Category Archives: Grilling

Driving Big Al

Saturday was the last day of the “show.” Donna went to Bend with Willi Egg and shopped all day. I noticed my right rear jack was retracting again the night before and called Paul Maddox with HWH to let him know. He came back to our coach and replaced the solenoid. This time he installed a factory-new part rather than a re-manufactured solenoid. He told me he’s only had a few of the re-manufactured units fail, but since I had a problem, he felt better installing a new one.

I hung out with Dave Hobden for awhile, then went to look at more coaches. There was a display of pre-owned, high-end coaches for sale. It was fun to look at the premium level coaches.

Before the show closed, I went to the vendor area to see if I could score any deals before they packed up. I wanted to buy a Scan Gauge D, but couldn’t swing a deal that would beat Amazon Prime. But, I found another great deal.

I went to the Miller RV Insurance booth and got a quote. My current policy with Progressive expires this week on Wednesday. Cheryl Howarth from Miller found a policy for me that’s comparable to the coverage I have. The coach and scooter policies she quoted saved me more than $900 per year! Sign me up! Miller RV Insurance can provide policies in all 50 states. If you’re interested, contact Cheryl at cheryl@millerrvinsurance.com.

At 5pm, we had a potluck dinner for the Alpine group at the sites of Tom and Nancy Polk and Vic and Willi Egg. Donna made a chicken taco salad. The buffet table was filled with scrumptious dishes, including a plum cobbler that Lynda Campbell made with plums from their backyard.

Alpine group potluck dinner

Later, we sat outside our coach and visited with Dave and Stilla Hodben and Dave and Lynda Campbell. Donna and I didn’t turn in until midnight. This was unusually late for us.

Coaches started pulling out of here early yesterday. Our power was shut down by 9am. Donna went for a bike ride on the highway between Redmond and Prineville. Our fresh water tank was getting low, so I showered at the public showers. When I finished my shower, I heard my phone ring. It was Donna. She got a flat tire on her rear wheel out on the road.

I rode out on the scooter. After a bit of searching, I found her location and repaired the flat. She had ridden through glass when we were in Portland. A small shard worked its way through the tire. On the way back, I stopped at a bike shop in Redmond and picked up a new inner tube and two CO2 cartridges to replace what I used.

The temperature was in the 80s. I ran the generator from 3pm to 6pm to power the air conditioning units. I watched the Moto GP race I had recorded on the DVR. Then I sat outside in the shade of the awning and read another chapter of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I’ve read this book before. This time, I’m reading a chapter at a time and really trying to understand what Robert Pirsig is saying.

Last evening, Dave and Stilla joined us for dinner. Donna prepared prosciutto-wrapped shrimp skewers with nectarine slices, marinated in a honey-soy sauce. I grilled them and she served them over a bed of brown rice and grilled zucchini. Delicious!

Prosciutto-wrapped shrimp

Today we’ll move over to the fairgrounds RV park. We’ll have full hook-ups, so we can dump the holding tanks, refill the fresh water and run the air conditioners without burning fuel in the generator.

Before we do that, Donna will practice driving the coach in the fairground parking lots. This is an excellent opportunity for her to learn how to drive this beast. She can practice making turns without fear of traffic or curbs and won’t have to worry about damaging Big Al (our Alpine coach).

Blue Lake

The temperature rose quickly yesterday. I went for ride on my mountain bike a little after 11am and it was already quite warm.

We planned to shoot a video review for Camping World in the morning, but the landscape crew was mowing outside our coach and creating too much noise. Later in the day, with both air conditioners running, we would have had too much background noise. So we put it off until today.

I rode my bike west on Sandy Boulevard, then turned north, toward the Columbia River at 185th. From there I followed Marine Drive, the same route I rode on the scooter the day before. I left Marine Drive on a paved bike path that brought me to Blue Lake Regional Park.

I rode my bike into the park to have a look at the lake. The park covers 101 acres. The lake itself is 61 acres. The lake has no natural inlet or outlet. It’s a basin that’s filled with rainwater, ground water runoff and seepage. In the dry season (late summer), water is pumped from municipal wells to maintain the lake level.

The park encompasses the north shore of the lake. The south shore has private residences. Boat rentals are available in the park. There are swimming areas and a fishing dock as well. I rode my bike to the end of the fishing dock.

View of Blue Lake to the west from the fishing dock

East end of the lake

Maintaining the water quality in the closed system of the lake is a difficult task. They’ve had issues with invasive, non-native plants such as Eurasian watermilfoil and curly leaf pond weed. The water looked clean to me. The aquatic plants I saw in the lake were mostly giant water lilies. They were blooming with white and purple flowers.

Giant water lily

I was on the bike for a little over an hour. By the time I returned, it was getting hot out. We spent most of the afternoon indoors to escape the 90+ degree heat.

We went for a walk in the RV park before dinner. The park is large with more than 400 sites. We saw an old slammed VW Type II crew cab truck parked in front of a fifth wheel trailer. I took a gag photo that made it look like the trailer was hooked up to the VW!

Heavy load

Donna prepared garlic shrimp over pasta with grilled zucchini for dinner. As usual, it was an excellent meal.

Shrimp with zucchini over pasta

This morning, we’ll work on the video shoot. Later, Donna’s friend and professional organizing colleague, Susan Lannis, is coming over. She lives across the gorge on the Washington side of the Columbia River. They plan to drive up highway 30 to view waterfalls and have a picnic lunch. The greatest concentration of waterfalls in the USA is found along the vertical basalt walls on the south side of the Columbia Gorge.

I never made it to Fastenal yesterday. Maybe I’ll find the store today and get the hardware I’ve been looking for.

Chillin’ and Grillin’ in Portland

Yesterday’s weather was hot and muggy. The thermometer registered a high of 90 degrees. We ran the air conditioners all afternoon.

For some unknown reason, I had lower back pain yesterday. I was uncomfortable most of the day. I managed to get out and ride the scooter over to WalMart where I bought propane canisters for the Weber Q grill. I also bought DAP caulking for the kitchen sink and backsplash in the bathroom. The caulk had dried out and was cracking around the kitchen sink. This was allowing water to seep past any time water collected on the rim of the sink (while doing dishes or whatnot).

Likewise, the seam where the backsplash and countertop meet in the bathroom needed to be resealed. I used almond colored caulk in the kitchen to match the Corian® countertop. In the bathroom I went with clear caulk. It took about one and half hours to complete the job. Most of that time was consumed in removing the old caulk and cleaning the area to prepare it for the new caulk.

Meanwhile, Donna went out for walk and scouted the bike route. She phoned me after 30 minutes or so to confirm her directions to loop back to the park. The roads around here can be confusing. They aren’t laid out in a straight grid and many roads have multiple names. Also, along the river many of the roads are dead ends.

I laid back and read most of the afternoon. My lower back hurt all day. I don’t what was up with that. My back feels fine this morning.

When Donna returned, she prepared a rack of lamb with a classic rosemary, thyme and garlic rub. She allowed it to marinate with a little olive oil in the refrigerator for about two hours before I grilled it. She served it with baked sweet potato and steamed green beans. Another delicious meal!

A colorful and delicious meal

Donna is heading out for a bike ride this morning. We have another hot day ahead. The temperature is supposed to reach record territory in the lower 90s.

Southbound from South Bend

We left South Bend, Washington yesterday. Our place by the river was really nice, but we had reservations at the Portland Fairview RV Park in Portland, Oregon.

Selfie by the river

It was very quiet overnight, but it seemed like everyone was heading out of town to work at 6am. The road noise was constant and I couldn’t sleep.

The clouds formed a low ceiling over the river. It was almost a fog bank, but it was more than a hundred feet above the river. We were a little out of sync, but we made our goal of departing by 9:30am.

Low clouds over the river

Our route took us west on US101 to Willapa Bay where the road turned south. We turned east on WA4 and followed the two-lane highway to Longview, where we hit I-5 south. Highway 4 is a narrow two-lane road with a surface that dips and undulates constantly. It seemed like the roadbed wasn’t properly prepared and the road sank in areas. This made it an uncomfortable ride. The narrow shoulder and lack of rest areas gave me no choice but to press on.

By the time I found a rest area on I-5, I had been driving for two and half hours. This is not my usual habit. I like to take a comfort break after an hour and a half or so and stretch my legs.

Traffic volumes were building as we approached Vancouver, Washington. There was road construction and signs warning of a lane closure ahead. People ignored the signs and zoomed along in the left lane, trying to gain some kind of advantage until they came to the barrier blocking the lane. Then they would come to stop and slice their way between cars in the open lane on the right, bringing everyone’s progress to a halt. It’s idiotic, but typical. A tractor-trailer rig about 100 yards behind us straddled the line, blocking the left lane. This forced the left-lane drivers to merge behind him. This quickly cleared the jam ahead of us and we were on our way again.

We crossed the Columbia River on I-205, then headed east on I-84 and found the Fairview RV Park on Sandy Boulevard. Check-in was very efficient and we moved into site 99 in a matter of minutes after our arrival.

Fairview RV Park – site 99

This RV park is large, clean and very well-maintained. Amenities include a swimming pool and exercise facility.

The Alpine Coach Association has a rally scheduled here beginning August 7th. We decided to attend the rally and registered for it in March. Then we decided to arrive a week early to see Portland and visit friends in the area. So I made a reservation for our early arrival here at the same time.

After I set up and dumped our holding tanks, I noticed the placard they gave us at the office showed a departure date of August 7th. I walked back to the office and told them we were staying for the rally through the 11th. They looked up my reservation and said it was two different bookings. I would be in a different site for the rally. I showed them an e-mail on my smart phone where I asked to stay in one site for the duration and their reply to my e-mail assuring me that would not be a problem.

It didn’t make any difference. At the end of next week, we’ll have to pack everything up and move a few hundred feet to a different site. This is very annoying. To move a few hundred feet is no different than moving few hundred miles. Everything has to be secured and slides brought in. Then we have to set everything up all over again.

Our set-up

I took the scooter out in the afternoon to reconnoiter the area. There’s plenty of shopping nearby in Troutdale. Donna and I also looked at maps of bicycle paths. They consist of roads with bike lanes interspersed with dedicated paved bike trails. We could ride all the way to downtown Portland from here.

Last night I grilled salmon with miso rub on a cedar plank. Donna served it over sauteed spinach with fresh white corn on the cob and garlic-smashed red potatoes.

Cedar planked salmon with miso rub

The salmon looks undercooked in the photo, but it was actually grilled perfectly.

Delicious dinner

Today I think we’ll look for a farmers’ market and kick around the area.

Until Next Time

It seemed like everyone believed the forecast for a warm, sunny weekend as the Lake Goodwin RV Resort was packed with campers by Friday night. The forecast was correct – the temperature reached the upper 70s on Saturday and well into the 80s on Sunday.

Alana and Gabi visited on Saturday and enjoyed the lake while Lainey and Andrea took the bus into Seattle with some friends. We grilled fresh wild sockeye salmon and halibut Saturday night. Gabi stayed overnight with us.

On Sunday, Donna and Gabi drove Alana’s car to Arlington. They picked up Alana, Lainey and Andrea and they all went to the farmers’ market in Everett. Donna brought back lots of fresh vegetables. She made an outstanding salsa verde from tomatillos she bought there and roasted on the grill. She also picked up organic Walla Walla onions, raspberries and peaches.

I stayed home and watched a very entertaining Formula One race at the Hungaroring in Hungary. The girls enjoyed the lake again in the afternoon. Alana grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs with a spicy rub and orange glaze for dinner. Later, we built a campfire and the girls made s’mores.

Donna, Andrea, Gabi, Alana and Lainey with s’mores around the fire

The campground cleared out by Sunday evening as everyone went back to their workaday world.

On Monday morning, we prepared to move on. The trailer was in the storage yard, so it made it a bigger job to get packed. Once I had everything loaded in the trailer, I put the wheel on the front jack. The maintenance guy hooked the trailer to a tractor and pulled it over to a gravel lot by the exit. This made it easy to hook up to the motorhome on our way out.

We drove about 10 miles to Alana’s house and parked in her driveway. Her driveway was long enough for me to back into without dropping the trailer. Alana’s landlord texted her this morning to tell her he saw the motorhome in the driveway and wanted to let her know that there’s a 30-amp hook-up in the garage!

Overnight accommodations at Alana’s house

While Alana, Donna, Lainey, Andrea and Gabi went shopping at Costco and Target, I took a walk through old downtown Arlington. The thermometer hit a high of 87 degrees!

Donna came home with lots of goodies including a three-inch memory foam mattress topper from Costco. We had a thick mattress pad, but it wasn’t foam and both of us have been waking up with sore hips. We figured we needed some extra padding.

We added the mattress topper last night and it made a huge difference. I slept soundly and comfortably. It was well worth the $110 price. Gabi stayed out in the coach with us. Since I didn’t put the living room slide out, she slept on the sofa. This morning Donna and I woke up to the sound of a loud bang. Gabi had rolled off the sofa, onto the floor! No damage done, she climbed back onto the sofa and went back to sleep.

This morning, Donna, Alana, Gabi and I ate breakfast in our coach. Alana had to go to work, so we said our goodbyes until next time. There’s always a bit of sorrow when we have to say goodbye, especially when we don’t know when we will get together again. It was great spending time with the girls over the last two weeks. I’m sure Gabi will always remember her ride in the motorhome and the nights she spent with us at the RV park.

We’ll pull out around noon. I need to fuel up and I want to get through Seattle and Tacoma before there’s too much traffic. Seattle can be tough to get through. I’m not looking forward to that part of the drive. We’ll boondock for the next few nights before we check in at the Fairview RV Park in 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.

Early Morning Wake-up

We had a visitor for breakfast yesterday. A doe came into our site to graze on the clover. We’ve spotted a few deer around Winthrop. They seem to be fairly tame.

Breakfast visitor

The Pine Near RV park has a strange name. If you say it quickly, it becomes pinear (pioneer). At least that’s what I make of it. The park filled up with weekend campers yesterday. Winthrop is a popular destination. It offers river access for fishing, boating or tubing and there’s great hiking and biking in the area.

We were in site 14, but unfortunately it was reserved for the weekend. It’s a favored site, with good reason. It’s the largest site at Pine Near. It’s right across the street from the Shafer Museum with easy access to town.

We packed quickly and had the slides in and engine fired up by 9am. We moved to site 26 to spend another night here. Site 26 is also large and level. It isn’t a pull-through – it’s a back-in site, but it’s more than 60 feet deep. We had one SNAFU backing into the the site. I didn’t hear any advice from Donna over the CB radio. Through the window, I heard her yell, ‘Stop!” She walked up to the driver’s window and said I was about to hit the picnic table with the trailer.

I had her try her handheld Cobra CB. It worked fine. As I straightened out and started backing in again, I couldn’t hear her instructions on the CB. Later, I tested the handheld unit. It worked fine. We came to the conclusion that the way Donna was holding the unit positioned her finger over the tiny microphone opening. That’s why I wasn’t hearing anything.

Site 26 – Shaded and roomy

Site 26, living room slide out

After we set up, Donna went for a bike ride. She rode out on West Chewuch Road, then followed a paved forest service road through the Okanogan National Forest for 7-8 miles before turning back. She took West Chewuch Road to a river crossing and came back on East Chewuch road. It was about a 30-mile ride.

It was hot out yesterday. The temperature was in the 90s. In the afternoon we walked to town for ice cream. It was great! I had pistachio almond. Donna had the handmade coffee ice cream. We also browsed in a few shops.

I bought some cold beer and wanted to come back to put it in the refrigerator. Donna decided to walk to the west end of town to a winery for wine tasting. She headed that way while I came home and sat outside and read for a while.

Last night, we grilled a pork tenderloin. Donna marinated it with one of my favorites – a blend of sesame-chili oil, olive oil, fresh ginger and soy sauce. I also grilled baby bok choy that Donna bought at the farmers’ market in Hayden. Another nutritious and oh so delicious meal!

Grilled pork tenderloin, baby bok choy with a side of brown rice pilaf

A group of motorcyclists from western Washington set up tents in the area across from our site. They call themselves the Alky Angels. It’s a clean and sober group, so they don’t party into the night. But this morning, eight or ten of them were up at 5:30am, having coffee, milling about and yukking it up. They were unbelievably loud. This wasn’t my idea of a good wake-up.

Today, we’ll pull out of here and cross the north Cascade Mountains. We have two summits to climb. Washington Pass tops out at 5,477 feet above sea level. Then we descend a bit before climbing over Rainy Pass at 4,855 feet. Here in Winthrop, we’re sitting at about 1,700 feet above sea level.

I’m not sure where we’ll end up tonight. Our next reservation begins Monday at the Lake Goodwin Resort in Stanwood, Washington. I checked with them yesterday and they’re booked up for the weekend. I think we’ll head over to a truck stop at Island Crossing. My oldest daughter, Alana, gets off work at the hospital at 7pm. She can pick us up at Island Crossing and we can take a look at her driveway and see if we can fit the coach there for a couple of nights. If not, we’ll come up with something.

Nuclear Waste

We rolled out of Tamarack RV Park on Thursday morning and headed west out of Coeur d’Alene. We intended to make an early start and be on the road by 9:30am at the latest. I thought this would give us ample time to reach Aubrey’s RV in Union Gap, Washington to have our slide-out repaired. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start over.

I had organized the trailer and added another strap on the left side to secure cargo on Monday afternoon. It was hot in the trailer. The outside temperature reached the 90s and it was even hotter inside the trailer. While I was working in the trailer, we had visitors – Suzanne Holman and her boyfriend, Doug. This gave me a good excuse to take a break. Donna and Suzanne met through a random connection on Facebook. Donna learned from a recent post that Suzanne was taking Doug on a quick tour of Idaho and Washington and invited them to stop by so they could meet in person. We sat at the picnic table enjoying some of Donna’s homemade artichoke hummus and veggies and talked for about an hour. Then I went back to work.

Doug, Donna and Suzanne

That night, Donna prepared garlic scapes that she picked up at the farmers’ market on Saturday. She was excited to find them after trying them once many years ago. I’d never eaten a scape before. Donna massaged the scapes with olive oil, wound bunches of 4-5 in a loose knot, and sprinkled them with sea salt and fresh pepper. I grilled them in our veggie grilling pan.

Garlic scapes, hot off the grill

I should mention that before cooking, you need to break off the lower, thicker part of the stem and discard it. It’s tough and woody. The white garlic “flower” (it doesn’t really flower) and the upper stem are tender and delicious.

I grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs marinated with the honey-maple dressing, another find at the farmers’ market. Served with the scapes and garlic smashed red potatoes, it was a meal worth repeating.

Honey-maple marinated chicken with scapes and garlic smashed red potatoes

On Tuesday morning, we were up early and walked next door to the Broken Egg for breakfast at 7:30am. We had a hearty breakfast. I ordered eggs benedict with hash browns and Donna had bacon, eggs and hash browns.

We were a little behind schedule. It was 9:40am when I was finally ready to fire up the beast. On our way out of the park, I stopped at the propane station. I wanted to fill our tank as I didn’t think we would see a better price on propane in the months ahead. That took another 20-minute chunk out of the morning by the time the tank was filled. We should be set on propane for the rest of the year now though.

Our next stop was the Pilot-Flying J truck stop at exit 2, in Post Falls (two miles from the Washington border). I knew fuel would cost more in Washington, so I wanted to fill up our fuel tank. The card reader at the pump wouldn’t authorize my Flying J card. This card gives me a discount on the price and allows me to put up to $500 worth of fuel in the tank. Many pumps will stop at $100 when you use a regular credit card.

I went inside and handed my Flying J card to the cashier and told her I was having a problem at the pump. She swiped the card and asked me for my PIN. I gave her the number and she said my PIN was wrong. I opened my e-mail on my smartphone and showed the e-mail from Pilot-Flying J with my PIN. She tried it again and said, “Sorry, it doesn’t work. You’ll have to call customer service.” Another 20-minute chunk of time gone.

I drove out of the Flying J and went to the Exxon station across the street. This turned out to be a better option anyway. My Chase Visa card is offering 5% cash back on gas station purchases (truck stops are excluded). So, the 5% meant about 20 cents off per gallon. That’s better than the Flying J discount. I filled the tank and found that my fuel mileage from Great Falls to Coeur d”Alene was 9.8 MPG. Not bad!

It was 10:45 by the time we hit the border. We had a 2pm appointment at Aubrey’s RV in Union Gap. We cruised west on I-90 at 62mph, then turned south on US395. I planned to follow US395 to Tri-cities (Pasco-Kennewick-Richland) and pick up I-82 there. I knew we weren’t going to be at Aubrey’s by 2pm.

I asked Donna to program Aubrey’s address into Nally (our GPS). I wanted to see if Nally would come up with a faster route. Nally had me exit US395 and follow a series of county roads. When I planned our route, I though it might be quicker to cross over to WA24, which runs right into Union Gap. This was where Nally was taking us. However, that route has to jog around the Hanford Department of Energy (DOE) site. I didn’t want to drive near Hanford.

Hanford is the biggest, most toxic nuclear waste site in the western hemisphere. The site was part of the Manhattan Project in 1943. It was the first full-scale plutonium reactor in the world. The plutonium for the first nuclear test (Trinity) and for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki was made there.

Today, the 586-square-mile site has more than 56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored in failing containers. In 1973, 115,000 gallons of nuclear sludge leaked there. Today, at least 67 containers of radioactive sludge are known to be leaking.

The site was decommissioned in 1987, but many experts agree the worst is yet to come. Many of the leaking containers date back to the 1940s. There are many more containers that are sure to fail at some point. This waste will eventually find its way to the Columbia Gorge and contaminate the river. It could be potentially worse than Fukushima. If you’re interested in knowing more about Hanford, click on the links below.

Koin Article

Huffington Articles

As we skirted around the desolation of the Hanford area, the day became very hot. The temperature outside was 103 degrees. I fired up the generator to run the roof air conditioner as we drove along. The intense heat was creating thermal air streams which developed into dust devils. These mini-twisters were creating funnels of dust and vegetation swirling into the sky. We were slammed by a couple of the fierce winds.

Donna phoned Aubrey’s and told them we would be an hour late. They told her that 3pm would be okay. We arrived at their shop right at 3pm. I went inside to write up my repair order.

The woman I talked to two weeks earlier when I made my appointment wrote up the ticket. Then she asked me when I needed the coach back! I told her we live in it. When I made the appointment, I clearly told her we were full-timers and I wanted to be sure they could get the work done. We found out later that she was new to the position and misunderstood what I meant when I said we were full-timers.

This wasn’t good. She told me she only booked time to diagnose and make an estimate – they didn’t have time to do the work. Their technician was an experienced guy and he was very helpful. He asked me a few questions and then he pulled the coach into the shop with the hope of finding a simple fix. I told him I thought the seal had come loose and jammed the slide. He looked at the inner seal and told me he had never seen this type of seal jam a slide in over 20 years of RV experience. The inner seal is soft foam. He said the outer wiper seal is bonded to an aluminum strip and it could jam a slide, but our outer seal is intact.

You know how it is when you have a toothache. You make an appointment and go to the dentist. When you get there, the tooth doesn’t hurt anymore and the dentist doesn’t find anything wrong.

Well, that’s how it went. The tech operated the slide and it worked fine. He did find the hydraulic reservoir for the HWH jack and slide rams was low on fluid. His theory was the low fluid allowed air into the ram for the living room slide, as that is the last thing I operate when I set up. He topped up the fluid and operated the slide several times. I’m skeptical, but I didn’t have any other ideas. We’ve been living without opening the living room slide for about five weeks, and it’s working perfectly.

I paid for the shop time and fluid and drove to the WalMart in Terrace Heights. We were told at Aubrey’s that this WalMart is RV-friendly and we could overnight there.

We found a good spot near the end of the WalMart lot. There were a couple of semi tractor-trailer rigs parked there. It was beer thirty and I opened a cold one. About then, a security vehicle drove around our rig. A few minutes later, the security vehicle stopped next to our door. I stepped outside and greeted the security guy. He told me we were welcome to stay the night, but he wanted me to pull forward about thirty feet. He said it was a popular stop for truckers and he wanted to maximize the parking space. No problem. Free overnight parking with a security guard – I’m good with that.

Big rigs at WalMart

They weren’t all big rigs

We were up early Wednesday morning. We had breakfast at the McDonalds in WalMart and hit the road. We headed north on I-82 over the Umptanum Ridge to Ellensburg. From there we took US97 over Blewett Pass and continued on to Wenatchee. We were thinking about boondocking at the Twisp-Winthrop Rodeo Grounds where we stayed last year.

I’ll have to continue this story tomorrow – it’s getting too long-winded already!

Independence Day

The past few days have been busy here at Tamarack RV Park. By Wednesday, most of the campers who had come for the Ironman Triathlon departed and the RV park was about half empty. On Thursday, the long weekenders started arriving for the Fourth of July weekend. By Friday, the park was full again.

We had a busy day on Thursday. I scootered Donna downtown to the 5th Avenue Hair Salon (strangely named, as it’s actually on 5th Street) for her 10am appointment. Most of the streets along Sherman Avenue were closed for a kids’ parade. I was able to sneak past a barrier or two and drop her off.

I came home and posted to the blog, then read for awhile. I was expecting to receive a text from Donna around 11:30 or so, telling me she was ready to be picked up. It was almost noon when she sent me a message saying it would be another 60 to 90 minutes! Then she wrote, “Be prepared for a new look.” What?

I rode downtown at 12:30pm and kicked around. The streets were open again – the parade was finished. I parked the scooter in the alley next to the salon and walked across the street to look at the menu at a restaurant called Scratch. Donna finally emerged from the salon a little past 1pm sporting a new, short hairdo. I can’t believe I neglected to take a picture as she came out of the salon.

We had lunch at Scratch. I had the babyback ribs. Donna opted for the half sandwich – turkey pannini – with tomato basil soup and spinach salad. We agreed it wasn’t really up to scratch. I rate it no more than a three on a scale of five. I had some of the ribs left over and had it boxed to go. I forgot it on the table and didn’t bother to go back to retrieve them.

We stopped at a used book store on the way home and browsed. I bought a couple of books. It was well after 2pm by the time we returned home. I did a little fine-tuning on the Excel Workbook I put together to track my expenditures versus budget.

We rode the scooter down to the Riverstone Center to check out the farmers market that Donna’s hair stylist had mentioned. It turned out to be more of a carnival type midway than a farmers market. There were food vendors, crafts and other local products for sale. We only saw one produce stand. We bought some peaches that were brought up from Wapato, Washington. We’ll be heading in that direction next week.

Later, we scootered over to Fred Meyer for some groceries. Fred Meyer is a chain of superstores in the northwest. It’s a lot like a Super WalMart, but better staffed and provides better service. The row of cash registers have cashiers waiting to serve you. That’s one thing that peeves me at Walmart – a row of 20 cash registers but only three are open at any given time! I like shopping at Fred Meyer.

On Thursday, Donna marinated shrimp with fresh herbs and olive oil and then skewered them with zucchini and tomatoes and I grilled them for dinner. They were excellent served over brown rice.

Shrimp skewers with zucchini and tomato

Yesterday was Independence Day. The RV park was full. Lots of families with small children moved in for the long weekend. Kids were biking throughout the park.

Donna went out for bike ride in the morning. She rode out the Prairie Trail to the end and then backtracked to take the Centennial Trail to Post Falls and back. Before she returned, I went out on my mountain bike around noon. Our paths crossed at the intersection of highway 95 and Kathleen Avenue, about a mile or so from the park. Donna continued home while I rode the bike trail downtown.

I’ve been riding my mountain bike instead of my road bike because of my neck injury. The mountain bike keeps me more upright and puts less stress on my neck and shoulder. The mountain bike is less aerodynamic and has more rolling resistance than a good road bike. This makes it slower. When Donna and I ride on the road together, I’m pushing hard to maintain 12 or 13 miles an hour on the mountain bike while she’s just cruising along at a pace that’s slower than she usually rides. That’s why we haven’t been riding together much since we left San Diego.

The ride downtown was into a headwind. The upright position on the mountain bike makes riding into the wind a real chore. Once I reached the Spokane River, I was somewhat shielded from the wind. Traffic on the trail quickly picked up and the beach areas were crowded. People were out in force to celebrate the fourth.

When I reached City Park, the place had been transformed. It was busy last weekend, but nothing like this. People had canopies and tents on the grass and along the beach. Grills were everywhere along with coolers and blankets.

City Park

I rode to the corner of Northwest Boulevard and Sherman Street. The Fourth of July parade was coming around the corner and the streets were lined with people.

4th of July parade

The day was warm – well into the 80s. People were enjoying the lake. Kids were jumping from the boardwalk linking the park with the boat dock.

Kids jumping into the lake

In the park, there was a food court set up along one of the paved paths. All of the food vendors I’d seen the night before at Riverstone were there.

Food court at City Park

There was much activity in the park and on the lake. I saw the Brooks seaplane heading out for a tour while speedboats, canoes and para-sailers filled the same frame.

Much activity at the lake

The ride home was much easier, as I had the wind at my back. I saw the barge we watched heading downriver on Wednesday. It was anchored in the lake with a paddlewheel river boat tied up to it. I don’t know what was up with that.

River boat tied up to the barge

Last night we had grilled chicken with cilantro-lime butter. I also grilled green beans and Donna baked a sweet potato to serve with it. The cilantro-lime butter recipe is a keeper for sure. Donna says it will be good on fish as well. And it’s simple to make.

Recipe for Grilled Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Butter

In a small bowl, mash 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened) with 1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest, 1/4 teaspoon of Green Tabasco sauce and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Mix until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the butter onto a piece of plastic wrap and twist the plastic to shape the butter into a short log. Refrigerate until firm enough to slice – about 20 to 25 minutes. Marinate thin chicken breasts (or butterflied breasts) for 15 minutes at room temperature in 2 tablespoons lime juice, one tablespoon olive oil and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Grill chicken and serve with a few thin slices of the cilantro-lime butter on top.

Grilled chicken with cilantro-lime butter

We hung out in the park last night. Neither of us were inclined to go to the lake for the fireworks show. We had a full day of celebrating the independence of our nation.

Traffic Cop

We ran the air conditioners yesterday for the first time in over a week. The temperature topped out near 90 degrees.

Donna went for a bike ride for a couple of hours and put in 30 miles. I sat in the shade and read a book. I made a run to Costco for bottled water. Nothing too exciting.

I’m going to try to track my spending this month. I set up a budget last year, but I’ve been pretty loose with it. I want track my expenditures and see if I need to make any adjustments.

A big rig pulled into the RV park in the late afternoon. It was a 45-foot Country Coach Affinity pulling a car hauler trailer. He had to make a tight 90-degree turn at the end of the park road. When I say tight, I mean tight. There’s an eight-foot privacy fence on the outside of the turn and a wooden rail fence on the inside.

I jogged down to the corner. I knew what he was up against. There were a few people sitting outside their trailers in lawn chairs just watching. I stood where the driver could see me at the fence post on the inside of the turn. He had to swing wide enough for his trailer to clear this post, but his swing was limited by the privacy fence on the outside of the turn.

He moved slowly with the right side of his coach an inch or two away from the privacy fence. I watched his trailer draw closer and closer to the post I was standing next to. I started waving him forward like a traffic cop. His trailer was within an inch of the post when the rear axle of the trailer passed it. Once the rear axle passed, he was in the clear. I gave him a thumbs up and he accelerated down the side road.

He made a complete circuit around the park and turned into a pull-through site on the other side of the laundry room/rest rooms building from us. He had the same issue of turning wide enough to clear his trailer while being limited by trees. There was a post with the site number and night lamp at the corner of his site. I pulled up on the post and it came out of the ground easily. His trailer wouldn’t have cleared the post and he would have scraped the side of the trailer.

He jockeyed back a forth a couple of times and positioned the coach where he wanted it. He opened his window and asked me if his trailer was hanging out too far. I told him it was fine. He thanked me for the assistance. He told me his overall length with the 45-foot coach and car hauler was about 73 feet!

Tight quarters

73 feet overall length!

Most of the RVs in the park are fifth-wheel or travel trailers. I don’t think these people realize the challenge of driving a big rig pulling a trailer. A fifth wheel has its pin pivoting over the rear axle of the truck pulling it, making it fairly easy to maneuver. My rig has the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. This makes maneuvering the trailer more difficult, especially in reverse.

Later, I walked down to site with the Country Coach. The driver thanked me again and introduced himself. His name was Larry. He’s from Moses Lake, Washington where he ran a successful construction business. It was licensed in three states – Washington, California and Montana. He told me he did a lot of contract work in the oil fields.

Larry recently sold the business and is semi-retired. He’s only 33 years old and isn’t ready to quit working yet. He and his family are taking an extended vacation in their RV. They plan to see the sights in the western states, eventually going down to Texas. Larry is looking at an investment opportunity there.

While we were talking, he told me his generator wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes. As he described the symptoms, I told him it sounded like a fuel delivery problem. He told me the fuel filter had just been changed that morning. I thought the fittings on the filter might have a leak, allowing air to be drawn into the fuel line.

Right about then, a truck pulled in front of his coach. A man and a boy got out. Larry introduced me to Aaron. Aaron runs a repair business in Moses Lake, repairing autos, trucks and farm equipment. He made the 130-mile drive from Moses Lake to check out Larry’s generator. Aaron and his 11-year-old son went to work.

Aaron suspected a fuel pump problem and brought a new pump with him. After checking fault codes, he was sure the pump was bad. Getting to the fuel pump wasn’t easy. Getting the sheet metal cover off an Onan generator while it’s mounted to the coach is difficult. I was impressed by the way he and his son worked together. For an 11-year-old boy, he had some mechanical skills. He crawled underneath the coach and told his dad he needed a thin, 11mm open-end wrench and a pair of channel locks to get the fuel line off. Aaron didn’t have channel locks with him or a thin enough wrench. I went to my trailer and brought back a thin wrench and channel locks. About an hour later, they had the new pump on and the generator was running fine. I told the kid that it was great to have mechanical skills, but that he should be sure to get an education, too!

I grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons while Donna made twice-baked potatoes and asparagus. She sauteed mushrooms and onions to put on the grilled filets. Yummy!

Bacon wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions, twice-baked potato and asparagus

Today will be another air conditioner day. The forecast calls for a high of 93 and it’s already warm this morning. Donna and I plan to ride the scooter down to the lake.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Grilling

Driving Big Al

Blue Lake

Chillin’ and Grillin’ in Portland

Southbound from South Bend

Until Next Time

Friends and Family Time

Early Morning Wake-up

Nuclear Waste

Independence Day

Traffic Cop

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: