Toppenish to Bellingham

We got away by 8am for our trip north, hard to leave the warmth but we can't stay forever.
We drove the old highway from Yakima to Ellensburg. It winds through the Yakima River Canyon for 25 miles and is a really pretty drive, barely any traffic and great scenery.

Yakima River Canyon

The rest of the drive was uneventful, just long, got to Bellingham about 3pm.
We could have made it to a ferry today but we are tired and would rather get some rest and get home at a reasonable time tomorrow.

One last Mickey picture!

It's been a great trip, we've seen a lot of interesting things and had no major mishaps, which is always a good thing.

Toppenish Day 2

No fire crackers tonight , slept like logs, Mickey included.
After breakfast we drove 18 miles up to Union Gap and Yakima.

Yakima is a neat old town, quite big with lots of old brick buildings and stately homes.
A freight train came through the centre of town while we were there, Karen counted 115 cars, she had nothing better to do.
When we came back to Toppenish we found another Mexican food truck and bought some burritos for lunch. We should have shared one, they were big.
Saw some more murals, the town is full of them, then spent the rest of the day enjoying our last hot weather for awhile.

We met a couple in  a nearby motor home that are from Chilliwack.
We had a glass of wine with them last night and did the same tonight before dinner .Wine was in a water glass, couldn't be caught .
It's really windy today, Mickey could get blown back to Oz!
Tomorrow we head for Bellingham.

Toppenish

Had a not so good nights sleep. Somebody set off firecrackers for about 1/2 hour around 9 pm which got Mickey into a frantic state. He didn't calm down till about midnight.
Another nice warm morning. We set off to explore the valley, first stop Zillah,about 10 minutes away, to see the Teapot Dome Gas station. We had seen it featured on Northwest Backroads and thought Mickey should have his picture taken there. It isn't in operation anymore but has been saved by the Town of Zillah as an attraction.


Teapot Gas Station

That accomplished ,we drove through the wine route, lots of small wineries but nothing on the scale of the Okanogan wineries, no tasting rooms that we found but maybe it is too early in the season.
We drove through Wapato and stopped at a couple of produce stands, bought some cherries to eat and some snap peas for the Thai red curry with shrimp that I'm cooking tonight.
We returned to Toppanish ,walked around downtown and saw some of the murals they are famous for.
Returned to the campground for lunch and sat and read in the sun before hitting the pool for awhile.
Overheard two guys my age at the pool discussing their concerns with the natives coming through the campground. Both talked of having their licenses to carry concealed hand guns and their wives do as well. One guy has one gun in his truck , one in his Harley and one in the wife's car.
 It's a different world down here!!
A few clouds have moved in, when the sun is out it's still about 80, otherwise in the mid 70's. It's so nice to be able to stand outside and feel the warm wind on your face.

A fixer upper

Portland to Toppenish, Washington

We were so happy to leave the Aurora Acres RV park. It is right next to the freeway and we didn't realize how annoying the constant noise was going to be. It also had a large number of permanent residents, kind of sad to realize how many people have no other place to live than their rvs.
It was a beautiful drive up the Columbia River Gorge, the sun was shining and the skies were blue.
We stopped at Multnomah Falls on the way, we missed it last time through and I wanted to see it, very pretty!


Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge,Oregon

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive, we crossed the river east of The Dalles then began climbing into the mountains. Nice 2 lane highway to Toppenish, in the Yakima Valley of Washington. The descent into the valley is kind of like the one into the Okanogan.
The town is small but nice.
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant that had shade outside for Mickey.
Then we found the rv park. It is very nice, run by the Yakima First Nations.
The first thing we saw as we approached the office was a sign saying No Alcohol Permitted. We almost turned around right then and there but on asking we were told it was okay in the trailer but not outside. The campground is on native land and the whole site is "dry"as is the reserve. Luckily the town is not on reserve land and the wine is still 30% off at Safeway :))
Couldn't stay anywhere we couldn't have a glass of wine or 2 , that would be unConway like!
We were given a nice site under a shade tree with a cornfield behind us. Full hookup and wifi for $32.
It's 84 out, nice to be able to sit outside in the quiet and soak up a little sun!
We'll stay 2 or 3 nights, want to take advantage of the nice weather before heading for home..

Portland day,2

We headed off to Portland after breakfast and found our way downtown to the Portland Market beside the river.

It's a nice sunny day, a good day to walk around all the stalls.Lots of handcrafts, foods and jewellery
Mickey got a new neckerchief, he was thrilled, and we bought a catnip toy for the cats only to get back and find it is actually a dog toy containing something called dognip, which I have never heard of before. We'll have to find something else for the cats.


Forgot to put Mickey in the picture.

We had hoped to sample some of Portland's food carts but sadly they were almost  all closed on Sunday, had to settle for something else.
The weather is getting warmer, low 70's. Tomorrow we will head for the Yakima Valley in Washington, it's supposed to be in the 80's . We've booked a place in Toppenish, from the website the pool looks good.
We will see.

Portland Day1

We decided to stay out of downtown today, a lot of streets are closed for the Rose Festival Parade and there are tons of people everywhere. Don’t want to try and get anywhere when I already don’t know where I’m going.

We poked around and went to Camping World and a few other stores to do our last “no sales tax "shopping.

On our travels we came across a dog park so we let Mickey have some play time, he really likes to meet other dogs and have a run after a ball.

Mickey meets a new friend

We had lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant at the Bridgeport shopping center.

We came back to the trailer at about 3:30. Karen started some bean soup yesterday when it was cold and rainy, so tonight’s dinner is easy.

The sun is shining and it's about 68 outside.

Tomorrow we’ll head downtown.

7 Feathers to Portland

It rained a little over night but the sun is shining this morning in Canyonville, Oregon.
We left for Wilsonville , a few miles south of Portland. Stopped for lunch in Salem. We ran into some heavy rain showers on the way.
We arrived at the Pheasant Ridge RV park where we wanted to stay and found they were fully booked!
We phoned another place we had stayed at before and they were booked too,so we tried a place the lady at Pheasant Ridge suggested and luckily they had a space. It was 7 miles back the way we had come but we took it anyway.
We haven't encountered a full park yet this trip so didn't make a reservation  but it is Rose Festival this weekend in Portland with all kinds of activities going on so maybe that's why everything is busy.
We arrived at Aurora Acres at about 1:30 and will stay 3 nights so we can explore Portland.
This place is nice enough, lots of trees and a nice park across the street for Mickey but they only have wifi in the office-clubhouse building.
Fortunately I have my Cantenna, a home-made signal booster that many people laugh at .
There was a faint signal at the trailer that wouldn't connect but my trusty Cantenna boosted it to "excellent" so now we have wifi, yay!
Let them laugh now :)


Trusty Cantenna,[ wireless usb adaptor in a tincan]

Red Bluff to 7 Feathers RV Resort, Canyonville, Oregon

It was another sunny morning ,starting to get hot already but we are leaving, heading to Oregon.
The skies got greyer as we headed north and the temperature went down to 60. Encountered a few showers around Grants Pass.
We stopped at a rest stop and had lunch. We arrived at 7 Feathers RV Park at about 2pm. It was mostly sunny and 65.
We like this place and it's looking better every year. It is fairly new and the trees have finally grown enough to provide some privacy.
We managed to time our arrival to to coincide with the casino's Thursday Seafood Buffet. We ate our fill then went to gamble a bit,  $20 limit each.
I managed to be up $30 by the time Karen ran out of money so we came out $10 ahead. That's a first!
Tomorrow we drive to Portland, about 200 miles from here.

Red Bluff June 6

Another sunny day in California.
We had a leisurely breakfast then set out to explore Red Bluff.
Nice old downtown area, we strolled Main Street, stopped at a few antique shops.
We saw on the GPS that there is a Red Bluff recreational area with Red Bluff Lake so we decided to check it out to see if Mickey could have a swim.
Well, the lake is gone! It was created by a dam on the Sacramento River but they have opened the gates and all the water is gone. Apparently the people of Red Bluff aren't too happy about this, they liked their lake, used to have speed boat races on it, now it is just a big dusty depression .
Must be something about irrigation down stream, we'll have to ask my nephew Jason about it.
On our way back we spotted a food truck selling Mexican food so we stopped and bought some tacos for lunch, really good!

Hard at work !

We spent the afternoon outside reading with a couple of trips to the pool to cool off, 85 here today. It will be hard to leave, we hear it is still cool and wet on Oregon.

June 5 North from Sacramento

Our KOA rv park has a food trailer so we bought our breakfast this morning, pancakes and bacon.
Headed out about 9am, glad to be clear of the traffic.
We decided to go to the Durango RV resort in Red Bluff ,2 1/2 hrs north. Frank and Sue recommended it and we can see why. Nice clean park, reasonable rates[$37 with BCAA discount], and they let you wash your rv at the site, first time I've found that. The trailer and truck needed it, filthy after the Yosemite dust and Sacramento rain.
We spent an hour in their beautiful pool, only us there, then I got a massage, Karen's birthday present for me.


Karen in her $5 Fred Meyer pool lounger

They have a masseuse that has a room here and comes when you book an appointment.

John, pre-massage, looking stressed!

Now I'm all relaxed, for today anyway.
We were going to head out tomorrow but decided to stay  another day and chill by the pool, it's supposed to be back in the 80's .

Yosemite to Sacramento

We awoke to another fine day, didn't get as much sleep as we would have liked, our neighbour rv'rs stayed up late yacking and laughing loudly .
We didn't try to be quiet hooking up to leave.
The descent of the switch-backs went smoothly,traffic was light and it was cooler than the ascent.

Switchbacks to Yosemite

As we headed west the skies started turning grey and by the time we hit Sacramento 2 &1/2 hrs later, it was raining. temperature was down to 62, what a change.
Glad we left today, the storm moved in and Yosemite got 1/2 inch of rain and the Glacier Point road was closed for snow!!!

Thanks to our sometimes annoying GPS we found our rv park. wouldn't want to be without the GPS in this city, more freeways and overpasses than Portland!
As soon as we arrived Mickey saw a squirrel next door and got himself into a state. Something about squirrels.
After we set up we drove into Old Sacramento, lots of old buildings on the riverfront. Right next to several freeway entrances so is quite noisy. Seems to be mostly t-shirt and tourist junk stores, not really our kind of thing.

Mickey on a train engine in Old Sacramento

Returned to the trailer for dinner, we had thought of staying longer but the weather is supposed to get warmer and we would like to be somewhere with a nice pool.

June 3, Yosemite

Left about 8am for the park. More hill climbing, the park entrance is about 5,000 ft. We paid our $20 entrance fee then headed for Glacier Point viewpoint. The 16 mile road was closed for the winter until 3 weeks ago but it is 80 degrees out today and the snow is all gone. Altitude 7214 ft.

Half Dome and Yosemite Valley

From Glacier Point there are tremendous views of Half Dome and the Yosemite valley. You look straight down into Yosemite Village from a vertical cliff.

Mickey wades in the Merced River
 in Yosemite Valley

We had a snack then drove back down to the valley floor. We drove along the Merced River and ,from the information Karen learned from our iPad app on Yosemite, we found a sandy beach where we stopped and had our lunch . We and Mickey waded in the river to cool our feet and Mickey had a good roll in the sand, he really enjoyed it after all the truck time.

Half Dome and the Merced River

After that we toured the park, stopping lots of times to take too many pictures of waterfalls and huge walls of rock. The park is full of people, hard to find a parking spot.

Yosemite Falls

On the way out we stopped to see El Capitan ,a huge granite mountain that is popular with climbers, altitude 7569 ft. Our information said to look for little colored specks on the face and sure enough we found a couple. They were climbers, about ¼ of the way down from the top. Apparently they can take several days to make the ascent, sleeping in shelters anchored to the rock face.

El Capitan, climber  1/4 way down on left face

Climber on El Capitan

June 2 , Petaluma to Yosemite

We were glad to leave Petaluma, the campground was full and getting noisy, but we will miss the pool!

Our tour driver from the day before had told us of an alternative route east so we took it. It saved a bunch of freeway time and toll bridges but unfortunately took  us further north than we had intended, ended up driving to Sacramento then south again to Stockton. From there the GPS took us to our campground in Buck Meadows, 12 miles outside of the north entrance to Yosemite. Once again, as GPS’s tend to do, it took us a different route than we had intended but we got there just the same.

We were climbing the whole way from Stockton but all of a sudden we were in for a serious climb. Signs advised to turn off air conditioners to avoid overheating. For ten miles we climbed over a  thousand feet in a series of tight switchbacks. At the top we went by a gas station being filled up from a tank truck with pup, wouldn’t have wanted to be behind him on the way up or been him on the way down!

Arrived about 3pm. Campground isn’t fancy, no wifi, but has everything  else we need and is close to the park, and who wouldn't want to stay at a place called Buck Meadows?
Gas here is $5 a gallon, in Oregon it was $4.20, northern California was $4.50, Petaluma $4.10

San Fransisco June 1

The campground we are staying at offers a tour of San Fransisco so we took it today.
We put Mickey into the doggie daycare and he seemed happy to meet all the other dogs.
The tour is on a small bus, there were only 13 of us in all. It was great to relax and have someone else do the driving as well as offering lots of interesting information along the way.
It took about 40 min. to get to the Golden Gate bridge and it was so foggy we could only see a portion of it when we stopped to get out.
We spent about 30 min. there, got a chance to walk out on the bridge and see the information center.
After that we drove all around the city with stops at several places.Got dropped off at the top of a cable car run then picked up at the bottom.

All in all a great way to see a lot in the short period of time we are here.
We made another stop underneath the bridge on the way home, the fog had lifted and the views were great.

Got back to the campground around 6pm , then went to pick up the dog. He was tired and seemed to have had a good time.
We picked up some barbecued ribs and potatoe salad from a local place that does it's own slow smoked barbecue.
When we got back home we found that the quiet 1/4 full campground we had left was almost full with the pool full of kids and people everywhere.
Glad to be leaving for Yosemite in the morning!