Jeff &Susan Collingwood

Yesterday afternoon Jeff & Susan arrived as expected. They drove up from Oregon where they were camping with other HitchHiker friends. I met Jeff on the HitchHiker forum and they joined us (Ron & Lois, Bill & Judye) this past winter in the Rio Grande Valley on their way to Mexico. We spent yesterday evening and today visiting. We planned to drive to the Olympic National Forest today but it rained all night and this morning so we'll do it tomorrow. It's great to visit with friends!!!

Museum of the North Beach

After church this morning we returned home for lunch then hit the road north. We visited the above museum which was quite small but had lots of local history, the kind of museum we like. The picture showns how excited the locals are about their museum.

Ocean City, WA

We didn't do much Friday, we went for a walk across the bridge over the creek to the CG and into the woods. We don't know what these pine like trees are but if you touch them they spit a very fine powder into the air. We got a picture of one of the local residents out the back window. Late in the afternoon we drove to Ocean Shores (4miles) Judy went to Curves then we had pizza, it was pretty good, then we went to a Gershwin concert put on the the local choir. After that we got to see our first Pacific sunset, very few clouds for a change. While on the beach we met a couple from New Zealand, they have been driving up and down the west coast for 2 months taking advantage of the favorable dollar exchange rate, we had a nice visit with them. Today we drove to Aberdeen (22 miles) on Grey's Harbor. No activity in the harbor. We went to a farmers market but it was more of a craft fair. We also stopped at Walmart, Safeway for groceries and topped off the fuel tank at $4.76/gallon.

Ocean Mist CG

We made a big move today, 3 miles down the road; we couldn't get into this CG over Memorial Day but we're here now. We both agree that we like the open site CGs compared to where we were in the woods. We went for a walk on the beach. They collect all the stuff and junk that washes ashore and pile it up, interesting art form. We are 1/4 mile walk to the beach over the sand dunes and then another 1/4 mile to the waters edge. There are hundreds and hundreds of dead crabs on the shore. Lots of deer here too, one was chewing on the bush next to our site and we saw 3 in the sand dunes on the walk home. I have a theory, all you folks back east, in the mid west and in the Rockies suck up all the sunshine so by the time the sun comes up there's just none left for the OR & WA coast. Good thing these here RVs have good heating systems.

Having fun

I'm not sure what all we've been up to since last Thursday but we have washed the trailer including the roof (Judy did the roof) for the first time; washed the truck; went to an interesting church service Sunday, almost a revival; did laundry; cleaned our home inside; drove south along the coast to Gray's Harbor; went to a nice local museum; went out to eat a couple times; watched lots of racing action on TV; had the trucks oil & filter changed; went for some bike rides, and drove on the beach watching all the action on a cold damp day of which we've had too many.

Saturday evening I tripped over the water hose and broke the spigot off the CG water line. I had a 8 or 10 foot tall geyser of water shooting straight up in the air for 20 minutes until the maintenance man was able to shut the water off. We had several campers walking up to see where all the water was coming from that was flooding them out below us.

Today we traveled to Elma (40 miles) to visit with Gary & Suzanne Tomlinson from MI who we met at two rallies last year. They are passing through on their way north to Alaska. We had a great time catching up with events, having lunch and playing euchre, guys won 2 of 3 games.

Ocean City, WA

Monday was a nice sunny and warm day so we relaxed and enjoyed it. Mistake. Tuesday and Wednesday it was cold and rainy all the time. We did some routine work on the trailer while trying to stay dry. Today we left Randle about 9:30 after having a mom & pop RV shop install a safety recall on the fridge. Another overcast and misty day in the 50s but a short 130 mile trip back to the Pacific arriving at Ocean Shores CG at noon. Nice site, totally surrounded by trees and bushes with a creek right behind us, fortunately the TV dish works! After setting up we discovered the A/C (not that we will need it anytime soon!), heat pump (you bet we'll need that!), and the fridge didn't work. No power. Circuit breakers all OK. I called RV (service managers initials!) at NuWa service and he informed me these A/C powered units needed 12v DC power too. Yep, blown fuse, probably when the mom & pop RV shop installed some metal barriers to eliminate a fire hazard in the fridge. Thank you RV. We went for a drive and stopped at the post office, hardware store, McDonald's and went for a drive on the beach. When we returned we went for a walk and found a small cemetery in the woods about 6 sites down from us. Seems 2 ships (one from Chile and another from England) floundered in the 1880s here. There are 12 British sailors buried there plus an Indian who saved many other sailors, he died many years latter. There are two 17 & 20 year old siblings also buried here. Kind of dark, damp and dreary place.

Mt St Helen

Before I go any further I have to tell you yesterday was a red letter day, the first day since we retired we made money!! Judy won $16.50 playing card bingo. This was significant!!

It was beautiful today, lots of sun and hi 70s. We drove to Mt St Helen, about 120 miles although we are probably about 50 miles, at most, from it. We passed a tulip nursery on the way, checkout the flower I picked for myself. The local short cut passes are still closed due to snow. The local paper said the average snowfall is about 550 inches, they got 890 this winter, that's about 72 FEET of snow. I have seen pictures of the mountain before but really never grasped the significance of the eruption until we saw it ourselves. The top of the crater is 1 1/2 miles across. There is now a glacier that's 500 feet thick inside the crater. Mt Rainier was nothing compared to seeing St Helen today. Today was the 28th anniversary of the eruption so there was a special presentation at the Johnson Ridge Observation across from St Helen where you can look right into the crater. My pictures do not do justice to the mountain and what happened here.