Heading Home

We left Seattle on Thurs., Sept 6 and decided to take the scenic route home. We cut over to the coast and took Highway 101 south to Illwaco, WA. We had previously visited Cape Disappointment State Park on our 2005 Oregon coast trip, and we wanted to stay there on this trip. The park is located outside Illwaco, WA on a peninsula, with the Columbia River on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. It’s a beautiful park with large spaces located under towering pine trees. The very loud roar of the ocean made for great sleeping.

John was on a quest for Willapa Bay oysters, which he remembered as some of the best oysters that he’s ever had. We enjoyed a dinner of oysters, Dungeness crab, and Ahi tuna. I guess we weren’t as tired of seafood as we thought.

Fri. Sept 7 we drove all of about 20 miles across the bridge over the Columbia River to Astoria, OR. Pris was born and raised here.

We headed out to Ft. Stevens State Park (one of the nicest and most popular parks in OR) and were very surprised to see that they were full. So we went across the street to one of the nicest KOA Parks that we’ve ever stayed in.

The Oregon coast drive is one of the most beautiful drives in the U.S., and one of the most popular. We knew that the campgrounds were very full in the summer but we did not expect them to be full this time of year. On our drive south, we continued to see campgrounds and RV parks that were full. I guess lots of people have discovered that this is the best time of year to visit Oregon. (weather is beautiful and school is in session).

Relatives Susie, Ginger and Arnie drove down from Portland to meet us for lunch. We visited and learned all the details about the previous weekends wedding. Ginger and Arnie’s daughter, Shelby, got married in Seattle. We were sorry to have missed it by only a few days.

After lunch, we went to visit another relative, cousin Carol Jean and husband Don. The visit was too short, but we did get caught up. There were more relatives to visit, but that will have to wait for another trip.

Sept 8 we drove down the Oregon coast with its beautiful ocean views. We feel that this is one of the most beautiful drives anywhere. We arrived in Coos Bay to find that the RV park that we had picked out was full. So we picked an alternative private park. We did not remember having this problem on our previous trip, and it was the same time of year.

Sept 9 we continued south on Highway 101 and crossed into California. We headed inland and the weather got warmer. Time to bring out the shorts. We hadn’t used them since Fairbanks.

We stopped just south of Garberville at the Benbow RV Park & Resort. It was a very nice park with grassy sites in the trees. They even had a golf course as part of the RV Park.

Sept 10 we were off and running and not looking forward to going through San Francisco. We opted to take the long way around the city and miss the traffic. It worked fine and we didn’t encounter much traffic. Course, we went through around lunch time.

We had enough driving and decided to stay south of San Jose in San Juan Bautista. We had previously stayed at the Betabell RV Park and liked it, so we stayed there again. Besides, someone in our party was hankering for Mexican food. So, we drove into the small, quaint town of San Juan Bautista and enjoyed a nice Mexican food dinner.

Sept 11 we continued down 101 with Morro Bay State Park as our destination. This is one of our favorite parks and we have camped here many times. The park is located near the water and in eucalyptus trees. This also gave us an opportunity to eat at our favorite restaurant.

Sept 12 (somebody’s birthday) we arrived home, tired and ready to sit for awhile!

We started this odyssey on June 13, 2006, so our arrival home was exactly 15 months of traveling. During this time we passed through 41 states, 7 Canadian provinces and covered 21,000 miles in the RV and 12,000 miles in the CRV. 33,000 miles in total!

This ends our travel blog, for now. Stay tuned for future adventures.

John & Pris

Prince Rupert, BC to Seattle, WA

We left Prince Rupert on Sunday, Sept. 2 to head south for the U. S. border. It was a nicely paved road through rolling mountains, lakes and streams. We were able to make good time. If we had to drive instead of taking the ferry, this was nice country to be driving through. We even saw a black bear on the side of the road.

We stopped for the night at Dave’s RV Park in Vanderhoof, BC. It was a private RV park off the road that was very nice. We’ve decided to drive fairly long distances and make it easy on ourselves by staying at private RV parks with full hookups.

Labor Day we were up and off early again. The RV (and occupants) is eager to get home. It’s been a long trip.

Canada also celebrates Labor Day and we saw a fair amount of traffic on the road. This was unusual for Canadian roads, in our experience. We were traveling on roads that we had previously traveled on our trip up to Alaska. It took us, again, through the “Arizona of Canada”. It was warm and dry countryside.

We were tired, didn’t like the traffic, so we consulted our Trailer Life and decided to stay in Cache Creek at the Brookside Campsite Park. It was off the main road and situated under trees. We rested up for our push the next day across the border and our destination of Seattle.

Tues, Sept 4 we were off and running again retracing our tracks to the border crossing at Sumas, WA. Our liquor was depleted and we had little food in the refrig, so we had nothing to declare. This was the longest wait that we had at any border crossing. We waited approximately 30 minutes to cross. We heard that the border crossing further west, near Vancouver, have long waits. They are closing many of the lanes as they upgrade security for the up coming winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC.

It was a short drive to Seattle. We wanted to visit John’s cousin Robert and Donna S., a former colleagues at JPL.

The weather couldn’t have been better. (what rain?) There were clear, blue skies with the temperature in the mid 70’s. It was glorious.

We enjoyed a long catch up visit and dinner with John’s cousin Robert and his wife Rachael. We’ve decided not to let the time go so long between visits next time.

The next night we met Donna S. for dinner. John and Donna had lots of catching up to do about their former days at JPL.

After leaving JPL, Donna spent time as an assistant Dean of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. She still helps teach a systems engineering course on campus and was off to Norman the following Fri. She’s also an avid Sooners football fan. Donna moved to Seattle to become director of the Science Fiction Museum.

It was great to spend time with Robert, Rachael and Donna, but the time was too short.

Alaska Marine Highway

(Haines, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Alaska/ Prince Rupert, BC)

Our ferry to Bellingham, Washington had been cancelled so we decided to take an alternate ferry to Prince Rupert, BC on August 30. We knew it would add additional driving and time to our trip home, but we preferred that to waiting for the ever popular ferry to Bellingham.

Lots of people were inconvenienced by the fact that one of the two ferries that serviced Bellingham, WA was out of service. Particularly, since the ferry went only once a week. We heard some interesting stories, like people showing up for a ferry that was not going. Most people were notified by e mail. (Good luck if you don’t have e mail or hadn’t checked it.) We heard that this is not an uncommon occurrence.

We were instructed to be at the ferry dock 2 hours early for our departure of 11:45 AM.

John took the spare tire and tow bar off the car and RV in order to make a length of 31’ for the RV and 15’ for the car. The price is calculated on the length of the vehicles. It was also cheaper to drive the car on separately. (At these prices, anything helps.)

We didn’t know if that was unusual or not, but they did not measure the length of the vehicles upon boarding. John was sorry that he had taken the trouble to remove those things, but better to be safe than sorry.

We checked at the purser’s office and we were able to get an outside room with a window. We had been told by the phone reservation line (many times) that there were no outside rooms. However, when we boarded, there were plenty of rooms available.

(Future RVers on the Alaska Marine Highway, don’t believe everything that they tell you.)

The ferry had an enclosed observation room with wrap around windows for viewing. We spent many hours viewing pods of humpback whales, porpoises, birds, glacier covered mountain peaks and pristine forests. Locals use the ferry as an alternate (and cheaper) way to view the inland passage. They also save the expense of getting a room and sleep in lounge chairs or on the floor with sleeping bags. Some people even put up tents on the outside decks. In some cases they have to duct tape or tie down the tents because of the wind. (We were a little old to do this.)

Our room was small (about the size of a half of a dorm room), had fold down bunk beds, 2 chairs, and a small bathroom. It wasn’t a cruise ship room but it was comfortable. Stopping at ports in the middle of the night was a bit of an annoyance, but we were happy to be on the ferry and to have a room.

Everyone brought coolers with food since the only food available on the Matanuska was cafeteria food. (The cancelled ferry Columbia did have a restaurant with fine food.) We ate in the cafeteria for dinners-it was okay. They did have a cocktail lounge, so things were weren’t all bad.

We had a group of 100 high school cross country runners who were taking the ferry to Wrangell for a cross country meet. It was like one big slumber party with kids and sleeping bags all over. Many of the retirees didn’t like all the activity and noise, but it was kind of fun to see young people for a change. This adds new meaning to “road trip to a meet.”

RVers had to turn off their propane tanks (they did check this), so we ate and drank all of our food before boarding. Pets were not allowed above the car decks. They did allow people to go down to their vehicles and walk their pets, and you could access your cars/RVs. This was only allowed when the ferry was in port.

Many RVers would get off at each port and stay a few days before continuing on their way south. This way their refrigerators won’t defrost and their pets would be happy. Many people had freezers full of frozen fish that they had caught. This way they saved the money that it took to ship their fish home.

We disembarked on Sat. morning Sept. 1 at Prince Rupert, BC. Same questions at Canadian customs and then on to Park Avenue RV Park only ½ mile from the ferry. We shopped for groceries, put everything back on the vehicles, and had a nice dinner on the waterfront.