Slowing Down By The Seashore 🦪

Day 12- The next morning we went to survey the water receding from where we had intended to camp the night before. Here is the path I drove out of the last evening.

It turns out along either side of the river we camped by, there was also train tracks running along both sides. 🚅 All night we got to listen to the blaring of train horns along with the screeching of train brakes around the mountain bends as they passed. I must have been so tired that I slept through most of it, but Laura wanted me to share the experience with all of you due to the fact she was not so fortunate. 😫

Before we left the campground, we got to chat with the camp hosts and were given some great information. If we changed our course from the Peace Arch gate into the U.S. to the Sumas gate, the drive was easier and the gate guards were supposed to be very easy to work with. We thanked them for the excellent info and headed on our way out through the high desert lands.

Eventually the deserts shifted back into river valleys and the familiar spruce trees we had been traveling with most of the trip. Which leads us into the chapter of Jackass Mountain. 😆 Yes, I’m not making that up, that is really what it is called.

I have never been on a longer or crazier downhill drive in my life. We drove for at least an hour down this mountain, filled with tight turns, construction, tunnels, and frenzied traffic. White knuckled and slightly covered with sweat- we eventually found the bottom of the mountain and entered the town of Hope. (Yep- there’s a Hope in Canada too!)

In Hope we fueled up and decided to splurge on some comfort food. Canadian specialties tend to be nothing but junk food (at its finest?), but if we wanted to try true Canadian poutine this was almost our last chance; so we broke diet. Here it is:

Yep, this Canadian specialty is fries and cheese curds smothered in brown gravy. We are glad we tried it, but in the end were not impressed by the great poutine. Honestly, the cheese curds seemed more like chopped up string cheese sticks- but it was an experience! 🤣

Afterwards we had a smooth cruise to the border, where we had a very easy passage back into the United States! For the first time in awhile- it was easy to read gas prices for us! 🤑

We wandered our way South until we were able to stumble our way into a Planet Fitness for a shower and mini-workout.

During our travels I had reached out ahead to my Uncle Jim to see if there was any mechanics in the Shelton area that may be able to help us with our taillight / running light issue. He had given us the info of someone his friend had used, so we had contacted them to see if they could help.

The mechanic had told us to give him a call when we where close, and was actually willing to meet up with us on a Sunday. So with that info we decided to make a stab towards Shelton before turning in for the night. Sorry we ended up not getting to hang out with you again Betsy!

Soon we where cruising the freeway through Seattle- and The Ohana was happily flying along at 60 – 70 mph most of the way. The roads (mostly) were finally not so horrible so we could cruise along. Now we just had to navigate the madhouse of traffic all around us!

We chose to land for the night as a Bass Pro Shop in Tacoma. When we began to setup for the night, as I went outside to turn on the propane a police officer pulled up. He kindly gave us a warning that we probably didn’t want to stay at this location. Right across the street was a neighborhood of drugs and shootings; but he proceeded to say that he knew we where adults and we could do what we wanted. I thanked him for the kindness, and said I would definitely take the local advise. We had wondered why there was not other overnighters at this location- so we continued to make a plan to drive to a Cabela’s in Olympia.

So 25 minutes later we pulled into the comfortable and safe surroundings of a RV and Semi filled Cabela’s parking lot for the night. 😊

With our landing in the U.S for the night we got to apply our first state sticker to our USA ceiling magnet! (Not including Alaska 😜)

Day 13- The next morning we were headed to the mechanic! We passed along the highway and got to see a new kind of Conifer tree lining the road!

It was super kind for him to meet us on a Sunday. I’m going to leave the business name out of this one since it was a not so pleasant of an experience overall. After 5 hours of me working through the wiring with a very pass-offish approach from the person I had came to for help- here was the results:

Pros:

-We had determined the problem was behind the rear of the cab! Which meant our problem was running back to the taillights, in the taillights themselves, or somewhere the lights ran up to the top of the camper
–We had dash cluster lights!
–We had narrowed down the issue to 2 electrical lines!

Cons:

– We no longer had turn signals, with one permanently on?! 🤔
– We had open wires all over the place.
– The mechanic that was helping us just eventually shrugged, gave up, and left us that way.

After thinking for a moment, I chose to wire it back the way we had started for now; choosing turn signals over taillights. I would take the bit of knowledge we had learned and try to hopefully figure out the problem sooner than later.

I offered to pay him and he said “no charge”, so that was a kindness we appreciated. I thanked him for his time and Laura and I drove towards my Uncle Jim’s house, a bit frazzled from the whole chaotic experience.

That night we pulled into his place, where he had a full RV pad- so for the first time ever we did a whole water, electric, and sewer hookup during any of our travels in The Ohana. A bit later Jim and his lovely partner Janet arrived home. I had not seen Jim in years, and just barely, and we met Janet for the first time. We agreed to all catch up in the morning.

By the morning of Day 14- I had vowed to do no work on The Ohana that day, wanting to reserve this day for making sure to spend quality time with my Uncle Jim and Janet. Our next stop in Astoria, my Uncle Steve, and cancelled for the time being so we ended up with an extra day. We would stay another day at Jim’s home where I could try and get in the work we needed to get done.

So this day would be a much needed day of “taking it easy” after so many of constant movement and slight chaos. Jim began by giving us a tour of his property.

A pretty awesome part about Jim’s property is that he has a beautiful strip of beach, which when the tide gets high goes right up to the concrete steps of his back yard. When that tide is down though- he has an oyster farm! Laura was so excited about fresh oysters, we all decided it would be Oysters for dinner. Eventually as we collected oysters Jim thought about the idea of clams, so we dug up a bunch of those too. (It was nice and easy because these clams didn’t even try and burrow on you) We spent a lovely time harvesting from the tide and cleaning up our bounty for dinner that night.

Later that day we had some chill time, and after Laura ran a load of laundry she decided to hang it out on the line to air dry.

And… I slightly went against my word and just made sure a part we had ordered ahead of time would fit our project. But that was it!!! No projects until tomorrow…