Mount St. Helens

Today we planned to tour Mount St. Helens. We were up at 8am and on our way by 9:30am. One of the 3 Visitor Centers is just across the street from the Seaquest Park. We stopped there first. We saw a short film, bought my medallion, and got cancellations for the boys. As you exited the theater there were displays all around, even one that was a walk-through area representing the inside of a volcano.

From there we went to Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center. A quick look around and we were on our way to Forest Learning Center. This was by far the best done center we have been in. It was decorated so that you would feel like you were in the forest. The film was in a small room which looked like the volcano blast zone.

We continued the 57 mile drive up to Johnston Ridge Observatory, the closest facility to Mount St. Helens. On the way up we passed an “Elevation 400 ft” sign. That’s pretty high. And SNOW! There was melting snow piled up in the parking lot and some sidewalks were impassible. Wow! Can you believe my boys were throwing snowballs at each other on the last day of June?

We saw another film which concluded with the screen rising up revealing a stunning view of the crater center of Mount St. Helens. Spectacular. We heard a ranger talk here also. He spoke about the 2004 eruption. He was really informative. We finished our visit by hiking up Eruption Trail which led up and over a small hill. From the trail we got excellent views of the blast zone and the burn zone. Trees on surrounding hills were laid down like match sticks all facing away from the volcano. In the burn zone trees remained standing but were completely burned.

Back to the RV to make coffee and start our descent. We are staying again at Seaquest.

Tomorrow we are off to drive the coast of Oregon.

Time to leave (sniffle, sniffle)

Leanne fixed a huge breakfast of bacon and eggs for us. We ate every bit.

I did a couple more loads of laundry and then bid my new washing machine friend good bye.

It was so, so hard to leave. We had such a wonderful time with Leanne and Tom. It was great to see their house and just enjoy some family time.

We left with a flourish. Leanne walked down the street to stop oncoming traffic, Tom positioned himself near the RV window outside, I stood in the back of the RV and Ray, together with all of our help, backed the RV down the street.

Preston wasn’t even around the corner when he said “This was the best part of our trip”. We all agree.

Our trip is now half over and we are literally turning the corner. Today we turn south. Happily our drive to Seaquest State Park near Castle Rock, WA was uneventful. That is always worth a mention when traveling in UN-Faithful! We stopped at Wal-Mart to buy an egg-carton bed top for Parker. Bless his heart. He has been sleeping on the old pulled out sofa in the RV. He may have loved Leanne’s more than any of us since he got to sleep in her wonderful guest bed. I agreed to grant his request for some additional bedding help, even if for only 2 weeks.

I must add that today was our hottest day yet. It was above 90 and uncomfortably hot in the RV while traveling. We are not supposed to run the front A/C while driving or it will burn out the motor. It was really warm even with all the windows open as we drove. Even after parking for the night we were still very warm.

We did notice that the air vent in the bathroom was cracked. The boys volunteered to grab the Gorilla Tape and crawl on top of the RV to fit it. What fun! Preston decided he wanted to sleep up there. All of us were just a little more grumpy than usual.

Seaquest is probably my least favorite place we’ve stayed so far. Not much personality.

Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!

Ray really wanted to see the Hoh Rainforest on the other side of Olympic NP. He got the boys up at 6:30 and they left at 7am, leaving Leanne, Tom and me in bed.






Ray and the boys write:

It was a 2.5 hr drive from Sequim but well worth it. The ranger at the Visitor Center told us to watch water voles and banana slugs. The boys practiced being "Tree Huggers".



We walked the Trail of Mosses. And saw a couple of banana slugs but were able to find any water voles. The rainforest was spectacular. It was a temperate rainforest as opposed to a tropical rainforest. The temperature was low 70’s under the canopy of the trees and moss. We saw spruce trees that were well over 250 ft tall and easily 15 ft in diameter. Parker’s highlight was picking up the banana slug.



After the Hoh we headed back on 101 and stopped at the Hungry Bear Café for lunch.






Then we went to Sol Duc. We hiked the short trail to Sol Duc Falls. It was the prettiest waterfall we have seen so far.







Kerry writes:

While Ray and the boys were doing that, I stayed at Leanne’s to catch up on laundry and clean the RV. About 2:30 she and I went for a tour of Sequim and stopped by the grocery store to prepare for tonight’s party.

Leanne and Tom had a gathering tonight for us. We really wanted to meet some of their friends whom we have heard so much about for the last 4 years. She had invited Ted & Eileen / Ingrid & Jerry / Kay and Kim / Sally & Tank. Preston was so glad to have Tank to play with. Some of them tried out the golfing on the Wii. Everyone had a great time. We enjoyed getting to put faces with these familiar names. Tom’s bald eagle even put in an appearance for the party. He was happy to pose for us on his tree across the river.

Tall Ships Come Sailing In

Several weeks ago Leanne called to let me know that the Tall Ships were going to be in Victoria, British Columbia, the same weekend we were going to be in Sequim. How cool was that!

Today all 6 of us were up early, early, early. We left L&T’s a 7am. YAWN!! As planned, we arrived early for the 8:10am Victoria ferry. We were delighted when they decided to send us on at 7:40am. Since they were expecting a large number of passengers, they decided to send two ferries.

After we went through Customs Ray bought tickets for the Tall Ships. We decided to split up since Leanne’s toe was really bothering her. L&T went for coffee and Danishes. The 4 Rowleys headed for the ships. The lines were forming quickly and getting long fast. We jumped in line, oops, sorry, in queue (we are in Canada now, you know) to see the Kaisei, a smaller ship. Next we got in queue for 3 ships, Zodiac, Pacific Grace, and Pacific Swift . Only the Zodiac wasn’t open yet. They had some troubles with the water height in the bay. They had to completely build stairs for a couple so you could get in.

We took time for a quick lunch, and then decided we would “die” on the Bounty queue. It was long but that was the ship we wanted to see. We waited an hour and 15 minutes but we made it on! This replica was built in 1960 for the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”, starring Marlon Brando. It was built from the original plans but due to the need for movie cameras everything was enlarged by 1/3.










After that we had a few minutes before we needed to meet L&T for the 3:00 ferry. So we walked through The Empress hotel. 21 years ago Ray and I started our Honeymoon in Victoria. We stayed at a bed and breakfast called The Beaconsfield Inn. One day we had high tea at The Empress. Today that same Tea costs $60 per person! It was interesting for us to see how much Victoria has changed. Then it was a beautiful, quiet town. Now it is a busy tourist center.

We met L&T and took the slower ferry back. It was really nice to just sit quietly on the ferry and rest.

Preston ran down to see Tank. Dinner was chicken sandwiches and then we all fell into bed. Ray and the boys are planning to get up early again and go to the Hoh Rainforest tomorrow.

Hurricane Ridge

Leanne and Tom were up first thing to take Leanne to the doctor about her toe. Their friend Sally and her dog, Tank (appropriately named) came over to say hi. Preston fell instantly in love. He is really missing Jingle. Tank seemed to fill the void.

We all loaded up to head into Olympic National Forest. We stopped at the Ranger Station to get Passports stamped. Off to Hurricane Ridge. We were told it was clear up there. Nope! I have never seen such thick fog, no; actually we were completely enveloped in the clouds. Tom did a great job just finding the road. Up at the top it was still very cloudy. Unfortunately we didn’t get to experience the view. But we did take time for lunch and bought a medallion for my walking stick. On the way out we got to see a snow blower in action! That was fun! On the way down we also spotted a black bear foraging to food just down off the road.

At the bottom we parted ways. The men-folk took the van and went to the wharf at Port Angeles, walked out on the piers, went to the Marine Life Center where they touched sea cucumbers, star fish, barnacles, crab, shrimp, tube worms, sea anemone, and saw a baby Giant Octopus.

Leanne and I went Ingrid’s house. Ingrid a friend of Leanne’s. She has a lovely home and was so gracious to show me around. We took a nice tour. What a beautiful view of the harbor, etc.

After a quick grocery run, Leanne and I somehow managed to find a Starbucks, go figure!
We had burgers for dinner then everyone headed to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow so we can be on the early ferry to Victoria, BC.

My guys in Glacier

Leanne and Tom’s at last

As promised we all slept late. The showers here cost money – yikes - $1.00 for 3 minutes of hot water. Good grief. Makes our RV shower look pretty good. After showers Parker grabbed his sketch pad, Ray grabbed the Bible study books, and we went on the top of our hill overlooking the lake to sit on the rocks for some reflective moments. We are studying Jonah. What a neat time. What a neat place.

At 12:15 we pulled out for Leanne’s. We took the ferry over from Edmonds to Kingston. That was fun for the boys. Of course, we HAD to go on top and look out.

We finally arrived at the Mitchell’s mid-afternoon just in time for coffee on their back porch. Leanne’s house is fantastic. We instantly felt at home. Ray had a bit of a tummy bug so he went to bed early. The bug got me in the middle of the night.

Leanne was helping get the boys’ air mattresses blown up and managed to pull her big toenail off. Ouch!

It hasn’t been dull.

Ramblin’ Ramblings

LONG drive day… We left the RV park at 7:30am, dropped off the rental car, got the obligatory pix in front of the Glacier NP sign which we had not gotten yesterday. By 8:05 we left for Lake Easton, WA. Betsy estimates our arrival time at 4:40pm. Of course, that would be if we drove straight through. We’ll probably add 1-2 hours to that.

RAIN! We awoke to rain this morning shortly before 4am. My waking thought was “Oh, gosh I hope UN-faithful doesn’t leak.” I got up to use the restroom and realized we had left 2 of our 3 ceiling air vents open. Of course, we had some wet floors but no big deal.

Another God moment last night: Parker was washing his dishes ….his dishes, see we bought these plastic plates at Wal-Mart – 4 plastic plates for $0.94 and 4 large plastic cups for $0.94, now that is a bargain, I love Wal-Mart. For some reason we bought 8 of each. Why 8? I don’t know. Were we expecting company? So anyway since we have these cheap plastic plates, I decided we would put our initials on them. You know, monogrammed to make them more “up scale”. So everyone has his own plate, cup, and bowl - if you eat off of it YOU wash it. ANY WAY! Parker was washing his stuff and he said, ”Mom, this is the funniest trip we’ve been on, more funny things have happen on this trip than any other trip we’ve been on”. You know, we are having fun. Despite all of the hiccups along the way. Yesterday was just the greatest – we were walking along the trail in Glacier just being – just being together – the boys climbing on rocks, jumping over fallen trees, taking pictures of BIG bear poop – this is why we are here. What a glorious time in a glorious place.

And so how is UN-faithful doing? She’s doing fairly well. She started right up this morning and the slides came in. Who could ask for more? And our toilet isn’t leaking. Life is good. Have I told you that we had to replace our low toilet with a standard height one? This may surprise you but the RV repair place in West Yellowstone had a limited supply of things. So it was this or nothing. There is a little riser in our restroom that the toilet sits on. It was perfect for the low one but now it is a tippy-toe experience. My toes barely touch – the boys, well, they get to dangle. Yep, I agree with Parker – it has been a funny trip. But the toilet works and that’s what counts. UN-faithful now seems to have a slight problem with her leveling jacks. Poor thing, I think she is just tired. When we stop for the evening Ray puts the leveling jacks down. By dinner time they start to slip. Just one loud groan at a time, every hour or so. Bless her heart! And Enrique, our RV delivery guy, hit something on the way to us and knocked off the right side mirror. His solution was to buy Gorilla Tape (one step above Duct Tape). He taped the mirror to the RV. There is NO falling off – it is secure – secure, but poorly angled. Ray can see the passing country side from the driver’s seat. Lovely view, but not very functional. However, that gorilla tape has proved rather useful. We taped our $0.88 Wal-Mart thermometer (accurate to within 10 degrees) to the outside window. NO falling off. And we have a misbehaving kitchen drawer. Last night when Ray was trying to fix it, he pulled out the screw driver, I suggested the tape! I’m slightly worried about future uses for this tape, but we have it. By the time we reach San Jose we may be held together with tape.

Montana sure is a big state. Sunday we drove all day and traversed the state from south to north (the short way). Today we drove FOREVER on Hwy 90 from Montana through Idaho and into Washington. That has to be the longest, most boring road ever. We stopped for a mid-afternoon nap at a Rest Area. One of the joys of RVing.

We got to Lake Easton State Park around 7pm. It was worth the drive. What a beautiful gem. The camp is around a gorgeous little lake. We walked down to a nicely maintained playground by the lake and then found that if we just walked over the hill behind our campsite that we were overlooking the lake. Time for another of those God moments. While we were sitting on the hill looking over the lake Preston asked if we couldn’t have a church service. We had told him on Sunday that we would do a little Bible study but never got around to it. He said he used to not like church but now he did and he missed the preaching. He asked if we could come back up here tomorrow morning for our church service and make Wednesday, Sunday. By ALL means YES!

A black dog barked from the campsite next to ours as we pulled in. As we started on a walk to explore the boys wanted to go say hi to the dog since they miss Jingle so much. We walked over and introduced ourselves to Denise. Denise is by far the most interesting person we have met so far. Her dog had been mistreated when she found him along the side of the road 3 months ago. As a result he is very afraid of men. The boys slowly approached to pet him. Ray stayed back.
Denise’s camper was a restored 1958 travel trailer. On the back was an emblem reading “Sisters on the Fly”. All of my “Fly sisters” know that interested me. This group of women is all Fly Fishers. They all buy these old travel trailers and restore them – restored they can bring $10-15K. These women rendezvous all over the area for fishing and other activities. The group includes several notable women – heads of corporations, designers of jewelry for the stars, etc. Denise is member #791. She was just returning from one of their events in Idaho and had come here with her dog to unwind.

She let us look in her trailer, named “Chantilly Lace”. It was absolutely adorable. It looked just like something right out of the 50’s: an ice box (not a refrigerator), gas lantern, working gas stove and range, original vinyl dinette bench seats, renovated wood paneling sides and ceiling, feather bed, tiny closet, and a chamber pot “for emergencies”. The only thing not original was the black and white square linoleum floor. Vintage linoleum apparently is very expensive.

I, of course, took several pictures so I could share with my Fly Friends. “Chantilly Lace” was outfitted in her “cowgirl” theme since she had been to Idaho. Her normal décor is fancy with a little hanging chandelier. Denise told us that the group has been featured several places. They are supposed to be on “Good Morning, America” next month. Their website is http://www.sistersonthefly.com/. I suggested that Denise search the web for “FlyLady” (so named because she likes to Fly-fish) – a totally different type group.

We have decided to just go straight on to Leanne’s tomorrow and skip sightseeing in Seattle. We’re going to get up slowly and enjoy this campground.

Gas today #1 $164.02 $3.79/gal

Glacier National Park

Since we were up so early yesterday to drive to Glacier we got off to a slower start today. It was 10:30 before we headed out for Glacier. I also think we were a little less rushed since we Going-To-The-Sun Road was not open all the way through.

Our first stop was the Apgar Visitor Center. The boys got their Passports cancelled and I bought a medallion for my walking stick and Ray bought his postcards. Preston spied the canoes. He convinced us that we needed to rent 2 but Ray thought we needed to hike first.

By the time we drove up the GTTS Road as far as we could it was 11:30 before we began our hike. We started on the Trail of the Cedars hike and veered off on to the hike to Avalanche Lake. That hike is 2 miles but we only went about .5 miles. It is just gorgeous as we hiked along Avalanche Creek. We found a nice spot for lunch. All in all we hiked about 3 miles. It was 3:00 by the time we got back to the rental car.

Glacier is so beautiful. At Grand Teton you drive through these beautiful areas looking out at the mountains. In Glacier you drive IN the mountains. You can just reach right out and touch them.

Preston was more than ready for the canoe ride. We drove back to Apgar Village and rented 2 canoes. Ray and Preston hopped in one; Parker and I had the other. Ray and Preston cooed the whole way about how what a great time they were having, blah, blah, blah. Parker and I fought each other whole time. I was in front and he was in back. He’d paddle one way and I’d paddle the other. We managed to take a circuitous route around the lake. But we really did have fun.

We continue to be a little disappointed we couldn’t go on the GTTS Road. In fact the reason we rented the car was so we could drive the tiny mountain road. And we weren’t able to get far enough up to see any of the snow. The canoe ride was the trade off.

We hit the gift shop when we got back. Bought a few things for our blog readers! Of course we had to have ice cream and a mocha coffee this time!

Time for another grocery run. Wal-Mart it is not! Then back to the RV for fishing at the RV park, blogging, and then dinner.

Tomorrow we will start the 2-day trek toward my sister’s house. It’ll be another long driving day from here to Lake Easton State Park just outside Seattle. Leanne and Tom, we can’t wait to get there and meet all your friends and bond with your washing machine!

I haven’t downloaded pictures yet from today so those will have to be updated later.

Week 2 Begins on the Road

Up very early. We pulled out at 7am. Dropped the rental car off on our way out of town heading to Hungry Horse, MT near Glacier NP about a 425 mile drive. We expect it to take 8-10 hours.

Gas stop #1 : 44809 miles, $3.97 per gal, $213. 432 miles @ 8 miles per gal

Lunch was sandwiches as we drove.

Gas stop #2 : 45050 miles, $3.99 per gal, $100. 240 miles @ 10 miles per gal

We arrived at the Mountain Meadow RV Park at 3:30. We made very good time. Lovely little RV park, completely treed, small lake for fishing, located 8 miles from the west entrance of Glacier. This park has internet service but our slot is too far away from the office to receive it.

We’ll have to walk over to the office.

At YS we heard that the Going to the Sun Road is not yet open all the way through. They had 11 inches of snow a couple of days ago and have 11+ feet on the ground. Our plan was to rent a car and drive from West Glacier to St Mary (east side of Glacier) on this spectacular road.

Obviously our plans will change. The 51-mile road is open about 25 miles in on the west side, all the way to Avalanche. This road has been plowed 3-4 times already. Every time they have plowed it an avalanche of snow has plopped back down on the road. We continually hear from locals that this past winter was a big snow winter.

We need some “down” time so Ray napped, the boys went exploring, and I settled in (i.e. made coffee) then read and blogged. Dinner was Sloppy Joes – they are just easy!

I am really looking forward to this park.

Bison "n" More

Bob showed up at 7:50am to replace our toilet. By 9:00 we were on our way back into YS this time to do the south loop. From Madison Junction we headed south toward Old Faithful. We stopped at Fountain Paint Pots where there are 4 types of thermal activity: geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles. There are areas of brown, green, yellow, orange, and, gold bacteria. Today’s quiz – what is a fumaroles? 5 points for a correct answer.

From there we went to Old Faithful. Perfect timing! We arrived just in time for the eruption! After that we walked to the Visitor’s Center where we watched an informative film. We bought a YS medallion for my hiking stick and the boys bought a YS sticker for their Passport Books and got an OF cancellation. Ray bought some postcards. He is sending one a day to someone in his office.

We continued on the south loop through West Thumb, Bridge Bay and Fishing Bridge stopping at each Visitor’s Center for the boys to get cancellations in their Passport books.

Ray really wanted to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We started at the Brink of Upper Falls and then walked to Artist Point to see Lower Falls in the distance. Just amazing! This is the site of the famous YS photo and is the most popular photographed site in YS.

Ice cream and coffee at Canyon Village. Then headed to West YS to return the rental car, due by 6pm or we would be charged for another day. You can feel it coming, can’t you?? We had 2 hours to drive 33 miles, shouldn’t be a problem. Unless, of course, some bison decide to camp out in the road. 6 miles into the drive we came to a dead stop. We crept along for the next hour and a half covering about 4 miles. Finally the bison moved on but by now it is almost 6pm. About 5 miles later we stop again. This time 2 more bison are in the road. This delay is about 20 minutes.

We finally get back to the RV near 7pm. The boys are wiped out and need a break. They went off to the Game Room while Ray and I started 3 loads of laundry. We had a spaghetti dinner. Ray made a grocery run while I went to get the laundry. Everyone was in bed by 10pm. Tomorrow is an early day. We have a long drive ahead of us. Glacier is about 9 hours away. Our plan is to secure everything tonight so we can pull out as early as possible. We’ll just let the boys sleep.

Thus ends week one of our trip. We have been blessed by friendly, helpful people. And we are continually awed by God’s grandeur.

Good bye Yellowstone.