Friday, July 4, 2014

Back in the USA

Greetings Earthlings!  We are back in the US, and are pretty much in the Pacific timezone.  I'm still waking up earlier than I would like, but that's getting better.  Our first two days back were spent washing clothes and washing the inside of the bus, including the inside of the cabinets.  Grout removal raises dust and lots of it.  The downside to traveling from the RV is that there is no guest room in which to put the luggage until you get to it.  It's gotta be emptied, washed and put away right away.
We left Harrisburg Tuesday to make our way to our summer abode in Issaquah.  Along the way we saw this.   The driver was not injured; the backup was unbelievable.


They were letting one lane go through, it was parked for about five miles.


When we arrived, we had to give the laurel its annual pruning.  One of the things we had done while we were gone was paint and clear coat.  No way do I want tree branches touching my freshly buffed RV.


We have had another case of it's always something.  After leaving Harrisburg, I actually had the thought that we were through with major renovations, major upgrades, major spending of money on the bus.  We backed into our Issaquah site, got situated really quickly, and turned the engine off.  Then we decided we were too close to a power pole, and went to move forward a foot.  The engine would not start.  We called Erik, who thinks it's a starter solenoid.  Hopefully we will be able to find a mobile diesel guy to come out and fix this.  It's always something, I need to learn that.

This is the other new thing we have for the bus.  Marty built the cabinet out of bird's eye maple.  It's really pretty. The lighter wood is also maple and will eventually darken to be close to the bird's eye.  It's exactly what I wanted.  They ran power to it, so I can use my digital picture frame that Kim gave me years ago.  I need to put more photos on an SD card for it.


Traffic in Issaquah continues to increase exponentially.  I like not competing with the traveling public for RV sites during the summer, but this area is just getting stupid expensive and stupid crowded.  It may be time to consider elsewhere.

4 comments:

  1. Welcome back to the US! We were just in your area of WA not long ago, staying in Pacific (near Auburn). We even rode our bikes from there into downtown Seattle one day -- epic! I'm way behind on the blog, but you'll read about that one at some point. It was our first time in Seattle and was fascinating. Sorry that your "spot" has become so crowded and expensive. I am sure there are other nice places you could go, so sounds like it may be time for some exploration.

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  2. Are you in a park in Issaquah or do you have private property. It has become so "city-fied" from what I remember in the 1960s. I laugh when we drive through Bothell as I went to horse camp there as a kid, and it was way out in the boonies from West Seattle at that time. Welcome home from a reader in Snohomish.

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    1. We're in an RV park on the edge of Issaquah. This place is dense! Many many peoples in their cars.

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  3. This is a little gem we found. If you are not having to stay in that specific area for work or other reasons, and don't need a "resort" park, you might consider the American Legion Park in Snohomish. I don't have the phone number with me, but if you look up the American Legion Post in Snohomish, WA (we are about 10 miles east of Everett, off Highway 2 or from Issaquah you can hop on Hwy 203 then turn left onto Hwy 2 for about 5 miles - nicer than driving through Bellevue), call and ask about their RV "park" (I believe the park hosts are still Diane and Jim). There are only 5 or 6 spots. They back up on to the Pilchuck River. Nice and quiet. The only down side is that the open grassy area and picnic pavilion of the park is often booked for weddings or other events on the weekends. We were there for a about 6 months and only had one event that got loud and crazy until 11pm. There is also a county park in Carnation, WA on the river but I think it is just dry camping.

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