Day 17 Wenburg State Park, Washington

Here is our present location.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=48.136999,-122.284259&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=48.148679,-122.34066&spn=0.09552,0.346069&t=h&z=12&om=1

This has been a rather boring and rainy day too, so I will try to liven it up with an old picture taken at Wall Drug in South Dakota a few weeks ago. That horse almost threw me! We left KOA this morning picked up gas, groceries and found a campsite at Wenburg State Park. It has been raining for the last 2 days. It is just a light rain and the temperature is in the low 50's. Everybody we see outside is just wearing a light jacket, no poncho, raincoat, or umbrella. Our guide said yesterday that only people from out of state are seen with umbrellas. This is Seattle area and it rains all the time so I guess people get used to it. We have been wearing raincoats. The last 3 pictures are where we are camped . It has a beautiful lake, but it would be a lot prettier if was sunny and warm.

Day 16 Seattle Tour

The small touring van with driver picked us about 2:30 PM. There was 11 of us in the van. We buzzed around Seattle for about 5 hrs. It was supposed to be a 3.5 hr tour. I guess we got our money's worth. We left the bus and walked through historic Pioneer square. There we seen the glass house where we watched them putting glass into kilns and making all kinds of beautiful and expensive things. Then we went thru the klondike national historic park. There we learned all about the Alaskan gold rush. This park was in Seattle because this is where they outfitted the prospectors. We walked thru Farmers Market for about 20 min. We went by the home of Amazon.com. We we by one of Boeing facilities that had the 1st 747 and a Presidential air force one. Didn't really see either one. The picture of Barb and I in front of the waterfalls is where UPS parcel service started. We went to the Ballard locks which had the salmon ladders and also saw a cruise ship go thru the locks. What happens in the locks is the ship is lowered from one level to another. We seen the troll under the bridge. There is a story behind that is too long to go into. We seen numerous other thing too many to mention. Am very tired, think its bed time.

Day 15 Mt. Rainier

We camped last night along the Ohanapecosh River at Mt. Rainier. This morning it was raining. I went out and took some pictures, and talked to the ranger. He thought that due to the rain and clouds it would be a waste of time to take the spur road to the highest point to view Mt. Rainier. The mountain is 14400 and highest viewpoint is 6500 ft. The road thru the park had been closed since Nov 06, due to 18 inches of rainfall in 36 hrs had washed out roads, trees, etc. Our luck was such that today at 12 noon the road was due to open. We drove up at about 11:50 and the ranger was just opening the gate. Lo and behold we were first in line. There was very few cars on the road and then the rain stopped, the clouds opened up and we could see the mountain. We drove the spur road 16 miles up to 6500 ft. It was fantastic, endless scenic views, and we took picture after picture. We were overjoyed. Later we drove up to one of the suburbs of Seattle, Kent, WA. We are staying there at the KOA campground. We have reservations for a tour of Seattle tomorrow. Here are some pics. The order is somewhat messed up. The ones with the river are from 2 days ago at Columbia river. If you click on the pictures they will get larger.

Day 14 Heading for Mt. Rainier National Park

Thought I better post todays happingings a little early. This is a beautiful campground but looking at the weather forcast We decided to head for Mt. Rainier, and the map looks like there will be no cell or internet service. I may not be posting for serveral days. Also we have reservations for Monday 2PM tour of the Boeing Plant, 25 miles north of Seattle. I will post later.

Day 13 still in Vantage, Washington

We decided to stay another day in the same campground although we did move to a better site closer to the Columbia river. We spent the day cleaning up the camper and riding bikes. Went down to the beach and got our feet wet. The following pics are of Dave Smith sales dept. and the second pic is the Internet sales. People come from all over US to buy cars and save money.
The third pic is an unusual and unplanned pic of Columbia river.

Day 12 Vantage, Washington

Barb and I are on the road again. The only problem is my billfold seems a little lighter now. Going back to this morning, We awoke about 6:30 had breakfast and at 8:00 the mechanic showed up to take the truck. Actually several workers pushed the truck back up on the lift. They had shoved it out of the garage for us to sleep in. I don't think you get that kind on service in Ohio. The next 2 hrs. went very quickly as we got to talking to a very nice couple that lived in California that were building a house up by Glacier National Park. They were also in the waiting area. At one point both of us guys were on the carpeted floor showing everybody our home pictures on his and my computers. About 10:30 AM they finished the truck. We took some more pictures of this fantastic dealership, then headed west again on I90. The following pics show where we are camped tonight. In the first pic we are camped across the Columbia river just 3 miles on the other side of the bridge. Click on the following link to see our GPS location. We are at the green arrow. You can use the markings on the left to zoom out to see more of the area.

http://maps.google.com/maps?near=46.904701,-119.989736&f=q&hl=en&q=Gas+Station&t=h&om=1&ie=UTF8&ll=46.904707,-119.989618&spn=0.001528,0.005407&z=18

Day 11 Kellogg, Idaho

Here are pics of todays happenings, read below






Back again, it is now Monday. It has stopped raining overnight. I had hooked up my battery charger and recharged the battery overnight. I am thinking it is the fuel pump, but hoping it is the fuel filter, which is cheaper and easier to fix. The mechanic came about 8:30 and I was able to start it and coax it into the garage. They happened to have a filter in stock, so replaced that. The old one did seem clogged. After that I started it up, and it ran a little better for about 30 seconds, then it quit again. As this was a small garage and the mechanics had about the limited knowledge that I have, we decided it had to be taken to the dealership. There was one in Missoula, back about 75 miles east or to Kellogg, Idaho, 62 miles west. Good Sam emergency road service said we had to take it to Kellogg as it was closer. We got there about 1:30PM. Tow truck driver Jerry kept us entertained along the way with all his stories and history of area. We saw a black bear in a tree on the way too. Dave Smith chevrolet in Kellogg is a fantastic dealership, completely different from the small place we were at last night. We bid farewell to our friendly tow truck driver Jerry. It took the mechanic about 5 minutes to diagnose the problem as a bad fuel pump. They are thinking they may be able to get it done today. It is a hard and expensive job. The fuel pump is located inside the gas tank. They have to remove our full tank of gas first. The estimate for charges is over $900. The towing charges will be over $500 which will be taken care of by Good Sam Club Emergency towing service. Talked to many people and employee here. Everybody is very friendly out here. This dealership is the largest Dodge dealership in the world and the largest Chevrolet and GMC dealership in Northwest US. Anyhow the parts did not arrive until 4:50 and with quiting time a 5:00, that was it for the day. Barb and I walked about a mile down the street for supper. We are now back camped at the dealership for the night. No electric tonight. Thats it for today, let you know tomorrow how everything went. Hopefully we will be on the road again.

Day 10 St. Regis, Montana

Here is where we are at the moment. I will tell you all about it after you click on the following link then return to my post.

http://maps.google.com/maps?near=47.300520,-115.103052&f=q&hl=en&q=Gas+Station&t=h&om=1&ie=UTF8&z=12

Well, I think we got a little more to talk about. We got truck problems. We were going west on I90 about 6 miles from Idaho border, when the truck started missing badly. We went about another mile and finally it would not run anymore. We pulled off to the side of the interstate highway. I put out some flags and raised the hood and put emergency flashers on. Then we found out that we were in wilderness area and there was no cell phone service. We thought if we just waited a highway patrolman would come along. After about 2 hours and nobody stopped, we decided to come up with a better plan. I made a sign, (call patrol) and stood along the road. after a while a young girl stopped. We have emergency towing service, so we gave her the info and she said she would call them for us when she got on down the road, for she had no cell service either. Found out later that this is one of the rare areas in the US without cell service along interstate freeway. Later another lady stopped and we also gave here the info to call. After about 4 hours a trucker stopped and used CB radio to try to pass info to other truckers to get the highway patrol out here. Anyhow about a little while later a wrecker stopped and said he was looking for somebody with a 71 truck. He didn't know if it was us or not. He ended up driving away and looking for a land phone. He came back shortly, said we were the right ones. He proceeded to hook us up and winch on his flatbed tow truck. By now our battery was dead from flashers. He took us back east 26 miles to their garage. He unloaded in front of shop and hooked us to electric for night. O by the way the driver was very talkative and told everything about Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, his life, grandkids, wife, etc. And to top it off it had been raining all day. We went to bed and I will tell you more with the next post tomorrow . We have electric, tv, internet,all is fine. We have been in prettier campsites before tho. Barb and I are fine.

Day 9 still in Missoula

Finally got some photos posted. It has been raining all night, but the temperature isn't bad. I think we brought some relief from their drought. Time for breakfast, got to go.

Day 8 Missoula, Montana

We are heading northwest on I90 for Seatle, Washington. We are camped at a beautiful rv park in Missoula, Montana. It is Jim and Mary's rv park, a husband and wife park. Jim has a small greenhouse on the property. He raises flowers and the park is covered with them. I am using their wi fi for internet connection and I think there are many people on it, for it is slow and erratic. can't seem to send pics.

Day 7 Yellowstone

Just left Yellowstone after a couple of days, beautiful weather, fantastic scenery, lots of animals, buffalo, elk, bear, etc. Here is a few pics that haven't been able to send. Internet did not work in Yellowstone. First pic was badlands, should recognize the other. Got to move on and find a campsite.

Day 6 Keynote state park

To see our current GPS location click on following link. We are camped at the green arrow on map. More news and maybe pictures to follow at the end of day.

http://maps.google.com/maps?near=44.369702,-104.785597&f=q&hl=en&q=Gas+Station&t=h&om=1&ie=UTF8&z=12


We made it to Cody, WY today. We had to go over a 9600 ft. mountain pass. Everything is fine except the price of gas. Paid 3.15 a gallon today. yesterday paid 3.29 close to mt. rushmore. We are camped at the Ponderosa campground. Tommorrow we go into Yellowstone, so there will probably be no internet access and no post to this blog.

Day 5 in wyoming

Been having trouble publishing my post. It is now Wed. morning about 6:45 wyoming time. We are now in Keyhole state park in wyoming. Last night the internet seemed too busy or something. I could see my blog, but could not sign in to publish. I think it might be working today. Yesterday we seen Mt Rushmore, started raining about 1 pm so left for wyoming. We camping in a beautiful park, on a peninsula in the middle of the lake. There is only one other camper here. Last night we observed and took pictures of a herd of antelope right by our campsite. Mule deer here now. Sorry can't send pictures, my internet connection poor. Got to go now eat breakfast now. Barb says it is ready.

Day 4 arrived at Badlands national park

Rained off and on untill we arrived at the Badlands. Temperature in high 70's. Drove thru the Badlands. took lot of pictures. We decided not to camp in the Badlands, because they did not have electric hookups. We went on to Wall, SD, which is famous for Wall Drugs. We camped at Sleepy Hollow campground and then walked over to Wall Drugs. Took lot of pictures, of T-Rex the Dinasour, and me riding and standing beside various animals. We ate supper at Wal drugs. Barb just had cheesebuger, but I had the Buffalo burger. Thats about the highlights for today.

Day 3 reached South Dakota

It Sunday night and got a campsite at the Palisades state park. The park is just east of Sioux Falls, SD. Pulled in about 5 PM, set up camp, and went for a bike ride to see the sites, before dark. An elderly gentleman sort of found us, told us he was looking for a certain rock that he had took a picture of his wife in 1943. We think she was no longer living, but did not ask. He proceeded to show us where balanced rock and other highlights of this canyon of pink rock. We left camera at truck so no pics. We finally got away and rode back to camper for supper. It was quite hilly , pushed bikes a lot. The temperature was in lower 60's thru Iowa and Minnesota. Got to South Dakota it jumper to higher 70's, and had to get out fan. Beautiful clear skies. Time to quit rattling on and go to bed, tomorrow is another 350 mile drive to the badlands. Send more tomorrow if we got internet connection.

Day 2 crossed Mississippi river

Barb and I are camped about 16 miles north of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Yesterday traffic was terrible between home and Indianapolis. Today after we got past Indianapolis there was very little traffic to Cedar Rapids. Weather turned a little cooler, in the lower 60's, but feels great. Camped in National recreation area, all the electric sites were full, so had to camp in tent area with no electric. Am running my computer from truck battery. The Sprint signal is also very weak here. Having a fine time, not much else happened. Ohio state beat Washington, thats great.

Day 1 leaving home

Left Delaware, OH at 9:45 this morning. Uneventful drive to Greenfield, IN(close to Indianapolis) where we decided to call it quits for the day and find a campsite. Went to Walmart for a few things then on to Heartland campground. Spent about an hour riding our bikes around campground. The indoor pool was closed for season. Spent $27 for a campsite, and the indoor pool is closed. Wonder when the right season is for indoor pool. It is only sept. 14. Here is a few pics of our campsite overlooking the beautiful restrooms. More later.

Loading slide-in camper

Installing the camper on the truck and getting ready to leave in a few days.

Our grandson's birthday party is over. Everybody had a good time. Here is pictures of the cake which Barb baked.

Getting ready to hit the road

Am setting up this new blog to try to publish our travels. It will probably be very boring.

2006 photo in texas