anything gets loose in the trailer.

We were on the road again by 10:30am Monday morning. As we headed toward Bruceport on US101, I was behind a few cars that were traveling about 50mph. I kept a distance of about 100 – 150 feet behind the car in front of me and matched their speed. Behind us was a tractor trailer rig. Apparently the truck driver couldn’t see the traffic in front of me and decided he needed to get past me. When I noticed him swinging out to the oncoming lane to pass, I was shocked. There was a downhill curve ahead and he wasn’t going to get past me before we hit it. I braked to 40mph so he could overtake us and get back into our lane. For the next 20 miles he was about 150 feet ahead of us. His dangerous maneuver netted him a two-second advantage.

We cut south on WA4 and WA401 to the mouth of the Columbia River where we rejoined US101 and crossed the bridge to Astoria, Oregon. We had planned a stop there to pick up beer at the Safeway store – I had scoped out the parking situation on Google. We also wanted to walk on the Astoria Riverwalk.

Our timing was impeccable. They were repainting traffic lines on Highway 30 through Astoria and traffic crawled through town. We could have walked the three miles to the store faster than driving there, but that wasn’t an option.

We parked behind the Safeway store by an abandoned building. A travel trailer was directly in front of the building, so we were partially blocking a driveway. The driveway had a cable locked to posts in front blocking access, so I didn’t worry about it.

The Astoria Riverwalk is a paved multi-use trail along the Columbia River. On the south side of the trail, there are a number of office buildings interspersed among townhomes and condos. It’s gentrified and appears upscale.

I think this was a cannery – abandoned now

There were eight cargo ships we could see moored in the Columbia. Most of the cargo ships entering and exiting the river are bringing cargo to Portland from other West Coast ports or the Far East.

With few exceptions, ships entering the Columbia River are required to have a licensed pilot guide it through the treacherous Columbia River Bar. Pilots from Astoria take control of the ships and navigate past the bar. Then a licensed Columbia River pilot takes over for the remainder of the cruise to Portland.

When we got back to the coach, someone had unlocked the cable and managed to drive around us. I felt bad about us blocking it. Donna talked to the guy and he was alright with it though.

From Astoria, we continued south on US101 – it’s a scenic drive down the Oregon Coast. We checked in at Cannon Beach RV Resort around 1:30pm. They have a bit of a branding issue here – in some cases, the RV park is called Cannon Beach RV Resort, other times it’s called the RV Resort at Cannon Beach. In fact, their campsite map and information flyer has both names on it!

We dropped the trailer near the entrance. We decided to leave Midget-San in the trailer. We can ride our bikes to anywhere in town or up to the state park if we want. We have a full hook-up, 42-foot back-in site. It’s paved with a nice lawn area and the park is surrounded by mature trees.

I set up and immediately dumped and flushed our black tank. Over the last two months, I only got to dump it twice and both times, I couldn’t use the flushing system. With that done, Donna told me she was going to try the Dish satellite network. I thought “Good luck with that” as I eyed the trees. Five minutes later, she had satellite reception! The park wifi was also very good – at least at first it was. Verizon signal is not good here.

In the evening, when more users were on the park wifi, it totally bogged down. It was even worse first thing this morning. I’m typing this post on Word Pad, then hopefully I can successfully transfer it to WordPress for publication. I probably won’t try to post again until we move on to a better signal.

We’ll explore on our bikes today – I fixed my flat tire this morning. We’ll have another full day tomorrow before we continue south. This park is a little pricier than we usually like to pay, but that’s the coast in season. When we left Arlington, our first night at Cabela’s was free. Then we had three nights at South Bend for $10/night. So we averaged $7.50/night for the first four nights. Three nights here came to $165 with tax, bringing our total to $195 for a week. That’s an average of $27.85/night. Mixing it up like this keeps costs low. Thursday night we’ll boondock before we hit Newport and another pricey place.

The weather here is much cooler with highs in the 60s. The mornings are cloudy with a marine layer that’s expected to burn off in the afternoons.

Blackberries and Deer

We pulled out of Alana’s driveway as planned on Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon, we finished most of the trailer details, moving everything into the first third of the box. This left the rear two-thirds open for loading Midget-San. I parked the coach and trailer around the corner from Alana’s place Thursday morning after putting the last items away and loaded the Midget without any drama.

We drove out of Arlington through Smokey Point and entered I-5 north so we could stop at the rest area at mile post 207. We had a short wait for the dump station there. By the time I was finished, there it was nearly 12:30pm. Our plan was to go south through Seattle to Lacey and spend the night at Cabela’s there. The short drive was a good plan as traffic was a nightmare. The 90-mile run down the interstate took three hours!

We’ve stayed at this Cabela’s overnight many times. We stopped at our usual spot which is level and found several tractor-trailer rigs in the lot as well as a few other RVs. I think the truckers decided to get off the road for several hours until the northbound traffic opened up. Knowing this place as we do, Donna knew precisely where to go to find blackberry bushes full of fruit. She picked a bowl full.

It rained overnight and a few showers lingered in the morning. We hit the road around 10:30am and hit US101 in Olympia and had a few rain showers in the first hour. It was a pretty drive west through Montesano then south through Raymond and on to South Bend. We last visited South Bend five years ago. We pulled into the Ron Craig boat ramp area on the west end of town. Overnight RV parking is allowed for a $10 fee. I paid at the kiosk and we set up.

I retrieved our bicycles from the trailer and we rode into town. We had lunch at Chester Tavern and took a look around. South Bend is located on the Willapa River. As the river flows west from Raymond to Willapa Bay, it hooks south then turns north making a horseshoe bend. South Bend marks the southernmost point in the bend.

From the marina in town looking east where the river comes down from the north

Looking west from the same point – the river turns back north before continuing west to Willapa Bay

The skies cleared by late afternoon. There were a few other RVs here for night. Several boat trailers behind trucks were in the lot when we arrived, but they were gone by early evening. Donna took a walk back to town to pick up a couple of things at the store and also took a look at the county courthouse which is a beautiful property – I documented it in this post five years ago.

On Saturday morning, Donna rode her bike to the store in town and bought a plate of biscuits and gravy for me. It was a hearty serving and I finished it for breakfast. It was very tasty, but later I wasn’t so sure that it was a good idea. It ended up being a lazy day for me.

We got the Sea Eagle inflatable kayak out of the trailer and Donna paddled up river to town, then looped back past the boat ramp before coming back in. I paid for another night at the kiosk.

I recorded the Moto GP race from Czech Republic and the Formula One race from Hungary overnight. Usually I’ll add recording time to each race to ensure I get the end of the race, but with the schedules being back-to-back, I couldn’t extend the Moto GP race. Our set-up only allows me to record one channel at a time via the satellite. The Moto GP race had a rain delay, so I didn’t get the whole race. No worries – there’s a replay at 7pm – I’ll get the rest of the race then.

We had visitors this morning – a doe and her twin fawns came up to the coach to feed on the blackberries and shrubs next to us.

Doe and twins in front of our windshield

The weather has been terrific – highs in the upper 70s with clear skies. We expect more of the same today. As soon as I post this, we’ll ride our bikes on the trail to Raymond and get lunch out. We’ve paid for another night here. Tomorrow, we’ll pull out and head down to the coast. We’ll cross into Oregon at Astoria and we have a few nights booked at Cannon Beach.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Heading for the Coast

The great weather here in Arlington continues. Saturday was mostly cloudy and a little cooler with the high in the lower 70s, but it didn’t rain. My daughter, Alana’s, best friend since childhood, Angie Meece, is visiting her parents in Darrington. She reached out to Donna and invited us to stop by on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was a bright, sunny day, so we put the top down and drove Midget-San up to Darrington – it’s about 30 miles east of Arlington up highway 530. The Meeces’ house is on a beautiful property next to the 6,841-ft. peak of Whitehorse Mountain. When we pulled up to the entrance to their property, we were surprised to find it lined with a number of cars. Obviously something was up.

We pulled to the end of the driveway and parked and found a party! It was a surprise party with two purposes – first was a celebration of the retirement from the Darrington School District of Angie’s mother, Diane. Secondly it was a celebration of Angie’s sister’s graduation from university. Unbeknownst to us, both of Angie’s sisters, Michelle and Lisa, were also visiting.

They wanted to keep the surprise party secret, so they just invited a number of people to stop by for a visit without letting the real deal out. Too bad for us – we ate lunch before driving up only to find a feast was spread. They had a ton of hors d’oeuvres and fresh seafood. Angie’s dad, Mark, also had a keg of beer on tap. We had a good time mingling and I got to visit with many people I haven’t seen in nearly 20 years. I was so caught up in various conversations that I neglected to take any photos!

On Monday, Donna got busy in the trailer taking on one of my tasks. She started re-organizing and getting rid of useless things that I keep hauling around. She’s better at that sort of thing than I am. Alana and Gabi returned from their Hawaii vacation late Monday night.

I spent the morning on Tuesday looking at route options and thinking about where we wanted to be in August. Originally we thought we would head east to Coeur d’Alene, then south through Idaho. After thinking about it for a bit, I thought maybe going west to the Washington coast and making our way south on the Oregon coast may be the way to go. August is the best month weather-wise to travel the coastal northwest and going east would mean high temperatures.

August is also the busiest season for tourism along the coast, so we had to plan ahead and see if we would be able to find RV parks that can accommodate us. We managed to make a couple of reservations and also found boondocking sites that should work along the way. Our plan is to pull out of our extended mooch-docking site here in Alana’s driveway tomorrow.

The first stop will have to be at the dump station – I haven’t dumped our tanks since we arrived here in mid-June. Our course we’ve been using Alana’s bathroom and have been careful about how much waste water we’ve generated. I’m anticipating a somewhat late start as we have to load Midget-San in the trailer for the first time and I’m sure we’ll have to take our time securing the car. We may only go as far as Lacey and spend the night at Cabela’s before we move on to South Bend. We’ll spend a few days there before we head south to Oregon.

Meanwhile, I still have the Verizon data usage mystery. We’ve been consistent in our data usage for several years. We use about 30GB/month and rarely have we gone over our data limit. For the last two months, our data usage – as metered by Verizon – has shot up. Meanwhile, I’m getting e-mails and instant messages from Verizon advising me to switch to one of their new data plans.

I don’t know, but this seems fishy to me. The new plans require me to enter a new contract with Verizon. What accelerated our current data usage? We’ve checked for anything running in the background on our laptops and haven’t found anything.

Today’s high temperature should reach 80 degrees and tomorrow is expected to be even warmer. I think heading for the coast is the right idea. I have much preparation to do today but we’ll get it done. I’m ready for the road again.

Wheelin’ and Dealin’

We made a lot of progress this week and have to start thinking about our next move. I mentioned in my last post that a thief stole the MG emblem off Midget-San. Luckily, they didn’t cause any damage, but it bothers me that the person had to know how the emblem was attached to steal it. They obviously opened the trunk lid and pulled the speed nuts off the mounting posts. If they had just yanked the emblem off, the speed nuts would have fallen into the trunk, but there weren’t any speed nuts to be found.

I ordered a replacement emblem from Northwest Import Parts in Portland, Oregon. They were great to deal with. I received an e-mail confirmation right away and they had shipped it via USPS Priority mail on Monday. I received the part along with speed nuts on Wednesday. Speed nuts are just clips that have angled tabs. The clips are pressed by hand over the mounting posts and the angled tabs grip the plastic posts and prevent the nuts from falling off.

Underside of MG emblem with three plastic mounting posts

Holes in the rear deck lid where emblem mounts

I put a thin bead of room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicone at the base of the mounting posts on the emblem. This serves two purposes – it seals the holes in the deck lid to prevent any water from entering and it also acts as an adhesive, thus making it tougher for someone to walk away with the emblem again.

Lifestyles Recreational Products in Mount Vernon finally got the ECM and installed it on the Spyder Thursday. They told me their mechanic thought it still ran a little rough. I didn’t understand how this could be, it was running perfectly fine until the ECM failed. So on Friday morning, I went up to their shop and road tested the Spyder. It ran perfectly fine, smooth, good acceleration and no fault codes. I settled the bill and promptly sold the Spyder.

Donna mentioned that this marks the first time in 13 years that she doesn’t have a motorcycle to ride. I thought about it and realized I had one or more motorcycles for the last 20 years and had motorcycles off and on for nearly 50 years. Maybe another will come along in the future, but for now we’ve transitioned to four wheels and Midget-San.

On Friday afternoon, we went to Arlington Velo Sport to pick up Donna’s new bicycle. They received the bike Friday and prepped it and installed the rear rack and special pedals. Donna ordered pedals that are dual-purpose – on one side they clip to SPD-type shoe cleats while the opposite side is a flat pedal for “normal” shoes. The rear rack holds a bag specifically made for it. It clips into place with a quick release mount. The side pouches hold fold-out nylon bags that become extra storage saddle bags. Donna loves the idea of riding her bike to the grocery store and not having to ride home with a full back pack.

The bike is nicely equipped – it has front suspension, disc brakes, three front chain rings and an eight-speed rear cluster. Trek describes it as a City/Trekker bike. It’s versatile and should serve Donna well, whether she’s riding on pavement or dirt bike trails.

Donna bought a bottle of amber ale for me, brewed by Ten Pin Brewing in Moses Lake, Washington. This was a far cry from the lousy ale I had at Ale Spike on Camano Island. The Ten Pin was brewed to style with a smooth, balanced malt character subtly bittered with 35 IBUs. This one is a winner!

We’ve had great weather this week with lots of sun and temperatures reaching the low 80s. Last night, we had rain showers overnight and it’s overcast this morning, but the skies are supposed to clear again this afternoon. Donna’s heading out for her first ride on her new bike. She’s going to stop at the farmer’s market in Arlington and also make a stop at the grocery store.

We’ll be discussing travel plans and figuring out where to go from here. We signed up for an Alpine Coach Association Rally – the Eastern Sierras Rally. We were there in the spring, but weather chased us away and we didn’t get to see most of the sights we wanted to visit. The 13-day Alpine Coach Rally has a number of tours set up and we’ll be able to explore. We’ll be following a similar route that we took on our way up north, but we’ll be going in the opposite direction this time once we hit the Sierra Nevada mountains. The rally starts September 5th, so we’ll have a month to wander as we make our way to the starting point in Carson City, Nevada.

Vintage Trailers and Cars

We’re still here in Alana’s driveway in Arlington, Washington. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel though – Lifestyles Recreational Products expects to have the parts to complete the repair of the Spyder this week. Then I have to sell it.

We’ve been thinking about ways to increase available space in the trailer. I’ll need room to load Midget-San in there with enough clear space to avoid any damage to the car. After bicycling on Thursday, Donna came up with an idea. We were storing four bicycles in the trailer – her road bike, her beater bike, my road bike and my mountain bike.

I haven’t ridden my Orbea road bike in over a year. Donna isn’t planning to do any more long distance events like RAGBRAI with her road bike. She thought she should get rid of her bikes and replace them with one hybrid road/trail bike. I could get rid of my Orbea since I haven’t been riding it. That would take two bicycles out of the trailer but we would still have bikes to ride.

On Friday, we rode our bikes – Donna on her Trek Madone road bike, me on my Orbea – to Arlington Velo Sport bike shop. We did a little horse trading and ended up leaving both bikes there on trade and placing an order for a Trek Dual Sport 2 hybrid bike for Donna. The bike should be here by the end of the week.

The rest of this post is picture heavy. The weather has improved since my last post. Friday we had a high of about 70 degrees and enjoyed the two-mile walk back to Alana’s place from the bike shop. Saturday was another clear, sunny day with a high in the upper 70s. Donna and I drove Midget-San to Stanwood for a vintage RV (trailer) show. They had over a dozen restored RVs from the ’50s and ’60s on display. Some of the old rigs were very small, but usable for weekend camping.

Beautiful truck and trailer from the ’50s

You could find something like this in every suburban neighborhood in the ’60s

Spartan Aircraft Company Royal Spartanette

This 1951 Royal Spartanette was built by the Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These were very expensive travel trailers and were considered “The Cadillac of trailers.” The floor plan on this one was laid out in such a way that it seemed roomier than our coach with the slides out! I wonder what they used to tow this rig?

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant behind the Spartanette trailer at the Phoenix Pavilion. The food was great. After lunch, we took a drive over the bridge to Camano Island. Donna found free public access to the water on the island. We drove to English Boom Preserve and parked there.

The name comes from the 1920s-1930s when the English Lumber Company logged trees in the area and floated log booms into Skagit Bay here. We were there at low tide and the bay is basically a tidal flat here. This tidal flat is an important habitat for salmon. Smolts swim out of the rivers they were spawned in – mainly the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers – and the eel grass along this flat provides cover for them as they grow and enter the sea.

Tidal flat at English Boom – snow covered Mount Baker in the center background

We made a stop at Ale Spike Brewery on the island. Donna liked her porter but I wasn’t impressed with my choice there. I should have known better when the Firechicken Ale I chose was described as red ale – amber. Okay, which is it – a red ale or an amber? It didn’t taste like either one – it was bitter with a yeasty aftertaste. Although the bar maid said it was their most popular brew, I didn’t care for it at all.

After we came home, I went out to the Burger King parking lot nearby. When I lived here in the early 2000s, I had a couple of old Corvettes in the garage. On Saturday evenings, the local hot rodders would gather in the Burger King lot to swap lies and admire each other’s cars. I hadn’t been there in over 15 years, but I wanted to see if they still came out. They did.

A guy I knew named Jan Boyd once owned this car in Darrington – big supercharger

The rear license plate folds up to show off the chrome

The guys there told me there was a big car show the following day – Sunday – up in Bellingham. They said they expected around 400 cars there.

On Sunday morning, Alana’s boyfriend, Kevin, and his sons picked up Alana, Gabi and Gabi’s friend, Kennedy around 6:30am. They were off to the airport for a flight to Hawaii. They’re spending the week on the big island and are looking forward to time on the beach and the golf course.

I made the 50-mile drive up to Bellingham in Midget-San while Donna used Alana’s car to go play pickleball in Marysville. I’m still resting the groin pull – it’s been a bother for months now.

The car show in Bellingham was a fundraiser for veterans. I used to do car shows with my Corvettes – I had a 1965 big block roadster and a 1972 LT-1 T- top. I got tired of the car show scene after a few years though.

At the show in Bellingham, I found myself drawn more to the vintage and unusual cars instead of ogling all of the muscle cars – the Camaros, Corvettes and Mustangs.

Remember the mid-engined truck at Burger King? This is what it was originally like

Fully restored 1950s MGA – it even has the original tool kit and oilers

MGB with a supercharged 215ci aluminum block Buick V8

The 215 cubic inch Buick aluminum block V8 was developed by General Motors and brought to market in 1960. This engine was way ahead of its time. It was lightweight and durable and produced great power. But it didn’t catch on with the American consumer – bigger was always thought to be better. Eventually GM sold all of the tooling and rights to Rover in England and they used versions of this engine into the 1990s.

I talked to the owner of the blue MGA. He had pictures of the car as he found it sitting in a pasture – rusty, missing a rear quarter panel, no hood or grill. He and his son restored it to this condition and he bought the trailer so he and his wife could drive the car from Washington to Reno, Nevada for a week at the Hot August Nights car show.

It turned out his son was the guy with the supercharged Buick V8 MGB in the previous picture. Talented car guy – he can handle all the mechanical aspects, design and fabricate, weld and paint.

This Morris Minor was designed for the narrow roads of England. I think this coupe is smaller than Midget-San.

This Ford built in England is much smaller than its American counterparts. Small ruled the road in England while bigger was better here.

There was a downside to the car show. While Midget-San was parked there, someone decided they needed the MG emblem on the rear deck lid and removed it from the car. I can hardly believe someone would steal the emblem from the car, but there it is. I ordered a replacement and should have it in a few days. Sheesh!

The week ahead calls for rain Tuesday night. Otherwise, we should be in for warm, sunny days with highs around 80 degrees. Donna’s new bike should arrive on Thursday.

Chuckanut Drive and Crab

After publishing my last post on Friday, we had a problem. I’m still not sure if it was a hack or an error at our hosting site, but the link to Flyingthekoop came up with an error showing “account suspended.” Donna’s Unclutter site had the same error – we share hosting services. Donna spent most of the morning getting it fixed. Coincidentally, Donna received an e-mail offering software to protect web sites from hackers. Maybe not so coincidental.

In the afternoon, we drove our granddaughter, Gabi, up to Darrington for her friend’s birthday party. On the way back, we stopped in Arlington. The streets were hopping as it was Arlington Street Fair time. This three-day event kicked off Friday afternoon. We didn’t check it out much – we were hungry and went straight to Suda Thai on the corner of Olympic and 4th Street for dinner. The food was great.

The weekend looked promising weather-wise. Donna took her bike out for a ride around the Arlington Airport trail. She’s also been doing a kettle-bell workout routine. In addition to that, she traded in her Yamaha electric piano and bought a clarinet. She played clarinet in her junio high school band and is practicing it daily now – she didn’t forget how to play it. I’m impressed!

Saturday evening we were invited to a barbeque dinner at my ex-wife’s (LuAnn) house with the kids. They live around the corner from Alana so we walked over around 6pm. Donna made a dish of saffron ginger brown basmati rice to go with the grilled salmon. When we arrived, LuAnn put out a spread of appetizers. The appetizers included crab dip made from crabs they collected in Puget sound off of Camano Island the day before.

Barbeque – clockwise from the left (in pink) Alana, Gabi, Kevin, Donna, Jerry, LuAnn, Dan and Lainey

We had a few adult beverages which continued into the night as we gathered around a propane fire pit. The weather was fine and the temperature was warm enough until we left around 11pm.

Sunday was another fine day with partly cloudy skies and the temperature reached the upper 70s. A great day for a joy ride in Midget-San. We drove up I-5 with the top down and exited in north Burlington on WA11. This took us past Edison and Bow on Chuckanut Drive. Chuckanut Drive is a scenic road that hugs the Samish Bay and Bellingham Bay. It goes through Larrabee State Park. We pulled off at a scenic turnout. It was a beautiful day and sail boats, motor yachts and even the Alaska ferry could be seen on the water.

Donna and Midget-San at a turnout on Chuckanut Drive

Looking west – I think that’s Lummi Island in the background

We continued north all the way to Bellingham before we went east on Lakeway Drive to Lake Whatcom. We were within 20 miles of the Canadian border. This road took us past several smaller lakes and we hit the Valley Highway (WA9) and followed it south. We went through Sedro-Wooley, over the Skagit River and through Big Lake back to Arlington. Overall, it was about a 100-mile loop and a very scenic drive.

Later we went back to LuAnn and Jerry’s place to polish off the remainder of the crab. They had more than two dozen crabs and they needed to be cracked and eaten or frozen.

Monday was a cooler day and we had a couple of passing showers. I’ve been monitoring our Verizon data usage as I always do – I check it daily first thing every morning. We still seem to be going through an excessive amount of data and I can’t explain why. Our Jetpack is password protected and I don’t see any unauthorized users. Donna and I aren’t doing anything out of the ordinary – in fact, our usage should be down if anything. Meanwhile, Verizon keeps sending me solicitations to change my data plan.

I received an Amazon package on Saturday, but I was not pleased. I had ordered a set of four sparkplugs for Midget-San. I received a single plug – not a package of four. I was billed the price of four. I sent an e-mail to the seller and waited for a response. None came on Monday. Tuesday I got a response that said “We’ve reviewed your order and the advertisement doesn’t say it’s a box of four.” The seller was a company called Newparts.

Their Amazon ad lists the part as:

NGK Spark Plugs BPR5ES-11 NGK Spark Plug 4/BX

That 4/BX suffix looks a lot like 4/Box. The ad also has a photo showing four sparkplugs. Under answered questions it says:

Question: Is this item a pack of four plugs Answer:Yes

There are also other sellers offering a pack of four plugs for about the same price – within 50 cents. I filed for a return with Amazon and I think they to need to investigate this seller. They issued a refund and I placed another order with a different seller.

Yesterday I decided to perform some routine maintenance on Midget-San. I want to establish a baseline for fluids and other consumables like filters and sparkplugs. Before I could do this, I needed a new floor jack. The Midget is so low to the ground, I can’t get underneath it. My old floor jack was a cheap model that didn’t lift very high and the hydraulic cylinder was leaking. I bought a new aluminum floor jack that fits the bill perfectly and it weighs only 40 pounds.

I jacked up the Midget and put jack stands on all four corners. This will be the normal maintenance mode for this vehicle.

When you have a car that’s been the subject of an engine swap, sometimes routine stuff becomes a little more challenging. In the case of Midget-San, the Nissan A15 engine installation put the oil filter directly above the front-right frame horn. It took me a while to figure out the best way to remove the oil filter and it involved a 30-minute search of the trailer for the right tool. I was sure I had it, but couldn’t find it.

Donna and Gabi were playing bingo at the senior center. When I picked them up at 2:30pm, I stopped at the auto parts store and bought the tool I needed. Maybe I’m remembering a tool I used to have and it’s long gone with our stolen trailer. Anyway, with the right tool, I was able to get the job done.

Meanwhile, I placed another call to Lifestyles Recreational Products to inquire about progress on the Spyder. These guys are a real disappointment. The service advisor, Guy, doesn’t seem to have a clue every time I call. He said they performed another test and are waiting to hear from BRP technical assistance again! He said he would get back to me, but I never heard from him yesterday. I called again this morning and they’ve finally decided to replace the Engine Control Module. I told them I suspected the ECM two weeks ago and the technician also had the same thought, but they were too unsure of themselves to order the part until BRP told them to. Now we wait for the part to arrive.

The weather was fine yesterday – we had another day in the upper 70s. It was not to last though. We woke up to rain this morning and cloudy skies and rain showers expected over the next few days.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Earthquake!

We’re still mooch-docking in my daughter, Alana’s, driveway in Arlington, Washington. I’m still waiting for Lifestyles Recreational Products in Mount Vernon to repair the Spyder. As many of you know, my career was in the automotive service industry for over 30 years. At one point, I was the manager of the Volkswagen of America Technical Helpline call center. We provided technical assistance including repair advice and instructions to Volkswagen dealers across the country.

Apparently, Bombardier Recreation Products (BRP) – maker of the Can-Am brand – has a technical call center in Quebec. What I’m facing with the shop in Mount Vernon is a service department that’s unsure of their diagnosis. They think I need a new Engine Control Module and I agree. The thing is, it costs over $500 and it’s not returnable. So, they’ve opened a ticket with BRP’s technical call center and are waiting to hear them say to replace this part! It’s also apparent the BRP doesn’t run a very efficient call center – the ticket has been open for days without a response. So, we wait.

Another issue irritated me this week. One of the challenges we face on the road is high speed internet accessibility. We use Verizon and have good internet access 99% of the time. Lately, Verizon seems to be pushing us to change from our 30GB/month plan to something new with a contract renewal. I’m happy with the current plan. It’s always allowed me to add incremental data – a gigabyte at a time – for a reasonable rate if it looked like we may exceed our 30GB allowance.

This week, with a few days left in our cycle, I received a warning that we were going to exceed our data allowance. This took me by surprise – I monitor our data usage every morning. Somehow we suddenly used a large amount of data. The next day our increased usage rate continued – I can’t explain it. I went to the website to add a couple of gigabytes of data and couldn’t find the page I used in the past. Instead, when I clicked on “add more data,” it took me to page where the only choices were to change my plan to a new format and enter a new contract. Something smells rotten here.

Maybe it’s just a conspiracy theory, but Verizon is the one that measures my data usage. Suddenly, without explanation, my daily data usage jumps to a higher rate. Then, my ability to add incremental data is removed and new plans are rolled out for me to sign up. I didn’t go for it, so they charged me an extra $15 for going over our allowance by less than one gigabyte. I’ll be keeping a close eye on our usage as always.

One of the things I’m taking advantage of while we’re here is ordering parts for a few projects. I mentioned the gas spring for the basement compartment door I replaced. We also have a blown gas spring on our Dometic AE awning. It blew out when we were in Sutherlin and I haven’t had a chance to address it. The thing is, where we’re parked now I can’t open the awning due to a tree next to us. So, I couldn’t measure the extended and collapsed length of the gas spring. After doing some research, I found a website for Dyers RV Parts and Accessories. They had Dometic replacement parts and I found this statement:

Standard style hardware awnings – measure the back-channel (that is the arm that attaches to the coach) but do not count the mounting bracket. If it measures 65-66,” you have Standard hardware.

*Note: If the above measures 62-63″ you have Basement style hardware and need Dometic strut # 3310555.000 instead.

I measured our back channel and it was just over 65″. I ordered the standard hardware and got the gas spring in a few days. It included the star-washer style fasteners that Dometic uses – a nice touch. I’ll install it as soon as we’re in a position to open the awning.

There was something I wanted to do to Midget-San. The trunk (or boot as the British call it) was nicely painted inside, but unlined. I wanted to add a liner so things wouldn’t slide around and also to protect the finish.

Finding a trunk liner on Amazon required a bit of detective work. The descriptions often had contradictory dimensions stated. I had to read through reviews and figure out just how large each liner really was. The one I ended up ordering said it was very small – 17″ x 23″ – but the reviews revealed it was a much larger item. I needed about 25″ x 42″. What I received was about 48″ x 55″.

The trunk liner was easily trimmed with scissors.

Liner installed and collapsible boxes added

After I trimmed the liner to size, Donna added collapsible boxes to hold groceries or any other loose items we might pick up to keep them from rolling around in the back.

Donna found a great deal on chicken leg quarters – $0.99/lb. She made a marinade called Pretty Chicken Marinade – we don’t know if it’s called that because the chicken comes off the grill looking pretty with this marinade or if it’s because it’s pretty darn tasty! She served it with packaged cauliflower rice – we both agreed that the pre-packed cauliflower rice isn’t as good as the cauliflower rice she makes.

Ozark the cat spends most of her time in her window-mounted cat bed, watching the world go by. Our little kitty is getting husky – she’s chubby! Her exercise consists of madly dashing from her living room perch to the back of the coach where she flies up to the bedroom window to track something of interest. Then she runs back and repeats.

Another favorite activity is attacking a small burlap bag Donna wrapped around a piece of cardboard. Ozark will go to town scratching and tearing at it with all four paws.

When she’s done with her attack, she often rolls over and wants her chubby belly rubbed.

I’m sure everyone heard about the big earthquake in southern California last week. It was a real shaker with a magnitude near 7, centered by Ridgecrest in the desert. When we left San Diego, we boondocked that first night in the desert south of Inyokern near Ridgecrest. Donna wondered what it would have been like if we were there when the earthquake happened. I grew up in southern California and have experienced several earthquakes, so I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like in the coach.

We had a simple dinner of beef ragu over spaghetti squash and watched Tour de France coverage before going to bed.

Last night, I was awakened by our coach suddenly rocking and shaking. I said to Donna, “Earthquake!” She said, “Really?” I checked the clock – 2:55am. This morning I found out a 4.6 magnitude earthquake centered near Monroe – a few miles from here – was registered at 2:53am. Reports said it could be felt all the way to the Canadian border. This morning, it’s only a vague memory for Donna.

The weather has been typical western Washington – a few nice days followed by a few wet, dreary days. The temperature has ranged from the upper-60s to the mid-70s. The next few days are expected to be dry with mid-70s temperatures. I’d like to see that become a continuing trend.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

One Celebration After Another

In my last post, I wrote about the barbeque last Saturday at Kevin’s place for Lainey’s 20th birthday. Her birthday was actually Sunday, June 30th, so we had another celebration the following day. It was a fine day with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s. We drove up to Burlington in Alana’s car where everyone met up for dinner at Sakura. Sakura is a Japanese restaurant with hibachi-style table-top cooking as well as a great sushi bar.

We had two tables as Alana’s friend since childhood, Carly, joined with her two kids, Kevin’s boys – Kevin had to work – and Lainey’s friend Maryn joined our family for the dinner. We had a chef for each table and they were great. I can’t remember the name of our chef, but he was quite the entertainer. Everyone at our table ordered meals cooked at the table except for Donna and I – we ordered from the sushi bar and it was excellent fare. Although the chef wasn’t cooking for us, I tipped him for the fine show he put on while preparing the dinner plates for the other six people at our table.

The lighting was poor for photography, but I managed a couple of images. Did I mention the food was great?

Monday was another fine, sunny day with the afternoon temperature in the upper 70s. Donna and I took a joyride in Midget-San. We traveled west on highway 530, then northwest on Pioneer Highway. This took us along the farm country of the lower Stillaguamish Valley through the village of Silvana and to the town of Stanwood. From there, we crossed the bridge to Camano Island and took a leisurely lap of the island. It’s beautiful there but the shame is the lack of public beach access. There are the Cama Beach State Park and the Camano Island State Park, but they have a $10 entry fee. I wasn’t willing to pay $10 for a couple of photo ops. The drive was pleasant nonetheless.

Back at Alana’s house, Donna grilled ribeye steaks on the Weber Q and served it with sauteed portabella mushrooms, crispy cauliflower bites with sriracha dipping sauce and roasted sweet potatoes. Just right!

Tuesday was cool and cloudy with drizzle and a few showers. I didn’t do much. On Wednesday, it was a little warmer but overcast with intermittent showers. I managed to get one item off my “to do” list. One of our basement compartment doors wasn’t opening correctly. The gas spring which operates as a strut to hold the compartment door open was blown – it didn’t provide any spring pressure. The spring pressure is necessary for proper door operation. Due to the geometry of the mount, it not only holds the door in the fully open position, but also once the door is lowered in the last couple of inches of travel, it provides closing pressure.

The original gas springs were supplied by a company called SPD. These are the industry standard. I found replacement gas springs online at Maxum Hardware for a much lower price than SPD, but you had to buy them in pairs. I didn’t mind getting a pair as having a spare on hand is a good idea. But the thing was, Maxum charged over $20 for shipping! Next time I’ll buy two pair to average the shipping cost down.

I also installed new seals on this compartment to keep the road grime out – it was getting dusty in this compartment.

Donna’s been busy helping Alana and Gabi do some decluttering. She just published a blog post about what they’ve been up to.

We had nicer weather on the Fourth of July. It was overcast most of the day, but warmer and it cleared to partly cloudy by the afternoon. We saw several hot rods stopping by the neighbor’s house. Apparently, everyone had their cars out for Fourth of July parades. A neighbor had a ’57 Chevy Bel Air and a ’55 Chevy stop by, but my favorite was a 1930 Ford Model A with a flat-head V8 and dual carburetors. This was a true old-school hot rod straight out of the 1950s.

We enjoyed a fireworks display from the deck at Kevin’s house as his two boys, Nick and Kyle, carefully lit off some nice rocket-based fireworks.

After a late night, we woke up later than usual on Friday. I had my usual bowl of cereal and cup of coffee, but wasn’t feeling quite right. At first, I attributed it to too much IPA the night before. But it was more than that. I went back to bed and spent about 18 of the next 24 hours sleeping. This morning I’m still a little off, but feeling much better.

It’s overcast this morning, but it’s supposed to clear up in the afternoon. The week ahead looks to be more of the same – overcast with some passing showers and a few periods of sunshine.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Newport – Seafood City

The Goonies

Across the Columbia

Blackberries and Deer

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Heading for the Coast

Wheelin’ and Dealin’

Vintage Trailers and Cars

Chuckanut Drive and Crab

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Earthquake!

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

One Celebration After Another

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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