Easy as pie.....

 8:07 am - Monday - October 4th - Coupeville, WA - 49° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2018 we had just arrived at Bishop's Orchards in Guilford, Connecticut....Bishop's Orchards is a Harvest Hosts location where you stay for free one, or two nights......↴

Sunday was the last day of our 3 day journey to Coupeville, WA and as things would have it I was up early thinking about the .5 mile drive over to the Port Townsend/Coupeville Ferry terminal.  Over the course of 10 years we have traveled on ferries many times with the Newell and trailer, so its kind of old hat for us, but still my mind thinks about what can go wrong.  For instance, many times when the overnight low is below 50° F I need to use the block heater to warm up the coolant in the big Detroit Diesel sufficiently to get her to fire when I turn her over.  Since we were dry camping the only alternative was to fire up our Kohler generator to power the block heater, but as luck would have it generators are not allowed at any time at Point Hudson Marina & RV Park.  Obviously, if she didn't start I would have turned on the generator and risked a reprimand in order to get her started, but I didn't want it to come to that, so that was on my mind.  Another issue was that since we had parked Saturday afternoon one of the tenants in the full hookup sites in front of us had parked their pickup truck in such a way as to restrict the size of my egress point making it more difficult for us to exit without undo maneuvering, so that was on my mind.

To solve the first dilemma I determined to attempt to start the 6v92 around 7:45 am to see if it would start, and thereby negate my need for the generator.  If it didn't start, then I would turn on the generator so we could depart at the chosen time of 8:15 am for our short drive to the ferry terminal.  As it turned out the big Detroit Diesel fired right up without a hiccup, so one dilemma solved.  The second dilemma resolved itself shortly thereafter when the owner of the pickup came out of his RV to get something out his truck, so TLE walked over and explained our situation.  He immediately agreed to move his truck.....another problem solved, and we were able to depart right on time.

We arrived at the ferry terminal just before 8:30 am (one hour in advance), paid our $97 fare, and proceeded to the front of lane #1.......

.....more often than not we are the first one on the ferry, and the first one off due to our size, plus that gives us a front row seat to the water crossing......

....our Garmin Trucker thinks nothing of a water crossing....the ferry route is just another road....

....I was actually pretty sanguine about how well things had gone so far, so I'm not sure how TLE caught me with a frown upon my face.....lol......

....soon the disembodied voice of Miss Garmin was advising me to exit the ferry and turn to the right.....

....and we were on our way to cover the final 8 miles to Bob and Karen's home where we arrived just before 10:30 am without incident.  Moving our gear down to Bob's property is a multi stage event.  First we remove the Beetle from the trailer, then drop the trailer from the hitch, and drive the Newell down a short gravel road to the upper barn, which is where we park when we are here.  Then TLE drives the VW down and parks it out of the way.  Finally, using Bob's Ford Dually, we haul the trailer down to park it next to the barn, and this is what it looked like 90 minutes later.....

....the short gravel road we traveled down is just to the right in the picture above, and this is our view to the left in the picture below.....

....and this is the commercial pressure washer I will use to steam clean our radiator in a couple of days......

.....it's been just over a year since we were last here, but it seems like yesterday.  We spent the afternoon catching up, and talking about a couple of projects for which Bob needs my assistance.  Life is good.....

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The first 120 miles was a piece of cake.....

 6:49 am - Sunday - October 3rd - Port Townsend, WA - Point Hudson Marina & RV Park - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! - 56° F, 75% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the southwest.....overcast today with a forecast high of 56° F.....WOW...that's a first....the morning temperature is the same as the forecast high!  On this date in 2014 I was celebrating my 64th birthday at Redfish Restaurant in Port Orford, OR with TLE and good friends Krash and Karen......↴

After an incredibly quiet night in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot we awoke to partly cloudy skies, and feeling good about our travels so far.  Friday had gone perfectly....actually better than perfect...and we were anticipating another great travel day.....and for the first 120 miles of our 178 mile day it was.  We departed the Walmart parking lot around 9:48 am, and were cruising northbound on I-5 shortly thereafter.  We were even passed on I-5 northbound by a late model Newell......

.....it is extremely rare to spot Newells on the road as there are just not that many.  We exited I-5 in Olympia, WA merging onto US-101 northbound to Port Townsend around 11 am.  Initially US-101 is a divided highway, but after about 20 miles it becomes a narrow, winding two way road.  Just south of Hoodport, WA (Hood Canal area) we spotted another Newell going southbound....we both honked.  It was a 1987 Newell Classic, and we found out later that the owners are members of our Newell user group forum.....Newell Gurus.....two Newells in one day!

Within a few miles we rounded a bend in the road to find traffic completed stopped with people standing outside their cars......okay, this is not good, right?

If one must be stopped on a highway I can't think of a more scenic place to be 'stuck'. I quickly powered down the big Detroit Diesel, and decided to make the most of the the time.....

.....first I checked all the tire temps, took a nap, and then I got out my telescoping ladder and began to clean the Newell windows.....I finished just as traffic began to move again for the first time in 2 hours....yup, two whole hours.  Apparently a power pole had fallen up ahead, and it took the utility cranes about 90 minutes to get there.  Once they were there, the pole was removed quickly.....

....according to our Garmin Trucker GPS we still had 57 miles to travel with an estimated travel time of 90 minutes.  This section of US-101 is extremely narrow with NO shoulders, and big drop offs to the right.  The speed limit varies from 45-50 mph for about 35 of the remaining 57 miles, and it was white knuckle time.  The time did not pass quickly for moi, and it seemed much longer than 90 minutes, but that's all it was.  

We arrived at our destination, Point Hudson Marina & RV Park just before 3 pm, and after some maneuvering in tight space for about 20 minutes I managed to get the coach turned around, and parked in their 'dry camping' space.  TLE did a masterful job of helping make a 9 point turn...the best she has ever done.  How do I know?  It was the least stressful maneuver we have ever completed......

....we are right on Puget Sound, and about .5 miles from the ferry terminal where we will board the 9:30 am ferry to Coupeville later this morning.

Our site is about 70 yards from Doc's Marina Grill, so we decided around 4:30 pm to walk over and have an early dinner on their wonderful alfresco deck.  I had a Port Townsend Stout, which was just as good as I remembered from 8 years ago.  I ordered their Blackened Salmon sandwich, and TLE their Artichoke & Roasted Pasilla Chile Melt, and a side salad..... 

......after dinner we took a long walk around the marina.....

....and found this schooner built in 1907....she looks beautiful for 114 years of age.....

TLE couldn't resist hamming it up a bit

There's the Newell from across the marina

....it was a beautiful Puget Sound evening with spectacular view of the Olympic Mountains in the distance....

....except for the unexpected rest stop north of Hoodport, it was another great travel day.....just 15 miles to go.

So, you might wonder, why not get on the ferry when we got here and get to Coupeville on Saturday afternoon.  Good question.  Because of our size and length reseverations must be made in advance for a specific time slot.  If you miss the appointed time they will try to put you on a later ferry, but there are no guarantees.  We've made this drive before, and barely made our reservation, which added a lot of stress to an already stressful drive up US-101 from Olympia.  If we had made a reservation for Saturday we most likely would have been quite late, so we decided, in advance, to overnight here in Port Townsend.  It's only .5 miles to the ferry, which will take less than 10 minutes from our location.

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Better than planned......

 7:40 am - Saturday - October 2nd, Longview, WA - Walmart Super Center - 42° F, 96% humidity, wind - CALM.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 66° F, but we will not bear witness to that high as we will be somewhere else this afternoon....Port Townsend, WA were the high will be just 59° F.  On this date in 2016 it was snowing at Tahoe Valley Campground......↴

There are plans, and then there are times when what happens is even better than the plan, and Friday was just such a day.  Our plan was to be on the road rolling our wheels north to Washington State between 11 am, and 12 pm.  Our original plans had us dropping the trailer on the hitch, dragging the artificial turf into the trailer, dumping our tanks, and disconnecting the water and sewer lines Thursday afternoon, but it rained all the day long changing the 'Plan'.

I was awake early Friday morning thinking about all of the deferred tasks awaiting my attention, and finally got up around 6:30 am to type my latest missive so I could begin my work.  It was still quite wet outside from the rain on Thursday, and I was not looking forward to walking around in the wet grass taking care of everything which must be done before we coasted down NW Cross street to US-101, so I didn't begin to do any of that until after 8:30 am. Delaying the inevitable did not help, as the grass was just as wet at 8:30 am as it was at 6:30 am, nevertheless, I forged ahead.

Amazingly, by 10 am we were ready to drop the trailer on the Newell receiver hitch, and within 30 minutes I was coasting down NW Cross Street with TLE trailing behind in the VW.  There is no room in site A-2 to  insert the VW into the trailer, and it is impossible for me to turn into SRRVC's entrance with my length going down NW Cross Street as the turn is too sharp going that direction.  Knowing this we planned to head north on US-101 to the Ona Beach parking lot which is usually not too full in the morning, and insert the VW there.

We arrived there within 10 minutes, and within another 10 minutes had the VW secured inside the trailer.  By 11 am we were leaving US-101 and merging onto US-20 to I-5.  It's been 6 months since we topped off our 60 gallon propane tank, and we had used less than 30 gallons as of Friday, but wanted top it off again as we begin our winter travels.  There is an ARCO fuel station right near the entrance to I-5 north, so we stopped there and took on 24 gallons at $1.99/gallon....that is the best price we have seen in years!  Normally you have to go inside the store and get someone to come out and pump the propane, but as our perfect day would have it he was already there....lol!

Traffic on I-5 northbound was heavy, but as we passed through Salem it began to lighten quite a bit.  Our next planned stop was the Travel Centers of America truck stop in Aurora, OR where we scored another great diesel price using our TSD card.  We took on 54 gallons of diesel at $2.92/gallon....not the best we have paid, but way below the current going rate of about $3.68/gallon in Oregon.  This is the best price we will see for a long time to come.

The traffic through Portland at 2 pm was the terrible 'stop and go' variety......

....but at last we saw the 'Oregon Thanks You' sign meaning the border crossing was just a short distance ahead.....

.....and then the sign in the middle of the bridge spanning the Columbia River welcoming us to Washington State for the first time in a year....

....our destination for the day was the Walmart Supercenter in Longview, WA (a 190 mile driving day for us), and we arrived there without incident at 3:40 pm.  After leveling the coach, and then relaxing for a while I took a quick shower, and then we walked into Walmart to buy a 'footlong' All American Club  sandwich from Subway for dinner.....

....and so came to a close the perfect, uneventful travel day.  Everything went better than we planned, and what a quiet Walmart parking lot we found.....so, so quiet!  In a couple of hours we'll continue our trek northward to Port Townsend, WA where we will spend the night before driving onto the Port Townsend/Coupeville Ferry on Sunday for the last leg of our drive to our friend's home near Coupeville.

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Yes it was.....

 6:50 am - Friday - October 1st - Seal Rock, OR - 45° F, 100% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the east by northeast....clear today with a forecast high of 61° F, but we will not bear witness to that high as we will be somewhere near Vancouver, WA by that time.  Today is liftoff....our view will change without going through escrow, and just around the corner new adventures await.

On this date in 2017 we worked our last shift at the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY (Yellowstone NP), and celebrated with good friends at the Rusty Nail in Gardner, MT......↴

.....met these folks in mid June, and became fast friends within weeks.  They will forever have a piece of my heart!

The title for my post yesterday asked if Wednesday was my last work day, and the answer is 'YES!'......we awoke to drizzle Thursday morning, and it continued on and off for the rest of the day.  By 9 am I had a text from Terry that there would be no working that day.  In spite of the drizzle, there were a few periods during the day when it stopped and I made the most of the time by removing all the tire covers from the Newell and trailer, and the jack stands under the trailer.  I also moved everything from the rear of the trailer to the front, then moved the suitcases and beach chairs to the hatch of the VW, and removed the mirror and windshield wiper covers.  Last, but not least, I rolled up the last three strands of rope lights, and thus the 'lido deck' just became a gravel patio someone else will enjoy in the future.  On the other hand, TLE did work her 3 hour morning shift, but was excused from the afternoon shift by Michele so she (TLE) could finish putting things away in the Newell.  To avoid any surprises with our turn signals, and brake lights I plugged the trailer into the Newell for the first time in 54 weeks, and sent TLE outside to make sure both turn signals worked on the Newell, and the trailer.....yes they do....CHECK!! Do the brake lights work on the Newell and trailer?? CHECK!!  When we left Ramona Oaks after 9 months we didn't check them until we were ready to exit the park, and found that the brake lights were not working, but the turn signals, and flashers were.  By the time we reached our destination for the day the brake lights began to work once again.  At least this time we know they are working ahead of time.....lol.

As I write this current installment my mind is a blur of memories and emotions as we prepare to roll our wheels in just a few hours from now. When you reside in one place for a year you cannot help but become attached to many things......the view, the people, the weather, the restaurants (I will miss the Camarones Monterey at Fresh Mexican.....OMG!).  While we are both excited to be moving once again, when you sit in one place for a year you become settled, and comfortable.  Today we exchange comfortable for uncertainty, and anticipation.  Will the Newell perform with no issues?  Will our travels today be uneventful, or will Mr. Jello wink at us?

As always on departure days I was awake before the dawn thinking about what needs to be done this morning before we roll down NW Cross Street and turn north on US-101 for the last time this year.  I was going to dump our tanks, and disconnect the water and sewer Thursday afternoon, but it was drizzling, so I will take care of that this morning.  Other than that everything else has been done except inserting the Beetle into the trailer for the first time in 54 weeks.

Thanks to all those who continued to follow our daily lives this past year even though they did become a little too routine and predictable.  Now that we are free to roam once again we hope you will continue to follow along.

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My last work day?

 7:34 am - Thursday - September 30th - Seal Rock, OR - 59° F, 82% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southwest......overcast, drizzly today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at O'Brien's in Newport, RI.......beautiful, sunny day......

Wednesday was my swan song for spreading gravel.  I had hoped to finish the last three sites (18, 19 and 43), but rain on Monday and Tuesday nixed that goal completely.  However, I was able to return to site 18 on Wednesday.  When I left off working on 18 a week, or so ago I had barely begun to raise the rear of the site.  By the time I finished hauling one bucket load of gravel after another the total count came to 16 loads.....that's the most gravel I have put in any one site.  Not only did I raise the rear of the site about 1 foot, I widened it about 3 feet from front to back.....

....the gravel pad in this site used to be quite narrow with a large hump, or crown running down the middle, but now it is level from side to side, and from front to back.  I wish I could have worked my magic on its sister, site 19, but with all the rain the week my vision has suffered an untimely death.

On the 'getting ready to haul anchor' front TLE and I got a lot done Wednesday.....with the exception of a few items, which will be moved to the front of the trailer Thursday, it is ready for VW insertion.....

The portable fireplace will be moved into the Newell Thursday afternoon.....

.....our suitcases will be stowed in the VW.....

.....not sure about the bundles of wood 

yet....we may not have room for them....

.....the beach chairs will also find there way into the VW

....additionally, we rolled up the artificial turf, and will pull it into the trailer late Thursday afternoon.....

The 'lido deck' is no more.....just a pile of wet gravel now

.....we were able to get the underside dried out, but had to put a tarp over it as the forecast for Thursday calls for rain, and as I write, it is raining.  We also deployed all the awnings once again to dry them out from the rain a couple of days ago, and then stowed them all, including the patio awning which is now secured in travel mode for the first time in 6 months.

As I write it appears my final work day will be called on account of rain, meaning I will have worked only 2 of the 5 days I was scheduled to work this week due to rain....reminds me of last winter.....time to move to dryer climates.  And thus ends our tenure here at Seal Rocks RV Cove....it has been 1 year and 2 weeks since we arrived.  SRRVC will go down as one of the top two, or three workamping jobs we have done over the years, and the location will be right up there with Lake Tahoe.  

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Farewell breakfast.....

 7:34 am - Wednesday - September 29th - Seal Rock, OR - 46° F, 93% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by southeast......overcast today with a chance of rain later, and a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2016 good friends Guy and Sue, who own a 1984 Newell, which I assisted them in finding, arrived at Tahoe Valley Campground on their first trip as Newell owners......↴

We were up an hour earlier than normal Tuesday morning. Why?  Well, our managers, Terry and Michele, were hosting a 'thank you'/farewell breakfast for us workampers at 7:30 am in Newport at the 'Pig and Pancake' restaurant.....

Left to right:  Moi, TLE, Fred, Linda, Michele, Terry, Greg, Gina

.....we were in the VW by 7:15 am heading into Newport in the rain.....it had rained all night, sometimes quite hard.  We had a lovely breakfast, and were on our way home by 8:40 am......TLE had to be at work by 9 am, and I had another rain day.  We will truly miss these people, who over the past year have become good friends.  While we are excited to be returning to our 'Vagabonder Supreme' lifestyle, we are a little sad to be leaving such a wonderful place, and people.

Unexpectedly, the skies began to clear around 11:15 am, so I immediately headed outside to begin taking down the rope lights wrapped around four of the several trees which border site A-3.  I thought it would take a lot of time, but it ended up taking me less than 30 minutes.  The hard part began after I finished taking down the last rope string.....cleaning one year's worth of pine sap off the individual strings, and that took me a good part of the afternoon to accomplish using Acetone, and a rag.....what a gooey mess!  Once they were all free of pine sap I coiled them up, and secured the coils with Velcro straps.  

All that remains is to fold up the artificial turf between rain storms, and then pull her into the trailer for the first time sine we first arrived at SRRVC just over one year ago.  Only two work days left, and it does appear I will work at least Wednesday, but Thursday is in doubt as there is rain forecast.  So far the Friday (our departure day) forecast is for clear skies.

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And then there were three.....

 6:28 am - Tuesday - September 28th - Seal Rock, OR - 52° F, 94% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the south.....overcast, raining....don't know how it's only 94% humidity.  Forecast high for today is 56° F.  We're up early because we're meeting our managers for our farewell breakfast at a restaurant in Newport at 7:30 am.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at a brew house in Providence, RI.......↴

Fred and I were rained out of work Monday, so that leaves little about which to write.  It rained all day, sometimes torrentially.  There can be no doubt that the rainy season has returned to Coastal Oregon with a vengeance.  As is always the case, office work is never 'rained out', but when TLE did return from work we drove into Newport to do a final BIG shopping.  Due to supply line interruptions the shelves in local grocery stores are beginning to look bare once again as people begin to stock up on the necessaries......TP, paper towels, and Kleenex.  And don't forget food stuffs which have a long shelf life.....they are being depleted a rapid rate.  Nevertheless, we were able to get everything we wanted except for our preferred TP.  After stopping off at the Fred Meyers fuel station to fill up our VW gas tank for the first time in weeks (with our .50 cent/gallon discount obtained by shopping at Fried Meyers we took on 10 gallons at $3.16/gallon.....the least we have paid since January), and then NAPA to pick up a few automotive items we were home by 1 pm.

I managed to get the black tank dumped in between rain showers, and all of the extension cords connecting all of our outdoor lights coiled up and stowed away in the trailer.  I also hauled four bundles of firewood inside the trailer to dry out, and our Adirondack chairs for the same reason.  If the forecast by the weather guessers is accurate we will get a lot of rain again on Tuesday leaving only Wednesday and Thursday to finish taking down the yard lights, and then roll up the 'lido deck'.  That turf has been outside here at SRRVC for over a year!

The heavy, torrential rain returned, and woke me up several times during the night, but we find ourselves in a lull as we prepare to head into Newport for our farewell breakfast with Terry and Michele.  In 3 days we will be heading up the road to our next adventure.

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19-9

 7:34 am - Monday - September 27th - Seal Rock, OR - 54° F, 100% humidity, wind 8 mph out o fthe south.....heavy cloud cover with rain in the forecast all day, and a forecast high of 58° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I visited Canyon Falls in Yellowstone for the first time.....pictures do not do it justice, but this one is my favorite from that day......↴

For one last time Fred and I met first thing Sunday morning at the WDS plant to clean the filters.  We lingered over the task talking about the last 6 months....usually it takes us 25 minutes, but on this day it took us 40 minutes.  From there we picked up the trailer, Stihl pole trimmer, hand trimmer, string trimmer, hand blower, and lawnmower heading to site #2 to make her look pretty again.  There have been customers in that site almost continuously for the past 6 weeks, and she needed a lot of attention.  We finished site #2 right at 12 pm, so the first of our last 5 workdays was in the books.  

After returning the tools to the Tool Shed, I headed for home to find TLE already deeply engrossed in watching the final round of the Ryder Cup.....singles match play involving 12 singles matches.  The U.S. only needed 3.5 points to get to 14.5 points for the win, and the Europeans needing an impossible 9 points (meaning they would have to win 9 of the 12 singles matches Sunday) to get to 14 points and force a tie, thereby retaining possession of the Ryder Cup.  As it turned out the U.S. secured those 3.5 points pretty early on, and then another 4.5 points to close out the win 19-9.  It was a very exciting afternoon, and probably the best Ryder Cup I've watched in some time.  Of course, it is always more exciting when your team is winning, no?

I headed out to the trailer following the conclusion of Ryder Cup play, and proceeded to stow our three bikes in to their travel positions, plus our four camp chairs bringing to a conclusion the reorganization of the trailer interior, and making it compatible for VW insertion Friday morning.  To finish things off I applied a coat of gloss black Rustoleum to the wheel well cover I had prepared for painting the day before.

The next 4 days will pass quickly, no doubt, and soon I will be composing a missive on the road somewhere in Washington State.  As I write I has been raining since 5 pm Sunday, and the weather guessers say it will rain all day today.....looks like one of my last four days of work will be a rain day.  The rainy season has returned, and soon the burn ban for burn piles will be lifted, however, we will not be on hand to witness that day.

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