North Spokane RV Campground

While in Spokane, we stayed at the North Spokane RV Campground.  It's a new RV park, they're still putting in sod on some of the sites.

It's an ok park.  I took zero pictures, so you'll have to trust me on this.  We had a pull through which was a little narrow.  Sites and streets are paved.  Some of the turns in the park are narrow, and some street parking is allowed which does not improve the situation.

Power is good, water pressure is good.  RV supplied internet is worthless.  I could not get it to load anything at all.  No data on restrooms and laundry.  Verizon varied between one bar of 4G and three. It was slow most of the time.  There are no pesky over hanging trees to interfere with the satellite antenna.

They do make you sign and initial three pages of legalese when you check in.  Apparently the owner is well represented by lawyers.  I think their main goal is to ensure that they are not subject to Washington state's landlord tenant laws.

It's much better than the place we stayed last time, so I think we would go back. 

First Departure from Issaquah

A new life lesson for me, is don’t defer dental maintenance until just before one plans to leave the area.  Monday (9/24) I went in for a cleaning.  While Paula, the hygienist, was poking my teeth with the sharp stick, she found a soft area.  Turns out that a crown was failing, things were dire.  Fortunately they were able to get me in the next day AND they have the CAD package that lets them scan the teeth, mill the replacement, bake it in the oven and then install it in the same visit.  It’s pretty cool technology.  That’s my tooth on the screen.

Wednesday, believing all was well in the dental department, we launched for Spokane.  This is Lake Kacheelus on I90 just out of Seattle.  It’s incredibly low.  We’re seeing way too many tree stumps that ought to be covered by water.

We arrived in Spokane without incident, and were once again astonished at how narrow the roads are in the southern part of the city.

Wednesday night I tried flossing the back of my new crown and discovered I could not.  It’s catching on something.  This is bad.  We’re going to have to go back.

Kubota Gardens and Aviation

Today was just spectacular – perfect fall weather.  We decided to go visit the Kubota Gardens.  From Wikipedia we learn this:

Fujitaro Kubota emigrated from Shikoku, Japan in 1907 and established the Kubota Gardening Company in 1923. Projects of his included the garden at Seattle University and the Japanese garden at Bloedel Reserve in Bainbridge Island. In 1927, he bought 5 acres (20,000 m²) of swampland in Rainier Beach to start the garden and in 1930 increased the size of the garden to 30 acres (120,000 m²). Kubota Garden served as cultural center for the Japanese community in Seattle, as well as a home, office and nursery for his business. During World War II, Kubota Garden was abandoned for four years as Kubota and his family were interned at Camp Minidoka in Idaho. During his internment, Kubota supervised the building of a community park, which included a Japanese rock garden. After the war, he and his sons Tak and Tom Kubota rebuilt the business.

It’s a beautiful area, we were a little too early for fall foliage, but it’s just a delightful stroll.  All of the carefully curated water in the gardens comes either from Mapes Creek or springs on site.  See the orange spot on the right side of the photo?

Those are giant honking koi.

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The number of large trees and plantings is amazing.

Bridge closeup.

If you’re in the Seattle area, this is worth doing.  If you’re on Bainbridge Island, the Bloedel Reserve is also amazing.  They have the best moss gardens we’ve ever seen.

On the way out, we drove down the perimeter road of the Renton Airport.  This is the new 737 Max.  I’m not sure when it’s scheduled to enter service.  What’s interesting is the shape of the winglets.  They’re evolved.

There are green airplanes on both sides of the airport.  The Boeing plant is attached to the airport.  All 737s depart from this airport on their maiden voyages.

The other side.  The airplanes are green because they’re not painted.  They’re stacked up on the airport due to parts shortages.  We don’t like to see this.  When the supply chain is disrupted, it has a cascading effect all the way back to the beginning of the production line.  One of the current issues is availability of CFM engines.  It’s the only engine used on the 737, variability increases cost.  There is more written on the subject here.

This is a P8 Poseidon.  It’s the new submarine hunter, replacing the P3 Orion.

This is so weird.  It’s a Beaver amphibious plane.  He’s about to take off, rolling down the tarmac on those teeny tiny wheels.

Jim doesn’t know what this is.  We’re guessing it’s a replica something, or maybe it’s original, but what it is remains a mystery after a web search.

Here we have a Rockwell 690, also known as a Turbo Commander.  When Jim was flying, this was one of his favorite airplanes.  The engine note was just exquisite.  Today’s flight was flown by a woman.  The passenger couple got their Porsche 911 out of the hanger and departed, leaving her to get the tug out and park the plane inside.  Clearly the wrong set of parents picked me up at the hospital.  How cool would this be as a means of travel?

What’s missing from that pickup truck?  These are used to get float planes out of the water (ones with no wheels in the floats) and take them to where they are stored.

Being in Renton is so weird.  When we worked at Boeing, all of this was factory.  Now the developers are putting in mass retail and apartments.  Those glass structures farthest away are right next to the 737 final assembly building.  If the mechanics are riveting, people in the apartments will probably be able to hear it.  We never ever thought we’d see the foot print of the company contract to this degree.

So that was today.  Tomorrow is dental appointments and laundry.  Boo yah!

Rain and Wind in the GPNW

It rained all last night and most of today.  Now the wind is howling, the weather heads say a cold front is pushing in.  Woe, woe is me.  I had to wear long pants today.  Yes, I am a weather baby.  We’re leaving Wednesday, it will be nice to be elsewhere.  It was good to have this summer of being still to reacquire our equanimity.  However, it’s time to go.

During a break in the weather, we went over to the fish hatchery to see what was coming up stream.  There are some really big salmon returning.

I couldn’t get a good photo of the fish on the weir, too much shade.  This fish is trying to get up the fish ladder, but the gates are closed.  Last September’s pictures were much better.

So, other than a couple of fish, I have nothing much to say.

Anacortes, Port Townsend and La Conner

Happily the weather made a miraculous turnaround after our wet departure.  Monday we took the ferry to Port Townsend from Coupeville.  We ended up walking on because there is only one ferry running.  Reservations were an absolute must if one were to take a vehicle.  In the summer they’re always required even with two boats running.



Port Townsend is a Victorian seaport.  Much of the town was built on spec anticipating that the Northern Pacific would bring a rail line in to town, since there was a deep water port. When the depression hit, the rail terminated on the east side of Puget Sound.  Many people left the area.  There used to be quite the timber and fishing industries.  Those days are gone due to resource depletion.  We saw a piece on PBS about how they are a center of excellence for the production of bows.  There is also the building of wooden boats, and an annual festival.   Like so many small towns, they’ve reinvented them selves as a tourist destination.



Jim used to ferry boats to Victoria for the Swiftsure sail boat race.  They would stop in Port Townsend.  His two favorite bars from that era have been turned into foo-foo home decorating stores.  It just doesn’t seem right.



Very cool house with a stupendous view.



Jefferson County court house.  The interiors are just amazing.



Yesterday we drove down to La Conner.  They continue to have a viable fishing and crabbing industry.  That’s a stack of crab pots.



There are many stores with stuff.



Attractive plant in someone’s yard.



Here is the Salish.  She ran aground in Coupeville.  The rudder was damaged.  It’s not known if the grounding caused the damage, or if that’s why she hit the beach.  After they sent divers down to look, several crab pots were found wrapped around the propeller shaft.  This is painful for people who have to commute on the ferries.  Currently she’s in drydock at Anacortes.



Isn’t that lovely?



This is a railroad swing bridge.  It pivots on a ring gear to let boats out.  The light was too bad to get a picture of the middle of the bridge.  It’s open here, you can see the gap between the end of the bridge and the rail line.  A lot of work is being done on both ends of the bridge.



Today we went for a walk on the beach.  It’s really nice looking at the water.



Tomorrow we’re heading back to Issaquah.  Friday’s weather is supposed to be terrible so we’re going back on the drier day so we don’t spend hours in a rain soaked traffic jam.

Timing is Everything

This morning it was raining.  Then it was a torrential downpour, the kind of rain you have to yell over.  Eventually it stopped and the sun came out, so we brought the RV up to ride height, and then lowered the nose so the rain would run off the slide toppers.  No sooner had we gotten half way through detaching the utilities it started raining again.  We decided to press on with departure.  By the time we were out on the street attaching the truck to the RV the torrential rain returned.  I have not been that wet wearing clothing ever.

On the trip up to Anacortes, some poor soul towing a travel trailer was in a terrible accident.  The trailer was demolished, the tow vehicle rolled as well.  On scene were giant wreckers, fire trucks, ambulances and police.  ALL lanes of I5 south were closed.  The stopped traffic went on for miles.  I feel so badly for all of them, the people in the accident and the people trying to get home on a Sunday.  It’s a terrible picture, sorry about that.



We’re staying at the Swinomish Casino RV park.  It’s not a terrible park except for the mud.  It has rained a lot here, the grass is overwhelmed.  When we arrived, it rained on us some more, but it wasn’t bad.  It’s cold!  OK, it’s in the upper 50’s but it’s so damp it feels cold.



There’s a rail road track right out in front of our site.  At first we were concerned about the noise, but now we’re not.  The tracks are not shiny, indicating that they have not been used recently frequently.  Plus there’s this taking place on the tracks just up the way.



Later the sun came out a little.  We look at the water out of the wind shield which is nice.



So, we’re here.  Hopefully there will be attractive photos of somewhere that is not Issaquah.