On Wednesday, I followed through on my promise to mow the Sawyer homestead.  It was the least I could do in return for his hospitality over the last week.  It took a few hours to finish the 5 acres and I was sure to feel it afterwards… it was a lot like work – you know – that other 4-letter word.

 

I also stayed motivated and got on top of the Motorhome with a hose and bucket and washed off all the tree sap and residue from being parked under the trees in Lake Tahoe, Eagle Lake, and Crater Lake.  While I was up there, I also did a good inspection to make sure all the caulking and seals were in good shape and that my air conditioner panels and solar panels were all still fastened down properly.  All was in order 🙂

Stilla made another super meal for dinner, we had Jaegerschnitzel.  I think both Nate and I gained a couple pounds over the last several days.

On Thursday morning, I loaded up the Harley and bikes.

My goal was to hit the road by noon so we had plenty of time for sightseeing and to find a campground for the evening.  I also had to chase down Nate’s chickens at one point, it turned out that his coop has a “trap door” on the side that wasn’t closed properly and when the chickens found out… it was just like lemmings going over a cliff.  Actually, it was no big deal rounding up the chickens.  I was able to account for all eleven of them once they stopped moving around.  They were happy to get back into their coop, they knew where the food was.

We hit the road by 12:30 and took I5 to Olympia and then got on the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway, Hwy 101 towards Port Angeles.

Coach took over the navigator seat while Stilla made snacks.

We even passed John Wayne Marina on the way.

The trip took us about 3 hours and was very scenic.  We passed by a few RV parks and State Campgrounds that sure looked nice, but we had already used our Passport America App to help us choose a place to stay.  It told us about the Conestoga Quarters RV Park in Port Angeles that accepted the PA rate of $13 (valid for two nights, weekends not excluded) after September 1st.  However, it turned out that the PA App was wrong… when we arrived the manager told us they don’t accept the PA rate until after October 1st.  He said he tried a number of times to get them to update the PA database.  Also, he had just given away the last spot we could have fit into!  But, he offered to put us into his “overflow” space for free and move us to a pull-thru site in the morning.  The daily rate after the free night is only $27, so all is well and the Urban Escape Vehicle got to exercise the generator for a little while.

This morning, (Friday), we moved into the pull-thru site and took the bicycles off the Silverado.  I’m always worried we have too much rear overhang with the tailgate down and the bicycle rack mounted.  It’s probably OK when it’s being towed on the highway behind the motorhome, but for running around town, I’d rather take the bikes and rack off.

We then went into Port Angeles to do some sight-seeing at the harbor and we also drove into the Olympia National Forest.  I’ll save those pictures for my next post… it’s getting late now and we have to get up early to catch the ferry over to Victoria B.C.  which is our plan for tomorrow… so stay tuned.

 

We visited Ft Lewis today (Tuesday, 2 Sept).  Fort Lewis is now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord or “JBLM” for short in another government attempt to save money.  Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base merged on October 1, 2010 due to BRAC initiatives back in 2005.  You can find more information on this merger here if interested:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9900

 

We went to JBLM for a couple reasons.  First, a soldier that worked for me back in the 601st ASB, Katterbach GE (2003-2005 timeframe) contacted me on Facebook and invited us to his promotion ceremony.  I humbly accepted and we drove through the horrendous traffic on I5 to make it in time for the 1100 event.

 

Congratulations to newly promoted Master Sergeant Kevin Lamar!  He was (and is) a superb Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) that could always be counted on to get the hard jobs accomplished.  As I’ve said many times before, my success in the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer is directly attributed to the many fine NCO’s that I had the privilege of working with that did the “real work” and made me look good.  MSG Lamar is certainly one of those professional NCO’s and his promotion is well-deserved.  After the ceremony, where many kind words were spoken, we then graciously accepted the refreshments (aka “free lunch”) in one of the nearby conference rooms.

Thanks for the invite MSG Kevin Lamar!

The second reason we went to JBLM was to get my meds refilled at the base hospital.  That went fairly well after a couple of long waits at different branches of the Pharmacy.  It took most of the afternoon because they had to call Ft Carson and transfer my prescription.  Then we had to get another ticket to get the prescriptions filled.  There sure are a lot of retirees here 😉

After a short tour through the main PX… we had to see if it was any different from other posts/bases… It wasn’t, then we headed over to the FamCamp on base to see what it looked like for future reference.  It is called NW Adventure Center JBLM and they have 48 full hook-up sites.  It is located on the shore of American Lake.  The fees are as follows:

• 50-amp with lake view – $25 per night
• 50-amp – $22.50 per night
• 30-amp – $20 per night
• They also have tent and overflow sites available for $7 and $5 respectively.

We drove through the campground to check out the sites.  I was pleasantly surprised, I would definitely stay here if we didn’t already have the awesome spot at my friend’s house in Yelm right now.  Plus the price is right 😉

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to take any pictures when we were there.

We made it back home (Nate Sawyer’s homestead) in time for Stilla to reheat the leftover Sauerbraten from yesterday’s meal for Nate before he came home.  BTW- We also saw Nate at the promotion ceremony and he gave us a quick tour of his office, aka closet 🙂

 

Coach was patiently waiting for us to return from another day’s adventure without him 🙁

That’s all for now… have to go mow the yard for Nate, figured it was the least I could do for his hospitality here, then maybe I’ll have time to get up on top of the coach to give it a washing and maybe waxing before we hit the road again.  We were thinking that Thursday would be a good day to head on up to Port Angeles and then…who knows…?  South along the Pacific Coast Highway?

We’re still hiding out at my friend’s house in Yelm, WA while we wait for everybody to go back to work after the Labor Day Weekend so there’s room at the campgrounds again. I’ve found out it’s tough getting a spot at any popular campgrounds during holidays. It seems that the “locals” always reserve the good places, sometimes weeks or even months in advance.  I’m pretty sure we could find a spot at the FamCamp in Ft Lewis (now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord aka JBLM) or maybe even a local Elks Lodge, but it’s been a nice break to hang out here and do day trips in the Silverado.  Over the last several days we have taken trips to Mt Rainier, Northwest Trek, and Seattle.  I’ll bring you up to date on the Seattle trip with this blog post today but will save the others for a later time.

On Thursday, we drove to Seattle with Stilla’s friend Christine acting as our guide.  Christine is a friend of Stilla’s that she knew from Colorado Springs many years ago, they have stayed in touch all this time.  We met up with Christine on the 25th after we left Kelso, WA and stayed outside her house for a night on the street.  She lives about 20 miles from where we are now.  She also took us on a tour up to Mt Rainier, but again, I’ll save that for another post.

It was overcast in the morning but cleared up nicely by the afternoon.  However, since we went up in the morning it was too late for us to have a good view of Mt. Rainier from the top of the Space Needle.  The mountain is a pretty awesome sight, we can see it from the house.

Stilla was a little nervous in the elevator, the windows face outwards.  It goes up 520 ft to the Observation Deck at a speed of 10 mph.

 

 

Here are some pictures of the view from the top:

 

 

 

 

After we got down, we took the tram to Pike Place Market.

We heard that Pike Place Market was a “must see” when visiting Seattle.   According to Wikipedia it one of the oldest public markets in the US.  It overlooks the Elliott Bay waterfront and was built on the edge of a steep hill.  It consists of several lower levels located below the main level, all full of unique shops and restaurants.  The street level has fishmongers, fresh produce and craft stands.  We were told to watch for the fish to be thrown around at the fish stores.  The workers would toss the fish around when someone had placed an order while shouting or sometimes singing a jingle.  We spent the afternoon exploring this unique place, here are some pics:

We found the Pike Place Brewery and decided to sit down for a meal and drinks.  I ordered their beer sampler which consisted of 6 small glasses of their most popular beers along with a pizza.

The brewing system extended through the floor of the upper level.

I just had to take pictures of the cool beer coaster collections displayed in the hallway on the way to the restrooms 🙂

We kept seeing these really neat tour buses which were actually restored and converted WWII amphibious craft.  Maybe we’ll take that tour next time.

Not sure what this was about, but there was one portion of an alleyway that was covered in bubblegum.  Amazing what people can get started, eh?

OK, that’s it for now… will post again soon.  Stilla is making Sauerbraten mit Knodel for supper as a “thank you” to Nate for his hospitality.