Home Again - September 4, 2021

Home Again - September 4, 2021

We're home again ... we drove by Lake Powell and were struck by how low the water levels were ... one could barely see the lake.  

We were also struck by how difficult it will be to transform the transportation sector to more fuel efficient vehicles when the roads were filled with fellow travelers in large vehicles to tow even larger trailers, outsized motor homes, double and triple trailer commercial trucks carrying goods from point A to point B.  We're fully aware that we are part of this fuel-driven source of green house gases and that so much change will have to happen to convert the fuel-based part of our economy.  It is hard to wrap one's brain around the magnitude of the change that is needed ... particularly while driving during Labor Day holiday traffic.

It was good to get home ... to get Bambi unloaded and tucked back into his storage unit.  

And, clearly, Coco was glad to be back home to relax on "her" couch again ...

KOA Fillmore to KOA Flagstaff, AZ - September 3, 2021

KOA Fillmore to KOA Flagstaff, AZ - September 2, 2021

Another long day of driving, 375 miles, to arrive in Flagstaff.  Funny ... after all of our time in the Pacific Northwest with only one night of modest rain, we arrive in Flagstaff in the midst of a downpour.  It was hard to set up in all of the rain, but like most desert rains, it did pass and we were able to finish setting up for the night.  

KOA Flagstaff is perhaps the liveliest of the KOAs that we've ever stayed at ... campers, tents, teepees and cabins ... lots of children playing ... it just feels like a holiday campsite.  And, it was booked with Labor Day celebrants.

 Olivia and her two sons, Rouge and Rojo celebrated their return to KOA Flagstaff with Coco ...

And Coco was eager to get back on the road again ... from her perch (bed) in the back seat of Fritz ...

KOA Twin Falls to KOA Fillmore, Utah - September 2, 2021

KOA Twin Falls to KOA Fillmore, Utah - September 2, 2021

Labor Day traffic is beginning to pick up.  We traveled 361 miles from Idaho to KOA Fillmore in Utah.  Actually we have used this KOA before and found it spacious, with large cottonwood trees to provide shade, and an incredible amount of wind blowing across the valley in which this KOA is located.  

We're finishing up food ... including a tomato-habanero salsa that we made from some habaneros and tomatoes that were gifted to us by Jim from his garden ...

KOA Pendleton to KOA Twin Falls, Idaho - September 1, 2021

KOA Pendleton to KOA Twin Falls, Idaho - September 1, 2021

We have entered the land of the "unmasked" once we drove from Oregon into Idaho.  We are not sure what is in the water in Idaho to create a population of "unmasked" (and we fear, unvaccinated) individuals, but it is quite strange to go from the relative social commitment to public health and the safety of all into a land of "unmasked" individuals without regard to social distancing indoors or outdoors.  

It was another long day of driving, 347 miles, which is long when pulling a trailer, to arrive at the KOA in Twin Falls, Idaho.  It might have been nice to spend more time to see Shoshone Falls, but it would have been challenging to detach Bambi from Fritz to drive to the Falls and then to re-attach to continue the drive.  It just wasn't the time or place ... perhaps another time.

Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park in Chimacum, WA to KOA Pendleton in Pendleton, OR - August 31, 2021

Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park in Chimacum, WA to KOA Pendleton in Pendleton, OR - August 31, 2021

Early start in the morning with 355 miles to travel to Pendleton, OR.  We skirted the Schneider Springs fire in Washington.  The air quality was poor, particularly in the mountain valleys.  And, we suspect that there is also smoke coming over from the northern California fires (Dixie and Caldor), but the roads were relatively clear and we seem to have hit the roads before the Labor Day holiday traffic begins.  

KOA campgrounds are not really our idea of camping, but they are convenient and predictable when we are just pushing our way through to a destination.  This one had a shade covered space with a large dog park nearby ... easy to enjoy after a long day of driving.  

Getting Ready to Head Home - August 30, 2021

Getting Ready to Head Home - August 30, 2021

We start our journey home tomorrow ... our stay in the Olympic Peninsula is near an end.  We enjoyed the comfort of our stay at Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park, although a bit too structured for us to consider staying long term ... we searched for land or property to own (although nothing was just right) ... we investigated homes for sale (again, nothing was quite right) ... we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with good friends.  We did get some good walks and hikes into the plan.  

And, we actually turned on the heater in Bambi on a couple of cold mornings ... we wore jackets and wool shirts ... and shivered a time or two while grabbing another layer of clothes to put on ... just what a few desert rats needed to escape the summer heat!  There was only one night with a little bit of rain ... everyone told us not to expect it to always be so lovely ... blue skies, daytime temperatures that were warm with cooling breezes and cool evenings ... and dry!  Plums and apples were ripe ... ready to picked from the tree ... flowers blooming ... Farmer's Markets bursting with farm to market goods.

While Bambi gets himself ready to leave, he wanted to leave folks with a few pictures from Annie's garden ...

Walk along Discovery Bay - Walk through the Preserve - Happy Hour on the Sound - August 29, 2021

Walk along Discovery Bay - Walk through the Preserve - Happy Hour on the Sound - August 29, 2021

We started the day by walking another segment of the Olympic Discovery Trail.  This time starting in Discovery Bay.  The ODT will eventually stretch from Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean along the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula, stretching 135 miles ... right now it is in four separate segments.  We walked a portion of the first segment, the Larry Scott Trail, toward Port Townsend.  The second segment begins on Discovery Bay ... and so did we.

The trail is quite close to US 101, so a fair amount of traffic noise, although the views of Discovery Bay were pleasant, as were the wildflowers in bloom ...

But, our walk did last long because the trail went out into the street (bikes would have no difficulty, but for walkers it is less enjoyable to be walking the roads).

Then we went out to Annie's home on Marrowstone Island for a guided tour of the Preserve with Annie, her canine companion, Nala, and Lara and Valdimir.  Annie purchased a piece of land on Marrowstone Island, an old golf course, and placed it into a land trust in conjunction with the Jefferson County Land Trust program to preserve the land for conservation and education.  It was fascinating to see how the plant, animal, insect life had reclaimed the former golf course to return to a more native state.  Annie plans on transferring the land trust to a group that does environmental education for children ... a wonderful service for the local community.  

We finished the day with a happy hour on Annie's porch ... overlooking Puget Sound ... with cool temperatures and warm friendship.  

Concerts in the Barn - Quilcene, Washington - August 28, 2021

Concerts in the Barn - Quilcene, Washington - August 28, 2021

Annie's friend, Jim, was able to get tickets for all of us to attend one of the Concerts in the Barn, the last weekend of the season's performances.  Today's guest musicians were the Fulton Street Chamber Players (Cordula Merks on violin, Rachel Swerdlow on viola, Walter Gray on cello, and George Lopez on piano). The program included the Serenade in C major, Opus 10 by Ernö Dohnányi, Tangents and Detours by Ken Benshoof for cello and piano, and Piano Quartete in E-flat major, Opus 47 by Robert Schumann.  As a special guest, the composer, Ken Benshoof, was in the audience and gave a brief introduction to his composition of Tangents and Detours, which he wrote for his wife (a cellist) and his daughter (a pianist) to play together.  

We arrived early enough to tour the grounds ... which, in non-Covid years, would serve as a summer music camp for chamber orchestra students and a venue for chamber orchestra performers ... this season is just opened for a few limited concerts with strong Covid protection protocols for the audience and performers.  

Program for today's concert ...

Inside to the rear of the barn ...

Outside looking at the barn through grape vines on a fence ...

Inside the barn looking at the informality of the stage ...

Outside of the barn ...

People seated around the barn sharing a picnic lunch before the concert (or a pre-concert glass of local cider or wine) ...

In the world of interconnections, my piano instructor, Kim, studied at the University of Washington, and had taken a course from Ken Benshoof during his undergraduate years as a music student and knew Alan Iglitzin, Lara's father, when he performed with the Quartet in Residence at the UW School of Music.  

We met Alan on our way out of the barn after the concert ... he has served as the head of the Olympic Music Festival and has performed as a classical musician for over 30 years.  What a fantastic way to bring high quality music instruction together with international quality chamber orchestra musicians in a relaxed informal setting and comfortable performance venue with a very enthusiastic audience.  

A lovely afternoon of music ... 

Walk to Glass Beach - Dinner with Lara and Vladimir in Cape George - August 27, 2021

Walk to Glass Beach - Dinner with Lara and Vladimir in Cape George - August 27, 2021

We went to explore the North Beach area of the Olympic Peninsula near Port Townsend and took a long walk on North Beach all the way to Glass Beach.  We found a number of pieces of ocean polished glass, small pieces, largely clear in color, as we walked along Glass Beach.  We also saw the impact of the high waters and crashing tides upon the walkways that many homes had from the bluff above the beach to the beach below.  We're having lovely cool, yet comfortable, days walking along the beach, but it is clear that the winter months can bring strong winds and crashing waves on to the beach and the the bluffs lining the beach area.

At night we had dinner at Lara and Valdimir's dacha in the Cape George area of the Olympic Peninsula, also near Port Townsend.  Their dacha is truly lovely with wonderful garden and fruit trees, tucked into the evergreen forest.  We sat out on the rear porch as the sunset and then had a tasty dinner with great conversation in their home.  They recently sold their home in Seattle and have settled for part of the year in Cape George and the other part of the year they live in Tucson.

Interesting interconnections ... we met Lara and Vladimir through our friend, Annie, who also lives in Tucson for part of the year ... we met in Tucson and enjoyed carrying the friendship through to the Pacific Northwest.  Tomorrow we will go to one of the Concerts in the Barn ... a chamber orchestra concert series started over 30 years ago by Lara's father ... and still going strong.  More on the concert tomorrow ...

Searching for campsites - Port Townsend Concert on the Dock and Farm Kitchen Dinner - August 26, 2021

Searching for campsites - Port Townsend Concert on the Dock and Farm Kitchen Dinner - August 26, 2021

We decided to explore the Washington State Park system near Port Townsend to identify potential camping locations that we could reserve for next August.  One needs to be ready to reserve as soon as the reservation system opens for the following year (November, 2021 for August, 2022), so we wanted to identify good sites.  We drove to Fort Worden State Park just outside of the town of Port Townsend and identified several beach side and forested sites that had potential.  Then we drove to Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island and did likewise.  Fort Worden has the advantage of being closer to the town life of Port Townsend and Fort Flagler has the advantage of the quiet and forested beauty of Marrowstone Island.  With our trusty list in hand, we put the exact day and hour of the opening of the reservation system into our online calendars.

We sent off later in the day into Port Townsend.  First to meet a friend of Annie’s, a longtime Port Townsend resident who had previously run a Bed and Breakfast, and has now retired into a remodeled home overlooking the town.  What a view she had … and what a beautiful remodel of her home.  She had a few deer in her front yard enjoying the taste of her recently purchased flowers.  Then, off for a concert that is held on the town dock … this week’s concert was a bit more hard rock than we would have wanted, but it was great to see the community come down to the dock, young and old, for music and dancing.  We also met a Portuguese Water Dog puppy who was a close match to Coco … just a bit larger … fun to see.

Then off to a winery near the dock to sit with a bottle of wine with Annie and Jim watching the action on the sound, listening to the music, enjoying a fire pit (such a treat for Arizonans to feel cold in the summer)!  And then to the Farm Kitchen restaurant for some fine farm to table local fare and conversations shared with friends.  This area takes great pride in the local organic farmers and many restaurants feature organic farm produce.

I think we have a plan shaping up for next year …

View from Carrie’s house toward down town

View from Carrie’s home toward the ferry dock and terminal

View of downtown as night is coming on

Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park - August 25, 2021

Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park - August 25, 2021

We took off for Olympic National Park today beginning with a visit to the Olympic National Park Visitor’s Center in Port Angeles where I got a new national park magnet for the collection.  Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the national park visitor’s orientation movie was not being shown, but we were able to get a new map, park newsletter and a park magnet.

We continued on the Peabody Creek Trail right from the ONP Visitor’s Center.  It is both a 1/2 mile loop trail and a 2.7 mile out and back trail along the Peabody Creek.  It is one of very few dog-friendly trails in the ONP.  We opted for the shorter loop trail because we weren’t expecting the availability of the longer trail and were rewarded with a dense, Pacific Northwest rainforest experience …

Then we drove up the Hurricane Ridge Road through the ONP to Hurricane Ridge where we had a picnic lunch and watched the numerous visitors from around the world coming to see Mt. Olympus and the surrounding peaks and disappearing glaciers.

Simply majestic scenery … so proud of our country’s effort to preserve wilderness for now and for future generations!

Larry Scott Trail - Port Townsend, WA - August 24, 2021

 Larry Scott Trail - Port Townsend, WA - August 24, 2021

Who can pass up a walk on a rail trail on a sunny, cool, PNW day?  We found our way to the eastern end of the Washington Discovery Trail … a Rails-to-Trails trail that runs from Port Townsend all the way across the Olympic Peninsula to the western edge of Washington.  It is not complete yet, so there are basically four segments of the trail, which, when complete will be added to the Rails-to-Trails project to create a continuous bike trail from the East Coast to the West Coast of the US.  

This segment of the trail runs from the town of Port Townsend and ends at the Milo Curry Trailhead and is called the Larry Scott Trail.  We started at the Milo Curry Trailhead and headed toward Port Townsend.  This segment is approximately 8.5 miles long although we walked only 2.5 miles out and returned to the TH parking lot.  What a delight to walk under the shade of cedar, hemlock, maple and pine trees, in cool temperatures with a slight breeze, pine needles coating the path, and doing it in the middle of the day (not at 6:00 a.m. in the morning as we would need to do in Tucson to escape the heat).  

We drove into Port Townsend for a (not so) quick stop at Safeway (always longer to shop in an unfamiliar store for a wide range of items).  Then back to our homestead at Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park.

Later that afternoon, I drove out to Marrowstone Island, to Annie’s home, to collect our delivery of coffee pods for our coffee machine (online ordered and delivered in two days … amazing) and also got the gift of more of her apples and plums right off of her trees.  We sat in the sun and shade of her garden enjoying the views of the shipping activities on the water while throwing a ball for Nala.  What an amazing location she has with the views of the water, a well-manicured garden, fruit trees and a dog with plenty of energy for chasing balls.

Grey Wolf Creek Trail in the Buckhorn Wilderness Area - Hike with Annie, Jim and Nala - August 23, 2021

Grey Wolf Creek Trail in Buckhorn Wilderness Area - Hike with Annie, Jim and Nala - August 23, 2021

Jim drove up in his Subaru and we all loaded in on our way to the Grey Wolf Creek Trail for a hike along Grey Wolf Creek.  Coco is getting fairly adaptable to these various changes in circumstances and snuggled in between Paul and me as we drove to the trailhead.  We took an amazingly beautiful hike through the wilderness area bordered by Grey Wolf Creek … and were also aware of the incredible drought that has impacted this area.  What would have been more of a river flowing bank to bank, was a small river, at times a creek, with all of the feeder streams dry.  Ferns were curled and browned; ground cover dried; and the maples leaves turning early from drying.  This is a rain forest, and clearly some rain has fallen, but it is dry in ways that both Jim and Annie said were unprecedented.  It did give us a sunny, warm day for a hike, and a lovely trail … 

Coco has to learn “loose leash walking” … she was a clear danger to both of us as we tried to keep her on a leash walking calmly on the trail.  She pulls to be close to both of us, to be in the front … full sled-dog pulls when she wants to catch up … this will be an important skill to work on when we return home.  The hike was exhausting for her and for us trying to manage her.  Nala was able to hike off leash, but we don’t trust Coco to return if she is off leash.  So, that is an additional, critical skill that we’ll need to address when we return home.  This has been as much a learning trip for her as it has been for us.  She does so much, so well … travels in the car well, lives with us in the trailer well … but Recall and Loose Leash Walking are two critical skills for her to learn as we learn to live together.  

And, she stinks like a dog … time for a shower …

Marrowstone Island - Searching for Coffee and Land - August 22, 2021

Marrowstone Island - Searching for Coffee and Land - August 22, 2021

Off to Marrowstone Island to visit Annie and Nala … and the delights of Annie’s dahlias in her garden …

Then to search for coffee pods … I think that we out-smarted ourselves.  Starbucks decided to no longer support the coffee machine that we used in Bambi effective December 31, 2020 … so we could no longer get the pods that were needed to make coffee in that machine.  So, before we left Tucson, we bought the new machine that is supported by Starbucks and several boxes of pods with confidence that we could purchase additional pods along the way at Starbucks locations.  Wrong!  We tried two Starbucks locations nearby and neither had the new Vertuo pods.  So, we ended up ordering them to be delivered to Annie’s home within two days … hope that online ordering works.

And, our search for land … we have a vision of potentially spending the summer months here in the Olympic Peninsula and began our preliminary search for property.  The potential is to leave Bambi here in the PNW in storage … or even on a piece of land … and, in the future, live in Bambi, on our own land, until we decide to build on our own land.  It is likely a flawed plan … the property around here is going for astronomically high prices and we are looking for a very specific piece of property with a view, close to Port Townsend, and access to beach.  We looked at several places, each with interesting features, but nothing “rang the bell” as being what we had envisioned.  We may need to go back to the drawing board on this decision.

Lake Shasta Drought - On to Corvallis, OR - August 20, 2021

Lake Shasta Drought - On to Corvallis, OR - August 20, 2021

One of our longest days of travel … trying to get up to the Olympic Peninsula … while driving through what feels like “Apocalypse Now”.

We drove by Lake Shasta and were amazed that the “bath tub rings” around the lake had shrunk to near basin-level … houseboats looked moored in the mud … streams flowing into the lake were now dry grass meadows.

The Air Quality Index remained in the “definitely unhealthy” range with the smoke from various Western wildfires …

It is hard to fathom that there are individuals who deny climate change and even harder to imagine the number of ways that life will have to change to mitigate the climate impact … including whether it makes environmental sense to be traveling as we are.

We spent the night in a KOA campground near Corvallis, WA … had a pleasant site with tree cover, a fenced dog park (Coco approved) and clearer air.  Tomorrow we push on to our campsite in Chimacum, WA on the Olympic Pennisula.

Fires and Drought - Redding, California - August 18 - 19, 2021

Fires and Drought - Redding, California - August 18 - 19, 2021

We didn’t want to leave our friends or our lovely mountainside RV park … the flowers graced us with a gentle farewell.

Off we went, down the road (again).  This time headed for Redding, California where we had booked a two night stay (mainly to get some laundry done).  We got a call from the manager of the RV park as we were leaving saying that PG&E had cut off the power to their area as a precaution due to high winds in the area that might take down power lines and potentially start a fire.  She thought that the power might be back on in the late evening or early the following morning.  We didn’t have a lot of options, so we headed to the RV park hoping that her estimate of the return of power would be on the earlier side.  

We arrived … no power … and no sewer because the pumps run on electricity.  The air quality index was in the “definitely unhealthy” range due to the California wildfires and the strong winds pushing the smoke into these valley areas.  It felt a bit like driving into the “heart of darkness” with the hazy skies and powerful winds … we even wore masks while in the car.

Fortunately, the power did return in the middle of the night (which meant we could use air conditioning)!  And, we were able to do laundry in preparation for the continuation of our trip tomorrow.

We did do a short hike up a trail into the hill until we decided that the air was just too polluted to just being outside much longer … eerie colors in the sky as the sunlight filtered through the smoke.

Ready to get back on the road tomorrow …