Ok. I Be Back. 5500 Miles. Still Tired.

We left my Uncle’s in Texas early Wednesday morning. Made it to Eufaula, OK and managed to get only slightly lost. Checked into a campground and had that Sweet Young Thing I’m married to send me the name of the graveyard my grandparents are buried in. Off we went. WAY too many graves for me to get out and walk around searching. Week long job there. So we didn’t see the gravesites.

Got on the road early Thursday morning. Got a bit turned around trying to avoid any Toll Road; and wound up on the major toll road going across Oklahoma. Did get to see Muskogee and Tulsa. Barely had enough cash on hand to pay the 1st toll. (So we stopped and got some. Cash.) Got to Hwy-35 North, which turned to 135 North, which turned to 81 North, until we got to I-80. Surprised it took only about 4 hours to get from I-70 to I-80. Made a left and got all the way to Kearney before we had to stop for the night.

Up early Friday and back on the road. Kearney to Evanston. Realize that it’s been mostly FLAT country from Eufaula to Evanston. Boring! Didn’t start to get interesting until we got to western Wyoming. That’s when it started to look like “The West.” Cool!

Got up early (again) Saturday morning and hit the road. Took less than a couple of hours to reach the back canyon to Ogden, Utah. Took 15 North to I-84 West. OMG, what a ride! Boise was a total cluster-fuck traffic wise.

Decided to take the Columbia River Gorge route (I-84) rather than go the Yakima way cause it’s flatter. Meaning I should use less fuel. NOT. The head wind was SO BAD that, even though I filled the tank just before entering that Gorge, I got to a point where I had to use my 5-gal emergency fuel before getting out of the Gorge and to a place I could fill up again. At one point, the wind slapped me so hard that I went from 55 to 30 mph in about a second. I thought I’d run into something! It actually locked my chest belt! Fuck!

And, in the meantime, OnStar and I are calling RV Parks on the route. Everybody was full for the weekend. (Of course, anything even close to the water would be full for the weekend. WHAT was I thinking?!) We tried stopping at a rest stop and catching a short nap; but it was too hot (87 degrees) and I couldn’t sleep.

So, after filling up, we went on through Portland to I-5 North and stopped at the first Rest Stop north of Portland. Buttoned up the truck, climbed into the Caravan, went to sleep. I was surprised how quiet it got after midnight. Really. Truckes stopped. People set up their tent-trailers. It was as peaceful as any RV park.

Woke up at 0400 and got back on the road. Missed my coffee. Decided to go through Tacoma to stay on major roads. Worked out okay cause it was Sunday morning. No traffic to speak of.

Got home about 0800 Sunday morning. Nice! SWMBO was still in bed. Nice!

And Ive been busy since! (And now it’s Tuesday. Got tired and went to bed. That’s what I get for starting this late.)

So, got home, spent some time with my Lovely-Young-Bride of 30+ years until she went to Church. Got out and started cleaning the Caravan and doing some things around the house until an early bedtime.Went to bed kind of early and started getting a headache. Had it all night. Our bed is uncomfortable.

Yesterday, Mowed the Upper-front and front yards and walking path, weeded & watered the garden, started trip laundry, all my regular chores, picked and processed my green onions, cleaned out the truck, made a milk run, Scanned about 800 of my Mom’s pictures that I got from my Uncle. Stayed busy until bedtime. Wow!

Today it was dump run time; so I did. Other than that: Not much. Just feel like taking it easy. Watering the yard is about as active as I’ve gotten.

And for some reason my chest hurts.

BTW, y’all can look at my trip pictures on my Flickr.

Cannot Remember What Day–3791 Miles

So tired. Got up at 0530, showered and on the road by 0630. Left Eufaula, somehow got on a toll road (or two). Headed West to Hwy-35 North which turned into 181 North, which in turn turned into 18 North to I-80 West. It took only about 4 hours to get from I-70 to I-80. Surprising.

So, I’m outside Kearney, Nebraska at a $45/night “I’m So Tired” Campground. I’ve eaten and the Dog licked the bowl. We been for a couple of walks around. He finally pooped. (Which is important for a traveling dog!)

Both of my feet are swollen. Sitting on my fat old ass too long today. Twelve hours. Still that long just to get to Ogden from here. Then the same (or maybe a bit more) to get home from there. Phew.

Bloody Hell I Can Be Stupid

Left early this morning to go to Eufaula, Ok to visit my grandparents graves. By the time I did a 25 mile “side trip” through and around Paris, Tx I was totally turned around. Then, met I-40 40 miles EAST of where I wanted to be! All to NOT pay a toll. Jeesh!

So I get to Eufaula, park the Caravan, go find the graveyard, and there are thousand(s ) of graves. And no directory. Trying to find where they’re buried I found pictures of their gravestones already on line, so, fuck it. It’s HOT out here, I’m tired, and the Dog hasn’t pooped yet. Yet.

Back to the RV park. Found I had somehow pulled the emergency brake thingie on the Caravan out (I SWEAR everything was unhooked) and the wire broke; so I got to fix that. Now I’ve lost the cotter pin for the hitch grabber thingie. Cannot find it. Will make-do with another one until I can get to a RV shop. Or somewhere one can buy cotter pins of various sizes.

I think I should just head straight home.

But, Man, I saw a lot of back country America today!

Trip-Day 5-Arrived-2393.6 Miles

The Camper’s Paradise RV Park? Nice people running the place. Nicely maintained grounds. WAY too noisy. Highway noise was enough to keep a light sleeper awake most of the night; but then the Trains started coming through. All Damned Night. Other than that, and waiting for almost 15 minutes for the shower to get hot enough to take a shower (which it never did!), it wasn’t so bad.

Took off at 0700 (or so). Damned OnStar directions took me through Dallas, during morning rush hour, which massively sucked. Roads were so bad I believe we actually got airborne a couple of times. Fuck! (Found the tv and my laptop in the middle of the floor at our next rest stop. Luckily they both still seem to work fine.)

Arrived at my Uncle’s about 1130. Managed to get backed in to the spot he has for us to park in. Electric, water, sewage all hooked up. Cleaned up some of the mess. Finally got a good meal (or two) and a nice hot shower. Settled in the the evening now and catching up here.

Tired. Miss my Schweetie.

Trip-Day 4- 2160.5 Miles So Far

But I should be at my destination tomorrow. I’m Close! We left the Leisure Mountain RV Park in Tijeras, NM (after a good, hot, shower!) @ about 0700 and just got checked in here at the Camper’s Paradise RV Park in Sunset, Tx. These folks are really nice. Good Military discount too!

Other than a 50 mile detour because of some massive accident (or incident) the ride was pretty boring. Did go through a rain storm; some wind, lots of rain, but no lightning or thunder.

Stopped in Memphis, Tx and got lunch. Fed the dog a warm hamburger patty cause he’s been a good puppy. Later, though, he shit a stream of shit (outside Thank Goodness) to rival runny shits anywhere. Guess there was too much fat in that burger! Note to self for next time …

My God, Texas is flat! Rolling hilly driving, but you can see forever to the horizon. Got caught in a hell of a head wind that kept my rpm’s way up, and my speed right around 60. Got into Texas, went around a bend, and my speed kicked up 3 mph and the rpm’s dropped to 1500+. Cool! Spent a lot on gas today though; cause of that head wind. Luckily, gas dropped to around $2.10/gal so that was better.

Anywho, we’re plugged in and have power. I need to buy a longer water hose before I can hook up water; but that’s a minor inconvenience. There are showers available and I’ll be using that tomorrow morning. (I’m a morning shower person unless I’ve gotten dirty; in which case I’ll shower before bed. And again in the morning.)

I sure miss my lovely young bride! Trip would be a whole lot better if she were along for the ride. I just plain miss her. This is my first major trip anywhere without her (if you don’t count being sent to Desert Storm).

Trip-Day 3- 1610.5 Miles So Far

Departed Wellington, Utah @ 0700 and finally stopped just East of Albuquerque, NM @ 1900 local. I am one tired puppy!

But, OMG, the scenery through Southern Utah! Fantastic! Sure will be glad when I can upload the pictures and leave a link! Cannot get my phone to connect to the laptop. Otherwise I’d just transfer the pictures here.

And it figures that I’d hit Albuquerque at rush hour! No shit right in the middle of traffic and these people drive like banshee’s late for an appointment. I got out of there just as soon as I could.

I’m tired. Going to bed. I’ll try to catch up more later. Need some sleep…

Trip-Day 2. Unknown Miles

Took me all day to get from where I was to where I am though! I’m so tired!

We got up at 0600 and was on the road by 0700. Hit Ogden about 1100. I admit it.: SLC traffic had me in full fight-or-flight mode and I couldn’t get through there fast enough. As it was I got turned around in West Jordan looking for a Walmart (which I didn’t find until near Provo).

The ride from Spanish Fork to Price is absolutely beautiful!

OnStar sent me to a RV Park that didn’t exist when I asked them for directions to one in Price, Utah. Then the next girl sent me back North to Helper, Utah to one that was tiny tiny tiny and I had to back my trailer up almost a block.

Finally found this one in Wellington. It’s really a fleabag RV Park; but they had an empty (lots of empty) and was only $24 for the night. Got electric and that’s really all I need.

So, since it’s getting late I’m going to bed.

Trip: Day 01

Left the house @ 0500. Decided to go through Portland (or close enough) since that way is a lot “flatter” than taking 18 to 90 and going over the mountains. A bit longer, but not really much.

Except, sitting here just outside Caldwell, Idaho 12 hours later it all felt really long. Especially at 60 mph average. Just over 500 miles today.

And, yes, dragging this heavy assed Caravan is a royal pain in the ass. I’ve already spent near $100 for gas just today. (More I think.) But, checking into this RV park and having my “own place” pretty much makes up for it. Still, I need either a smaller Caravan, or a larger truck. That’s just what it boils down to.

Called SWMBO and let her know where we are. I do miss her. Trips are always better with her along.

Anywho, I’m gonna kind of watch “Passengers” and hit the rack.

A Whole Lot Of Nothing Going On!

Which pretty much included yesterday even though we actually traveled over 300 miles. In one day. For naught. Mostly.

Got my Lovely-Young-Bride of almost 30 years up early Friday, her birthday btw, and we were out of the house by 0700 to go for a “day trip” to the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. Didn’t quite make it. After driving for 5 hours (counting the quick stop for breakfast at a nice little restaurant along the highway) we were only in The Dalles. Looked like another 3 hours or so to get to the Fossil Beds, so we decided to head to the Washington Coast (maybe).

Crossed the river (on a bridge!) and took that highway on the North side of the Columbia River back to I-5. Nice ride! Pretty! And was nice to finally see that landscape up close instead of from across the river.

Got back to I-5 and headed north. Took the Kelso exit and got through Kelso when we saw a sign that said we still had 75 miles to go to get to the coast. Ugh! It’s was already 1500 and would be completely dark by the time we even got there!

So we turned around and headed home. Stopped at another roadside restaurant for dinner (GOOD chili burger!). Got home about 1900 and just settled in for the evening.

Even though we didn’t actually get to our destination I still had a great time. Great scenery. Open skies. SWMBO in the seat beside me! Even though my ass was sore from all that sitting it was still a really nice trip. I do enjoy being with her whatever we’re doing.

Today she didn’t have the Genealogy Library but spent some time at her favorite yarn shop outside Allyn. After, she took me to Arby’s for dinner and COSTCO for some stuff we need. Which included 4 5TB hard drives (@ $119 each) for the new NAS. After our usual Safeway stop we be back home.

Drives are already out of their holders and in the NAS and are being formatted as we speak. Raid 5 config should still give us 15 TB to play with. I’ll let y’all know how that goes.

Utah Trip-Day 08-More Wow!

Got up early and decided to go back to Bryce Canyon and actually walk down one of the trails at the Sunset (or Sunset) place. Nice!

Then we got on Highway 12 Eastbound and went all the way to Bolder (Utah) to see the Anasazi Museum and the Escalante Grand Staircase. Nice! Nice!

Only problem was a “Check Engine” light came on, and, according to OnStar (who did a complete check on my truck) I had an “Fuel-Air Imbalance” or something like that. Said I should have it checked but not to worry about it. Might even be the sensor going out. And that may be it because, when I filled up with gas (ONLY $2.99/gal) the light went out. Go figure.

So, we’re back at the campground and chilling for the night. SWMBO is up doing laundry and we’ve got to pack everything tonight so we can head home tomorrow morning. I want to be out of here by 0800; but we’ll see how that goes.

Utah Trip Day 07-Bryce Canyon

Wow!

Wow!

Wow!

And that was my day. Wow! And getting to see all this with SWMBO was even better than Wow!

I Will Never Follow “The Girl” Again!

“The Girl” is that OnStar/GPS voice that tells you where to go when you have no idea where you’re going. Well, neither does she.

We left our friends house in Midway at about 0900 this morning for the 3 or 4 hour trip to Bryce Canyon RV Park where we’re going to stay the next few days. I could not tell you the route “she” had us take; but it involved an awful lot of empty, 2-lane, out in the middle of no fuckin’ place, “highway” that had me wondering if we were even still in the States. I mean “Boonies” just doesn’t describe the places we went through. And damned near ran out of gas before we got to where we needed to be

.

Yes, we eventually got to the RV park, checked in, and set up. But I was beginning to have my doubts. Took almost 7 hours instead of the 4 I was expecting.

Nice little camp ground. Off the main road. Caravan sits at a bit of an angle but nothing we can’t live with a couple of days.

After we got set up we headed East and ate (a damned near perfect burger) at a restaurant along the way. Took off from there and headed East some more. Saw the “Hoodoo” place and took way too many pictures there. Further we almost made it to the Escalante Grand Staircase but decided to turn around. We’re tired!

So, now we’re back at the campsite and just chillin’ for the rest of the evening.

What a great trip! Scenic vistas to take your breath away. Lots of places to stop and things to see. The absolutely best companion (SWMBO) to travel with. Wow!

What An Amazing Trip So Far!

Day 1: Got up and left the house at 0600. Mostly went well until we got past Portland. Then the wind kicked up so hard that I had trouble controlling the rig and had to slow down to 45 mph a lot. When the wind was with us I could go 65 barely pressing the gas pedal. When the wind was against us, I could go about 45-50 mph with the gas peddle pressed most of the way down. Needless to say, it took several tanks of gas just to get to Boise.

Spent the night in an RV park so far off the highway in Boise that I doubt I could have found it without the help of OnStar. We got the last spot too. I finally had to back into a spot, and didn’t do badly at all. Was a nice place; just way far off the highway. Got to make the tour of Boise on the way out though.

Made it to our friends house in Midway, Utah and spent the night parked at their place. Nice seeing them again; it’s been a couple of years. Had some nice thunder and lightning in the evening.

Monday, SWMBO went off to the Genealogy Library so I wound up coming to the RV park and setting up by myself. I didn’t mind. Spent most of the day just puttering around until they all showed up for dinner. Amazing clouds out here! And all that sky! Wonderful! I’ve already filled the hard drive on the camera twice with views to make some time-lapse movies when I get home.

Today, Tuesday, SWMBO and our friend went off to the Genealogy Library early, so I picked up our other friend and we took a tour East along some mountain highway to Evenston(?), Wyoming. Stopped and saw Falls and stuff on the way. We were up so high it was only 54 degrees outside. (High of about 84 at the RV park today.)

Stopped at a place called PB’s and had the all you can eat shrimp for lunch, then headed back to Midway. I’ve just been puttering around the camp site since.

And that’s really it. Not including any pictures today cause I have to set my phone up as an Internet hotspot and it really doesn’t like uploading pictures. So I’ll post some of those if we get to a place with good internet. We’ll be leaving this place Thursday morning for Bryce Canyon. Cool!!!!

I’m Getting Too Old For This Sh*t!

My Lovely Young Bride of almost 30 years came to me last night and asked how I’d like a week long trip to Utah at the end of August. Well, Yeah. She wants to go visit our BFF’s and do Genealogy at the Salt Lake City Genealogy Library. Sure! As long as she can park me and the Caravan towards the south so I can go visit Canyons and such while she’s doing genealogy stuff.

But, there’s the problem. If our friend can’t pick her up and drop her off each day then she’d need to take the truck. (SWMBO. Not our friend. Nevermind.) Which would leave me unable to drive around in the desert. Which I really like doing.

So, she says “How about I do 3 days of Genealogy and You do 3 days of Canyons?” That’ll work! But I feel kinda sorta bad about her not being able to do genealogy the whole time. I’ll get over it. I’m strong that way.

So I’ve already reserved a camp site at the Jordanelle State Park for 3 days and am looking for a camp ground “down south” kind of centrally located to the many Canyons available. I, of course, want to see them all but I don’t think it’s physically possible in only 3 days. I may have to pick one (or two) and stick with that.

But, which one? I saw part of the Grand Canyon way back in 1968. SWMBO has never seen the Grand Canyon. Neither of us has ever been to Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon, Zion, or any place in Southern Utah.

The sheer amount of choices is distracting! And Frustrating! Fuck! I need 2 months; not 3 or 4 days! (Excuse my French.)

But, looking at the map, I kinda sorta think the Grand Canyon is out for this trip. Unless she decides she really wants to see it; then that’ll be pretty much the only one we’ll visit cause it’s really South. Long trip.

We went to WinCo instead of Safeway this week. While there we picked up a couple of gallons of their sweet tea. I like it! I like it a lot better than Safeway sweet tea. Tastes more like real tea and not sugar water with some tea flavoring. I think (know) next time we need sweet tea where I’ll be going even if it is a “special” trip.

Not much else going on around here. Really cloudy but warm. Almost muggy and we had a couple of sprinkles. I moved 1.5 of my planters (about 60 cinder blocks) to the upper back yard. (This is what I’m getting too old for!) Just stacked the cinder blocks until I rent a digger and level out the yard where I’m going to move my garden to. Think I wrecked my back. Again. (Man, it hurts right now. I’m getting OLD.)

Sat on the front steps and “shucked” peas while just enjoying the weather. Nice out there. Now to blanch them, let them dry, then freeze them. (Oops. Turns out I “shelled” peas. One “shucks” corn.) Either way the Peas are now as naked as I am! Almost needed a cane (or crane!) to get my fat, old, ass up off the steps!

About to make chili dogs for dinner cause I’m tired and sore and don’t feel like getting too complicated for dinner. Could dice some onion though. (I did and it was all good. Didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating.)

Had some actual rain late this afternoon. Cool!

Mt. Rainier Day Trip. I’m Tired!

What a nice day! Oot & Aboot with my Schweetie. Finally got to the Visitor’s Center atop Mt. Rainier. Nice, warm, sunny, traveling day! We even had a small cook-out on the tailgate.

And we saw the “Hobo Inn” in Elbe, WA. where you can sleep in a Caboose if you want. Cool!

But I’m really beat right now. I drove only 210 miles (less than a half tank of gas!) but most of it was mountain road. On the way back got stuck behind a guy that was playing “The Game” until I managed to get around him. Then it was smooth sailing.

Got home just in time to check in to the MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net. KE7NUQ ran it for me tonight. Nice of him.

We Be Home. Really Great Weekend!

Let’s see. How to write this up? Most people would find our weekend boring; but not me. I got to spend three days “cooped” up with my Schweetie in a strange place. Mostly cloudy. Mostly cold. Mostly windy. Sometimes wet. I got a lot of “radio” stuff and SWMBO got a lot of knitting into this weekend. Caravan worked out great. Took lots of pictures. Mostly just spent time with that lovely young woman I married almost 30 years ago.

Stayed at the Hoquiam RV Resort in, Hoquiam, WA and it wasn’t as spendy as you’d think for booking at the last minute. Nice little place that stayed mostly empty. Liked the owners and the grounds. (The only thing I didn’t really like was that they don’t strike the colors at night and they’re not lit.) Owners were friendly as hell! Mostly just stayed around the campground Saturday just being lazy. I made some BBQ Chicken that was excellent!

Sunday we drove over to Ocean Shores for a look around. It was your typical Western WaRshington Beach Day: cool. cloudy. windy. And the tide was out. Did see one girl in a Bikini (nice butt!) and a heavy coat. (Typical WaRshington Beach Attire.) Drove a couple of miles actually on the beach. SWMBO walked out to rinse the foam off her shoes and a wave got her wet up to her knees. Did a bit more driving around before settling in for the evening.

Got up early this morning (forgot to turn the alarms off on my Nexus 7), had breakfast and broke camp. Three hour drive home. Everything unpacked and put away. Trip to Safeway and SWMBO treated me to Taco Bell (the new one in town). Now we be just chillin’ for the rest of the night.

Except her (old) laptop (the one running Linux Mint) quit outputting to the monitor. Can’t get it to do anything but whirr at me. So we set up her (almost new) Windows 8 laptop and now she has two monitors. And 5000+ E-Mails she hasn’t downloaded in the past 6-8 months. (We never set up e-mail on the Linux Mint laptop for some reason. I think because she was checking mail on her phone and was happy with that. She likes to keep things simple. Hence marrying me.)

Plugged her Linux Mint laptop into my monitor and it came right up. Working fine. So she had me put it back in her room. Booted right up. Sometimes I just don’t understand computers. It won’t work. It will work. It won’t work. It will work. Make up your damned CPU! But it does crack me up that she prefers the Linux Mint laptop over her Windows 8 laptop. The Woman who likes to keep things simple. The User. The “Don’t Change My Computer Without Asking Me First” woman.

So. We took a camping trip. Had a good time. Got home safe. Back to routine.

Ok. Ready To Go.

SWMBO got next Monday (Memorial Day) off so we thought we’d go camping. Except every RV park within decent driving distance (for a long weekend) that I’ve checked has had no empty spots. I’m beginning to wonder if I did the right thing with this RV stuff. Doesn’t seem like one can “spontaneously” go camping anymore.

Most of the “campgrounds” I’ve looked at on Google Earth are simply large parking lots crammed full with RV’s packed tighter than Obama’s ass (what with his head being up there and all). RV Parks in cities really kind of crack me up. Camping, to me, is getting out of the city and into the country to enjoy a bit of “Nature.” But, I guess people would want to visit cities too. (I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley down L.A. way. South El Monte mostly.)

So, I don’t know. Guess I’m going to have to learn to schedule camping out way in advance of when we want to. That means locking SWMBO down to finding out what days she will have (or will take) off work and where we want to go. Which sounds like work instead of fun. But maybe I just don’t have the right mind-set. Yet.

Weather must be changing cause I’m getting a bit of a headache. Reports of lightning in Shelton this morning. MJ on Q13Fox says scattered showers. I need to move to Arizona!

And, indeed, it is. Has. Much cloudier, and a damned site cooler, today. Cool enough for me to wear my coat. Heard some thunder this morning too. That was cool. At least the headache didn’t actually happen.

Well, found a place to camp so we’re definitely, probably, going and I’ve been getting ready to go. Two days out with my Schweetie! Woo Woo! Lucky we have a built-in house sitter that’ll be here. The campground is in Hoquiam; which is only a couple of hours away.

Picked SWMBO up at the bus stop in town. Stopped by Safeway for last minute items and gas (man! It was busy!) Got the trailer hooked up and ready to go. It’s pretty much loaded except for last minute “stuff.” (Nexus 7, Camera, Stuff.) And it’s time for me to hit the rack!

Day Trip To Mt. Rainier. Not Your Average Sunday.

We left around 0900 this morning for Mt. Rainier. We’ve lived in this area, damned near in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, since Jan 1993 and just haven’t made that trip yet. I don’t know why. Probably because we see it every time we leave the house and didn’t feel the need to finally get to it.

So, about 0700 I was looking around with Google Earth for places to just head out to for the day. Fixated on Mt. Rainier. Got SWMBO up, made her pancakes and bacon for Mother’s Day, and off we went.

Went through Puyallup, then Orting (cause this old guy got lost), contacted OnStar for directions to State Highway 410, and finally got on track. Buckley, Enumclaw, Greenwater, and, of course, the mountain itself. Got a few good pictures. Got to spend time with my Schweetie. Pretty ride and some quaint little towns. (Never did find the Visitor’s Center though). Still snow up there too.

Ride back was pretty much the same except for stopping for pizza in Enumclaw. Got home about 1600. Whole trip used less than a half tank of gas. Cool! It sure was a pretty ride. Not too hot. Not too cold.

MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net went well (even if I didn’t run it tonight). Had 15 check-ins and KC7WNJ did a great job.

SSDD Monday. On To … The Trip!

Well, pretty SSDD except for having a follow up appointment with my sleep Doc in Olympia. And stopping to borrow an antenna analyzer from a friend of mine in Grapeview. And catching up on my “usual” chores. And laundry. And cleaning up this mess we call a house. And cleaning the Caravan. And the BBQ.

Trip to Olympia and back was nice; when it wasn’t raining. Spending time trying to tune that HVT-600 antenna I put on the truck. Got 20-meters tuned great. Having a bit of trouble with the rest. (Also have been shocked twice which means I need to check my ground wire!)

Our trip: Started at 0500 Saturday morning. Took all of 5 hours to get to the camp ground just a couple of miles “south” of the Dry Falls. Nice place. They kind of put us out all by ourselves (since I’m new at parking a Caravan?) which really was kind of nice. Weather was absolutely wonderful. T-shirt warm. Sunny.

We got set up and everything working and took off to see the Dry Falls, then back down to the Lake Lenore Caves. I don’t know what it was, but, during the first part of the walk, UP, I got my usual winded and legs complaining about it. Once at the top of the cement stairs (about a quarter of the way UP), my legs kicked into high gear and I could have walked/climbed another 10 miles. They were like “FUCK YEAH! LET’S DO THIS A LOT!” Not “restless leg syndrome” feeling, but, oh yeah feeling. Felt absolutely great! So we explored more than we have before. SWMBO did absolutely great also.

Then back to the camp ground for dinner. Note to self: next time, bring butter, salt, and pepper. Also, next time, MAKE SURE YOUR DAMNED LP GAS TANKS ACTUALLY HAVE GAS IN THEM! Neither did. (I thought the dealer had turned one tank off so “you’ll know when that one is empty that you have only the one tank left.” He didn’t and I didn’t check. My bad.) Good thing “dinner” was grilled steaks. (We microwaved the corn and spinach.)

Just kind of spent the evening lounging around reading or whatever. No real internet available (just barely enough to check mail) so spent more time reading. SWMBO was trying to do Genealogy and listening to her (strange ass) music. I also made several contacts in Mississippi on 20-meters in the evening. Nice. The only thing I heard on 2-meters was the Sheriff. (And they don’t like to “rag chew.”)

So, around 0200 I woke up with the creeping of the cold through the summer quilt (which I’d never heard of before. Summer quilt? Isn’t that like sorta pregnant?) and scrambled to turn on the little electric heater I was smart enough to stop and get on the way to camping. It was Cold! And SWMBO was trying to skootch me off the bed trying to get close for warmth. Didn’t take long for it to warm up enough though. And the Caravan got nice and warm too!

Started our trip back at 1100 Sunday and made it home about 1600 (lots more traffic). Not bad. Truck worked great and only slowed down going uphill. Which ain’t unusual when you consider I was pulling 4500 lbs. About the slowest I ever got dragged to was 50 mph. Used way too much gas though. Way too much. Totaled 3 tanks for this trip. 540+ miles. So I need to figure something out; not sure what. But something. Otherwise we’re going to make only a couple of trips a year and that just seems a shame considering how much this Caravan cost.

So, other than the above “problems” and forgetting my cpap machine, it went well. Best part was spending time with my schweetie, as always.

You can see the pictures of our trip here.

Back From Our Trip. Way Too Tired To Post

So I guess I’ll tell all y’all about our trip to Eastern WaRshington tomorrow.

Got back just in time to participate in the MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net as a participant; instead of Net Control. Actually, that was kind of nice.