Again, Some Like it Hot (Not Marilyn Monroe)

Friday, August 17, 2012
Still in Lacey, WA

It's hotter today, Some Like it Hot, but not me, a high of 95 and low of 78 and the humidity is up too.  This heat is getting a little old for me.  This is suppose to be the Pacific Northwest, cool at night and warm during the day, by warm I mean 75 to 80.  And, where is our rain, we need rain at least once a week to water my plants and clean the air.  Our air is getting dirty, it was hard to see Mt Rainier today because of the high pressures holding all the fumes and smog down to ground level.  Now I'm rambling too much.

One of our Airstream groups, North Cascade, was having a rally at Hoodsport on Hood Canal which is in the southwest side of Puget Sound.  This is a little cooler especially since they were right on the water.  So we packed up and drove the Jetta over to Hoodsport, a nice drive about 50 miles away.  The weather was clear and a little cooler with a nice light breeze now and then off the water.

It was great to visit with old friends that we had not seen for a while.  We were only there for a few hours in the afternoon, but they had a full day starting with crabbing and then kayaking, knitting and reading, a real laid back rally.

Taken out the car window

Ron checking out the kayak 

Jerry in his kayak

Marilyn modeling the sweater she had just finished knitting

Looks pretty good, eh!

Joe and Rich discussing holding tanks

Kind of bright out, Karen, Marilyn and Marilyn and Gene

Maureen and hubby Ron

 While there I presented Jerry, immediate Past President of the North Cascade Unit, with a ribbon and certificate that I had accepted for him at our Region Rally in Alberta a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, after a visit to the ophthalmologist I had a new prescription for glasses, I went to Costco on the way home to find out if I could order my new glasses here in Lacey and pick them up in Lancaster, PA, since that is where we will be in about 3 - 4 weeks.  NO! that was not possible.  What is the big deal, you would think that this would not be a problem.  I'm going to do some more checking on this.  While in Costco I found some really cute rain boots, just what I had been looking for.

Cute, eh, $22.95 (US funds)

Just heard on the news that it will be cooler tomorrow, Lo of 65' and High of 75' to 80', now that's better.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by

Joe and Nancy

Gone with the Wind

Well I lied on my previous post.  I thought I would be without internet for a week but I totally forgot that I can use free WiFi at campgrounds.  How awesome is that.

July 12, 2012

After taking care of a few things at home, we are off again, this time our destination is Hill Spring, Alberta and the Great Canadian Barn Dance RV Park.  Wow that's a mouth full, I don't even know if I have the correct title.

Well we started off on an uneventful morning.  We waited for the Seattle traffic to calm down a little and then we left about 9:30 am.  North on I-5, east on SR 18 and then picked up I-90 east.  Just before I-90 we came across fellow Airstreamers that live in the same park as we do; Phil & Pat pulling their trailer and Judy driving her motor home.  They were going to Glacier Park and then up to Hill Spring and we are going north on 95 to BC and then east to Crows Nest Pass to meet up with our BC friends.

After the crest of the mountain pass on I-90 we were going to take exit 93 and go to our favorite little fruit stand on the other side of the Hwy.  A very nice family runs the fruit stand and the fruit is always good and fresh.  Once they even let us boondock for one night behind their stand.

About 3/4 mile before our exit a car passed us with their windows down and everyone having frantically at us and trying to tell us something.  Luckily there was a safe place to pull over to try and figure out what was wrong.  Oh, by the way it was HOT and Windy and the outside temp was 101'.

Just our luck we had a blown tire, a very blown left front trailer tire.  The rubber and steel belts were sliced and diced on the tire but luckily no damage to the trailer.  Wow, were we lucky, if we had gone much farther who knows what might have happened.  This is our 2nd tire problem in less than a year.  The first was in Yuma and we replaced all four tires at Discount Tire.  I don't know about other trailers but on Airstream trailers the trailer keeps rolling along on three tires and you never know the difference.  I know this story is getting long, just skip to the pictures if you want, I like to have this info to look back on.


We have a safety vest and a collapsible traffic cone, this is the first time we have had to use them.

I'm not sure what Joe is doing but doesn't he look cute in his safety vest that I made him wear.  The little dinky cone collapses down to about one inch and it fits nicely in the rear truck door along with his vest.

AAA to the rescue

Joe is telling me to stop taking pictures, get in the truck and lets get the hell out of here.

The trailer tires are from Discount Tire and the truck tires are from Lew Schwab.  The closest Discount Tire is in Spokane Valley 180 miles away.  I called them and spoke to a very nice man named Nick.  After explaining the situation to Nick he said to go purchase a used tire to carry for a spare and then come into his shop and he would buy the used tire from us and replace the torn up tire.  Well, wasn't that nice!

However, just try to find a trailer size tire in farm country.  All the used ones go to the farmers for their "farm implements" is what I was finally told, after sever phone calls.  MY OH MY, where would we be if not for the cell phone and the air card.  Verizon certainly does a good job.



"The East side", that's what the people of Seattle area call it, (or sometimes "the other side of the mountains" is looking good.  Lots of nice healthy looking grains, they will be harvested in late summer.  I have always liked keeping an eye on the farmers' fields, just to make sure they are doing it right. lol

Stacks and stacks of hay is already being covered up, waiting for the highest bidder to truck it off later in the season.  Later in the summer there are acres and acres of these stacks of hay

Finally we come to the wind generators. 

 If you are traveling at night on a full moon they are spectacular to see

Crossing the mighty  Columbia River that Lewis and Clark came down. 

After crossing the river, up on the east side are these metal  cut-outs of wild horses.  Every time we come over this way I try to take a picture of them and today I finally got a decent picture.

Look close between the first horse and the  second horse is a person standing there.  There is a view point to stop and see the horses, but so far I have not been able to convince Joe to stop there, something to do with the fact that we are pulling a trailer up a long grade.

That's it for yesterday, safe travels to all, and thanks for stopping by

Joe and Nancy