Off and Running, and Plymouth Rocks!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

We have some new followers! Welcome Debbie and Tom, and welcome Ron and JoAnn. We hope you  enjoy traveling with us.

It is great to be back on the road! 

Fred arrived home a little late from his dental appointment because the dentist had to gab a bit about our trip, while Wilma is pacing at home, wanting to get going!    We left home just after 2:00 o-clock headed west on I-84 in the general direction of Washington State.  About 30 miles out, we crossed the state line into Oregon. Then about 30 more miles and we crossed into the Pacific Time Zone and gained an hour, getting there about the same time we left home.  

A couple of hours later we stopped in LaGrande, OR to sample the fare at their world renowned Taco Bell. It was delicious!  

Back on the road, we continued west on I-84 for another hour or so and turned north on I-82 in the direction of Tri-cities in Washington.  The head winds must have known we were not going on down the Columbia River Gorge, because they attacked us as we exited Cabbage Hill, and escorted us all the way to the turn off on I-82. We could have done without their company, but it wouldn’t be natural to be near this area without them. No wonder that from the top of the hill it looked so dirty, unlike the times you can see the distant Cascade mountains and pick out the top of Mount Adams and once in a while the very top of Mt. Rainier!

Crossing the Columbia River into Washington meant we were entering our third state for the day. Just after crossing the river, we exited towards Plymouth, Washington, and after three false starts and turn arounds on dead end roads, we finally found our way to Plymouth Park, an Army Corps of Engineers park. We are favorably impressed. It is a very nice, clean park with free showers, and with our “geezer” card, a site with water and electric is $11. And the heat we had been enduring all day is gone.  It is very pleasant this evening.

The Plymouth Park sign at the entrance.

The road into the campground
from the street.

Looking down the street showing
campsites on both sides.

Our two rolling caves parked for the night.

Wilma, Barney and Betty.

The lake next to the campground.

Betty and Barney taking a walk.

We saw an Amtrak train go by off in the distance, and a freight train or two, but no real noise from them. We can hear the whistle if we really listen. Not like the first time, a number of years ago, we stayed at Cascade Locks and thought the train was going right through our campers!

Then to top off the day, as we were sitting at the picnic table enjoying the evening, a young boy from a trailer across the street came over with two gallon size bags of apricots and plums. We figured he wanted to sell some, but he offered one bag to Betty and one to Wilma. Our neighbors had picked them from their own trees. Haven’t tried the plums yet, but the apricots are wonderful!

The rolling caves are parked for the night and we are pretty much settled in.  The beginning of another great road trip!
w/b

Home (not so) Sweet Home

Wednesday June 29, 2011

We got up this morning in the campground at the city park in Coulee City, WA.  We ate a leisurely breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and pizza before we took off for home.  Okay, not everyone has pizza for breakfast, but it was good, and something we had on hand that made it through both border crossings. We didn’t take some of our regular menu items because we didn’t know what would make it across. But as usual, we didn't suffer for lack of food!

The only thing on the agenda for the day was a stop at the Whitman Mission National Historic Site near Walla Walla.  From Coulee City, we headed south on route 17 toward Soap Lake, WA.  Just a few miles out of Coulee City we came to the Sun Lakes Dry Falls State Park visitor’s center.  We thought a quick stop was in order to see what the park was about.  It proved to be a very interesting stop.  They had an excellent video on the area and some interesting displays.  One of the displays had a number of stuffed animals, native to the area, in their natural environment.  One of the stuffed animals hidden in the back corner of the display amid some native reeds was a small Sasquatch.  Imagine our surprise at seeing a stuffed Bigfoot.  The VC also had a couple of state park stamps which were quickly applied to our passport books.



Sun Lakes Dry Falls

The remainder of the drive to the Whitman Historical Site was relatively uneventful.  When we got to the visitor’s center there were several of the Park Service employees in period costumes.  When we asked what was happening they told us that they were celebrating their 75^th year of affiliation with the National Park Service.

What timing!

It was a very good cake.

After getting our passport books properly stamped, we headed outside to a canopy that had been set up for the festivities.  Park Service Employees served each of us a piece of cake in honor of the celebration.  

It was a very interesting and fun stop, and we “just happened” to be there at the right time! We seem to have the knack.

After having dessert we continued on to Walla Walla to visit Taco Bell for the main course.  After lunch we dropped in at Color Press to say hello to Bam Bam.  She gave us a quick tour of the facility then we were back on the road to home.

We did make a quick grocery stop in La Grande, OR.  Shortly before we got to Ontario, OR, Betty got a call from her sister who let her know that the refrigerator in their permanent cave had gone out and the place was quite odorous.  Betty’s sister had cleaned up the mess but it still smelled pretty bad.  Aside from the surprise at home the trip was very enjoyable.  The Canadian Rockies are truly beautiful to see. 

The Bigfeet went to Bigfoot and also saw a stuffed Bigfoot.  Is that great or what?

Back to the USA

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

We awoke in a provincial park between Kelowna and Penticton. Shortly after 7 am Fred was on the phone to Bigfoot. Seems Fred and Wilma’s awning crank somehow got left in the plant when it was removed from the basement. Arrangements were made to get it home and we were off to the border crossing at Osoyoos. The crossing was uneventful and we continued on down Route 97 until we pulled off for breakfast near Janis, WA. Back in the US we can easily tell how far it is to something, and the speed limit signs make sense. We also don’t have to fight the money system. At one of the provincial parks they charged us a little extra to use US dollars, and other times it was not a problem.  It’s the little things that make a difference!

At Omak we turned on Route 155 to Coulee Dam, WA.

We took in the Grand Coulee Dam VC where passport books were properly stamped. Fred, Wilma and Barney took the tour of the dam. The pre 9-11 tour was probably very interesting. We did get to go down to the level of the bay where you can see the top cover of the generators, and they took us down so we could view the shafts connecting the generators and turbines.  The tour buses also took us across the top of the dam where we could look down at the water flowing out.

Barney asking tough questions of our tour guide

Over there?

No, over here.

After the tour we headed south again on 155 looking for a place to put the caves for the night. We ended up in the city park at Coulee City, WA. It is not bad for a city park. We spent a pleasant evening sitting outside enjoying the sun and warm breeze.

Bigfeet at Bigfoot

Monday, June 27, 2011

We left the campground and drove back north on Route 97A through Vernon, and arrived at Bigfoot RV in Armstrong at 7:30 am, all according to plan.

The people at Bigfoot were ready for us and we had our caves in the shop in just a few minutes. We offloaded Barney and Betty’s cave from the Rubble-mobile so we could do some running around while Bigfoot worked on both Bigfeet.

Both rolling caves inside the Bigfoot facility

Working on Fred and Wilma's cave.

Working on Barney and Betty's cave.

We went to Walmart and the Canadian Tire store in Vernon with a breakfast stop thrown in for good measure.

We got back to Bigfoot about 1:00 and found they were not finished. Fred had prearranged a tour of the plant for us. We were taken through their production facility by a 25 year veteran named Rob. He was very knowledgable and gave us a good tour of the molding facility. We were able to see a headliner being installed in the upper section of a camper, and saw the various stages of four units being assembled.

Barney and Fred looking into a new
Bigfoot camper during the tour.

The headliner is going in.

Adding cabinets

This hole is for the back door.

Bigfoot, like all RV manufacturers, was hit hard by the recession. They were building 10 units a week before it hit. For a little while they had to close the doors. Now they are back up to three units a week with 10 employees.

They got the caves finished and set to go just after 4pm.  We headed south again on Route 97A and spent the night in Okanagan Lake Provencial Park between Kelowna and Penticton.

More later.

Kicking Horse to Kalanalka

Sunday, June 26, 2011

We spent last night in Monarch campground, near the spiral tunnel overlook on the west side of Kicking Horse pass, in the Yoho National Park.

We continued west on Route 1 through Golden and Revelstoke. We were a little sad to leave the beauty of the mountains behind.

Today was planned as a travel day so we could be at Bigfoot in Armstrong bright and early on Monday morning.

We drove down Route 97A looking for a place to park the caves for the night.  Ah, the joys of finding yet another place for the night.  After looking at a couple of RV parks (one too snazzy, one just toooo creepy), we found our way to Kalanalka Lake Provincial Park a few klicks south of Vernon. The park wasn’t too bad. There were no hookups, but the shower wasn’t too bad. You could push the button and get a few seconds of water before it turned off again. It’s a little hard to try to rinse your hair with one hand and find the elusive button with the other. If you pushed the button several times to try and get a longer spray, it got scalding hot. But hey, the showers were free, eh.

Into Kootenay and Banff

June 25, 2011    

We awoke this morning in Dry Gulch Provincial Park Campground, near Radium Hot Springs, B.C. Canada.We had a leisurely breakfast of eggs, hash brown potatoes and pancakes.  It wasn’t a bronto-steak but we made the best of it.

We left the campground and drove along route 95 overlooking the Columbia River valley to our right.  We then turned on route 93 through Radium Hot Springs to the entrance plaza of the National Parks.  There are actually several parks accessed at the same location.  We entered Kootenay National Park.  The first mile (read that kilometer) you pass through a slit in 2 vertical rock walls not more than 30 to 40 feet (10 to 13 meters) apart where the road is built over a creek.   It’s like you kind of pour the rolling cave through this slot in the mountain.   It is really quite impressive.

Wow! That's narrow.

  We crossed Sinclair pass at 1486 meters (we need a calculator to convert that to feet).  Then we drove along the Kootenay (Kootenai) River Valley With towering mountains on the east and west sides of the valley.  The slopes are covered with fir trees up to the tree-line then bare craggy rocks and on top of that, snow.  It has been an exceptionally wet year and there is lots of water in the low-lying areas along the rivers.  The streams and rivers are flowing high and swift.  The glacial water is a beautiful color. We made good use of the turnouts, stopping various times.

One of the stops was to watch a lot of mountain goats alongside the road. They were moving fairly quickly, but only as fast as the babies could keep up. The babies were really cute.

We went on into Banff National Park, but did not go into the town of Banff.  We saw the sign saying we were entering Alberta Province; but didn’t see it until it was too late to get a photo of it.  We drove north from Castle Junction to Lake Louise.  At Lake Louise we orbited the hotel parking lot several times looking for a spot to park, but to no avail.  We left without seeing the lake(we’ll save it for another time), and stopped at a nearby picnic area for a little lunch.  After lunch we headed west on Trans Canada Highway 1 to Yoho National Park.  We stopped at Spiral Tunnels Viewpoint and watched a train run into and back out of the mountain. It went under the highway, and headed out to another spiral tunnel before completing the spirals and heading back up the hill. It was a very interesting stop. 

 Just down the road a couple of kilometers we found a campground where we are now stationary for the night in our caves.  Once again we are glad we are not in cloth caves as it is wet and cool outside

Heyburn State Park

Friday, June 24, 2011

Heyburn State Park, Idaho

We awoke early this morning.  We are in the Pacific Time zone but our bodies are still working in the Mountain time zone.   It is Barney and Betty’s Number 3 daughter’s birthday today.   HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFULL DAY.

We will be continuing up route 95 today and should be in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in the next hour or so.

We’ll see what the day brings. 

We plan to cross the border into Canada today, so unless we find some free wifi, we will not be posting again until back in the US.

More of the chisel and rock thing later.