Wait, wait, wait

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

First we have to go back to last night. Remember that twice we endured the screaming jets going in circles overhead. Well, after we finally had peace and quiet and got all settled in for the night, here they came again! It didn’t take them as long this time, and I guess they have to practice at night too. And by the time we wanted to sleep they were done. They are LOUD!

We awoke at the Fort Casey Camp Grounds on Whidbey Island, WA to the song of a foghorn, and sure enough, it was really foggy.  It turned out that the fog horn was the 6:30 or so ferry to Port Townsend.  It also turned out that that was the last ferry to leave until 10:15 because the fog was so thick.  We were camped close to the ferry terminal and watched it come and go Monday evening.  In fact we walked to the terminal and Fred picked up a schedule.  This morning, as soon as we got up and around, we drove a short distance to the ferry terminal and got in line.   Wilma and Betty fixed breakfast while we waited in line in the fog.  The terminal parking lot was filled with one ferry worth of cars and trucks.  We were the second and third vehicles in the line outside of the lot at about 8:00.  Fred had made us reservations on the 11:15 ferry, and with the fog delays that is the one we were actually able to get on. On the way to Port Townsend the ferry ran out of the fog and we had a beautiful crossing and we reached our destination on schedule.  They do run on electronic navigation, but because there are enough accidents, they are required to have a certain amount of visibility to run the ferries.

When the fog clears, we will get on the
ferry boat from here.

Nothing but fog.

They move a lot of different vehicles on the ferries. There were several semis, loaded with all kinds of stuff. One had a load of trusses on it, and we saw a load of lumber get off.  There are lots of motorhomes and trailers, motorcycles, and bicycles. Plus ordinary cars and foot traffic.

We left Port Townsend and took Route 20 toward route 101 headed for Port Angeles.  We made a fuel stop at a large Chevron Station and had to wait for a few minutes because of some sort of a power interruption.  Seems we had been waiting for something or other most of the morning.  We got fuel and were on our way. 

We went into Port Angeles looking for a stamp for our books, but were at the wrong VC, and had to continue a little ways to find the correct VC.  While we were in Port Angeles, the several anchored large container cargo ships disappeared and reappeared in the fog bank that kind of hung in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca.  It was really pretty neat.

We stopped at the Olympic National Park Visitors center for a proper round of stamping in the Passport Books.  While we were there we had a late lunch/early dinner of Wilma’s veggieburgers at one of their picnic tables.

From Port Angeles we headed west on route 101 looking for a place to spend the night.  The first one we checked out wasn’t good, so we backtracked a little, then got back on 101, and guess what!  We had to wait again. This time for road construction.

We're waiting again!!

We didn’t wait long before it was our turn to go, and went a little ways and had to stop again. Finally got moving, and before we got back to two way traffic we turned off to find our campsite. It just seems to be our day for delays.  We got settled into the Elwah National Park Campground right across the road from the Elwah River.  Barney got a fire going and we roasted a few marshmallows before we sealed up the rolling caves for the night.

b