And the Answer is?

July 16, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

A very popular camping site!

I got up early today to get the motorhome over to the Freightliner dealer by 7:00 am when they open. I talked with the service manager and the technician about how everything stopped working on the motorhome dashboard and then later started working fine as I drove into Missoula. The service manager said they had seen that before and that there was not really fix for it. I waited for 5 hours at the dealer and they checked everything possible. Everything came back great and they could not identify a reason for the dash shutting off. After 5 hours, they gave me back the keys and said to drive it as they could find nothing wrong. I was sort of happy and sad at the same time. I was happy they could find no problem, but sad they were unable to find the cause of the problem with the dashboard gauges. So the answer remains unknown!

So, I made a sandwich, ate a banana, hitched up the Jeep and headed east. I am not sure if it is faith or stupidity to start off on a desolate road hoping an electrical problem will not reoccur. Either way, I had no problems. Everything traveled great. I stopped in Bozeman for the night. One of my references described how the Bozman Walmart is very popular with RVers. I decided to give it a shot in the motorhome. There were already 20 RVs parked in the lot when I arrived and more keep coming with every hour. There is a whole city living in the Walmart parking lot. The nice couple next to me are from Colorado, but have Florida plates for tax purposes. This is going to be an interesting evening. Please do not disown me for sleeping at Walmart!

Glacier Natioal Park

July 15, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Glacier National Park is rugged and spectacular!

Today was fantastic. I had planned to meet a colleague (David) in Whitefish, Montana. However, since I was in Missoula waiting for my appointment tomorrow at the Freightliner dealer, I emailed him to see if he wanted to meet for lunch instead. He thought it was a great idea and I drove 2.5 hours north to meet him and his wife (Chris) just outside of the west entrance to Glacier National Park.

David and Chris love Glacier and spend two months every summer in a rental condominium and go on various hikes in Glacier multiple times per week. They thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity showing me some of their favorite places. It is a huge park, so we were limited to key places near the west entrance. I enjoyed the opportunity to take some photos and watch the clouds and light change on the landscape. It was absolutely gorgeous!

The Unexpected Sometimes Happens

July 15, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

After a stressful and confusing day, huckleberry ice cream was wonderful!

I headed into Montana today. I was making good time in the motorhome winding my way through the mountain passes. However, as I crested one pass and was going downhill, suddenly everything on the dashboard of the motorhome froze and all the lights but ABS went out. I pulled over to stop, prayed like crazy, turned off the motorhome, restarted the motorhome, and everything remained unchanged. Unfortunately, I had no cell phone coverage. The motorhome started fine, I had great braking, the speedometer was frozen, but I could read my speed from the GPS, so I carefully limped down the hill. When I got to St. Regis, Montana I was able to call our roadside assistance service. The technician said it sounded like I had some type of low voltage problem and that I probably did not have brake lights or turn signals. They thought I should not drive the motorhome and that I needed to be towed to a Freightliner dealer in Missoula. I was given an appointment in two days for the dealer to check out the motorhome.

I waited for a while and suddenly a truck with two people showed up to remove the drivetrain to prepare the motorhome for towing. After a while the tow truck arrived and we started discussing the problem. They were diesel mechanics so that started checking the batteries, etc. They found that although the dash was out, that I actually did have brake lights and turn signals on the back of the motorhome. We also tested the motorhome generator and it operated fine. Basically, they thought there was some problem within the “brain” in the dash, but that the motorhome was ok to drive. The reconnected the drivetrain and I headed down the freeway to an RV park in Missoula while awaiting my appointment at the dealer.

While checking into the RV park, the host told me they would be serving free ice-cream at 7:00 pm. After my stressful day that sounded absolutely wonderful! Yogi was there and the kids loved seeing him. This is a great Rv park for kids as they have a swimming pool, water splash fountain, miniature golf course, game room, pool table, etc. While eating my ice cream, I enjoyed watching so many kids having fun and running everywhere.

Ride the Hiawatha!

July 12, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I have a light under my helmet, so I am approved to ride through the tunnels.

I drove to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and am enjoying the beautiful scenery. This is a fantastic place to spend the summer. The temperatures are cool, there is a big lake in town, and there are many, many trees. It is gorgeous.

While I was in Enumclaw, Washington, a guy a met in the RV park where I stayed told me that if I drove through Coeur d’Alene, that I should be sure to Ride the Hiawatha. It is a bike path where the old Hiawatha train used to go. It is a 15 mile route with a shuttle to take you back near the top. The highlight is that you ride through 10 tunnels! The whole route is downhill, so it is an easy ride. The trail drops 1,000 feet over the 15 mile length.

It is an ideal ride for the whole family.

Impressively, the highlight of the route is riding through the St. Paul Pass Tunnel which is 1.7 miles in length. It is pitch dark inside the tunnel after riding a short distance. You cannot see anything, so lights are a requirement. People are hired to make sure no one rides the trail without a helmet and light.

Inside the St. Paul Pass Tunnel that is 1.7 miles long, completely dark inside, and quite chilly in temperature.

The high trestles are impressive in the midst of all the trees.

I highly recommend this ride! The whole family can enjoy it. There were two women in their mid-seventies that started riding just before me. Many kids were having fun splashing through the mud in the first tunnel. It was so much fun!

Ride the Hiawatha

The Palouse

July 9, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I have had an intense couple of days driving. I started off yesterday morning on the Western coast of Washington and today ended driving right next to the Idaho border. I spent last night in Randall, Washington, right between Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens. I was planning to stop today in Yakima, but when I got there I was feeling good and just kept driving. I went down to the Tri-Cities (Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick) to get fuel and headed northeast. It was fun driving by so many wineries. I really enjoyed driving through the large Palouse area and am staying in a city-run RV park in the town of Palouse that is 3 miles from the Idaho border. Fewer than 1,000 people live in this town.

There is no hardware store in Palouse, so I drove down to Pullman to buy a new green garden hose since I got a kink and split our last hose. I then drove through the Washington State campus and saw their football and basketball stadiums. I was quite impressed with their football stadium. The Cougars are literally the only game in town. I have heard people say that it is difficult for other PAC-12 teams to get to Pullman for games with Washington State. Most teams usually fly to Seattle, then fly to Spokane, and then get a third flight down to Pullman. There are Cougar banners everywhere in town! Washington State certainly has an enthusiastic fan base.

I have heard of people going on photography trips to the Palouse and now I understand why. The rolling hills flow in all directions and it is nice to study their shapes and colors. I imagine the colors shift through the seasons as fields are planted and harvested. I wish I could spend more time here, but I need to move down the road.

Beach Day!

July 6, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The beach was beautiful!

After several days of running all around, today was a day to sit on the beach and enjoy the sounds, smell, and, tranquility of the beach. I found a quite beach in Ocean Shores that looked out over the Pacific, pulled out my chair from the back of the Jeep, planted it in the sand and grabbed my Kindle to read. It was very nice and very refreshing. I needed a sweatshirt because it was cloudy and windy, but it was so nice to enjoy.

One very cute black Labrador came to visit and it made me wish I had a dog. This guy was very happy and friendly and it was fun to watch him enjoy being on the beach. He walked up and put his nose in my lap and we enjoyed greeting each other. However, soon he ran off to join his owner. What a great dog!

Great neighbors!

July 5, 2015July 6, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I love my RV spot because there is so much room around me! It is very quiet and nice and cool.

I have enjoyed meeting my neighbors. In our six RV spots, there are only 3 RVs (including me). In the other two spots are two women (Jackie and Nancy) far more experienced than me being fulltime RVers and traveling all over the US. In our conversations, every town or city I have named, they have already visited there. Often multiple times. One drives a motorhome towing a small car and the other drives a truck and pulls a 5^th wheel trailer. Sometimes they travel in tandem seeing different places together and other times they split up and meet again some months in the future. We love our current RV park as it is very quiet in this small town and we have all kinds of room around us.

Friendly neighbor that has provided very helpful, practical advice when traveling in an RV.

Jackie and Nancy have given me great advice. When I told them I was heading east, they suggested I take highway 12 across Washington so that I would not have to go through all the traffic in Seattle. When I told them there was a tunnel on highway 12 that I was not sure I would fit through, they whipped out their trucker’s guide and showed me that highway 12 is used by large trucks, so that there would be no problem with me fitting in the tunnel. They strongly recommended that I buy one of those truckers’ atlases the next time I go to a truck stop. I strongly agree. They also recommended I try to join the Moose organization as a number of states have Moose Lodges with RV hookups. That is good information to know.

This sign is a good reminder. Not only for this intersection, but it is good advice for RVing. Stop and look again. Do not just zoom by, but stop and look around you. There is much to see!

They had recently been in Yakima (the general direction where I am headed) and they said it was well over 100⁰ and that they wanted to come to the Olympic Peninsula to cool off. I hope it is much cooler when I go through Yakima! They also really like Spokane, where I will be headed after I drive through the Palouse area of Washington. They described how it was only about 30 miles from Coeur d’Alene. Another RVer I met in Enumclaw told me about a tunnel east of Coeur d’Alene that is famous for riding bicycles through and then taking a shuttle back to the starting area. I am really looking forward to seeing that! Last night I asked them about traveling through Montana and Wyoming. They got big smiles and suddenly started telling me all about the beauty of Glacier National Park. They told me where to visit, good places to park the motorhome, and a road to avoid when driving the RV. When they talked about Wyoming, they loved describing how awesome it was to see Devils Tower National Monument. I look forward to seeing that too! As they were describing places they visited, Jackie grabbed her laptop and started searching her journal. She journals everyday describing her thoughts and travels. She found her section the last time they went through Montana and started reading off some of the places they visited and a funny story about sleeping in a truck stop in their RVs. When they discussed Idaho, they told me it was much better to buy alcohol in Idaho instead of Washington. Apparently, the taxes on alcohol are much lower in Idaho compared to Washington. That also led to a discussion about boxed wine. I was taught about the “poor quality” boxed wine and the better quality boxes wine. They told me where to buy the better quality boxed wines. They also liked boxed wines for RVing because they were not as heavy as multiple bottles of wine and they could not break like glass bottles could. Lastly, Nancy showed me that when she was all finished with a boxed wine, she rinsed out the bag, and would blow it up with air to use as a packing pillow to keep glasses and dishes from breaking. Very practical information indeed. Nancy went to the laundromat yesterday and said that Hoquiam had a high quality laundromat that was in her top 5 across the entire United States. Good to know. I do not doubt her since she has traveled to so many places and used laundromats everywhere.

I discovered this distillery in Aberdeen, Washington.

However, I surprised Jackie and Nancy when I told them I read that there was a distillery in Aberdeen, Washington. They got excited and then their eyes sparkled as they told me about going on a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee. They laughed because they said the county where the Jack Daniels distillery was located was a dry county so you could not buy liquor in the very county where it is made. Odd. Today Jackie and Nancy brought me a sack of all kinds of brochures about places in eastern Washington. It will take me a while to sort through everything they gave me, but I certainly appreciate the opportunity to learn about places I will visit very soon.

The beaches were beautiful!

Yesterday was 4th of July and many flags were flying in the marina.

Today I visited the beaches to the south of Hoquiam. This is such a beautiful area of our country. It was quite windy and cool. It was also fun to watch many people flying kites along the beach.

The colorful kites were awesome!

I absolutely loved being a fulltime RVer and having the opportunity to visit so many new places and meet so many fun people. It is a wonderful retirement lifestyle! I saw a photo on Facebook yesterday that showed a couple wearing t-shirts with the phrase “I have a retirement plan – I plan to go camping!” I agree. I plan to go camping too.

Olympic National Park

July 2, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The sea stacks along the beach were impressive!

The beaches in the Olympic National Park are beautiful!

The tide was rolling in.

Nancy and Steve told me that I should be sure to visit Ruby Beach and Kalaloch in Olympic National Park. Therefore, I made that my first agenda item for my first full day of sightseeing. I was extremely impressed! It was gorgeous and quite unique from other beaches I have visited.

The sea stacks were beautiful.

Very smooth river rock covered several sections of the beach.

The river rock on the beach was very smooth.

Sections of the beach were rugged and there was more river rock that sand in a number of sections of the beach.

Sometime there was a hazy mist that would blow onto the beach from the ocean that created some fun scenes.

The mist drifting in from the ocean made interesting scenes.

The mist was fun!

I especially liked seeing the “sea stacks” made of rugged rock on the edge of the beach. Some of the settings were spectacular.

The surf was powerful.

The sea stacks made interesting scenes.

Spectacular colors along the beach.

As I was heading back to the Jeep, two teenagers were pointing into the water as there was a seal swimming nearby. I wish I had a larger telephoto, but if you use your imagination, there is a seal swimming in the water!

Use your imagination and you can see a seal in the wild swimming along the beach.

Pacific Ocean

July 1, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I finally made it to the Pacific Ocean!

I finally made it to the Pacific Ocean on this trip. When going through California and Oregon, it did not work out to go to the coast, but here in Washington, I finally made it to the Pacific. It was very beautiful. The water was cold, so almost all the people in the water were wearing wet suits. Certain roads led right to the beach and we were allowed to drive right along the beach.

With the mist above the water, it was fun to watch how the scene kept changing.

The green vegetation contrasted nicely with the blue water.

There was a mist right above the water that often drifted over the beach. It was very beautiful. The temperature was cool and there was a heavy breeze blowing in from the ocean. While standing on the beach, there were beautiful cliffs behind me.

While standing on the beach the cliffs behind were striking.

High cliff next to the water.

Buckley Log Show Day 2

June 28, 2015June 29, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Tom, Ed, Steve, Nancy, and Adriana.

Today was a very special day to meet together with cousins. It has been decades and decades since Tom and Nancy were together during a camping trip to Zion. It was fantastic to be together with Tom and Adriana as well as Nancy and Steve. Who would have guessed that we would meet together at a Log Show in Buckley, Washington??? Life is funny sometimes; however, I absolutely loved being all together!

Suspenders are part of the logger equipment!

This guy was very fast climbing up the log.

There is power in those arms!

The second day of the Log Show did not disappoint. People with the top scores yesterday advanced to the finals today. In addition, there some new events too. As with yesterday, it is simply shocking to see the power these people have to climb, chop, saw, and throw. Amazing skills for sure.

This guy was quite accurate in throwing his ax.

The power as this guy chopped through the wood was amazing. Wood chips fly when his ax connects with the log.

Sawdust flies as they chew through logs.

There was power in the team competition.

The car engines connected to a chain saw were quite impressive. Sawdust flies everywhere and the chain saw mows through a log in just a few seconds. WOW!

This car engine – chainsaw won the competition. In a few seconds it chewed through the entire log.

Sawdust flies everywhere as the car engine – chain saw slices through wood as I would cut paper with scissors. Impressive!

This woman was working very hard with her partner to saw through this log.

The clown is preparing to cool off the crowd.

Ready, set, go and run with a chain saw?? Yup, that is part of the competition.

This upgraded chain saw was impressive!

This is a double chain saw (chain saw engines on both sides) and it quickly chewed through the log.

Powerful strokes way, way up in the air.

80 feet in the air this guy is preparing to saw the log at the top.

One of the funniest events was having people get inside this plastic bubbles and then run around bouncing off each other and falling to the ground. This would clearly be a big event at a family picnic!

These plastic balls were absolutely hilarious! One woman was bounced around and went flying when someone would bump into her.

New events in the Log Show included team competition, climbing out on a log over water to tie a cable, and log rolling. I could complete none of the tasks, but it was amazing to watch other people attempt the tasks.

This was almost impossible. You were supposed to walk to the end of this narrow log (over water), tie a cable around the end, and then walk back off the log. Most people ended up in the water.

This was the first time I have seen log rolling in real life. Most people quickly ended up in the water.

Fiesta on Wheels

Author: Ed Armstrong