Traffic and Weather

Originally we had planned to leave Astoria on Thursday morning and head for Issaquah.  Instead, we turned south back toward Harrisburg.  This is why.  At some point while in Harrisburg the first time, the Prevent Freeze switch was turned to winterize.  It has a tiny green light, and in bright sunshine it's virtually impossible to see.  The switch opens the valve on the antifreeze reservoir.  On the way to Astoria, we had the water pump on.  The pump spent a fair amount of time sucking air out of the reservoir, and then burned up.  We replaced the water pump and turned off the switch.  It's old, it's tired, it died and the valve remained open.  We needed to have a functioning water pump, so back we went.

We stayed at the Premier RV Resort in Coburg.  This time we were closer to the freeway.  I think I'm rethinking my position on Premier.  The freeway noise is just deafening and it's a fairly expensive RV park.  We may be going back to Life Northwest. It's not a great park, but it's a lot cheaper and more quiet.
Our last night at Premier we had really good afternoon sun on the fish pond.

Which was followed by a really good sunset.

The upshot of returning to Harrisburg was that we drove to Issaquah on Friday.  Note to self, never again.  Traffic on I5 basically stopped south of Olympia.  It was just a gruesome drive.  Here we are in Tacoma.  See the traffic on the left?  That extended for miles.

Our traffic thinned out north of Hwy 18, but the poor south bounders were still in it.  The cars on the overpass merging onto I5 are backed up for miles as well. Traffic is becoming terrible all of the time,

It's forecast to hit 120 degrees in Phoenix, due to another massive high pressure system.  Meanwhile, in the Seattle metro area, we're having wind and thunderstorms and four, count them four, funnel clouds over the area.  This never happens!

In the world of Seattle metro area RV parks, there is now one less place to stay.  The county has purchased the Snoqualmie River RV park.  It's the one out in Fall City.  It wasn't great, but now there is one less place to park in the area.  There are a lot of permanent residents who are going to have to find a new place to live.