Our Travel Blog

Despite the weather forecast we awoke to a dry and clear day. We had nothing specific in store for today other than a trip into Kellogg to get our internet fix.

After breakfast I set bout re-stringing one of the window blinds, one of the strings broke a couple of days ago and it had just been hanging there waiting for me to fix it. Luckily I had saved the instructions, from a previous fix, on the computer so I was able to get to work without the internet. I recall the first time I did this repair (on a different blind) it was absolute chaos and took a couple of hours. This one was fixed in about 20 minutes, isn’t experience wonderful?

Next it was off to get our internet fix, in reality there was not much we needed, just download e-mails, uploaded the blogs and got some navigation info for the next leg on Tuesday. I have the pictures ready for the blogs, but it is a bit time consuming uploading them and getting them into the blog, so I’ll try to do that next week when hopefully we will have internet in the trailer! I miss the internet more when it comes to looking up info on the spur of the moment, so many times we have said “I’ll just look that up” whoops!

After lunch we headed out for a walk along the cycle path, the weather was looking a little more threatening, but we could do with the exercise. We even managed to find a cache along the route. As we got to the point where we had decided to turn around, the rain started. Drizzle at first, then a more persistent rain after that. At least we got to walk 2¼ miles.

Back at the trailer we dried off and settled into to relaxation mode.

We woke up to a high overcast with the sun threatening to make an appearance. The weather forecast, which we last saw 3 days ago, suggested that today may be the last of the better weather for a while, so we decided to head out on what the tourist guide classes as a Scenic Byway.

Before we started the tour proper we headed off just down the road to the Cataldo Mission. This is a Jesuit Mission built in the 1850’s and as such is the oldest free standing building in the State of Iowa (I think my Grandparents house was older than that!).

It is built on some high ground with a commanding view of the surrounding area.

From here we headed west on the I-90 towards Coeur D’Alene for about 15 miles before turning off to the south onto the scenic byway. It probably sounds boring to you that we just drive around the area, and my writing will certainly not do justice to the scenery, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was a worthwhile trip. The route followed the shores of Coeur D’Alene Lake, which seems to be the week-end home of the wealthy set, although quite where they come from is not clear, the nearest city of any size is Spokane Washington about 60 miles west. Anyway, there were a number of very nice homes built on the shore, or the bluffs overlooking the lake. As we progressed we climbed higher, and got some spectacular views.

We had missed our morning coffee, it was approaching lunch time and the route was going to be a lot longer than anticipated. Unfortunately, not only were we in the land of no electrons, we were also in the land of no anything, then as we turned the corner on a hilly road we saw an old trading post.

We picked up 210 calories worth of a hunger reducing devices each (KitKat and Snickers), as well as a small coffee each. The small coffee was 575 ml (so was the medium and large), “don’t worry” says the assistant, we only sell one size and it only costs $1. It was good coffee as well!

Further around the route we found a small loop that was a wildlife tour, so we headed off along it. Not too long after that Lyn spotted some “swans” in a lake, but they didn’t quite look right. Through the binoculars (and my new camera zoom lens!) we could see that they were more like pelicans than swans, except the only pelicans we had seen before were brown. Back at the trailer we checked the bird book and sure enough they were American White Pelicans.

Further around the loop we saw a number of very large nests atop wooden hydro poles, nothing really unusual about that, except these nests were occupied. Again, reference to the bird book identified the occupants as Osprey

We continued the tour back to the trailer, in places the land changed from mountainous forests to ploughed fields, grazing for dairy cattle and some horse farms. There was no sign of any industry though.

Our luck with caches changed on this trip, and we managed 3 for 3.

After a late lunch back at the trailer, the 2-hour tour took 4 hours, we headed out for a walk along the bike trail into the local town just over half a mile away. The town consists of two restaurants (one for sale), a gas station and a post office.

Back at the trailer I decided I really had to start waxing an polishing the beast. After that the three-day old forecast proved to be right, and the rain started.

We are surviving without the internet so far, although I feel there may be trip to MacDonalds in the offing tomorrow, purely for the coffee you understand!

The good weather disappeared last night after a late night thunderstorm and heavy rains. We woke up to cloudy skies and the temperature had dropped to 10°C overnight. At least the visibility was good after the cold front had passed.

After breakfast Lyn made a picnic lunch and we headed off to cross a couple of passes. Initially we were on the I-90 for about 20 miles, then we headed off to the north-east to cross the Dobson Pass. This is a pass through the Cabinet Mountains that climbs to just over 4000ft at its summit.

The northern part of Idaho seems to have more trees per square whatever than any other place I can think of, if there is no road the surfaces are all tree covered.

We picked up the road for the Thompson Pass, which was higher at 4900ft, but was a much gentler climb. Again, trees, trees and more trees. I am guessing the air must be pretty pure and well oxygenated around here.

We did pass a few small meadows, and in one we saw a group of turkey’s strutting their stuff. Time to play with the new camera and its zoom!

We also tried to find some caches, but everyone seems to think a great hiding place is a small tube hanging from a pine tree branch. We are useless at finding those when there is only one pine tree involved. Here we didn’t stand a chance. We failed to find four in a row!

Along the side of the road Lyn spotted a couple of mule deer off in the distance, time to play with the camera again!

Across from where we had parked were some interesting (in my mind at least) rock formations

We had a couple of showers on the way, and went through some low cloud, but overall the weather wasn’t too bad. The temperature dropped to 5°C at the higher elevations, and there was still some snow along the edge of the road.

Back at the campsite it was time to debug the front of the trailer again.

Well, we managed to get up at 6 AM, there was not too much to pack away after breakfast as most had been done the night before. Of course it was a nice sunny day!

The whole trip except for about 1km was interstate which made for an easy, if not boring drive. Boring as in not much to do as far as driving the vehicle was concerned, but the scenery was pretty good. Plenty of large forests, then as we got into the centre of Washington state there was far more farmland than I expected.

We climbed up to around 3000 feet to cross one pass, and most of the trip was at around 2000 feet. This time I underestimated the time required and we arrived at our destination just west of Kellogg Idaho at 1 PM. We could have got up at our normal time!!

This campground is almost the complete opposite of the previous one, it is the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest with a river running along the edge. The only downside is that rural Idaho has no Internet, in fact at this place we barely get a cell phone signal!

I will try to write a blog daily, and if we happen to find a WiFi spot I’ll send them all out. There may not be any pictures until next week!!

NOTE:

Currently WiFi is down to 2G speed, that’s about as fast as the original dial up modem speed of 200 years ago! Assuming this text gets posted, I’ll inset some pictures at a later date

Another damp start to the day, remind me to stay clear of coastal regions close to mountains in the future! After breakfast we headed about 25 miles north to the city of Everett, Washington. This is the home of the Boeing aircraft factory. We found out sometime back that the company provides tours of the factory, and this is something we both wanted to do, it’s also the reason we are staying where we are. From a logistics viewpoint it was the best place to stay.

We arrived at the plant in good time for the 11:00 tour, the company runs these 90 minute tours every 30 minutes from 9AM to 5PM 7 days a week, and although it is not peak season there were plenty of takers. Unfortunately, Boeing are very strictly with respect to photography, in fact nothing can be carried on the tour, cameras, cell phones, wallets purses……. nothing. At least they provide free storage lockers at the start of the tour.

The factory makes the Boeing 747, 767, 777, 787 in an immense facility. The B747 takes 4 months to build, it is built from scratch at the plant. The newest, the B787 takes 3 days to assemble. Parts for it are manufactured around the world, and shipped to Everett to be put together, bit like a big Airfix kit!

The facility operates 24/7 Monday – Fridays, with the weekends used for catch up if the schedule slips; 44000 people are employed on three shifts.

The building is the largest in the world enclosing 13,385,378 m³ (472,370,319 cu ft) and covering 399,480 m² (98.3 acres).

It is like a small city, requiring its own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations and water treatment plant. The building is so large that when the factory was first built, clouds actually formed near the ceiling. The weather cleared when an air-circulation system was installed. There is no heating nor air conditioning in the building, the heat of 1 million light bulbs, plus machinery and human heat warm the place up in the winter. In the summer they open up the huge hangar doors to let the wind blow through to cool it. It costs $65,000 per day in electricity to light those 1 million bulbs! Employees use 1,300 tricycles to get around the building more efficiently than walking! There are also 2.33 miles or 3.7 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. The tunnels are also used for operating the utilities and comes in handy during winter when getting around in the cold and snow can be a challenge. As a final bit of trivia, the mural on the six factory doors is the largest digital graphics in the world.

At the end of the tour we headed back to the tour centre to pick up our cameras so we could take some shots from the viewing deck on the roof.

One of the aircraft we were lucky to see (there are only 4 in the world) was the Dreamlifter, a specially modified Boeing 747 used for carrying fuselage parts, wings and other structures from around the world.

There was a whole “parking lot” full of aircraft waiting for test flights.

The three aircraft below had just been completed, and were being fueled up for the first time prior to an engine run.

The aircraft below is an interesting one for us, it is a Boeing 787 of Hainan (Chinese) Airlines, the same aircraft type and company that we will be flying to China with later this year, who knows, it could even be on that aircraft.

We also went around a small museum area where I got the chance to “fly” a Boeing 727

On our way back to the car we spotted an MGB-GT (1970’s British sports car) in the parking lot. It was registered in Victoria, NOT B.C. but Australia, and was being driven on a round the world tour!

After lunch we headed slowly back to the dump campground, stopping off at Hobby Lobby (a large crafts and hobby store) as well as finding the obligatory geo-cache.

Back at the trailer I did some prep work for an early (06:30) departure tomorrow. The truck is hooked up and ready to go with no sign of leaking brake fluid this time!

Well, I have cooled down a little from yesterdays rant, in fairness the camping area of the camp ground is still a dump, but there is a nice indoor pool, hot tub and sauna. There is also a list of 48 rules that each camper must abide by. Such gems as:

Any cracked windows in RV’s must be replaced intermediately, cardboard is NOT to be used as a repair method.

No rust on any vehicles

NO repairs to vehicles to be carried out on site

Any fluid leaks must be repaired immediately ( how does that fit in with the one above?)

And probably my favourite, if any of these rule are not enforced by management, this lack of enforcement is not to be construed as a waiver of any rule.

Still can’t wait to leave.

The rain continued on the wet coast (just like the UK I remember!!), so what to do …… shopping. For a change I wanted to go shopping, as well as Lyn, so I dropped her off at JoAnn fabrics and I headed out to Home Depot for a couple of items, and then across to Best Buy. I had decided it was time to buy a new camera. Although the current one takes good photos, it has one major and annoying flaw, the screen is not bright enough to see what is in view, in bright sunlight it is often a case of point, shoot and hope.

The new camera is no bigger than the old one, it will still easily fit in a pocket, but it has greater resolution (18.2MP), greater zoom (30x optical. 60x digital) WiFi connectivity to download pictures but best of all a digital viewfinder! In addition there are about 4000 other bells and whistles on it that I have yet to discover!

Well my shopping was a success, Lyn’s, not so much.

We headed of to WalMart for some other stuff (including an air freshener for the wash room (see yesterdays blog!), then back for lunch.

After lunch Lyn headed over to the laundry for the weekly wash, this place got another black mark; the cost of a load in the machine was shown as $1.50, however after putting in $1.50 the machine demanded another .25c before it would do anything, this place definitely nickel, dimes and quarters you.

While Lyn was enjoying herself I forced myself to go shopping once more. There is an electronics store in the States called Fry’s. I was a very regular customer of theirs when I used to travel to LA every couple of weeks. Not only does it sell computers and other gizmos, it sells lots of electronic components for hobbyists. After about 30 minutes I had to leave, there was so much to buy, but no justifiable reason to buy it!

The Sunday traffic around here was about as bad as the Saturday traffic, I dread to think what the weekday traffic will be like. Tomorrow we head about 30 miles north for our sole reason of stopping in the area. Stay tuned.

Woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine. The temperature here on the coast is definitely cooler than inland. Inland has been forecast to climb to the mid 80’s, but here the Ocean is keeping the temperature in the mid 50’s. Just after breakfast we lost all power, I thought at first maybe were having electric problems again after last weeks issues. This time it was due to a downed hydro pole. The estimated time to restore power was 2 hours, so with no power and no internet, we decided to head out earlier than planned.

About 5 miles south of the campground we ran into our old friends, mist fog and low cloud. We were heading about 50 miles south to see some of the coastline, however there wouldn’t be too much to see in these conditions.

We first stopped at Tillamook and went into the visitors centre to get some local maps. Much to my amazement they had State road maps for most of the States we would be driving through so I grabbed a bunch.

One of the big touristy things in the surrounding area is the “Quilting Trail”, which features Barn Quilts.

Over time more and more of these quilts have appeared, and there are now 101 of them along the Highway 101 corridor.

There are also a number of geocaches which use some of these quilts in their clues.

Where there are quilts, even painted ones, there is bound to be fabric. This time it wasn’t a fabric store as such, it was a textile centre. Somehow, Lyn managed to go in empty handed, and come out not empty handed!

The centre had a quilt themed mural painted on on of the buildings.

While driving around the quilt trail we found another cache that was located in a small gardens area maintained by the areas Master Gardeners. Again the quilt theme was present.

From here we headed out for coastal route called the three capes, unfortunately it was quite disappointing as the route itself was either quite a way inland, or the ocean views were hidden by trees. The hazy weather didn’t help either.

Heading back to the camp ground we passed Haystack Rock.

This is the 3rd highest inter tidal ( it can be reached by land at low tide, but only by sea at high tide) structure in the world at 235ft high.

Just up the road was the town of Cannon Beach, a very touristy area, even on Friday in early May!

Here we saw something we never expected to see here!

This is a British vehicle from the 1950’s, a Morris Minor van in pristine condition.

A little disappointing as yesterdays sunshine wasn’t with us when we woke up. After breakfast though the clouds began to clear, and the sun broke through. It was time to hit the food store to replenish the supplies so we headed into the local town, Seaside.

We stopped to fill up with diesel, almost forgot that the attendant has to do the pumping!

Next stop was the food store, followed by a drive through the town to see what it offered. Not too much unfortunately.

After lunch we headed back into town to take a stroll along the promenade, and find a couple of geocaches. The promenade is set back from the ocean by a few hundred feet and lined with holiday homes.

Although it doesn’t show too clearly, the “birds” above are actually carvings at the top of the picket fence. Seems to be some pride of ownership in the area.

Over some small dunes and onto the beach

We continued walking along the beach for a while (good exercise) then reached the far enf of the promenade, which we walked along back to the truck.

Lyn …… after the 3 mile walk!!!

The trailer was still there this morning!! After breakfast we headed out to continue our trip to Seaside Oregon. The scenery continued to be stunning, but the roads only allowed us to average 45 MPH, not the 55 I had planned on. Not only were there many tight turns and hills, there were many towns with 25 MPH speed limits.

I am glad that we finished up splitting the trip, as it would have been close to 10 hours in a single go.

We only got a couple of shots in for the blog.

We stopped for lunch in a rest area, and made up a snack in the trailer. When we went back to the truck, the engine started……. then stopped. It would not start again. Yesterday it wouldn’t stop, to day it wouldn’t start!!

Earlier in the day there was a message on the instruments that said to change the fuel filter. I didn’t think the beast would react that quickly, but it got me thinking. Obvious diagnosis was fuel starvation. We had plenty of fuel, but was it being totally blocked by the filter? Remembering back to when I last changed the filter, one of the steps was to fill the filter with diesel using a priming pump on the filter housing. I went out and primed, came back and the engine started …… then stopped. Re-primed the filter with the same result. One more time and bingo, we were up and running! All I can think of was that an air / vapour lock occurred in the fuel feed. The truck ran fine for the rest of the day. Just to be sure I went into town and got a new filter. Luckily changing a fuel filter on the truck requires no tools.

The previously clean trailer was now far from clean at the front, why do bugs have to make such a mess when they fly into the front of the trailer?

After the painfully slow set up of the satellite dish at the last site, this time was ridiculously easy, in fact I had it set up before Lyn could get in position to read off the strength from the TV screen!!