JOURNAL OF TININTHEWIND

Sept. 22nd to 26th      Kathleen here,

      Traveling south from Port Townsend was a beautiful drive. The long fingers of water that form the canals and lakes around Puget Sound thrive with life and the road that follows them offer a breathtaking view. We enjoyed the trip south and west, as we headed for the coast once again.

     We arrived at Thousand Trails Preserve in Seaview, WA. late in the day. As we settled in, we could hear a distant roar through the pines to our west. Morning came and we decided to follow the path from the park. We walked along a winding trail through a grove of pines. Beyond the trees we found tall sea grass softly waving in the breeze. We meandered through the grass. As we drew closer to the end of the path, we saw the endless horizon. Nothing but the sea was before us. A few more yards and the path opened to the beach.

     I have seen the Pacific Coast before. Something about this particular beach took my breath away. The sky was blue and the ocean was blue. Far out into the sea, slow moving rolls became fierce white caps racing to the shore. These giant rolls of water crashing into the shallow beach shot white sheets of foam high into the air. Wave after wave after wave kept crashing to the beach. And with the sight of this breathtaking form, the roar of its unrelenting power humbled us. 

    I looked up tide movements on the Internet. I cannot begin to explain what causes the tide to come in and go out. I walked the path to the beach several times during the day and each time I found the ocean's point of contact with the shore at a different place. This, of course, is the tide movement, which is controlled by the moon, the sun, and the stars. Well, maybe not all the stars. No matter where the sea level was, it kept rolling in. The surf did not cease to pound the shore. No matter what time of the day or night, the roar of the sea crashing onto the shore is there.

     I dragged a lawn chair out to the beach. In a bag, I carried a bottle of water, a camera, binoculars, and a book. I did not open the book. I was mesmerized by the sea, the Pacific Coast. My Lord, my God, how great Thou art.

Remember, place cursor over pictures for description!

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     Sept 23, 2007  The four F's are the Ferry, Fort Casey, Fishing, & Forest.

Ferry     The ferry pictured above is the one we took with the Coach and car in tow from the Keystone landing to Port Townsend on the Peninsula.  The spit of land point that you see in the picture is the water edge of the Fort Casey RV Park and the campers and RV's are just out of the picture to the right.  We had plenty of room on the ferry with the motor home and car.  Getting off and on was no problem at all, in fact there was an 18 wheel semi truck on both sides of me.  When you clear the point of land that you see in the above picture the ferry makes an abrupt right hand turn and Port Townsend is immediately visible, about a thirty minute ride.  It cost us $53.00 in total to cross by ferry.  We could have driven around and accessed the peninsula from the south but I would guess to get to the place that we are now would have taken six or more hours and plenty of diesel fuel so the cost to go by ferry is well worth it.

Fort Casey      The RV Park at Fort Casey is a first come first serve type park.  There are only about  21 spots and those right next to the water are highly coveted.  We were on the inner circle but yet the scenery, sounds, smells, & location were all you could wish for.  We spent four nights there and could have stayed a month.  We will always look forward to returning.

Fishing     The Salmon are running in the Northwest and everywhere we go we see people fishing along a river or like at Fort Casey right along the beach not 200 yrds from the motor home park.  The King Salmon run is over but the Silvers, Cohos, and Pinks are plentiful and active.  I bit the bullet and bought a two day non resident license and gave it a good try.  I did hook a nice Silver and fought him about half way to the beach before he came off.  Later I had another one on for a few cranks but again lost him.  The law requires that you use barbless hooks so a little flaw in fighting the fish and the fish is going to win. 

Forest        Almost immediately after exiting the ferry at Port Townsend our path took us through the rain forest of the Washington Peninsula and the drive and scenery were spectacular.  Unfortunately we did not get any pictures as from time to time it was raining and places to pull off the road were few and far between.  Again, it is an area we hope to return to in future travels.

     We are currently at the Long Beach Thousand Trails park at Seaview Washington.  We will describe our stay here through pictures in a future blog. 

     Click on the word photo below to be connected to a picture album that is relevant to all that I have talked about above.  Enjoy!

                                              Photo's

Posted by George at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     Sept 19th - 22nd  We had seen this little spit of land and the campers and RV parked here on a little road trip in the car several weeks ago and we said at that time that we would try and come back here to stay at some time in the future.  Since our plans are to finish out this month over on the peninsula and coast of Washington, one way to get there is to take the ferry from Widbey Island, which you can reach by bridge, to Port Townsend.  The ferry ride will be only about 30 minutes as the minute the ferry clears the spit of land that the RV's are occupying you can see Port Townsend.  It is this little spit of land that has drawn us here and our stay of three days has not disappointed us.  The view from our site has been pleasant.

     From the beach you see above one could Salmon fish for Coho, Silver, & Pink Salmon.  I walked down when we first got here to watch a few guys fishing and heard of a few being caught.  I wasn't sure if my equipment would cast as needed cause these guys seemed to have very long surf casting rods with big spinning reels on and they were casting out a country mile.  I went and got out the crank bait rod I have used for years to fish the bass in the Mississippi River and proceeded to give it a try.  My stuff worked just fine.  Over the course of a couple of days and several hours of fishing I hooked a nice Silver Salmon and got him almost to the beach before loosing him.  I got to see him jump several times.  I did have one more on for a few seconds but the frying pan is still in the cupboard, for now.

     We sat out along the beach wall and the ferry cove the other evening and a huge bull seal entertained us for a while with his fish chasing antics.  There are sea gulls everywhere hoping to get the remains of a salmon that his been cleaned by the lucky fisherman on the beach. 

     We will board the ferry in the morning for that 30 minute ride to Port Townsend.  I had to climb up on the roof this morning to measure to the ground, (12 feet 8 inches) as the ferry can handle a max. height of 13 feet 4 inches.  Now I know for sure we can make it.  We are looking forward to about four days along the coast.  It is bound to be a bit more blustery and perhaps cooler but we are ready for it.  To reach our destination at Seaview Washington we will have about a 3 hour drive through one of the only true rain forests on this continent.  Should be a neat experience.

Posted by George at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     Sept. 14th - 18th 2007  Leavenworth Washington Thousand Trails RV Park turns out to be another gem in the Thousand Trails system.  So far staying in their parks we have stayed along the water, both lakes and the ocean, on the outskirts of communities, and now in the Cascade Mountains here at Leavenworth.  The pine trees are huge and the mountain scenery is spectacular.  Kathleen thought earlier it was raining as she could hear it pelting the roof of the motor home but on further checking, the sun was shining and it was simply a lot of big long pine needles "raining" down from the trees overhead as it was a bit windy.

     This is almost the first time since we left Wisconsin that we truly feel like we can just R & R (rest and recreation).  We don't have to be anywhere, and we aren't expecting any company.  We would prefer of course that one of our sons and their families could be with, but as with all young families they have commitments as well as the need to w*rk, (dirty word).

      Many of you may remember from our past posts and pictures the blue jay who would visit us while we were on our deck at our stick house in Wisconsin and would land on our hand to take a peanut that we were holding.  Seems that if you want to work with a bird and you have the time you can probably make a new friend if you just have a spare peanut handy.  Check out these two.

     We have taken some drives around the area and are always excited by what is around the next corner.  There are some great rivers and lakes within easy reach of this park and if in the future we return I will be sure to take the time and try them out.  No matter where you drive the scenery is spectacular and one can take a lot of pictures.  The town of Leavenworth which is about 26 miles from the RV park is definitely a tourist town as it has a zillion shops all built around a Bavarian mountain village somewhere in Germany or Switzerland.  We enjoyed a great mid day snack there and a walk through some of the shops.

     We are planning when we leave here to gradually make our way back over to the Washington West Coast and the ocean with a couple of intriguing stops in between and a ferry ride for the coach and us to gain access to the peninsula.  Should be spectacular!

Posted by George at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sept 10th-12th 2007  Birch Bay Thousand Trails RV Park at Blaine Washington is another very nice TT park.  This is an older park with a rather small pool and older Lodge than those we have been in previously but it had everything you could want in a nice quiet place to stay and was strategically located so as to allow for a lot of exploration of surrounding areas.

     We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Blaine area.  The weather was perfect and one afternoon was spent just hanging out at the beach watching the waves lap the shore, looking for unique rocks and shells, and just getting in a lot of R & R.

     We had initially scheduled ourselves to stay 3 nights as we would then leave for a rather long drive to Leavenworth Washington and another TT Park.  We decided to cut our stay short by one day and head on down to the Tulalip Casino parking lot which would give us a good jump on our trip for Leavenworth on Thursday.  Besides that, the Casino has one of the best buffets we have been too.  As we readied for departure from Birch Bay we noticed that our front steps were not retracting as they were supposed too and after checking all the obvious fuses, etc.  I ended up dismantling the mechanism and using a bungee cord to hold them up.  We will now stay in the area of Seattle to try and get our steps fixed.  Leavenworth will be postponed for a day or two.

Canada is just across the bay and will have to wait for a future visit!

Posted by George at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 Sept 6th-9th 2007  We departed the La Conner Thousand Trails RV Park and journeyed exactly 21 miles to this Thousand Trails Park at Mount Vernon, Washington.  I guess you could say we are gradually making our way North.  The Black Berries I have mentioned in the previous blog so I will not dwell on them but I can't tell you how nice it is to simply walk outside and grab a handful.  This RV Park does not have the Ocean/Water theme but instead is nestled at the foot of the Western slopes of the Cascade Mountains.  The roads within the Park are somewhat steep but make for interesting sites nestled over a rather large area.  We are in a very nice site which has electric and water but no sewer hook-up but we really don't care about that as we are only booked in here for the four nights and our black tank can easily handle that length of time.

     We have excellent cell phone signal here and broadband access through our air card with Verizon on our lap top computer, so life is good.

     The Park has a very large lodge with one end being a huge fireplace.  Today when I stopped in to check it out a small group of campers were taking line dance lessons and it looked like fun.  Next to the lodge is a beautiful pool and hot tub area.  There are basketball courts, tennis courts, & pickle ball courts.  I also saw several horse shoe pitching sites.  We had accumulated a rather large load of laundry so while I snooped around the facilities Kathleen completed that task in a rather nice laundromat on the first floor of the lodge.  There are all kinds of events scheduled for those of us camped here but I am just looking forward to kicking back and checking the insides of my eye lids from time to time, so will opt out of the scheduled activities.

The road leading through the hills to our camping area!

Mount Vernon Thousand Trails RV Park Lodge!

   I have taken my scooter on several rides through the complex and on some of the trails.  When doing this, ones tends to find hidden gems, and this morning I did just that.  What I found will be the basis for its own blog entry soon.  Stay Tuned.

Posted by George at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     Sept 6th --

     We have moved today to a different Thousand Trails Park and my next blog will detail this park a little more with some photos added but for now I wanted to tell you a little about the "berries" that are so plentiful everywhere you go in this part of the country.

     We have been enjoying black berries on our cereal and on ice cream, and at times just a plain bowl of berries.  Everywhere we have been in Oregon and Washington we could pick berries literally right outside the door of the motor coach.  Today on arrival in this park we immediately noticed an over abundance of berries.  They are everywhere.  We have not tired of them and are a little scratched up from picking them.

     If I had one wish it would be that my mom was right next door so we could share a bowl with her.  Several years ago on a trip out this way, all of us, mom included enjoyed picking and eating the berries.

Posted by George at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     Sept 5th --

     I had always thought that we had a fair number of Indian casinos in the Midwest but I must tell you that in Washington and Oregon they are everywhere.  Not just pole barn type buildings with a few machines and bingo but full fledged fancy Las Vegas style casinos.  In addition they seem to go out of there way to welcome the RV crowd to their facilities.  Many have designated parking areas for the Coach RV's and 5th wheels with wide enough parking slots to allow opening all slides, allowing you to put out your awning, setting up your grill, chairs, etc and after registering with security you are allowed to stay for up to 7 days, all this without charge.  Now, obviously they "hope" that you will gamble and lose, but for those of us who are in control of our actions, this turns out to be a good deal, especially since most of our units are capable of several days of dry camping before running out of fresh water or filling our grey and black tanks.  I wish we had more discipline when it comes to how many times we visit the excellent buffets.

     We have stayed at several for a day or two, obviously to save on the nightly camping fee, but also to give ourselves time to explore the area and visit specific sites. 

     During my research over the years leading up to our going full-time I had come across the comment that the Tulalip Casino in Washington just North of Seattle was an excellent stop when passing through the area in your RV as they were very RV friendly.  I had filed that information away in those dark back brain cells and as we approached Tulalip I decided we would give it a try.  The following pictures will give you an overview of the facility.  I wish I had taken a photo of our coach as we were parked in a very nice RV area, within an easy walking distance of the casino itself and some great eating.  We will stop there again as we will no doubt pass through the area many times in the future.

Posted by George at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     Aug 30th to Sept 3rd 2007  We left Lost Lake Resort after having stayed there under our Coast to Coast membership.  We had visited a booth at the FMCA rally that was hawking memberships in Thousand Trail RV Parks.  Thousand Trails is a membership program that we may be interested in for the future but it is still our intent to give ourselves a year before we commit to an expensive membership program.  Thousand Trails is big in the Northwest, fairly big in all of the West but is a little weak in the Southwest, Midwest, and until recently the East.  Since we were going to be around the Northwest until late October we decided to see what they had to offer.  After visiting with them a bit at their booth we were invited to accept a 3 night four day stay at one of their premier resort parks at La Conner and for listening to their pitch we would be their guests for free.  We were asked what days we would like to come and we selected Sept, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, leaving on the 4th.  They also had a Las Vegas type wheel to spin for a prize that would be awarded to you if in fact you kept your appointment with them.  I spun the wheel and hit the top prize.  A 30 day free membership in Thousand Trails.

     We have sat through their presentation and it was given by a young fellow who was very professional and not high pressure at all.  At the end of the presentation we let him know that we were going to stay true to our original plan to not buy in to any program for at least a year and in that time we would continue to evaluate our options.  Our 30 day free membership was activated and we have one year within to use it.  When we make our first reservation it will begin and then for 30 consecutive days we can stay in Thousand Trail parks FREE.  We are actually going to activate our 30 days on the 6th of Sept and will jump from Park to Park in the Northwest area as we continue to explore Washington and Oregon.  We will actually only get about 25 free days out of it as we are coming back to La Crosse the first week in October for Kathleen's follow up medical appointments.  There are some outstanding Thousand Trails Parks that we are looking forward to visiting in the next month.  We will try and give our impression of each park and add photo's as we take them.  The best part of course is we will not have any park expenses for most of the month and that is going to be good for the budget.

     This Thousand Trails Park that we are in now is situated directly on a half-mile beach along the Puget Sound, at Skagit Bay.  The 111 acre La Conner Park is in the heart of the beautiful Skagit Valley.  La Conner is a picturesque park, with approximately 325 sites for RV's and camping trailers. To the west lies the natural beauty of the San Juan Islands, and just 5 minutes away is the historic fishing village of La Conner. It reminds us very much of Mc Gregor Iowa on Steroids.

     We have some tentative plans that when we leave here we will spend a few days at the Mount Vernon Preserve, Thousand Trails Park, and will then head up to the very Northwest corner of Washington to Blain and put in at the Birch Bay Resort.  From there we will try to fit a stop in to Leavenworth Preserve Thousand Trails Park over a week-end so the kids can come and join us and the little ones can enjoy the Pool and play areas.  Then we will complete the month of September by going back over on the Washington Coast and visiting several more Thousand Trail Parks.  Perhaps the kids will drive over and join us there as it is only a couple hours drive from their homes.

     It should be no secret, we love being by the water!

Posted by George at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)