Seattle

INDIANS!
Duckabush, Dosiwallops, Kittitas, Klickitat, Puyallup, Kitsap, Sekiu, Sequim are all places in Washington State - and you Californians thought San Jose was bad. This is my ancestral home. My Father’s remains are with Davy Jones, somewhere near the San Juan Islands. It was hard for me to find closure without a body; one day when I was up here visiting I realized that if I were close to the ocean, I was close to my Dad. His Dad called this home; his Mother and his only Brother Ralph, who also drowned, are buried here.
CB and I have been in Washington for ten days and we are amazed at how friendly and helpful people have been to us, especially now after having such a terribly wet and cold winter. Perhaps the sun is thawing out people as well as the snow pack. The weather has been both overcast with rain showers and sunny. The temperature has been steady at about 50° for the low and 65° for the high; my Viking blood loves it. In contrast Surprise, AZ has been in the 110° + range - hell that is hot enough to roast chickens! I don’t know if I could spend an entire summer in that kind of heat.
CB and I had planned to retire up here but after some thought we decided to anchor in Arizona, that way we could enjoy the winter in comfort and visit where we want in the summer time. We can take a leisurely drive down Chuckanut Drive, between Bellingham and Mount Vernon, to get Oysters and crab; Quilcene Oysters are some of the best. Add to that the over abundance of berries, adding red freckles to the lush green flora. Colorful vegetables fill the numerous farmers markets and there are apples up the Kazoo. Small towns with historic buildings housing myriads of stuff to shop, smell, admire, buy and fill that craving for food and drink. Things move at a slower pace here and folks seem content with life in the slow lane. Things here are more like what we were used to when we were young curmudgeons.
What is not to like, you ask – the answer is rain and cold. But I think it is easier to get warm than it is to get cool, unless you happen to have a pool handy. You spend less money on antiperspirant and sun-tan lotion if you live here. However, you would have to learn to speak a bit of the Native-American lingo to find towns and get along in the Casinos.
If you have never been in a boat watching whales and killer whales, you have missed an extremely humbling event, it makes you realize just how small and sometimes insignificant we are in a world where you could be a light snack! Next to watching Grizzly Bears feeding on salmon, this would be my all time favorite on a list of life’s most amazing things.
The ferry system here is second to none; all aboard for a boat trip to Friday Harbor. Here you get a glimpse of how the top one percent lives. Massive steel and fiberglass floating beauties pulling in to the dock, carrying Neiman Marcus clad (beautiful) people. His hair silver (dirty old man), her long blonde curls descending to large, firm bosoms and coppery tan legs (hussy). Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can buy big boats and implants.
Tuesday we drove to Seattle, my Brother Gary and his bride Blanch were there visiting her daughter Julie and son-in-law Anthony. We went to Pike’s Place Market a block up from the Ferry terminal. This place is quite well known throughout the world. Actually a composition of old buildings with several floors, all attached with row after row of business - open air markets, restaurants, artist galleries, and a huge fish market where they are famous for throwing very large fish to customers. Splashed along this shopping bonanza are hundreds of flower arrangements for sale, both fragrant and food for the eyes.
We had window seats on the second floor of Lowell’s Restaurant (there are three levels). Other than Gary’s Reuben we all had fish; everything was excellent and we left happy and full. A short drive from the market is Olympic Sculpture Park, a couple of acres financed by my old friends Bill and Melinda Gates (we went to different schools together). Art is in the eye of the beholder but am I wrong that a palette of bricks glued together and painted with different color splotches seems to me to be nothing but a very large paper weight. It was interesting to learn the names of some of the flora planted there, and there were chairs where you could sit and watch the ocean or the freight trains that run between the park and Puget Sound.
After a great meal at Julie and Anthony’s house, we were entertained by their dog Guinness and our Cara playing Mutt and Jeff, seeing who could sniff who and where. Guinness is a BIG dog, outweighing Cara by about 60 lbs, but he prefers to be with small dogs because small dogs like to play. We were amazed at how gentle he was with Cara. He seemed to be fully aware of just how much bigger and more powerful he was.
We said our goodbyes and headed home to Mt. Vernon. We had been gone all day and it was dark as we drove in so Harry the cat was not a happy camper and he let us know that, after all, we are here to serve him (we sometimes forget).

Picture, we hope.

This is the view out our window to the nine foot stump, if this site is working properly.

9 foot stump/ Mt. Vernon, Wa

This is the nine foot stump I was talking about. This is our favorite site at the Mt. Vernon TTN RV Park.
Snug as a bug in a rug!

How high can you reach?

We saw some cute little chipmunks in this tree stump so I thought I would go outside and put some animal food on top, not hardly! This tree looks to be only about four feet in height from inside the motor home, but when you step outside you discoverit is really about nine feet tall. Duh! This is our favorite site and I hope you can see why. The surrounding berry vines provide all the berries you can pick, jam and cobbler to name a couple.

Land of my Forefathers

My Dad left Yakima, Washington as a young man and hitch-hiked his way to Southern California to look for a better life. His Dad was struggling, working at the sawmill as a carpenter, His Mom had died when he was young. He had also lost a brother to drowning. When Dad retired he and Mom moved back to Washington, this time to La Conner. After enjoying several years of retirement, he went out fishing in his cabin-cruiser and never came back; eventually his fate was that of his brother's. I have five years to go to be as old as my Dad was; there are no boat trips in my future! I feel at home here, I also feel cool here, it's 55 degrees and 100+ in Surprise.  We are in our favorite spot here at Mt. Vernon TTN park, surrounded by the green of trees, grass and raspberry bushes. We just used up the last of the raspberry jam we had made last year from this very spot.

Venus fly trap RV Park

Last night we stayed at Eagles Hot Lake, a very nice park by most standards, green grass, full hook-ups, 50 amp power and the little old lady that runs it was very nice. But, I did not like the park or the little old lady because; she failed to tell us the whole story about this park. First of all, after about a block off of the freeway the pavement ended.  The gravel road that continued on for two and a half miles was not wide enough for me to turn around, or I would have done so before getting the motor home and the car dirty enough to plant potatoes on, but of course since we had no choice but to go the distance, the damage was done. So we paid, parked and got ready for the night. It was a little while after that when we heard what sounded like a train. It got louder and louder, and this is no exaggeration, the whole motor home shook, the ground below us shook, we were about 50 yards from the tracks! And the train was pretty regular, I know, after we went to bed I counted lots and lots of them!

The next day we were 400 miles from our final destination, but I took no chances, I drove the 400 miles knowing we were going to spend the night in a very nice peaceful RV Park, no trains!

A dog by any other name.

Everybody has cute little nicknames for their kids.  Most people have nicknames for their animals; Cara, our dog, has several.  She is an Italian Volpino, volpino is Italian for little fox, she looks the part. Her name had to be Italian so we named her Cara-Mia, Cara for short. She does many things, some we like and some not so much. One such is licking the plates in the dishwasher (before being washed), we then call her Pre-rinse. Her favorite thing is a bully stick, it looks something like a cigar, when she has chewed enough on one end she likes to put the other end in her mouth and walk around the house, we call her Winston (after Churchill).  To say Cara is neurotic is to put it mildly; she is constantly afraid we are going to leave her so when she see us getting ready she is Velcro; yup, like glue. She stands up on her hind feet for long periods of time, usually to beg, she is now Care-Bear. When she has done something bad I usually call her......well, let's just skip that part.  Harry our cat is black so sometimes we call them ebony and ivory, just to prove we are not racist.  By the way, Harry likes to ride in the back!

No spuds here.

Provo, Salt Lake City, and Brigham Young City all merge into one very long metropolis.  I say long because they are sandwiched in between the mountains and all that salty water.  Freeway 15 runs the entire length and every inch is under construction.  They have moved the usable lanes around and made them very narrow; the cars don't have any problem but us big guys feel like cats in a room full of rocking chairs.
Entering Idaho we see large fields of green and big farms.  There seems to be water everywhere; lots of rain, is my guess.  We are surprised by the distance we have driven, 354 miles, more than a hundred miles more than usual. We are glad we did, Village of the Trees RV Resort is one of the nicest we have seen, and for Passport America members only $16 per night.  Less than half the price of Shady Acres and 10 times as nice.  And it is blessedly cool here, about 40 degrees difference. Maybe a good night's sleep tonight.

Gimme cold and wet.

We left Elk Creek, Gunnison, Colorado and headed our movable menagerie northwest, we wanted out of the constant wind and even here it was hot.  Would you believe we wound up at Shady Acres RV Park in Green River, Utah.  In brief, $35 after a 10% discount, old, dirty, ant filled and hotter than the hubs of hell; both a/c's were on until we went to bed at 10:00. We got up early and continued on the coarse I had set.  We were surprised by several things; after several miles we began to notice that Colorado missed sucking up all the green in Utah.  Highway 6 from Green River to the Great Salt Lake is awash in greens, browns, greys and that red for punctuation.  Water falls and lush little valleys had us wondering what it would be like to live there, until we started to see all the church spires; we sure don't need to give up 10% of our hard earned income, we gave plenty when we were working.  Besides, one wife is all I can handle.

This is a lost post from Creede, whoops!

Creede, Colorado. The 360 degree panorama of 14,000' white capped mountains can be seen from every window. The town is small quirky and super friendly with an abundance of restaurants, a live repertory theater with some big name actors, a very good grocery store, new medical facilities and lots of fun events. Walk or ride five minutes and you are in wilderness, Rocky Mountain style. A million miles of ATV, Jeep or walking trails. Mountain streams alive with Brooke, Golden, Rainbow and German Brown Trout or ride a raft down the Rio Grand River, need I go further?

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado.

Awesome, one notch below the Grand Canyon.

Colorado sucks!

I think of Colorado as a giant vacuum; it sucked up all the green out of New Mexico, the mountains from the plains states, the trees from Nevada and the blue skies from the atmosphere above.

The steep roads are sucking the fuel out of my tank! You can’t travel to any town here without going up and going down some very steep roads; the up is just a matter of pedal to the metal, the down gets much more difficult.  Driving a motor home weighing 32,000 pounds with a 5,000 pound car pushing from behind requires a lot of concentration when heading down a twisting mountain road at a 5 to 7 percent grade. I have a book that gives me all the grades for mountain roads, Anything over 7 percent I try to avoid. Unlike a gas vehicle, the diesel has an exhaust brake to help slow down all that weight, depending on which of the six gears selected; first gear has the most braking power but must be initiated at just below 35 m.p.h., second is next at just below 45 m.p.h., third has the least holding power and after about 55 m.p.h. it is hooweee!  So, when you see the signs about trucks you look for the percent of grade, most roads tell you, some, not so much. If the grade is 5%, I will slow to about 50 m.p.h., 6% - 43 m.p.h., 7% - 33 m.p.h. and then engage the exhaust brake, if the speed holds I’m good.  If the speed continues to the next threshold, I have to firmly apply the main brakes to get the speed down below the speed that will shift into the next lower gear. There is no falling asleep going downhill!

But when we do stop it sure is green and gorgeous. We stopped for a couple nights at Elk Creek campground, its proximity to the “Black Canyon of the Gunnison, National Park” and being on the largest lake in Colorado made it ideal.  Next morning we drove the rim of the canyon, it was unlike the Grand Canyon, instead of limestone this canyon’s walls were dark rock. Not as deep and a lot narrower, some of the walls were dark rock. Not as deep and a lot narrower, some of the walls seemed almost vertical, definitely a Wow!

 

Miner's relief and the "Black Canyon".

Would you believe?

Last night we went to town, Creede, Colorado.  Population 413 full time residents including the family of groundhogs, 230 miles to the closest Costco (lots of anxiety there), wal-mart, 79 miles; yes we are in B.F.E.. They have a very small theater here that holds maybe 100 to 150 people, it cost us $32 each, and it was absolutely amazing! This little town theater has somehow become one of the 10 best places to see Off Broadway Plays.  We were treated to “How to succeed in business without really trying.” What a delight!

We have decided that today will be our last day here, Connie is having some serious problems with the wind; it has been blowing hard since we got here.  It is truly a wonderful place but the wind makes it miserable, besides, you can’t get fresh crab or live oysters here.  You guessed it, we are heading for Washington.  Fuel will cost about a month’s campground fee’s but we will make that up by staying in our Thousand Trails parks; we have 50 days free and after that it will cost only $2 a night.  And we truly love Washington!  

I do not know what happened to the pictures that I posted on the last blog!  Sorry!

Mines, Creede, Co.

John Denver keeps floating thru my mind as I take in all that surrounds us. Today the puffy white clouds are drifting thru navy blue skies, throwing shadows across jagged multi-colored rock, jutting straight up thru the greens of pine and yellows of aspen, how can there not be a God.

Driving North thru Creede, Colorado brings us to the Bachelor loop road. The road was of small red and black shale, and was close to being 4-wheel drive only so we go up it very carefully. I would say the grade is about 12 percent, if you aren’t careful the tires will start to spin, not a good thing. We encountered several Silver mines, an abundance of panoramic beauty and a herd of Mule Deer, and then continued on to the Creede Cemetery. Sadly it has fallen into a state of disrepair; weeds, fallen head stones and dry-rot; a sad legacy to those interred in this drab, colorless piece of history.

“Holy Moses” was what came out of the mouth of Nicholas Creede when he accidentally stumbled (literally) upon a piece of silver; the name stuck and the town was named after him (because he was rich as heck). The silver mines here were the largest producers in the United States and still have twice as much silver left as was taken out; they know exactly where it is and how to get it. I suppose they are waiting for the price of silver to be enough to make mining it worthwhile.

Wherever you find silver you will not find gold; gold is found by quartz deposits and silver by amethyst. Now that you know, get out there! Don’t forget your mule.

The Volunteer Fire Department is partially housed in a large cave; I will refrain from any caveman jokes. Next to that is an opening that goes back into the mountain about 500 yards in a semicircle and comes back out further along the mountain. We went on a tour with a miner who had worked the local mines from 1964 until the mines were closed in the eighties. Brutal would be what I would call the conditions the old miners encountered; hours on end pounding on a chisel to open holes long enough to put in a stick of dynamite. Later they had pneumatic drills which were responsible for the deaths of many miners until they started using water to stop the dust that claimed so many lives. The holes were drilled in a circle, and loaded with dynamite. Then they would light the fuse and run like hell. After the rocks were blasted loose, they would be loaded into ore carts and pushed to a location to be removed from the mine for crushing and chemical treatment to remove other materials from the silver.

After a full day of chiseling, blasting and moving rock, the miner would then leave the mine and go get himself blasted. The only guys that got rich were the mine owner, and the purveyor of mood altering refreshments (booze).

One interesting practice in the mine was used when the vein they were mining was real wide and deep, this was to start at the top, remove a layer of about 8 feet from one side to the other of the vein. Then fill the void with cement and sand. This provided a solid roof under which they could safely remove the rest of the vein.

Treasure Falls, Wolf Pass, CO.

Our friends who are working here are enticing us to stay and go to work at the RV Park. Would you believe we are actually considering it? The 360 degree panorama of 14,000' white capped mountains can be seen from every window. The town is small quirky and super friendly with an abundance of restaurants, a live repertory theater with some big name actors, a very good grocery store, new medical facilities and lots of fun events. Walk or ride five minutes and you are in wilderness, Rocky Mountain style. A million miles of ATV, Jeep or walking trails. Mountain streams alive with Brooke, Golden, Rainbow and German Brown Trout or ride a raft down the Rio Grand River, need I go further?

Treasure Falls, 108'

Sixty Five years and two days old, I have made it to medicare. There were times when that was a very unlikely prospect, so, Thank you God, and those of you who put up with me.
Unbelievable, the change from New Mexico (The land of enchantment?) to the Rocky Mountain High of Colorado. From the border it has progressively gotten greener and prettier, at 8,000' we saw the magnificent Treasure Falls, 105' of straight vertical drop, rippling white against the dark green background of lush foliage. Farther up Hwy 160 we reach the summit of Wolf Creek Pass, at 10,000' it was all about skiing, in fact there was quite a bit of the white fluffy stuff. We would have stopped for snowballs if I were 25, not!
We are at our destination for the week, Mountain Views Resort is on the Rio Grande River (yes, we are still in Colorado), set in a small valley between snow capped mountains, as if we were in a bowl, and this is at over 9,000', Wow, this is Colorado!
The fires from Arizona have filled the skies with smoke, eliminating any long photo shots, hopefully it will improve before we leave. We also hope that the winds that plagued us the entire trip will soon die down, at 30 to 50 miles an hour they are disconcerting to say the least.

no res for me

Northeaster Arizona and Northwestern New Mexico are made up of Native American Reservations, we drove about through 285 miles of it today. What I described about Durango, Colorado was the total opposite of what we saw; Deserts can have some very pretty scenery, but this was like a total wasteland. Every so often we would see a habitat, which is being charitable; trailers in various stages of returning to the earth as a rust stain. You could usually tell they were at one time one color or another, but after years of sand blasting they had assumed the color of their surroundings. A lawnmower salesman would starve out here, green does not exist. Depressed and depressing, it appears as if the world had ended 50 years ago. How lucky we are, how blessed.
Cross the Colorado Border and green becomes part of the landscape again, we stay the night at Sundance RV Park in Cortez, Colorado, tomorrow we will drive the scenic Colorado Mountains to Creede; the high there for the week is 65 degrees the low 31, ahh!

Next!

The Elks camp ground in Show Low, Az has been nice but the wind is going to blow us out of here and north, we will be in Creede Co. on Monday, @ 9,000', it should be a little cooler, my Viking blood will appreciate it. Creede is a small town from Colorado's colorfull Silver mining past. Two couples from our Festival RV Club are working up there and talk highly (no pun intended) about Mountain View RV Park and Resort, Creede and the surrounding area.
What we know about Colorado comes from a trip to Durango with our good friends Edie and Roger. From Durango we took the Durango-Silverton steam train to.....yes, Silverton. The Scenery along the way was of white barked birch trees, shrouded with yellow leaves, falling on large granite boulders that hold up the mountain, that reaches for the bluest of blue skies; a picture for the mind and soul. All that bodes well for our next stop.