Longtine RV Adventures

Buck, or no Buck?

2012-01-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

Ready to ride!

Our usual end of season trip in mid-October once again found us parked on Gene and Janet's RV pad at Deep Lake, in Stevens County. Mikee and I drove over together, yet apart. I drove the RV, and she drove the Durango, pulling the trailer with the quad and supplies. She did a great job. The trip was pretty much uneventful, except for a surprise call from my Doctor about two hours before we lost cellphone coverage... Damnit... Anyways, Mikee got to see Gene and Janet for the first time in several years. They have been wintering in Utah, but were staying late this year rebuilding their home after last years fire. Janae also got to meet them this year.

Good thing we brought food...

We had such good fishing last year that we had to hit the lake again. And got skunked. We fished several times over the 8 days all of us were there, and only had two fish on the line. Both were lost before we could bring them in. Too bad.

My plan for the year was too help Mikee get her deer, and then go looking for a mule deer for myself. If I had no luck, there was always late Whitetail with the guys. Mikee's challenge level was raised this year, as she is now 16 years old (almost 17 as of this posting!). This means she can no longer shoot a doe, it has to be a buck.


The saddle.

It was pretty typical weather for the time of year. Crisp and clear mornings, and mild afternoons. Our first day hunting brought me one of the funniest close encounters I've had in my years of hunting. About midday, we were riding the quad up the road behind Gene and Janet's, stopping and walking into meadows and cuts to glass. We arrived at a saddle and pulled off onto the landing, stripping off our riding gear, and getting our hunting gear. We began walking to the edge of the landing. Just as we got to the edge, I caught movement to my right in my peripheral vision. I turned my head and there was a whitetail buck, walking almost parallel to us. The buck was no more than 50 feet from us, maybe 75 feet from where we parked the quad. He had a nice set of antlers on him to boot. I turned toward Mikee, who seemed as unaware as the buck, and hissed, "Shoot it!" I pointed with my barely raised left hand towards the buck. Mikee looked at me, confusion on her face. I again hissed, "Shoot it!" With no response from Mikee. At about this time I turned, to see the buck looking at me, with it's eyes popping out of it's head. After a couple of seconds, the buck sprang into action, bounding away in front of me. I had concluded that Mikee was not going to shoot this deer, as I rapidly brought my rifle to bear. Alas, to no avail as the buck dropped over the far edge of the saddle before I could fire. We ran over to edge, but the buck had vanished. Mikee picked this time to tell me that she thought she needed new lenses in her glasses... She told me that she couldn't see the buck from where she was about 20 feet from me. So we walked up the side of the bench and found a place to glass from. We spent about two hours sitting there and saw a doe and fawn crossing the saddle on the other side of the bench, in the same direction as the buck. I thought we had found a good spot to sit as this appeared to be a well used funnel. We sat here several more times and never saw another deer. Weird... You don't see a lot of bucks in early season...

Mikee's hunting did however end successfully a couple of days later. We set up Sunday evening in Helen & Merry's barn watching the upper field. It was slow, but just as it was getting dark, we caught movement to our right. I checked it through my binos. It was getting hard to see, but I could tell the deer had antlers. I had Mikee get set up on a steady rest and encouraged her to shoot it. The blast and flame from her rifle were not enough to keep me from seeing the deer drop like a sack of potatoes (at a paced 100 yards). We stayed put, keeping an eye on the spot the deer had gone down. We couldn't actually see the deer, as the grass was not grazed this year. I checked my phone and found it was just a couple of minutes before the proscribed end of shooting time. I looked through my scope toward the deer, and it was literally now too dark to really discern anything. After a few minutes, we got down out of the Barn. On a side note, Merry had built us a very nice ladder into the loft, after they tore down the rickety stairs this year. Thanks Merry. We began walking towards where we believed the deer was down, now using lights. We spread out from one another as we weren't following a blood-trail, just going on direction and distance. Within a few minutes, I found Mikee's buck. A very respectable, if smaller eight-point.

Eight points, counting eye-guards!

Gotta be honest here. To date, this is the largest buck our family has taken. I'm very proud of her.

At the Lind Ranch

One day, Mikee and I rode the quad up to the Lind Ranch. This is an old, abandoned homestead on the top of a mountain. On the way, we saw a group of hunters hauling out a very nice mule deer buck. We also saw about eight mule deer does. But nothing for me to shoot. We rode a lot, and eventually found our way to the ranch. Mikee had a blast shooting photos in the wonderfully warming sunshine. Later, that night, Janae and Colton arrived at our hunting camp. Mikee left the next morning to return to school.

Janae never got a shot on a deer. We saw does and fawns, but no bucks until our last evening. To be frank, it was probably for the best, as we were really out of freezer space after our earlier bottomfishing expedition. It was really hard to see in the overgrown fields. However, on our last day, I set up my two gamecams. That evening, as we sat in the loft, a deer entered the field from left to right. It moved rapidly across the field as I noticed it had antlers, a small spike. Janae moved to a rest as the deer stopped along the right edge next to the fence. Janae no longer moves very quickly, and before she could set up and fire (what seemed an eternity to me), the deer jumped the fence and disappeared. Janae told me that she had in fact pressed the trigger, but had left the safety on.

Vince butchering Janae's deer a month later!

During "Man Camp" in November, Vince put this poor dumb spike out of it's misery.

How do I know it was the same deer you might ask? Well the spot where the deer had stopped was right in front of my gamecam. Very unique looking spikes.

"No, first I will stand here and mock her..."

One lucky deer. At this moment, Jane was looking through her scope at it. Curved spike antlers...

I got a couple of shots of it while Janae was working on shooting it. Same deer.

We did have a great time this trip. Janae and Colton got to ride the quad if nothing else.

The trip home was uneventful this year. We are all looking forward to the next season of Longtine RV Adventures!

Just another week at the beach...

2011-08-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

Crabs boiling on the Coleman Stove

Nothing too exciting this trip. Just some crabbing, antiquing, and hanging out doing little to nothing. Pretty awesome! We arrived at Grayland Beach State Park on August 1st, after getting a nice late start. We were up and at em not too early the next morning with our focus being crab. As we left our RV early that morning at about 10am, I noticed that our neighbors were already boiling some dungeness crab. When I asked if they had already been to the boat basin, they stated that they had just picked these up out in the tide pools on the beach... They had picked up about 20 or so since they had been here. Hmmm... Anyway, we went to the boat basin at Westport and tossed our crab ring and pot in the water after paying way too much for bait. We managed to catch two keepers in four hours. Not so great. But, we did see a sealion, some seals, and a lot of pelicans. I don't remember seeing any pelicans as a kid. The population must really be expanding. The highlight of the day, however, had nothing to do with wildlife. We decided to move from one moorage slip to another. Colton, being the excited kid he is ran over to grab our chairs. He didn't realize the camera was in the cupholder of my chair. Yes, I got the old everything goes to slow-motion as I watched the camera fall out, bounce once, and splash into the water... So, all the photos in this post are from cellphone cameras. Not the best, but certainly better than nothing...

Second day's catch

The next day, we went out in the morning at low tide searching the tidepools. We found two more keepers and made them our special guests for brunch. Next time, I'll bring a net to duct tape to a pole to get at some of the deeper ones we jut couldn't get to. Well, anyways, I didn't want to get as wet as would have been required to get the. Not much more to report, other than a little sun and relaxation. Next trip won't be until the end of the month due to stuff going on at work. That will be Ocean City State Park. I hear it's right next to the casino. Hmmmmm...

Grayland Beach State Park

2011-07-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last night, we returned from our latest adventure to Grayland Beach State Park. Conveniently located about 10 minutes south of Westport, Washington this park is on the Pacific Coast, with a short walk to the beach. The weather, although somewhat lacking, was considerably better than on our last trip here in December.


Probably should have put sunscreen on.

Anyway, the highlight of the trip was the, apparently now annual, deep sea fishing expedition. Last year featured Dakota, Colton, and me going salmon fishing on a charter boat out of Westport. Followed by me going bottom fishing a couple of days later on the same charter boat. I had so much fun bottom fishing that I decided this year, I'd take the kids to do that instead of salmon.

The ride out was a bit wet going over the bar. The kids were not exactly happy when they found out that we would be going out about 2 1/2 hours to the fishing area. But that didn't last long when it was found that we had to stop part way to catch live bait for the Ling Cod fishing. We used squid chunks to catch flounder which were collected and placed in the live bait well. Colton broke his salmon jinx from last year, catching 8 or 10. Stocked up for Ling Cod, we continued the journey. We eventually arrived and rigged up for Ling Cod. There was quite a current over the rocks and the captain was trying to hold us over them. With 19 anglers dropping tackle over two hundred feet to the bottom, tangles were horrendous. I did get a bit frustrated, spending it seemed 90 percent of the first half hour or so tangled. But my last tangle occurred as I hooked up with my first Ling of the day. Once I got untangled, the fight was on. It was apparent to me that it was a big guy (at least by what I've caught in the past). He made me realize that 300 feet down is a long ways. Finally got him to the boat.


My largest Ling so far...

Mikee caught two, and Dakota caught one as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Dakota with his.


Mikee's Biggest Ling

Once we had hammered the Lings, we took a short break while the deckhands rigged up our gear for rockfish. The rockfish were actually kind of a letdown. They came on board so quickly that it only took about 20 minutes for the boat to limit out with 200. Rhett knows his stuff out here! They were all yellow tail rockfish, with a couple of yellow eye rockfish thrown in. Unfortunately, the yellow eyes are a protected species, and you can't keep them. They are beautiful, as the photo below of Rhett trying to decompress one shows. Unfortunately, they usually don't go back down, dying on the surface...

Yellow Eye Rockfish. It did die despite Rhett's best efforts...

Yellowtails stacking up on the starboard deck!

Holy cow! And on the port!

The trip back to the dock was fairly uneventful. Mikee helped me with seal-a-mealing most all of the fish, and then she and Dakota took the fish home in the Saturn the next morning. Unfortunately, some water must have spilled out of the cooler, because now the car smells like fish! And, the freezer is full!
The rest of the trip was mostly just hanging out, and hitting the beach for some sun. Although, we did see mostly cloudy and rainy weather. Oh well. Next week we'll go back to Grayland Beach State Park. This time, we'll have the Saturn with us the whole time. So crabbing and touring Westport are on the agenda...

Alta Lake State Park

2011-07-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Our trip began on June 24th, with a trip up and over Chinook Pass. The pass had just opened the day before after a record winter snowfall (over 700 inches at nearby Crystal Mountain Ski Resort). Colton was pretty impressed with the walls of snow, and we had to stop for photos near the top of the pass. The rest of the trip to Yakima was pretty much uneventful. We arrived safely at Yakima Sportsman State Park for our stay. There's not much to say about the park. No, really, there's not much to say. We had never stayed there before. And we probably won't go back. I mean it was ok if you just need a place to stay. But there really wasn't much to do in the area. Colton caught a few fish in the youth only pond, but it wasn't much fun for Mom and Dad. We did find they have quite a few mosquitoes. And my escape from my allergies didn't quite work out, as the Cottonwoods were in full release. It looked like a heavy snow storm a couple of times. Unfortunately, we stayed there many days. Alta Lake State Park couldn't come soon enough...

The beach at Alta Lake State Park

And then we arrived at Alta Lake. Nice and warm, with a breeze. Colton and I enjoyed the beach and lake several times. I will not scar you with photos of myself in a swimsuit! While the park is very nice, I had an ulterior motive. You see, many, many years ago, when I was a kid, the family camped here many times. I recall it being Mom's favorite place to camp. Well one trip, I took Jeff Forgey along. He and I decided we were going to hike the trail up to the viewpoint. Well after about only a quarter of a mile, I nearly stepped on a Rattlesnake. Now, I never liked snakes, and that sealed the deal. We never made it up the trail after that. So, my plan was to finally hike up to the viewpoint. The first spur I tried was fairly overgrown, which didn't ease my concern for snakes. The second was better and soon I was moving upward on the trail. I did eventually reach the viewpoint. And it was indeed a good day.


This viewpoint photo, only 35 years in the making!

My next goal was to get Colton to the Grand Coulee Dam. I have enjoyed the place many times, and thought he would as well. We loaded up the car and went to Coulee City. The dam was bleeding lots of water over the spillways and was quite spectacular. We took photos from the usual viewpoints and then headed to the third powerhouse area for the tour. I had somehow avoided this in my prior trips. It was great. We passed through security and loaded into little tour buses. We got to go through the third powerhouse, right at the base of the dam, and then up and across the top. No one had been allowed up there since 9-11-01. This summer they opened it back up. Wow... It was amazing...

Lots of surplus water this year.

Inside the third powerhouse.

On top of the dam. Lake Roosevelt to the right.

And over the spillway.

We wanted to see the Laser Show, but didn't want to stay longer that day, so we went back to the motorhome. But, silly us, went back the next evening. It's only about an hour and a half each way. It was fun though. I mean the show was no LaserFloyd, but it was neat seeing the show on the flowing spillway of the dam. And on the way back to the park in the dark, lonely stretches of the highway, we pulled out Google Sky Map and showed Colton many constellations. And the Milky Way! The next day, we pulled up stakes and headed home. Next up... An old favorite, Silver Springs NFS campground!

Potlatch State Park

2011-06-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

That's a limit.

Finally, got on the road. We took a quick drive up the road to Potlatch State Park to try our hand at clamming. I found that the descriptions on the State Park website, of the camping sites themselves was a bit scarier than the actual conditions. I figured that just showing up, our site would stink, but it was very nice. Not as private as some, but nicely tree shaded by big old maples. We immediately hit the beach for clamming. The tide was less than optimal, but Colton and I both managed to dig up limits of varnish clams. I had never heard of them before either. But we did discover the next day that they steamed up very nicely. Tasted great. We enjoyed Costco Lasagna for dinner and looked forward to a lower tide in the morning. And we did actually crawl out of bed in time to hit the beach before the 8:05am low tide. The tide was considerably lower than the afternoon the day before. We used Jana's entrenching tool from the army, and a clam rake that she had picked up Friday morning at Sportco. On my first attempted raking, one of the tines broke off. And it didn't get much better from then on out for the rake. It's all bent up. Anyway, I went to the entrenching tool, which we found had a tendency to bust up clams. But, I did limit on Butter clams, Native Littlenecks, and Manila Littlenecks. That was some hard work, and took about an hour and a half. I got a bit sweaty as I started with a sweatshirt on. Colton went back and limited on mostly varnish clams again. We had the first day's catch for a lunch/dinner. I have to admit, I was less than enthusiastic about getting up Sunday morning to go out and clam again. Saturday morning had worn me out. But we once again managed to get down to the beach for the best tide so far. After about three or four minutes digging into my first hole with the shovel, I had an epiphany. I found that once I moved the surface rocks away, I could just dig into the sand with my hands and find the clams. It only took about a half an hour doing this to limit on mostly butter clams. And the added bonus being that it was much less physically taxing. We made quick work of them, limiting out easily. Of course, time to leave came much too quickly. We are planning on going back again, and are now looking forward to our next trip, this time east of the mountains for some sun and heat!

120V w/o Shore Power or Generator

2011-05-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

I finished installing an inverter today. Nothing too special. Just 1000 watts hooking up to the shore power line. Enough to watch some TV, or more importantly, run the CPAPs while dry camping. Oh the joy! I also got all crazy dusting, vacuuming, and general cleaning the inside. It looks a lot better now. Man, I can't wait. Only a couple more weeks...

Maintenance

2011-05-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

Four stringed nightmare!

My hero!

Now in my third month in a row working weekends... It doesn't leave much possibility of going RV'ing when the kids are in school. However, it did make it simpler to get the motorhome into Camping World for repairs. That pesky rear furnace is working again. And the water valve to the ice maker that I failed to winterize correctly has now been replaced. But it was not all just paying to have others fix things. I have repaired two cabinet doors that had been broken, along with a drawer face. I also faced down one of any Rver's worst fears... Day/Night blinds. Four strings! I had four of them that were broken. They have quite a reputation around the RV world for being a pain in the rear-end. I managed to get them all down, repaired, and replaced. I pulled all the strings and replaced them all with 130lb test poly fishing leader. That should fix them for some time. If not, I'll replace them with some other kind of blinds. The first one took me four hours! About thirty minutes a piece after that first one. Man, what a pain... This reminds me... I still have a small piece of trim that needs to be replaced... The second weekend of June cannot come soon enough. Silver Springs, Silver Springs, Silver Springs...

Christmas On The Coast

2011-05-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Where's that wide sandy Washington beach?

Beach combing success

Well, almost. The kids got out of school for Christmas break on a Friday, giving us almost a week before the actual holiday. We took the RV to Grayland Beach State Park. This is something that I have wanted to do for some time. There's just something about being at the coast when it's stormy... Maybe it's getting back inside and getting warm... Anyway, we got there as sunset was quickly approaching. Colton and I trekked out to the actual beach. We found that with high tide and plenty of rain, the beach was barely even there. Quite a bit different than what we are used to seeing during the summer. There were 4 or 5 other camping rigs in our loop. Everyone appeared to be already inside for the evening. The rain was pretty much a constant for the period of time that we were there. This is the first time we've been to the State Park, and found it to be very nice. We had power and water, but no sewer. I had really wanted to get out and do some beachcombing, and that finally occurred. I was able to find some kind of a float. Happy days! The kids seemed to have a good time, although they did get a little stir crazy with most of their time spent inside. Most people in our loop left on the second day we were there... Weird... Anyways we had the place mostly to ourselves for two days. That's different. I found that there was a different challenge to deal with when camping at the beach in the winter. Moisture. Everywhere in the RV. There was water that formed in all the cabinets on the outside edges of the motorhome. I'd like to get a good de-humidifier, but holy cow they're kinda expensive. At least a couple hundred bucks. We also had to continue dealing with a problem that surfaced on the hunting trip. The rear furnace wouldn't light off. It just wouldn't work. The family played some Monopoly, except for me. I never have liked that game. We cleared out in time to get home and then head down to Linda and Marty's house for the customary Christmas celebration. It was kinda nice having the motorhome there. It allowed me the chance to imbibe several adult beverages and not have to worry about driving. I, shall we say, took advantage of the opportunity. Very well. We have made reservations to go back to Grayland Beach State Park in the summer of 2011.

The Deer Hunter(s)

2011-05-16T12:26:00.000-07:00


Camp Czwalinski

October 2010 brought the yearly trip to Northport, WA. First I have to thank Gene and Janet Czwalinski. Gene and Janet have kinda adopted Vince, Dave, and I on our multiple yearly trips to God's country in NE Washington. When Mikee was younger, she kinda adopted and moved in with them for an afternoon or two while I hunted. They have been gracious enough to allow us to use their RV pad at Deep Lake the last couple of years. Very convenient, and the price is right! Right next to Deep Lake for fishing and not too far from prime hunting spots. Yes, 50 amp electrical service, water, and septic. Earlier in the fall, Gene and Janet had departed for the winter to Utah. A few days later they got a call telling them that their home on Deep Lake-Boundary Road had burned to the ground. Thank God they had already left. We visited the homesite on our arrival. Very sad that their beautiful place was gone.

Post Fire

However, they are rebuilding, what I'm sure will be another beautiful home. Anyways, thanks to Gene and Janet!

Beautiful fishing weather

Limit of fall trout

We started with a little fishing. For some reason, I was the star, catching my limit, and my family's dislike in one morning. I think everyone else caught something, but I had a really good day at the dock.

Lying in wait

Afternoons and evening were spent at Helen & Merry's farm, looking for elusive white tail bucks. This fall they weren't too hard to find.

Mikee had a nice 6 point walk across the field in front of her. Unfortunately, she got a case of buck fever, and couldn't quite get the scope to settle on it. She just decided she couldn't press the trigger being so unsteady. It was ok, as we got to watch it for several minutes. Jana took a shot at a beautiful buck that she said was a 9 or 10 pointer. Later in the fall, when I was with the guys, I saw what was probably the same buck. It was a big boy. Anyway, we found no sign that she had actually hit it, and I retrained her in supported vs. off-handed shooting. Maybe next time!

Fishin'

2010-11-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

After the trips to Forks and vicinity, we got down to business. We took about a week to go to the Westport area for some fishing and hunting. The last time I went salmon fishing was in the late 1980's with my crew from Boeing and my ex-wife. That was a good trip, with the boat limiting on Silvers. Unfortunately, salmon fishing on the Washington coast has gone downhill since the early 1970's, with reduced numbers of fish and quotas allowed to be caught. I had read that this year and next were to be the best King salmon seasons in 40 years due to ocean conditions. So, we decided to head to the coast for Chinook. Jana found a nice private campground in Tokeland, right on the water. Dakota, Colton, and I got up way to early (as far as the boys were concerned), and headed into Westport, and Deep Sea Charters. We had booked spots on the charter boat Slammer. We headed out and started catching some fish.


Not too sure about getting up when it's still dark...

The seas were great. No one got sick. Would have been great at that point. However, turns out that Dakota and I both limited on Kings. Colton had one up to the surface that threw the hook. In the end, the boat limited out, allowing all three of us to take home 2 Kings. Not too shabby


Nine Kings


That's a funny looking plant...

Lots o fish

I enjoyed myself so much, I decided to book a bottom fishing trip two days later. This gave me the opportunity for some bear hunting on the day in between. Saw a couple of deer, but no bear. I did stumble into a marijuana grow, which I reported to the local narcotics task force for eradication. The next day, I got up bright and early for bottom fishing. The boys got to sleep in. I'd never been bottom fishing, and didn't really know what to expect. Expect FUN! Wow! You are allowed to take ten rockfish and two Lingcod. What a blast! We started out a little later than we left when salmon fishing. It was actually less work than the salmon fishing, and I think that it would be a little easier for Colton. It was a pretty steady stream of fish coming over the gunwales. Early on I had a problem with catching a prohibited species. They are a prohibited species due to being overfished. I just kept catching them. You can't keep them, and must throw them back, where they normally die floating away from the boat. You can't keep them. I was actually getting quite frustrated, but eventually started catching black rockfish. I even managed to catch my two Lingcod before we went fishing for Lingcod. I'd never used live bait before. We used anchovies for the rockfish, and halibut for the Lingcod. Will definitely be taking the boys next year for bottom fish. I spent a serious amount of time processing and seal a mealing fish. We still have plenty of fish in the freezer. Next year I'm getting Jana to go.

Olympic Peninsula Summer

2010-10-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Odd, but we'd never really spent much time there, unless you count the Grays Harbor and Ocean Shores areas. For camping, as opposed to overnighting on trips, we generally like to stay in state and NFS campgrounds. I'd actually checked over the last couple of years finding that there wasn't really much for our 36 foot motorhome in those places on the Peninsula. So, I guess maybe it wasn't that odd that we hadn't been there. Anyway, we finally broke down and picked out some private resorts instead of campgrounds.

This coincided nicely with Micaela's desire to take a couple of friends to Forks, WA. Forks as in the home of the Twilight series of books and movies. Didn't do much for me, but what the heck...

Third trip to "Twilight" town this summer. My manhood finally crushed.

We spent many evenings in Port Angeles, on the Straight of Juan De Fuca. We were able to find a bowling alley that was actually reasonably priced, and had a couple of nights of fun there. Port Angeles afforded us the opportunity to enter Olympic National Park, and head up to Hurricane Ridge. Once again another place that we had never been. It was quite nice. The area is a ridge in the park featuring alpine meadows and incredible views including the Olympic Mountains, Straight of Juan De Fuca, and Vancouver Island. Also the home of some of the tamest deer around.

Looking southwest from above Hurricane Ridge


North from above Hurricane Ridge. Straight of Juan De Fuca and Vancouver Island in the distance. Yes, that's snow on the ground in mid July...

Told you they were pretty tame.

The campground in La Push was in a very nice location and had great hook-ups, but was a little different. it was right on the water, with a great beach. The kids had a great time collecting polished glass from the beach. Next time we'll need to bring fishing gear to catch some of the surf perch that were being landed.

Colton and Dad on the beach.

However, there were quite a few people and dogs just wandering around through the RV park. Just different... Stay tuned.

Confuser is back

2010-10-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

The computer is back, and almost all of my photos survived and are now backed up. Actually, everything before this past April was already backed up, just the summer stuff wasn't. Gotta be more on the ball about that. Hopefully get some more stuff posted before our hunting trip this coming weekend.

Taking the "Dirt Nap"

2010-08-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

I shut my laptop down the other night, and it was working fine. I tried to start it up yesterday and it's done. Hard drive is dead. Second time in eight months. HP laptops are "crappola". Coton's is also dead right now. If we hadn't bought them at Costco with their two year warranty, none of our three HPs would have lasted 6 months. Never again will I buy an HP product. Anyways, I need to come up with some spare cash to recover this summer's photos, which I had not yet backed up. So no more posts for a bit...

Dargo State Park

2010-08-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

I know... I had never heard of it either. Very nice campground on the Columbia River, just south of Chelan. A little windy in the evenings, but otherwise nice. It made a nice base camp in June when we sent the kids to their Aunt & Uncle's place in Colorado. Janae and I took a week and went RVing. We went to Chelan, Grand Coulee, and Stehekin. We had a really poor, long, wet winter and spring around Buckley, and this was a really nice change. Mid 80's all week. Well, the first day, was tough, but we got used to it by the second or third day. I spent a great deal of time shirtless. Oddly enough, and Janae tells me it was a coincidence, the number of bigfoot sightings in the area tripled that week...
We spent one day traveling Lake Chelan to the small town of Stehekin. Very nice place in the North Cascades, very close to the National Park. Had a great time there seeing the sights and having lunch. On the trip back downlake, we saw deer, mountain goats, and a bear. A day later, we drove east toward the coulees. We drove through several state parks including Steamboat Rock, Sun Lakes, and Bridgeport. I envied the people fishing on Banks Lake. And of course we made the customary trip to the Grand Coulee Dam. What a great time we had without the kids (sorry guys). I had been raised on camping trips to Alta Lake State Park on the eastside. To be honest, it's a hell-hole. One hundred degree temperatures. Sand at the beach so hot you can't walk on it, rattlesnakes... How we survived as kids I don't know. In the last few years I've finally discovered some of the other parks east of the Cascades, finding them very nice. We will be hitting more of them in the future. But, our summer was only beginning, and I was still to face my final emasculation... Stay tuned.

Bad Tom!

2010-08-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Have I been bad, or what? All summer without a post... I'm soooooo sorry. Working nights again has messed me up. Typically, I get home at 3am or so, and grab some Z-time. I get up after not nearly enough sleep and finish loading the motorhome, and off we go. To make it a long enough trip, we don't come home until my monday. Typically this summer, we've arrived home in time for me to unload critical items, park the motorhome, shower, change, and head off to work until 3am. As is normal during the summer, my work days are 14 to 15 hours, not leaving much time for this blog! Will work on it the next couple of days, when I'll be home without working.

March 2010 Twanoh State Park

2010-03-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend was out first outing of 2010. We saddled up and headed across the Tacoma Narrows to the Hood Canal. I don't think I've stayed there since I was a child with Mom and Dad. Definitely our first family outing there. We stayed at Twanoh State Park on the south side of the canal. I remembered that there were supposed to be lots of oysters, and a quick check of the WDF&W website confirmed this. Wow, there were a lot of them. I had remarked to the family that I couldn't promise anything because the low tides weren't very low, but we'd give it a try. Even with not so low, low tides it was like walking on a carpet of oysters! So, finding the oysters was no problem, but I had no experience shucking them. I do now, and my hands show it. I forgot that you are supposed to use gloves while shucking, and therefore didn't have any. Those black things covering the oysters are mussels... Sharp mussels... Oh, and barnacles, joy! My left hand got all tore up while holding the oysters and trying to insert an oyster knife with my right. It took about two limits (36 oysters) before I kinda got the hang of it. By the time I finished shucking Dakota's limit yesterday, I felt semi-proficient. Fried oysters Friday evening, and oyster stew when we got home this evening. We still have 18 in the fridge that I'll fix in the next couple of days. Unfortunately in Washington you must shuck the oysters on the beach leaving the shells there. So no barbecued oysters. Did I mention the weather? Beautifully sunny and warm on Friday and Saturday. Not too bad for having picked this weekend about a month ago, if I do say so myself... The kids had a great time. Colton had to explore the tide flats, finding crabs and eels among other things. Micaela took lots of photos to throw on her Facebook page. And even Dakota managed to have some fun, while handing me oysters to shuck. Dakota even found he likes old John Wayne movies. Go figure, The Duke!? He watched several on his bunk LCD screen last night. Weird. All in all a pretty good weekend spent together. Unfortunately, I work for the next five weekends. Man, that's a long time until we can depart on another adventure!

To Estes Park and West Yellowstone

2009-07-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

So, here we are in West Yellowstone, MT. Been a long time since I posted. We left home on June 25th, heading toward Estes Park, CO for the big Longtine Family Reunion. It was an interesting beginning. We left that evening, and made it to Spokane. You see, we needed to pick Micaela and Dakota up from church camp in Medical Lake on Friday morning. So, we boondocked it in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Although it may seem odd, it's not uncommon in the RVing world (check out the fringers of a Wal-Mart parking lot some evening or early morning).

On the 26th, we picked up the kids and headed for Montana. We ended up in Deer Lodge, MT taking Micaela to the ER for a foot injury that occured at camp. Yup, broken, so into a walking cast (or boot if you will) she goes. I titled this Longtine RV Adventures, didn't I?

Eventually, we arrived at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Everyone had a good time, although it does take some time to remember some names and faces. The kids of course hit it off well with all the other youngsters. Miniature gold was enjoyed by all, and sometimes for many times a day. I got together with Mike and Lisa, Mike Stork, Scott and Josh Smith, and Ed to climb Flattop Mountain and Mt. Haullet (sp?), ending up at just over 12,700 feet in elevation. Amazing how the lack of oxygen sturck most everyone at about 12,000 feet. You really had to concentrate on breathing correctly. By the way, that peak behind Mike Stork's head is, I believe, Mt. Haullet. Mike eventually went on and climbed another peak just to the south of Haullet, that was over 13,000 in elevation. Can't remember the name of it right now. Mike, Mike, and Ed had an adventure of their own coming down the glacier after that, but you should ask them about it. Janae and Colton enjoyed horseback riding on a couple of occassions. However, Micaela was not happy, as she couldn't go due to her foot. Micaela was excited to fine that her walking cast did not keep her from rafting with Dakota and me on the Cache Le Poudre River. We enjoyed viewing the local wildlife including elk, deer, and owls along with a thunderstorm or two. The original plan was that we would check out on Saturday morning July 4th, along with everyone else. However, Janae found out that her Aunt Nancy would be at her Aunt Pam's house Friday evening. So we changed our plans, and checked out Friday Afternoon, saying our goodbye's a little early.

We arrived at Pam and Darrell's house in Parker, Co on the evening of the 3rd. We got to visit with Janae's Aunt Nancy for a bit that evening. After watching firworks the eveing of the 4th, we returned to Pam and Darrells where Dakota found his sole-brother, a toad. We went to a local amusement park with them. Now, Janae had been to this park many times in past, but never got to go down the alpine slides due to poor weather. This time she, along with the rest of us got to ride them. Later that night, we ended up at an interesting Mexican restaurant that he live shows, cliff diving, and an arcade for the kids. Very unusual. We left the morning of the 6th to head to West Yellowstone. This was tough on the kids, as they had become quite attached to Janae's neice, Taylor. We arrived in West Yellowstone on the evening of the 7th.

North Carolina

2009-01-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while. Unfortunately, the RV has been in the shop for warranty work since before Thanksgiving. That's a while. I've got three work weeks of working weekends, and we will hopefully have it back by then for some camping.

When we arrived back from Alaska, we began planning a trip to North Carolina. Jana's father is turning 80 years old, and we're going there for the celebration. So we bought airline tickets ($1300 For six of us roundtrip!), a rental car, and hotel for the first night. Being an outdoorsy type, I looked around and found a BassPro Shop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (Think Cabelas). I told Jana that on Monday, I was driving there. She said that was cool, as she'd like to go for the boardwalk. So everybody is happy! But wait, it gets better... On a whim, I checked locations for Captain George's. There's one in Myrtle Beach! Now you have to understand. Captain George's is the gold bar standard of Seafood Buffets. I have never found a place anywhere near as good. Rows and rows of serving tables. For crying out loud, in 2004 they served 1/13th of all the crab legs served in the world! My stomach hurts just thinking about it. And the variety of seafood! Oh man, I'm shakin' like a leaf...

Man Camp 2008 (Deer hunting you sick freaks!)

2008-11-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

2008 Man camp opened with the usual 7 hour trip to Deep Lake in far NE Washington State. Vince and I endured hour upon hour of tall tales from Dave, who is temporarily (so he says anyways) living on the public dole. The Obama-Biden 2008 bumper sticker on his truck probably tells the true story . Once again, Vince explained that his wife would be pleased if he didn't return with freezer meat. Talk about foreshadowing... Upon arrival at the cabin, I made the customary mistake of taking the bed in the loft. At first glance it doesn't seem like a bad choice, until the woodstove warms up... When it's warmed up to a mere 85 or so downstairs it's "two degrees less than lava" in the loft. And it doesn't help when Dave gets up at 2 am and "stokes it til it glows". Nothing like waking up lying on top of my sleeping bag, in a puddle of sweat. Pretty picture, huh? So anyways, the next day started fairly uneventfully, as we slept in til the crack of dawn. Now, we know that morning is the best time to ambush a deer (or so all the experts say). However, in eleven years (I think) of hunting whitetails in the area, we've only bagged one in the morning. All the rest from noon to dark... We confirmed that we still had permission to hunt some private property and set up around 3pm for the evening hunt. I saw nothing but does. Vince and Dave saw a few small bucks in a different direction sparring (actually seeing one getting knocked to the ground and getting back up to fight). After about 45 minutes with light failing, Dave put the stalk on them, across the open field but they spooked and flew across the fence and into the puckerbrush. (I can hear the deer talking about it right now... Hey dude, there's a disfigured troll coming this way... Whoa! There's something you don't see every day! I'm outta here!) Day two dawned wet. Now this is eastern Washington, the dry side of the state, right? Well, it poured all day. Once again we set up for the evening hunt. I sat in the loft of the barn with a view of the upper field and Dave to my left along the far fenceline. Soon after setting up, I saw a doe and another deer in the field some distance in front of me. One was bedded down while the doe fed. Eventually another doe came into the field. The bedded deer ( a spike) stood up and they all began feeding towards me. Since they were feeding towards me and there was plenty of light left, I waited, hoping something bigger might come into the field.

Eventually, they got to within 100 yards of me and suddenly freaked and took off to the right. One doe flew over the fence and was gone, while the spike and other doe stopped, staring over towards Dave's area (found out later that two bucks had come out in front of him). Then the spike laid down again. A few minutes later, I heard a rifle shot from Dave's direction. I looked over that direction and saw a couple of deer standing around wondering what the heck that was. My spike stood up, and I decided to take it. I pressed the trigger, only to hear the proverbial loudest sound in a gunfight... "click". "Uh, I know I put a round in the chamber..." Racked that one out, put another in, and pressed... Boom! A Brown and White pile on the ground at 185 yards! Another shot from Dave, and I saw deer scattering. It was then that I made my error as I said, "I got mine." Wouldn't have been bad except Vince was there to change the intent and meaning of my innocent statement. Of course it instantly became the "it's all about me" trip. Even after I went over to help Dave look for a trail (Did I mention he missed by a wide margin? "Canadian officials are searching for the source of two artillery rounds which struck a church steeple in downtown Kamploops this evening...") Sure, it wasn't his fault, it was the new gizmo on his scope... Whatever Dave... As I walked over to check my deer, Vince was already there and says to me, "I thought you said you shot the spike?" I did... "Uh, you shot the doe..." What? "It's ok man, it's camp meat..." A couple of seconds ( and a foul word or two) later I saw the antlers. I shall not forgive him anytime soon. Anyways, I got mine! Vince ( the cold blooded one)
did a fine job of frying up my deer heart for dinner. By the way, I'd be happy to help anyone with disposal of elk or deer heart they might have lying around!

So, the next morning we got Dave's scope dialed in while Vince torched piles of garbage, processed wood products, and endangered wolf carcasses on his property...(hope the Ecology Department and Fish and Game don't hear about that Vince!) It was only off about three feet high at 20 yards. I still don't know how he missed at 60 yards! Nothing much happened that day after that. Sure we went hunting, but nothing eventful happened. Oh wait, my camera fell out of the truck and no longer works. Yea! So, not many photos from the rest of the trip.... Oh, and then there was the "Sleepy Vince" incident in the middle of the field... Thursday at about noon, it started snowing. We set up again, and as luck would have it, a suicidal 1X2 buck stepped in front of Dave. Dave managed to put it down at about a yard with the butt of his rifle... Ok, really about 185 yards. He was actually aiming at a fawn about 10 yards away, missed, and the stray round struck this poor bastard in the ass. Died of blood loss from a punctured hemorrhoid...Hey, wait a second, where's Dave's blaze orange? Boy, it'd be a shame if Fish & Game saw that, huh? Ya, I know, you took it off before the photo... Whatever... Oh yeah, that loud "click"? A light primer strike... weird.

Can you tell we had a good time?

We survived

2008-09-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dad tells me that people have become concerned about our status. Seems that life in general intruded upon my posts. Good news. We all made it back to the good ol USA! Oh sure, there were a few minutes of doubt as Janae searched for her missing ID as we approached the Sumas, WA border crossing (Found literally a mile from the crossing). But all ended well.

When last I blogged, we were in Seward enjoying the good life of playing on the beach, fishing, and just relaxing. We stayed there for about a week and a half before the kids were ready to leave, shortly after the Kenai Fjords cruise. Hey, they couldn't access the internet for the whole time we were there! So we moved out, heading through Palmer and back up towards Tok, where we had previously watched the 4th of July parade. (If you drive to and from Alaska, Tok is the town you must pass through both directions.) We stayed two nights in the Sourdough Campground there, having a great time, enjoying their evening entertainment. Colton and I enjoyed the pancake toss, both getting our pancake in the bucket and earning a free breakfast in the campground's restaurant. We then continued out of Alaska and back into the Yukon. We stayed the next evening in Haines Junction. The mosquitos in the campground were rather fierce, and I was the only one to venture outside to hook-up, and later to get to the Wi-Fi hotspot in the laundry room. That was enough, we enjoyed mosquito bites for several days just from the couple of times I quickly opened and closed the door. I actually saw a couple of people walking around with mosquito nets over their heads... We had cable TV here, and oddly enough there were a couple of Seattle stations on their cable. That was just weird being that far away from home and watching the local news.

Anyway we continued retracing our path along the AlCan until we reached the Cassiar highway (Hwy 37 I think?) We then headed south and back into British Columbia. Once again we were on a pretty desolate route. No power poles and very few vehicles or people. Our first evening on the Cassiar we stayed at a campground on Joe Irwin Lake. Once again, no power, only generators for the campground's use. We got a site right on the lakeshore. Everyone had a great time sitting around the campfire and taking a paddleboat out on the lake. The next day we stopped at Dease Lake for food and groceries and I spoke with a NWCMP Officer who was in plain clothes fueling up his Expedition. He was going to get new tires on his work rig... Seven hour trip to Whitehorse to get tires! We steadily worked our way down the Cassiar to the cut-off road to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK.

What's so special about Hyder, Alaska you might ask? Well, how about a National forest Service site which has a raised deck walkway along Fish Creek? Where you can watch Brown Bears feeding on salmon mere feet away? Pretty cool, eh? Unfortunately, the salmon hadn't really come in, and in the morning we saw only eagles, no bears. We continued up the gravel road to the Salmon Glacier, which was quite a sight.

Eventually, we turned around and stopped again at Fish Creek. After a few minutes, a juvenile brown bear walked out of the brush downstream of us and began walking up toward us. It was pretty cool, watching this young guy being really paranoid, afraid that an older bear might show up and chase him away. Unfortunately, that was it for the bears, and we headed home. Although, it's really not that far to go back up to Stewart and Hyder again some time, hopefully when there are more bears present. The rest of the trip back was relatively uneventful, as we were traveling through much more civilized areas. We were very happy to see the relatively low gas prices once back in the good ol' US of A. Quite the trip, and we would highly recommend it if you get the chance...

Kenai Fjords National Park

2008-07-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we also visited the park using an alternative method of travel. We took a 6 hour cruise from Seward into the park. The cruise included salmon dinner. At about 2:30pm, we embarked along with about 80 other people on our cruise. We motored along at about 24 knots into a strong headwind as we left the area of Seward, heading out of Resurrection Bay. Not much time was spent outside as it was a bit cool in those conditions. We learned that during WWII, fortifications had been built in the cliffs at the entrance to the bay. They have been abandoned, but we could still see the pilings for the dock that had served the fortifications. We also learned that the entire town and port of Whittier, AK had been built as a top secret port in case Seward was damaged or captured (Seward was the only ice free port at the time). Now, this tour operation was indeed an operation. They had at least six tour boats, a couple of hotels, and a resort on Fox Island, near the entrance to Resurrection Bay. We stopped there to pick up dinner supplies and then headed back toward the park. We saw an amazing number of animals of all types. We saw Puffins, gulls, Stellar Sea Lions, Eagles, Humpback Whales, Dahl Porpoises, Eagles, Sea Otters, Harbor Seals, and much to Mikee's delight Orcas. She had told us that this was the one animal she really wanted to see. Lucky day I guess, as we actually saw many Orcas throughout the cruise. The captain was great about getting right in close to the animals, and at the same time giving them their space. it was amazing how close to some of the islands and rock outcroppings we were able to get. Eventually, after a quick trip on the open ocean, we headed up Aialik Bay towards the Aialik Glacier. We first past by Holgate Arm, and could see the Holgate Glacier at the end. At about this time, the crew began serving dinner on the lower deck of the boat. Being on the second deck, we were served last, just as we came in view of the Aialik Glacier. The two good sized pieces of salmon were great, as I wolfed them down and ran outside to see the glacier. We passed by many icebergs as we pushed up the bay to the glacier itself. The captain parked us in front of it and shut the engines down. We spent about 20 minutes there, listening to the groaning, creaking, and cracking of the nearly mile wide glacier. We did see some small calving events as pieces of ice fell into the bay. We also saw black bears alongside the glacier, and harbor seals in the water around it.

This trip was great, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you are ever in Anchorage, do yourself a favor and check out Kenai Fjords Tours. Get on the train to Seward and take the tour! Only $129 per adult and includes salmon dinner. We had good luck on our Alaska trip in that the weather was great everytime we went on a sightseeing trip. We had mostly sunny and clear conditions, and the temperature was comfortable. The kids had a great time despite the initial protests from Dakota and Colton (the resident homebody). They got lots of great photos. This pretty much completed our list of things to do in Seward, which we enjoyed very much. We had made it pretty much our home away from home for a week and a half. It was time to begin heading south.

Exit Glacier

2008-07-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

While in Seward, we visited the Kenai Fjords National Park by car. We drive a few miles out of Seeward to the Exit Glacier. We learned that it was thusly named by a party exploring the Ice Field (which shall remain nameless as I've temporarily forgotten the name), when they determined that this glacier was a prudent exit from the icefield. Now it makes sense... It was a fairly easy 3/4 mile hike from the parking lot, up to within 50 feet or so of the glacier.

However, our boat cruise to the National Park was much better. In my next post...

Seward, AK

2008-07-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

Ughhh... I just spent about an hour composing a large post only to lose it before I could publish it. Anyway, we've been in Seward for four nights so far.

While staying in Cantwell, AK we went to Denali National Park. It was all I could do to convince Janae and the kids to spend 9 hours on a shuttle bus tour. Luckily it was as great as I'd been told. At Denali, you can only drive 15 miles in on the 90 mile road into the park. Any further and only tour and shuttle buses are allowed. We took the shuttle to Eilson Visitor Center at mile 66. We saw many great vistas and lots of animals. If you should go, be sure to bring your binoculars, food, water, and a camera with a good lens (lenses). We had a good driver who was great about providing information and stopping for animals. We spent 3 days in Cantwell before moving on.

Our next day, last thursday we ended up in Anchorage. Janae needed to pick up some supplies at the VA Hospital there. Knowing the VA, I figured we'd be looking to stay in Anchorage. The boys and I camped the afternoon in the parking lot, and when Janae was finally done we stayed in an RV Park downtown near Ship Creek. Ship Creek is renowned for it's salmon fishing. Alas, that night and the next day no one including me caught anything. Not much to say about the Rv park, barely enough space between sites to put slides out. Saturday morning, we headed for Seward.

What a drive. Just over a hundred miles took us all day. Too many great sights at turnouts. Turnagain Arm and the Chugach Mountains rising from the shore were spectacular. I've been using a bunch of superlatives in this blog! Amazing. Eventually, we reached Seward on the edge of Ressurection Bay. I had been told that you have to stay at the Municipal Campground on the waterfront. It is wonderful. We are pulled into our site with a paved walkway going past in front of it. On the other side is about 10 feet of grass with our firepit. Past that is the rocky beach and Ressurection Bay. On the day we arrived (and most since) we've had sea otters playing in our front yard. Across the bay (as well as behind us) are the Chugach Mountains. We don't want to leave... Although the salmon fishing is poor according to the locals, we've been doing ok. On the other side of the bay at Spring Creek we've been casting into the bay catching lots of Chum (Dog) Salmon. Yesterday Janae caught her first salmon, a little Chum hen. I've been catching Reds (Sockeye) at Seward Lagoon Creek. Lotsa fun. I had to take this morning off as my hands are blistered and cut from fishing so much. I'm gonna post this now with no photos and update later as it's about time to head back to the creek for more reds... See ya soon.

Arrived at Denali

2008-07-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

We arrived this evening in the area of Denali National Park. We got here late after stopping at a lake for some fishing and late lunch. I set everyone up to fish, and while they fished made lunch for everyone. I then took Colton's pole, which he had abandoned in boredom, and caught a fish (trout) on my fourth cast using a spinner. I think I irritated everyone else as they had caught none. I then made it worse by releasing the fish. I set up my pole with a bobber and salmon eggs and caught another one in a couple of minutes. I got it to shore and it released itself, falling off the hook and flopping back into the water. I don't think I made any friends among the other non-catching fisherpersons. Anyway, we'll be riding the shuttle bus into the park for some hiking tomorrow. We're staying in an RV park about 27 miles south of the park. Talk to you soon...

Fairbanks

2008-07-08T08:36:00.001-07:00

We've been enjoying the last few days in North Pole. We've managed to go see some sights, do some shopping, and just relax and rest. Yesterday afternoon the kids and I canoed down the river in the center of town. Sunday evening, we enjoyed a salmon, prime rib, halibut, cod, and side dishes meal in town. I washed the Saturn, what a mess that was. We've been staying at the Santaland RV Park, and I'm afraid that Colton has become somewhat attached to the two reindeer they have here. It's still been in the eighties everyday, with thunderstorms every day. Again, not what I expected. It is cloudy as I type this morning. We will be packing up and heading toward Denali Park in a little bit. Forgot to mention that we spent some time fishing, and caught some trout. Hopefully some Arctic Grayling next, and then maybe some Pink Salmon...

Itinerary, so far

2008-07-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

I've been requested to post our itinerary so far, so here goes.

Cinton, BC
Hixon, BC
Dawson Creek, BC 2 nights beginning of the Alaskan Highway
Fort Nelson, BC
Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park, BC
Teslin, YT
Kluane Lake, YT
Deadman Lake Campground, AK (Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge)
Delta Junction, AK, last night 7-4-08 end of the Alaskan Highway
North Pole, AK 07-05-08
Caldwell, AK 07-08-08 (Denali Area)
Anchorage, AK
Seward, AK
Palmer, AK
Tok, AK
Haines Junction, YT 07-25-08
Teslin, YT 07-26-08
Deise River Crossing 07-27-08
Stewart, AK 07-28/29-08
Burns Lake, BC 07-30-08

Also updated last night's post.

Delta Junction, AK

2008-07-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a few days. On July 2nd, we stopped in Whitehorse, YT. We explored the steamboat Klondike, which was in service on the Yukon River until 1955, when it was retired. Steamboats were the method of transportation for prospectors, supplies, and silver ore between Whitehorse and Dawson City, as well as many other settlements in the great white north. What a great guided tour of about an hour in length. Whitehorse also had a Wal-Mart for restocking the groceries. A neat town that Janae and I will have to spend more time exploring after I retire.

We stayed the evening of July 2nd on Kluane Lake, YT in a really nice little RV park. It was pretty remote, but had all the comforts of home thanks to having their own electrical generators. They had just removed a grizzly bear from the park last week by helicopter. The morning of the day we arrived, they had a sow and two cubs walking on the beach. We walked to the beach and I did find some grizzly tracks, but no bears. The kids tell me that the water was as cold as it was clear!

July 3rd was the day we finally found a grizzly. We had been driving for a couple of hours when we saw a couple of RVs pulled over to the right ahead, along with a brown blob on the verge. I knew it was a bear, so we pulled over, and sure enough it was a relatively young grizzly. We watched it for about 20 minutes, as it walked along the shoulder towards us while munching on grasses. Eventually it was about 25 feet away from our motorhome, before we had taken enough photos and video. Shortly before we saw the Grizzly, the road started getting rough. "Frost Heaves " cause the road to look like a roller coaster, with dips and rises. In addition, the surface itself is pock marked with ruts and potholes. I saw a couple that I'm sure would have torn wheels from axles if struck at the posted speed limit of 90kph (about 57 mph). When we were at Teslin a few nights ago, an older couple who had just come from Alaska had warned me about the roads west of Haines Junction having separated a couple of motorhomes from their towed vehicles. I was now finding that a little more plausible... We finally crossed the border back into the US. Very remote area (the Customs People had their own settlement with single family housing right next to customs). Has anyone else made the observation that when entering Canada, the Canadian Customs personnel are rather cold and unfriendly, while when returning to the US, the US personnel are rather pleasant and welcoming? That's been my observation the last few years... We made it to our destination on the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Deadman Lake Campground. Sixteen campsites around a 1/8 mile loop, about one mile off the highway on a gravel road. No hookups, just a spot and a firepit. The front end of our MH was a hornet and fly magnet as they feasted on the remains of multitudes of their flattened comrades. Despite the small size and remoteness of the campground, their was a camphost, who we chatted up for quite some time (he has relatives in Tacoma). We also were invited to a naturalist talk that evening. After dinner, we walked down to the screened in enclosure for the nature talk. It was pretty cool. The naturalist had drivien in from Tok, AK and was really great. We learned about the plants of the boreal forest (also know as Taiga, Russian for "little sticks" which describes the thin black spruce to a tee). We then went for a nature walk, where Dakota got to help the naturalist do a core sample on a black spruce. We got up in the morning and headed to Tok, where we got to see the 4th Of July parade. The kids scored pretty well on candy thrown from floats. By the way, about 30 miles east of Tok, in the middle of 47 mile of road construction we came upon an interesting sight. Stopped in the middle of the E/B lane was a couple of Diesel Pushers towing cars. Turns out, the first one had pulled the front bumper off their towed vehicle. They were trying to remove the mangled tow rig from the towed vehicle, so that the wife could drive it back to the states. Quite a sight. The older couple in Teslin were now prophets... By the way, fuel prices. I try not to really let it sink in. The most we paid in Canada was $1.66 per liter. About 4 liters in a gallon, you do the math... It was a relief to pay $4.73 a gallon in Tok. At least prices are going down the closer we get to Fairbanks. Tonight we've made it to Delta Junction. The weather has been incredible since we left Washington. Mostly in the 80's with just a little rain a couple of times. Being Washingtonians, we're using the A/C more that the furnace...

Teslin, Yukon

2008-07-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, the last couple of days have been wild! We've seen so many animals we've stopped counting, especially bison and stone sheep. Early on Monday morning, Janae and I got up and drove early from Fort Nelson. Just like Dad found, it's nice to get a couple of hours driving in before the kids are awake. We started seeing bears (Cold bears, and plenty of them!). And not fleeting glimpses like the day before. These guys couldn't care less that we were there. They just went about their business packing away the calories for the 7 to 8 months they hibernate at this latitude. It was also cool that we were seeing "color phase" bears (black bears that aren't black). Some day I hope to own a nice cinnamon phase bear rug... Anyway, we began heading into the Rockies again. We saw one lone caribou, and shortly before lunch, we got to Stone Mountain. Aptly named as we came upon many stone sheep along the roadway. They come to the road to consume salt and other minerals. There were lots of them including babies. I have to admit, they were very cute (think "fuzzy bunny" cute). We continued from there to Toad river Lodge, where we stopped and made lunch. After lunch we saw a few lone bison. These are wild bison, not behind a fence bison. We also passed through the incredible Muncho Lake Provincial Park. Wow, again. Eventually we arrived at our destination for the day, Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park. The campsites were full, but we were welcome to pull to the curb and camp in the day-use parking lot. Worked for us, the trail to the hotsprings started in the parking lot! The two hotsprings were 108 degrees and 128 degrees. The closest and nicest was the 128. Of course the further downstream the cooler. It was great soaking in it after a full day of driving. And interestingly enough, all my bug bites stopped bothering me after soaking. By the way, yes, there are lots of mosquitos. In fact, a guy who resides here in Teslin says this is the worst year he's seen for mosquitos. Fortunately, we're not backpacking. We had a pleasant night's rest along with about 30 other campers in the parking lot. No, it doesn't get completely dark here at this time of the year. Anyway, we once again got up early this morning, and took off. We were still seeing pleny of bears. We also saw elk, a fox, and a porcupine. We reached contact creek, where the roadbuilders from east and west met. Shortly after that, we entered the Yukon. No interesting animal sightings since then. I've been told that the road tomorrow is pretty rough after the first 150 miles, so will probably be slow going. The tough thing is keeping moving. Everywhere you look is a great setting and we stop at many rest areas and turn-outs. Oh, and souvenir shops, can't miss those... Man, only so many photos can be posted!

Fort Nelson, BC

2008-06-29T18:48:00.001-07:00

Today we left Dawson Creek and traveled 17 miles where we left the modern Highway and turned onto the original highway. It was still mostly gravel for the bypassed 4 or 5 miles. We crossed the last original wooden bridge left. It was also the only curved one built. traversed what appears to be one of the most desolate areas of the highway, from Fort St. John to Fort Nelson. Very little human presence. We stopped for lunch at Pink Mountain for lunch. We then jumped in the Saturn and drove back to a side rode and up it for 10 gravel miles to the trailhead to Sikanni Chief Falls. Janae, Dakota, and I hiked up to see the falls, which were pretty spectacular. Shortly after leaving Pink Mountain, we saw a cow moose and her calf running across the highway. Later we saw four more bears and a deer. The scenery is incredible. Very unlike anywhere I've been before. Short and skinny evergreens everywhere along the muskeg. I guess typical of what you would think of as how the great white north looks. Back into the Rockies tomorrow. Not much to talk about regarding Ft. Nelson. However, this campgound (Ft. Nelson Truck Stop and RV Park) does seem to have the best Wi-Fi and internet connection of any campground so far. That name alone should tell you what it 's like. At least it's quiet so far. Heading to Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park tomorrow. After that, who knows? I'll post again when I have a connection. Ya'll gotta do this trip someday...

Second day in Dawson Creek

2008-06-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

A day off from traveling today. We got up late, and then drove downtown to see some sights and shop. We went to the traffic circle at mile 0 of the highway, along with a museum at the end of the rail line. This is where the GIs who built the highway debarked from the trains. We also went to the Alaskan Highway Museum and saw interesting artifacts and photos. After that it was shopping and more shopping. Had to go to a liquor store to buy beer. Expensive! $55 Canadian for 18 bottles of Coors Light, and 12 bottles of Corona. I may have to quit... Or not! The kids have been spending a great deal of time in the man-made lake at Rotary Park. Very similar to the old Pete's Pool, except no deep end. Colton managed to get sunburned. Had a big dinner tonight. Venison steaks (from Mikee's spike buck), baked potatoes, and corn on the cob. Starting tomorrow things will be a bit more spartan. I'm planning on three meals of pancakes a day like the GIs did for weeks while building the highway... I bought a book by one of the catskinners (Caterpillar operator) who built the highway in 1942. Amazing stories... We're going to stop at Safeway in the morning for fuel and then head out.

Dawson Creek

2008-06-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Day 3 took us from Hixon, BC through Prince George to Dawson Creek. The official beginning of, and "Mile 0" on the Alaskan Highway. On the trip today, we saw a sow bear and two cubs, several deer, and three moose. Unfortunately, no picture of the bears or cow and calf moose. We were moving too fast with vehicles following us, and no shoulder with the bears, and too far away running into the brush for the moose and calf. However, the bull moose standing on the shoulder, I got. Well, I got his ass anyways. As we approached and began slowing down in the "urban attack vehicle" (You "Stripes" fans know what I'm talking about), he turned and headed for the pucker brush. The Canadian Rockies were beautiful, and we stopped for a walking break and pictures.We are now on the east side of the Rockies and it shows. I hadn't really thought much about that and was surprised by how much the landscape looks like eastern Colorado or western Kansas. Rolling hills with We are now in the Mountain Time Zone for a day or two before heading northwest toward the Yukon Territories.

Day 2- Hixon, BC

2008-06-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

The end of day two of our Alaska Adventure ended in Hixon, BC. I was about to say what a clean and pleasant park Canyon Creek Rv Park is, but a bird just pooped on my enter key as I was uploading the picture to the right. No kidding! I'll have to clean that up... So anyway, no major glitches have occurred. The worst part of day one was the drive in morning rush hour between Sumner and Bellevue. Bumper to bumper, stop and go the whole way. Our first choice for campgrounds last night was full, so we had to settle for the other campground in Clinton, BC. Not the nicest, but had hook-ups and was nearly empty. Plus grass for the kids to play around on. Day two struck and we had to but groceries. I had read that Canadian customs has a habit of taking any meats, fruits, and vegetables, so we didn't bring much with us. Of course they didn't ask about food when we entered Canada... Food seems slightly expensive, but not too bad. We stopped in Wal-Mart, just outside of Quesnel, BC as the kids all needed clothing (that seems to happen every trip). The clothing seemed rather expensive, and the sizes were weird. Dakota couldn't fit into a set of boys size 16 swim trunks? Rained on us most of this morning, so the RV and car are filthy. I've seen two deer and three beaver lodges so far. Kinda cool seeing badger, moose, and bighorn sheep crossing signs. Anyway, we've made it this far along with our neighbor from last night, who pulled in next to us a couple of hours after we arrived here... Weird again... The kids, at least Mikee and Colton, enjoyed the creek here. I didn't call ahead to Dawson Creek for reservations. I didn't know this is Canada Day Weekend and everything may be full. At least we're self-contained, we can always pull off somewhere and sleep. Hopefully Dawson Creek tomorrow, beginning of the Alaskan Highway.

The Toad (that's RVeese for towed vehicle)

2008-06-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

We have been looking for a second car since Barb's old Escort blew a head gasket on me. Barb insists that it died of a broken heart when Dad gave it to me. But that's another story. Anyway, I've been looking for a couple of months, for something that would get decent mileage. In addition I was looking for a vehicle that I could tow behind the RV, preferably already set up with a tow bar and accessories. My patience payed off yesterday when I found a car on Craig's List. A 2002 Saturn SL2, with 41,000 miles on it. Included a Stowmaster 5000 towbar and accessories. Bought it from an older couple in Lake Stevens (that was a drive!) They had traded for a smaller RV, and didn't want to tow anymore. Yes, the tow bar comes off (or goes back on for that matter) in about five minutes. All for about $500 under Kelly Bluebook and Nada prices. It's ready to tow on Wednesday!

The happy grad!

2008-06-17T21:56:00.001-07:00

KJ graduated high school this evening. I know, that has nothing to do with RVs. But graduation certainly could lead to some adventures. I'm very proud of KJ. She had to overcome quite a bit to make it through. One consistent comment from her teachers the whole time was that she works very hard. Brings a tear to my eye. Love you KJ, congrats!

Banana Belt - Fairbanks?

2008-06-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the crappy forecast for the next couple of weeks here in the Seattle region. Temperatures are struggling to reach 60, rain, and wind. After this past winter, I'm really looking forward to some comfortable temperatures. On a lark, I checked the forecast for Fairbanks... Ya, 70 degrees and clear. Whooda thunk it? Sign me up!

The Charm

2008-06-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Second time's the charm apparently. No more damage to the rig, and a great outing. We camped at Penrose Point State Park on the Key Peninsula, Thursday night through early this afternoon. What a great campground! Mom says we went there when I was about 3 or 4 years old, but I don't remember anything about it. We arrived Thursday evening, finding the drive though the campground rather tight for our 35' 10" behemoth. What's the max length that could get through? 38 foot? Beats me, depends I guess on your comfort level. Anyway, Thursday night we almost had the 80 some spots to ourself except for one tent camper. Friday morning we awoke to clouds, and low tide at the beach. I wouldn't have expected to have that many oysters available on a beach in a State Park. On Satuday morning, we went back with KJ's boyfriend who had a license, and managed to harvest one oyster before our knife broke. We also saw people filling their quotas on butter clams. Next time we'll be better prepared. The family has been doing great conserving battery power, fresh water, and grey and black water space. I'm very impressed. Anyway, nice campground. No hookups, but plenty of clean restrooms, garbage cans, and water spigots. Lots of shade. In fact I only saw a couple of sites with less than total shade. I had a great time this trip. Maybe due to no paint transfer this time. Reminded me of the great times we had camping when I was a kid. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Generator repairs

2008-05-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

The generator wouldn't work on our last trip, so we had to take the RV to Cummins Northwest in Renton a week ago. They ended up replacing the engine side of the generator. They were saying it might be done Thursday morning if all went well. Got a call this afternoon, saying it was done. The RV is home now, and the generator seems to be running well. Looks like Penrose Point SP is a go for this weekend. Makes me wonder about the inspection Poulsbo put it through before delivery. Oh well, at least they seem to be receptive to warranty repairs...

Alder Lake

2008-05-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

On to better things. I still managed to have a great weekend, despite the gut-wrenching antics on Friday evening. Alder Lake campground is a Tacoma Power Park on Alder Lake, a reservoir behind a power production dam on the Nisqually River. The campground can be found on the Washington State Parks website, as well as the Tacoma Power website. It's pretty nice. The area is clean, with a beach, boat launch, and marina area. There are about 90 sites with full hookups, and a loop or two of tent sites, as well as several group sites. The restroom near our site was clean, but featured the bane of Washington State Parks campgrounds, coin-operated showers... The sites were maybe just a little close together, but hey for having full hook-ups they were plenty spread out. Many, such as ours, had a decent area of grass, instead of just dirt. We spent part of Saturday at the picnic area/beach area. The water level was low due to late snow melt, but the kids still had fun. The park was full for this warm weekend, and reservations are advised. We tried something new to me this trip, Doughboys. Stick one uncooked Pillsbury bisquit on the end of a wooden hanger rod, and cook it over the fire/coals. When it's brown on the outside pull it off the rod. Then fill the hole with whatever you desire (we used strawberry jam and whipped cream, mmmm), and consume. Yuuummmmy! Anyway, we had a good time. We also compiled a list of items needing to be repaired under warranty. Amazing what comes out of the factory, considering Tiffin has a reputation of being among the best as far as quality control goes. Our expensive I'm sure one piece windshield has a flaw in it, broken interior wall panels, loose electrical outlets with the screws stripped, and more. Amazing. Anyways, I would recommend Alder Lake Campground, and can't wait to try the other Tacoma Power Parks. No RVing plans for Memorial Day weekend. The Rv will probably be in the shop, and I have to work on Memorial Day, so we'll wait until the following weekend at Penrose State Park.

Maiden Voyage

2008-05-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Friday was the beginning of our first camping trip in the new RV. It was rough from the start. Before we left the house, half of the chassis DC electrical was dead, and the generator wouldn't start. So therefore, we had no air conditioning. Not usually a deal breaker during May in Washington, but it was in the 90's. Janae called Poulsbo in Auburn, and after much attempted troubleshooting over the phone, they told us to come in. Being that this was Friday afternoon, we hurriedly left home, leaving behind firewood and bikes among other things. But we made it to Poulsbo, where the helpful shop people had our DC situation fixed promptly. Looks like the oil level sensor on the generator is kaput. We now have an appointment at Cummins Northwest to check that out. The service guy confirmed that the oil level was good (I had already checked), and said that he couldn't tell me to unhook the oil sensor sending unit, but it would work just fine with it unhooked... On our way with the generator running and cool A/C flowing!!! Oh yea, they filled our propane and gas tanks for our trouble. The Auburn Service Department has been nothing but helpful so far. Now it was rush hour, so we stopped to buy fishing poles and Arby's. Then we were on our way to Alder Lake (near Eatonville). All was good until the Mashell River bridge on SR 7. It was pretty curvy in the area, and I was going pretty slow. That was a good thing. As I drove onto the bridge, I noticed a N/B tractor trailer combo coming at me around the curve on the opposite side of the bridge. The tractor was cool, but as I approached, I noticed that the trailer was in my lane... I moved right, braking hard, wishing to avoid becoming one with the chip-hauler. As I slowed, I felt a bump, and slowed to a stop, as had the truck. We were close. I stayed in place as the truck slowly started forward. As he moved past, he was clearing my driver side mirror by about 2 inches. Eventually he went past. I pulled across the bridge and into turnout on the side of the road. It was then that I noticed the truck had continued N/B, as well as the crease down the side of my new RV from rubbing against the guardrail on the bridge. You can only imagine the foul language that was heard in the area for about the next 30 seconds. I called 911, but didn't even have them send out a Trooper. I only had a green tractor pulling a chip trailer for a description, and the guy probably didn't even know I had hit the rail. Guess we now know where the money from selling the Winnebago on Thursday will be going. At least no one got hurt. We continued on once I had recovered... We finally arrived just about 9:00pm (good thing we got the kids out of school at noon, huh?). Set up and got a fire started. Soon it was bedtime. Figures... Spent the last few days driving in rush hour traffic in the metro area with no problems. What ya gonna do? Alder Lake to follow.

Weird Science

2008-05-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

Weird couple of days. We couldn't get the steps to withdraw when the door closed, or the ignition was on. We tried everything. I read the instructions and tried to get it to work again and again. Janae did the same. Nothing... I checked the RV forums that I've been reading and involved in over the last couple of years. Nothing there. I finally posted on the Tiffin RV Network forums, asking if anyone had this problem before. Several people posted ideas, and one had what sounded like kinda the same problem. He suggested that I place a magnet next to the door closed sensor. When I tried it, the step went right in. And since that happened, the steps are working fine. Like I said, weird. We'll have it checked when we take the rig in after our shakedown cruise this weekend!

The Allegro cometh

2008-05-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

So, I thought I'd start a blog to keep anyone who might care up to date on our RV adventures. What with the upcoming trip to Alaska, seems like a good idea.
We picked up the new motorhome yesterday evening. It's currently parked in our gravel drive, outside the fence, in front of the old Winnebago. The Winnebago is up for sale on Craig's List, hopefully finding a new home, and soon.
The new one is an Allegro 35 QBA. 35 Feet long, two bunks, queen bed in back, four slide-outs, in motion satellite, on a Ford Chassis. Sure drives a lot nicer than the old Winnebago! Tonight, we hope to get everything transfered between them. We have reservations this coming weekend at Alder lake, near Eatonville as a shakedown cruise.
I had originally planned to buy this RV at a dealer in Mississippi, which has a sterling reputation. But ended up buying from Poulsbo RV in Auburn when they were willing to match our quoted price (plus shipping of course). We had an overall pleasant experience until the very end. Our salesman and the shop guy told us that it would be filled with gas and propane when we drove it off the lot. We signed the papers and went to leave, finding the tank just over half full. Scott, the person we signed papers with then told us that they only fill the tank half-way. It's just too expensive to fill it all the way up (on a $100, ooo rig!). We were tired and left. Checked the propane at home and found it only 1/3 full. It's been really making me angry. Scott just looked me straight in the eye and lied. I get that all day at work, and don't need it in my personal life. He said it was a "deal buster". Not done trying yet, but they may have lost my future business on a $300,000 retirement rig over $200 in gas and propane. Now that's a "deal buster". I should have known better from what I've read on the internet about Poulsbo RV. I'll post on how it turns out... I'm really in a better mood than it sounds...