Plan C.........

8:36 am - Monday - September 7th - Blyn, WA - 60° F, 87% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the east by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this day in 2012 we were near Flaming Gorge at Sheep Creek Overlook......↴

As is often the case on departure days I awoke around 5 am thinking about what needed to be done to extricate our 36' Newell from our site overlooking Harrington Lagoon.  Turning around was not an option due to the slope, we had decided a week before that we would back out.  The only thing I really had to do was to turn over the big Detroit Diesel 6V92, stow the 60 feet of heavy duty 50 amp cords we used to reach the 30 amp electrical outlet on the front side of the barn, and then back out.  It's funny how your mind identifies what it thinks will the the problems, and then how things turn out in in real time.  I thought backing out around the barn would be the difficult task, and hooking up the trailer would be the easy part.  In real life it was exactly the opposite......I began backing out of our site around 7:30 am......

                                    

.....TLE managed to get about 6 seconds of me backing up, which ended up being quite easy......and then the hard part began.....backing up to the trailer.  All in all we had the trailer on the hitch by 8:10 am (it seemed much longer)......TLE then got a little video of me driving up the gravel road back to pavement.......

.....once we had the car in the trailer we took our 'until next time' USIE in front of the coach......

.....the time that time it was 8:30 am, and we did not have to leave for the ferry until 9:15 am, so we spent some time back down at the house drinking coffee, and talking about all that had happened during our 3 week stay.

On the drive over to the Coupeville/Port Townsend Ferry I noticed the alternator was not putting a charge into the batteries, and that did not change all the way to the ferry.  We have the same Leece-Neville alternator Glenn and Laureen have in their '84 Newell, and ours has apparently bitten the dust after 174,000 miles of faithful service.  Fortunately for us, once the 6V92 is running there is NO electrical draw from the engine batteries, and very little from the house batteries.  On sunny days the solar panels will keep all 4 batteries charged, and charging, but overnight dry camping will be out of the question until we get the alternator rebuilt.  I'll worry about that after we get to our winter job south of Newport, OR.

Upon our arrival at the ferry terminal we were advised by the kiosk guy that the 8:15 am ferry had been cancelled due to heavy fog, and that once the ferry began to run again the people waiting for that ferry would board first, meaning we would be waiting for a while, so we parked in lane 5 as instructed (the charge for the 6 mile one way crossing was $107), and wait.  Finally around 11 am we were advised via loudspeaker that the ferry was inbound from Port Townsend, and would be arriving around 11:35 am, so we knew we would not be leaving until sometime between 1 and 1:30 pm.  

By this time the fog had lifted, and we had sunshine pouring into our solar panels so I turned on the inverter, deployed the Winegard Satellite dish and we watched the PGA Tournament Championship for a couple of hours until our ferry arrived a little after 1 pm.....it's really great to have your home with you so you are not really inconvenienced when you run into time delays of this sort......I watched golf, and took a nap......life is good......

.....every time we have taken this ferry we have been boarded first, so we get a great view while we are crossing......

 Departure time!

 Open seas

 Approaching the Port Townsend Ferry

.....the crossing takes about 35 minutes, and by the time we disembarked from the ferry it was close to 2 pm.  Our initial plan had been to drive to Sequim, WA (pronounced Squim....silent 'e') and stay at the Elks Lodge there, but their website indicated their RV park was closed due to the pandemic.  Plan B had been to stay a couple of nights in Port Townsend at the Point Hudson Marina and RV Park, however, they were booked solid.  It is rare we scroll down to Plan C, but I found this Indian Casino in Blyn, WA (just east of Sequim) that had 50 amp hookups and water for free for 3 days.  The reviews we had read indicated it was a gravel parking lot, but we thought it would be fine.  Blyn, WA is just under 15 miles west of Port Townsend.  

On a side note, you will recall I steam cleaned my big rear facing radiator on the Newell the other day.  As we were making the drive from Port Townsend to Blyn I noted that the coolant temperature never exceeded 178° F in spite of several long climbs where we gained over 400' elevation.  Usually I am expecting to see temps hit upwards of 198° F on those long 6% grades.  When we hit the flat areas the temp dropped to the 170-175° F range.....I have never seen temperatures that low in the 12 years I have owned the Newell.  Normally, over the past 12 years of ownership, the operating temperature on the flat runs between 185 and 190° F.....WOW!!!!  A lot of food for thought on how well I have NOT been cleaning the radiator in all my past efforts.

We arrived at 7 Cedars Casino around 3 pm, and found the RV parking area is now paved with brand new pedestals.  What a beautiful place......

.....sure, it is just a parking lot, but how nice is this for FREE?!  All you have to do is walk down to the casino to register your RV, and you get a free 3 day pass.    Our main reason for wanting to be in the Sequim area for two days is to get my next cholesterol prescription filled at the local COSTCO....their pharmacy is not open on Sundays, and will not be open this Monday as it is Labor Day, so the first day I can pick up my prescription is Tuesday.  After that we are free to continue our trip to the Oregon Coast.

After setting up, and registering we managed to watch the last 5 holes of the 3rd round of the Tour Championship......not the day we had envisioned, but a serendipitous day nonetheless.  Sometimes Plan C is the best plan after all.

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