Day 38 Washington
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
49
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Castle Rock,
Washington,
United States
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Karon and Rick chose to sample the free breakfast, Earnie opting for the tried and true Cornflakes and toast.
The continental breakfast was self help with orange juice, bagels, muffins and Pastries available. Of course tea and coffee, We certainly didn't complain and had a couple of conversations with people who consider we have an accent? Hey who is telling whom about accents, they all have an accent, it simply varies from State to State!
Well the breakfast conversation informed us about the Saturday street markets in the city of Eugene with entertainment and the streets blocked of and all! Of course this had to be added to the experience.
We set off and set Mandy to take us into the town centre, with the co-ordinates of a cross roads where the "markets are to taking place"
No big deal just follow the instructions, "voila" we find them, gee now to park! We chose not to incur the wrath of the US federal authorities by parking in a completely empty large car park associated with what is apparently a federal court or building. (hey it is Saturday, but umm nah not today will we "test" the waters)
So around a block and yep we found a park with sufficient room for the Castle, catch is, you pay, no big deal, a parking "machine" on the edge of the car park.
Well yes, EXCEPT, it is not a machine, it is like an orange money box with slots for each numbered space, you "apparently slide your money into the slot, no receipts, and of course the Castle takes up two spots 17/18. We discuss the amount @ $1 for 1 hour or $2 for 2 hours, decision made, 2 hours, these markets are supposed to be big! So in goes our $4.
We walk over to the fenced off area and find a stage being set up with sound systems etc, and maybe we are too early, (or maybe the correct time! Considering that the sound systems appeared to big enough to reach the sound to you guys in Aussie.
We walked further and found the Markets, the size of them was a "tad smaller than we were lead to believe", we managed to wander the "two" sections and skirt the "farmers market" in around 35-40 mins. Without feeling the need to purchase any of the self made creations etc.
Hey we paid for two hours of parking! Oh well another learning experience on the journey of life, related to the travellers trip. Yes we are still smiling.
We set off and head north on the 99 to a Camping world outlet, Earnie was still researching information on car towing gear for his cousin, Also he remembered we required to sort out the hydraulic lifter for the bed, (on the first day we stored our cases under the bed the lift wouldn't retract)
It was a straight run out of Eugene to find the Camping World outlet, Earnie was doing his research and had also found the new lift arm, while Earnie was asking about the towing stuff Rick went to ask the guy at the counter about the arm, He was a young bloke but didn't appear to know a lot about the lifting arms. After explaining it wouldn't retract, the young guy put it on the counter and leant on the end of the arm, It simply retracted as it is designed to do!
Hey how did that happen? Maybe the fact he most likely weighs in at 120+ kilos might make a difference.
Ok so we accept that there is nothing wrong with our arm and finish the search of this wonderful "boy place" (mind you Karon managed to find a table cloth and seat covers to enable us to cover the supplied park tables, but that is girls stuff).
We had a morning tea in the car park (these Camping Worlds are great, they even have a lounge room and restrooms), It was time to re-fix the lifting arm (easier to spell than hydraulic J ) and ensure it worked in place, cause if it didn't at least we were in the correct place to hire the 120+kg guy to push it down or buy a replacement!
Well both Earnie and Rick teamed up and put it back in place, and BOTH shook their heads when they stood up and pushed the bed back with no problem. (another of life's great mysteries as we travel our journey!)
We set Mandy to take us to Mount St Helens (some may recall this volcano erupted in 1980 with the loss of 57 lives) This is across the border in Washington State, it was essential to fill with gas before we left the state for two reasons, one being,hey we get full driveway service! And two; it is cheaper than the previous states so far! Maybe because of no State Taxes?
Again you have to be a fly on the wall in the Castle to appreciate the fun time we have, getting gas, no problem! We fill up and drive out to attempt to return to the highway, great except no left turn because it is one way, I must add here that Mandy doesn't appreciate us taking turns she hasn't programmed us for, she does recalculate but gee; Turn right, then turn right, then go around the roundabout ahead and then go to the end of the road and turn left. GREAT EXCEPT the "Roundabout" is a tight one within a motel/hotel type entrance! Not really designed for 30ft long Castles! So Rick chooses to turn right again hoping to find another way and finds the Castle is pointing directly at the Servo we had just left!
Oh well in we go again and do a three point turn (no mean feat in a 30ft long vehicle) and back along the road to manage to get to the direction we required to head north to leave the Oregon State and skirt through the side of Portland and Vancouver (Washington) and head towards Mount St Helens.
The bridge and highway over the Columbia river, and the road works designed to enable modern humans to transverse this area is really well done, We crossed at a great height and the number of bridges in one view couldn't be counted in the time span we had to take in the view. Great engineering and we had no problems to keep on track!
We came across a rest area around 40 miles north and this was a pleasant roadside park and rest area. Lunch and on our way again, it took only about 1.5 hours to reach our destination, being the information centre of the State park authorities, for the Mount St Helens.
We spent about an hour absorbing the very informative short film and wandering through the centre and decided that the snow capped Mount St Helens with the history and a distance of 47 miles was enough for the brave hearted travellers, so we headed back towards the highway with Seattle around 2 hours away, we chose to pull over at an RV park Karon & Rick spotted on the way in, well we were back at the highway and no signs or indicators for the park, oh well we will hop off the highway at the next RV park. With the name of "Paradise Cove Resort & RV park" (certainly there must be something lost in the American English and the Australian English or possibly is it a cultural difference.
I guess after last evening and 5 star service, Like individual showers and toilets with heaps of hooks for clothes and beautiful taps and space, a heated swimming pool, games room, horseshoe pit, free breaky, and newspaper delivered to the door in the morning, we had to experience this park we are now settled into for the night.
How do we describe it, I guess if we suggest it is fairly basic, and Earnie's comment, "we have to experience a park like this to appreciate the good ones" might give you picture. Karon is hoping the trains that have a requirement to blow the whistle for long intervals and I might add frequent intervals, have a curfew after dark.
Earnie has "tested the showers" and again note in your diaries to ask him about that experience. (it is worth the hearing the telling. Suffice to say the hot water took around 5 minutes to come through, by this time Earnie was soaped and ready, THEN the lights went out,( I mention here that the restrooms are a concrete block building with NO natural lighting at all!) he found himself in a dark black room (Maybe similar to the isolation confinement units at Alcatraz) and he had to feel ( or is the word grope) his way to the timed light switch covered only in his soap suds, and had to open the outside door to allow light in to find the switch, SUFFERING bloody cats.
YES we are still in the park we have not been kicked out! There is no refund and we don't give up our money easily!
No TV hook up, No WIFI, no phone reception, no computer reception, just another interesting experience on the road in our RV in the USA.
Well hopefully tomorrow will bring us back into the year of 2008, and it will be possible to post this and maybe communicate with the "real world"
Still smiling and still enjoying being here along this fun trip'
