Cheryl: It’s almost 10:00 p.m., and we’re safe and snuggled in at the KOA in Kent, Washington. The price here is outrageous, up $30 from last summer! The sign out front says UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. Well guess what, they just lost a couple of good customers. We’re here for a couple of nights because I’m looking for a RV Park with monthly rates where I can stay for a month or two. I want to be with my daughter right now as she goes though a family crisis and I can use our camper as my home base if all goes well with the RV Park search. Hopefully we’ll find a spot tomorrow and move into it on Thursday. Then after we do some sightseeing and visit with kids and grandkids, Frank will fly home to Phoenix leaving me, truck and camper here with the two puppies. He’ll use my truck back in Phoenix and fly back to pick me up . . . eventually.
We’d like to do the Seattle underground tour while Frank is still here and make more visits to kids in Carnation, Bonney Lake, and on Vashon Island. With six grandchildren among the three families, we keep very busy when we’re in town!
Today we drove here from Leavenworth over some staggeringly beautiful terrain. Of course, Leavenworth looks like an amazing Alpine Village, and the mountains around it make that idea seem very real. We gasped at the craggy snow-capped mountain next to a rushing river on our way out of town. Then we drove miles through very lush conifer forest. It was a lovely, read NOT BUMPY WITH POTHOLES, road, it seemed newly paved, and there was room to pass other cars and trucks. We love the USA!!! Ok, so Canada was amazing, but so is home. God bless America.
Frank: Our old Garmin GPS died last year so we bought a new one. It’s a Garmin “Nuvi something or other.” Naturally it was the top of the line when I bought it. We used to refer to the old Garmin as “Jill-Bitch” after she took us 10 hours and about 400 miles out of our way. Today we adopted my brother’s name for his Garmin as our name for the new unit. It’s “BIB” and stands for “Bitch in the Box”. That’s what I called her after she took us within spitting distance of a requested Walgreens Drug Store while carefully guiding us into the far left traffic lane with four lanes of rush hour traffic between us and the Walgreens over on the far right side. It all had to do with our requesting that she take us from point “A” to point “B” “via” “point C”, where the Walgreens was point “C”. It’s a new feature where you can add a “via” point to an existing stored route. What we didn’t realize that “via” doesn’t mean (to her) that we wanted to stop at the mid-point. To her it just meant we wanted to drive past the mid-point. So I guess we’ll try to get back to that Walgreens tomorrow, and do it as a direct one-stop trip. Gosh, ain’t technology grand!
While I’m complaining about Garmin, I wish they had three additional buttons on the main display. The first one would be a “Mute” button so I can shut the BIB up easily when she gets to being obnoxious about me being off course, the second would be a “Speak” button that would cause her to speak a course update, or repeat the last direction she gave, and the third button would be a “Reassurance” button that would make her reassure me that everything is OK and that we are on the right path to our destination, with words such as, “You’re OK big guy, you’re right on track and right on time, so just relax and I’ll get you there OK.”
Yeah, that’d be nice.
Oh yeah, about my Cricket 3G "go anywhere" modem. Doesn't work. No service anywhere, not even here in Seattle! Cricket Sux and I can't find a way to contact them to cancel the service! Clever! They let you buy and sign up but don't have any way to complain or cancel. Ya gotta love those marketing guys!
‘Til later,
Love, Grams, Pop Pop, and the Kissin’ Cousins Peanut and Cleo
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Folsome or Leavenworth, six of one, half dozen of the other
07-26-2010 Monday 6PM
Frank: We’re in Leavenworth. Not the prison, but Leavenworth, Washington. We took the much-talked about ferry ride (ho-hum, small open ferry, short ride, and boring) and ate at the Mushroom Restaurant (totally underwhelming, terrible food, but interesting photos on the wall.) We left Lumby, followed a circuitous route, drove for what seemed forever, and finally found a spot in Castlegrub or Castledorf or some small town like that. We left Castleding this morning, crossed back into the US in Oroville, had Customs confiscate two tomatoes from our refrigerator, picked up the guns from the pub where we left them, had two terrible hamburgers and greasy fries at said pub, and found our way to Leavenworth. The roads are great, the signs are in American, the scenery is beautiful with lots of ABL’s and ABM’s so I’ll let Cheryl add some pretty words here.
Cheryl: The little town was Castlegar, a nice town I’m sure, but we were both tired and grumpy. Tonight we accidently zipped past a KOA – “missed it by that much.” - and landed in Alpineland – not so good.. Anyway, did you guess the movie from yesterday or will I have to wait until Madison gets home from Paris to get a winner for the Name that Movie game? Ok, here’s another one for you – “Ees for goat” – a Tom Hanks winner of a movie called ____________.
I saw mountain goats today on a hillside just above the highway – Mom, Pop, and several little ones! What a sight. Frank missed the whole family show, but he was trying to drive the truck and trailer around a curve at the time. To be fair he saw a deer I didn’t see out of several deer we spotted on this trip. Canada seems to have more than its share of deer who just HAVE to get to the other side of the road. Really, we must have spotted at least a dozen or more deer on our trips from the campground to town, but the biggest thrill of all was seeing a big black bear cross the road about 200 feet in front of us. Wow!
It was my first time to see a bear outside of a park or zoo and Frank’s second time to see one. The first time, Frank told me, the bear was coming toward him, and he was on his motorcycle in a long line of traffic caused by people feeding the mama bear and her two cubs. He and his buddies finally pulled into the oncoming traffic lane to get away – better to be flattened by a Greyhound than a black bear, right? Right! We enjoyed seeing all the wildlife we did, including the friendly squirrel in the campground and the big hawks perched in huge nests made of sticks on top of electric poles with parallel crossbars at the top. It made me sad, however, that I didn’t get to see a Canada MOOSE. Oh well, next time, and I intend to get my tomatoes back, too!
And now we must require you to fill in the blue form, hold up your right hand and promise to really, really love your goat.
Mr. & Mrs. Navorski and our two goats
PS You can never count on having TV in the remote places where we travel so we bring along our own DVDs of old movies. “Ees for goat” has been our favorite phrase for the last couple of days after watching __________________, everything good “Ees for goat” and everything bad “Ees not for goat.”
Answers to the last two movie quiz questions will be forthcoming, but only if you email and ask what the answers were.
Frank: We’re in Leavenworth. Not the prison, but Leavenworth, Washington. We took the much-talked about ferry ride (ho-hum, small open ferry, short ride, and boring) and ate at the Mushroom Restaurant (totally underwhelming, terrible food, but interesting photos on the wall.) We left Lumby, followed a circuitous route, drove for what seemed forever, and finally found a spot in Castlegrub or Castledorf or some small town like that. We left Castleding this morning, crossed back into the US in Oroville, had Customs confiscate two tomatoes from our refrigerator, picked up the guns from the pub where we left them, had two terrible hamburgers and greasy fries at said pub, and found our way to Leavenworth. The roads are great, the signs are in American, the scenery is beautiful with lots of ABL’s and ABM’s so I’ll let Cheryl add some pretty words here.
Cheryl: The little town was Castlegar, a nice town I’m sure, but we were both tired and grumpy. Tonight we accidently zipped past a KOA – “missed it by that much.” - and landed in Alpineland – not so good.. Anyway, did you guess the movie from yesterday or will I have to wait until Madison gets home from Paris to get a winner for the Name that Movie game? Ok, here’s another one for you – “Ees for goat” – a Tom Hanks winner of a movie called ____________.
I saw mountain goats today on a hillside just above the highway – Mom, Pop, and several little ones! What a sight. Frank missed the whole family show, but he was trying to drive the truck and trailer around a curve at the time. To be fair he saw a deer I didn’t see out of several deer we spotted on this trip. Canada seems to have more than its share of deer who just HAVE to get to the other side of the road. Really, we must have spotted at least a dozen or more deer on our trips from the campground to town, but the biggest thrill of all was seeing a big black bear cross the road about 200 feet in front of us. Wow!
It was my first time to see a bear outside of a park or zoo and Frank’s second time to see one. The first time, Frank told me, the bear was coming toward him, and he was on his motorcycle in a long line of traffic caused by people feeding the mama bear and her two cubs. He and his buddies finally pulled into the oncoming traffic lane to get away – better to be flattened by a Greyhound than a black bear, right? Right! We enjoyed seeing all the wildlife we did, including the friendly squirrel in the campground and the big hawks perched in huge nests made of sticks on top of electric poles with parallel crossbars at the top. It made me sad, however, that I didn’t get to see a Canada MOOSE. Oh well, next time, and I intend to get my tomatoes back, too!
And now we must require you to fill in the blue form, hold up your right hand and promise to really, really love your goat.
Mr. & Mrs. Navorski and our two goats
PS You can never count on having TV in the remote places where we travel so we bring along our own DVDs of old movies. “Ees for goat” has been our favorite phrase for the last couple of days after watching __________________, everything good “Ees for goat” and everything bad “Ees not for goat.”
Answers to the last two movie quiz questions will be forthcoming, but only if you email and ask what the answers were.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
On the Road Again
07-25-2010 Sunday 11:00 a.m.
Cheryl: I just finished pulling off hundreds of the stickiest stick tights from the dogs’ fur. I took them on a walk this morning where we had to walk in the underbrush to skirt around a puddle. That did it. We were carriers of plant life instantly.
Last evening we went to the awards banquet, which was very good food by the way (salmon, roast beef sliced before your very eyes, along with corn, four kinds of salads, peas and tiny carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy), and Frank won second place in the Café Bike category. It’s a nifty trophy, but you have to see it to understand. Maybe we’ll include a picture here.
I spent yesterday morning hiking with the dogs along a thundering wide creek on a lovely stage coach road. At the best places along the creek, picnic tables were stationed strategically. What splendid places to have lunch or just a snack. There were white rocky beaches where you could easily walk next to the water and see how clear and clean it is. Because I was so enthralled with my hike, I missed the group photo back in Lumby where Frank had taken the bike earlier to get set up for the bike judging concourse.
When I finally got there around 1:00 p.m., only an hour late, we grabbed a burger at a food cart and then took pictures and salivated over all the bikes lining the concourse. After walking around in the sun and all that hiking I did, we came back to the trailer and slept a couple of hours before the banquet. Frank got to stand up for applause as the founder of the club, and for the very first time, I got to stand up as wife of the founder. Gee whiz, I didn’t do anything, but marry the guy. Oh well, it was nice anyway.
Today we are packing to leave, and Frank discovered he’d left a couple of things back at the other campground in Lumby that he needs to secure the bike. So, while he’s there I’m doing a couple loads of laundry for only 2 loonies for both wash and dry. They’ve got a laundry lean-to set up close enough for me to walk from the trailer with one washer and one dryer at a dollar each. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to do laundry so cheaply. I wanted to get on the internet so I could post this along with some pictures, but for some reason there is no connection this morning. The campground is just in the process of setting up WiFi and having some difficulty it seems. Oh well, we’ll find some free electrons somewhere along the way.
We’re making a little loop so we can cross at the ferry we missed on the bike adventure the other day and eat at the Mushroom Restaurant where we’ve heard you can order all kinds of wild mushrooms with your lunch. They even reportedly have Morels! Yumm! Haven’t had those in years. After that we’ll stay somewhere over by Silverton or New Denver (named for Denver in the US). Don’t know how long it will take us to do this scenic loop, but after we cross into the states, we’ll be on our way to Seattle to see our kids and grandkids.
Update: We're in Castlegar, BC at a fairly nice campground. We're just happy to be down for the night as we'd planned a short day, and it's now 7:35 p.m.! Yikes!
We saw wonderful scenery again today with several ARRBL's. However, we're both so tired tonight, we'll tell you all about it in tomorrow's blog.
“Catch you on the flip side” – (You guess the movie)
Russell Crowe, Meg Ryan, Peanut Caruso and Cleo Chica
Cheryl: I just finished pulling off hundreds of the stickiest stick tights from the dogs’ fur. I took them on a walk this morning where we had to walk in the underbrush to skirt around a puddle. That did it. We were carriers of plant life instantly.
Last evening we went to the awards banquet, which was very good food by the way (salmon, roast beef sliced before your very eyes, along with corn, four kinds of salads, peas and tiny carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy), and Frank won second place in the Café Bike category. It’s a nifty trophy, but you have to see it to understand. Maybe we’ll include a picture here.
I spent yesterday morning hiking with the dogs along a thundering wide creek on a lovely stage coach road. At the best places along the creek, picnic tables were stationed strategically. What splendid places to have lunch or just a snack. There were white rocky beaches where you could easily walk next to the water and see how clear and clean it is. Because I was so enthralled with my hike, I missed the group photo back in Lumby where Frank had taken the bike earlier to get set up for the bike judging concourse.
When I finally got there around 1:00 p.m., only an hour late, we grabbed a burger at a food cart and then took pictures and salivated over all the bikes lining the concourse. After walking around in the sun and all that hiking I did, we came back to the trailer and slept a couple of hours before the banquet. Frank got to stand up for applause as the founder of the club, and for the very first time, I got to stand up as wife of the founder. Gee whiz, I didn’t do anything, but marry the guy. Oh well, it was nice anyway.
Today we are packing to leave, and Frank discovered he’d left a couple of things back at the other campground in Lumby that he needs to secure the bike. So, while he’s there I’m doing a couple loads of laundry for only 2 loonies for both wash and dry. They’ve got a laundry lean-to set up close enough for me to walk from the trailer with one washer and one dryer at a dollar each. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to do laundry so cheaply. I wanted to get on the internet so I could post this along with some pictures, but for some reason there is no connection this morning. The campground is just in the process of setting up WiFi and having some difficulty it seems. Oh well, we’ll find some free electrons somewhere along the way.
We’re making a little loop so we can cross at the ferry we missed on the bike adventure the other day and eat at the Mushroom Restaurant where we’ve heard you can order all kinds of wild mushrooms with your lunch. They even reportedly have Morels! Yumm! Haven’t had those in years. After that we’ll stay somewhere over by Silverton or New Denver (named for Denver in the US). Don’t know how long it will take us to do this scenic loop, but after we cross into the states, we’ll be on our way to Seattle to see our kids and grandkids.
Update: We're in Castlegar, BC at a fairly nice campground. We're just happy to be down for the night as we'd planned a short day, and it's now 7:35 p.m.! Yikes!
We saw wonderful scenery again today with several ARRBL's. However, we're both so tired tonight, we'll tell you all about it in tomorrow's blog.
“Catch you on the flip side” – (You guess the movie)
Russell Crowe, Meg Ryan, Peanut Caruso and Cleo Chica
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
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