Back On Whidbey

Thursday the 16th

It rained most of the morning, although I still managed to get in another four hours in the yard while Tina did laundry. After lunch we went grocery shopping then Tina made dinner and fried up some chicken for a couple more meals after she returns to the Lake.

Friday the 17th

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. Still chilly but with a promise of warmer temperatures.

Tina made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, Yummmmm!!

After doing the dishes, we packed up her car then took the hardtop off. She left around 9:30 AM to go to her medical appointments. Then she was headed south to pick up Emma from school and return to the Lake.

With an empty garage I started to clean and re-organize to make oom for the Mercedes hard top which sits on a roller stand.

It got warm so I went in and changed to shorts. With the garage mostly clean the kids and I made a run to Les Schwab to fix the wheelbarrow wheel. Once that was done we tok a load of garbace to Island Recycling then stopped to visit with Chet and Renate at the Chamber office.

Home again, I had lunch then the kids and I went for a long walk. By now it was nearly one o'clock so I fired up the lawnmower and spent acouple of hours out along the street and driveway.

If it stays nice tomorrow, I'll do some more. If not, I'll find something else to do.

After dinner, the kids went for several walks before we settled in for the evening.

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Drve to Whidbey Island

Wednesday the 15th

The rain continued during the night finally letting up around 7:00 AM, just in time to take the kids for their morning constitution. With Emma up we folded up the bed, had breakfast and took Emma to school.

Then it was on to Hwy 18 to start our drive to Whidbey. Traffic was light as we crossed the summit at Tiger Mountain and the rain continued to hold off. Merging onto I-90 West we made good time and eventually merged onto I-405 for the twenty mile drive north to Mukilteo and the ferry dock. We caught the 11:00 AM ferry and made it home in time for lunch.

Once we unpacked Tina relaxed and I went out and started weeding... in the rain... well a light mist. I lasted about four hours and called it quits. Then the rain really came back. A lot!! So we pretty much gave it up for the day. Tina fixed dinner and we watched a little tv then went to bed.

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Lake Sawyer Day 4

Tuesday the 14th

Well it really let go last night. The rain started coming down around 2:00 AM and kept it up off and on for the next eight hours. Tina left early to go to Lakewood. She was going to take her Mom to the doctor then they were going to lunch. Me and the kids just hung out waiting for the repair guy.

About 1:00 PM, just after my lunch, the repair guy showed up and it quit raining. He was very methodical and obviously knew what needed to be done. After doing a diagnostic check on the circuits he replace the main controller board, repairing the propane igniter and A/C controls (bad fuse). As he was checking the current draws on all the lines another fuse blew.

After further checking he found a short in the heating element. To be safe, he replaced the new board with another new board, spent a half hour getting the old heating element out and replacing it with a new one and rerunning all the diagnostics plus rechecking all the control functions. After two hours he got the fridge up and running again.

Since we also had a problem with a lose wire in the generator, I asked him to take a look. With the hood open exposing the genset and controls, he pushed the start switch and held it down for about thirty seconds. The generator started right up. Apparently, you have to hold the switch down to prime the generator and heat the glow plugs. Well I learned something new!

Just then Tina got home from her Moms and I went out for a bike ride to take advantage of the sun that had come out. I had mapped out a 13 mile route over to Black Diamond, out to Ravensdale, back to Maple Valley and returning to Lake Sawyer. I forgot how many hills there were on this run but by mile ten I felt pretty good and decided to extend my ride dropping down into Covington, then over to the Auburn-Black Diamond Highway, up to Black Diamond and north o Lake Sawyer for a total of 23 hilly miles. Got back in a little over 90 minutes. Not bad for an old man - heheheh!!

Meanwhile Tina had picked up Emma from school and she joined us for dinner and stayed overnight. While Emma watched Phantom of the Opera, Tina and I spent some time learning about our new phones. It's fun to play with them but frustrating when things don't go right. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Eventually we all retired for the night to listen to the rain come down again. Welcome to Washington!!

No pictures today.

Lake Sawyer Day 3

Monday the 13th

After getting up and taking the kids for their morning walk, we went over to Marni's (five miles away in Covington) and had breakfast with Emma. After breakfast we drove her to school which is only two miles away from our place at Lake Sawyer.

Back home again, I finally got hold of one of the Mobile RV Service people. They are so busy, it will be at least a week before they could get to us, so they gave me the number of another company and we left another message. An hour later we got a call back from a different company and were able to schedule a service call for tomorrow.

Since we were out of most dry type food (no fridge yet), we went shopping in Covington. But first we stopped at Kohls so I could buy some new sandals. Then, since it was after noon we stopped at a Vietnamese "Pho" restaurant where we had a big bowl of soup with rice noodles and chicken. It was really delicious!!

From there we walked down to the Verizon store to learn about new phones and service plans. On the island Verizon seems to provide better coverage and our contract with T Mobile is up this month. Since we have the HP netbook on Verizon, we can get new phones, consolidate our account (keeping our same numbers) and get another broadband modem for the other laptop. This will eliminate the need for a phone line/internet service at home. And, since Joshua (my grandson) works at this store, he gets the credit. Finally we stopped at Safeway, got our groceries and headed home.

After unloading the car and putting things away I went out for a short bike ride. Originally planning to do a loop through Ravensdale I actually ended up doing about 25 hilly miles in a little over 90 minutes. Whewwww!! I forgot how many hills there areeven though we're up on a plateau. But as long as it wasn't raining, I couldn't complain.

Returning to the coach, Tina had picked up Emma from school so we had a visitor for dinner. Tina grilled some Copper River Salmon and we had a big salad with blueberries and home made orange dressing, yum, yum!! Later we played "Attack Uno" then Tina took Emma home. Looks like rain tomorrow, but we had a really nice day!!

No photos today.

Lake Sawyer Day 2

Sunday the 13th

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day.... at 5:00 AM, hmmmmm.... even the dogs thought it was a little bit early, oh well, we all went back to bed for another couple of hours.

When we finally got out of bed and completed our morning routine, I made a couple more calls to the Mobile RV people... still no call back.

We had unloaded the kayaks and bikes yesterday and spent a few hours cleaning things up so we were ready for action. Tina had suggested riding to the Black Diamond Bakery for breakfast so we saddled up around 8:00 AM and made the four mile ride over to Black Diamond.

Riding into town we turned off on Morgan St and took a short cut which took us down a short descent and up a very steep hill. I got to the top and looked back for Tina to see how she was doing and there she was, she made it to the top, out of breath, but still moving forward! Way to go Tina!!

The street in front of the bakery is under construction but we were able to ride right up to the front door. Walking inside we passed through the bakery, past all the pastries - oh my - and made it to the dining room. The hostess escorted us to a table near the glass wall at the end of the room where we could gaze out at a beautiful snow covered Mt Rainier. We placed our order and while waiting with our coffee were served a peach half and small blueberry muffin, yumm! This was followed by our breakfast. Tina had Eggs Benedict and I had a Ham & Cheese Omelet. Even though everything was excellent we couldn't finish it all.

After breakfast we made the return ride back home to Lake Sawyer. A little later Marni and Darren came over for a visit and invited us over for dinner. Arriving at their place around 4:30 PM, we visited with Darren while Marni went to pick up Emma from her Dad's place. Darren grilled the steaks and we had corn on the cob, baked beans and salad - delicious! After dinner, Darren's Dad Ed came over with his fiance, Linda and we all had a nice visit.

Tina and I got home around 9:00 PM and after a little TV called it a night.

No photos today.

Lakewood to Lake Sawyer

Saturday the 12th

We got up and had a leisurely breakfast of blueberry pancakes, yumm! With the coach all set, the kayaks on the car and the tow dolly on the RV we headed off to Camping World in Fife where the trailer was going to be repaired. It took an hour to get the paperwork all set, disconnect the dolly and get it into one of the service bays, but we finally got under way again around noon.

We jumped on I-5 north to Hwy 18 and headed east where we exited at S 272nd in Covington. From there it was a straight shot through town, a right turn on SE 216th St and two miles to the Lake Sawyer RV Resort (www.sunriseresorts.com/sawyer.jsp).

Once we signed in, the camp host directed us to site #1 which has a nice side yard where we could set up our camp chairs, umbrella and picnic table. After setting up we found that the fridge wouldn't work so we had to take all our refrigerated goods over to Marni's until we can get it fixed.

A call was put in to a mobile RV service but it will probably be Monday or Tuesday before we can get help. Fortunately Darren loaned us his small beer fridge so we can at least have milk and pop. Since it was getting late, we went to "Rooters" BBQ for dinner, about a mile away. Everything was good and we ate it all. This is the same place we went for Keisha's 18th birthday.

Back from dinner we settled in for the night watching a little TV and reading.

Distance for todays leg, 22 miles. Total for the trip so far, 8,534 miles.

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

What's Happening???

Friday June 11th

For everyone following our travels, here is an update.

Tina and the Coach have stayed in Lakewood to visit with her Mom, Sister, Daughter and various nieces and nephews.

I went up to the island to check on the house, get the yard in shape, attend a couple of meetings with the Friends of Freeland to talk about grant writing, have lunch and visit with Richard and June Davis, visit with my daughter Lori, have breakfast and visit with Chet Ross, attend a public meeting on sewers for Freeland, visit with my neighbor Dale and attend a meeting with Lynn Sheffield, Secretary of Ridgeview Estates Homeowners Association.

The lawns are mowed (thank you Ryan), the gardens look pretty good and I got to play pool for three hours with my friend Ryan Skaggs.

I returned to Lakewood on Thursday the 10th to spend some time with the family. Today the rain finally stopped -YEA!!

Tomorrow we are taking the coach to Lake Sawyer RV Resort in Black Diamond for a month or so. Tina wants to be able to spend time with Emma, our 11 year old granddaughter who lives ten minutes away in Covington. This is a beautiful area. We plan to do some kayaking on the lake, perhaps the Green River, some bike riding and hiking while we're there.

In July we'll go to Moses Lake with Emma and one of her girl friends and I'll keep the blog going over the summer. Stay tuned!!

No new photos to see at this time.

Moses Lake to Lakewood

Wednesday the 2nd

Woke up during the night to the sound of rain on the roof. Then again at 6:30 AM, still raining. Got up and took a shower, letting Tina sleep a little longer. After getting dressed, the kids and I went out fo a walk. No rain! We still needed to use the towel on their paws though.

Once Tina was up and had her shower we ate, cleaned up and by 9:00 AM we were back on I-90 headed for Mom Jarvis place in Lakewood. We stopped for fuel and to check on the tow dolly axle just before George. Then we dropped into the Columbia Gorge at Vantage and crossed the Columbia River. The rain had quit and the sun was out. Absolutely Gorgeous!!

Then we started up the Vantage Hill, ten miles of a 4-5% grade up to the plateau at the west side of the river. Amazingly we made it up averaging about 55mph, hitting 65mph in a couple of places. Once at the top we pretty much cruised all the way to Ellensburg before it started raining again. From Ellensburg to Elk Heights, then on to Easton and through the one lane road construction areas all the way to the top of Snoqualmie Pass it rained heavily making the driving treacherous.

Reaching the top of Snoqualmie I kicked in the engine breaking to keep our speed down to 55mph as the rain continued to pour down. Semi's were passing us regularly but we maintained our pace and got down to North Bend in one piece. Ten miles later we too the Hwy 18 exit to go up over Tiger Mountain. I never liked this drive and in the rain, with semi's coming at us and pushing us from behind we ground our way to the top and down the other side.

Having successfully negotiated the dreaded Hwy 18 we dropped into Auburn and found the exit to the Valley Freeway (167) to Puyallup. We made our way south through the valley and into Puyallup and up south hill to Hwy 512 where the rain quit again. Safely at the top we scooted along until it was time to negotiate the entrance to I-5 south. Oooopppps! Emergency stop!!! Somebody about four or five cars up decided to slow down and it brought everybody behind them to a screeching halt. Five cars back a big semi nearly jackknifed. We stopped three feet from the guy ahead of us. Wheeeeew!! Over 8,000 miles and 5 miles from our final stop and we nearly bought the farm.

We made it onto the freeway, got off at Gravely Lake, made the turn down Veterans drive, then turned onto Newgrove and parked in front of Shanda's house (right next to Mom's house). We went in and said our hellos then grabbed some lunch. After lunch, we unloaded the fridge, disconnected the car and tow dolly and parked the rig in Mom's driveway. After some creative use of wood blocks I got the rig reasonably level for sleeping.

During the afternoon Tina made stew for our dinner. Shanda got home from work and joined us. After dinner we watched a little TV with Mom then called it a night.

No photos today.

Distance for this leg, 199 miles. Total for the trip so far, 8,512 miles.

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Deer Lodge to Moses Lake

Tuesday the 1st of June

Well, the sun was out and it was probably about 50 degrees when we woke up this morning. Our morning routine and breakfast done we hit the road about 9:00 AM.

Since our travel was all on I-90 and we had good weather, Tina suggested to me that we skip ahead a day so we could go to Emma's concert on Thursday. So rather than stopping in Osburn, ID we continued on to Moses Lake.

We did take a break at a rest stop in Idaho where the kids could get out for a walk and Tina could take lots of photos of the indigenous wildlife - ground squirrels!

Passing from Idaho to Washington it was fitfully rainy with showersoff and on. Around 3:30 PM we arrived in Moses Lake at our favorite RV Park, Suncrest Resort (http://www.suncrestresort.com/), the rain had let up and it was probably 60 degrees out (welcome to Washington, heh, heh).

By the time we registered, got our site and set up, it was time to feed the kids and prep our dinner.

After dinner we watched a couple of movies.

Distance for todays leg, 382 miles. Total for the trip so far, 8,313 miles.

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski