Sleeping on I-5 in Chehalis, WA

I have been pretty quiet these last few days and that has been due to the fabulous RV park we are in at Elma, WA. It's a cute little town with very nice people in the park but lousy ATT or Wi Fi connection, very frustrating, so I took some time off from blogging. More about the blog title latter.


Friday, 7/3/09 Because neither of us can remember what we did two days ago the update blogs will be real short! Today we decided to drive into Tumwater & Olympia and see some of the sights. I had all my Washington tour books marked with yellow stickies, our picnic lunch was packed, it was a beautiful day (I mean the sun was out) so off we went. Unfortunately, what we forgot we discovered when we got to Olympia was the GPS. We couldn't find a thing. It's hard to believe how incredibly valuable those things are in a completely strange city. Just put the address in & "our girlfriend" takes us there. After much frustration and a lot of "bickering between us" we decided to go home...and by this time it was very quiet in the car (you get my drift.) On the way home or shortly after lunchtime (12 noon) Will spotted a sign for a lake so we decided to salvage the day & have our picnic by the lake. We turned off the highway, even asked directions of a local and NEVER found the lake....the road took us back to highway 8 which is headed home to Elam. So it was a sign to us, go home & have lunch in the RV, which Will did, I had lost my appetite.





Saturday, 7/4/04 Will is busy washing the RV & car and visiting with his new friend, John the maintenance guy at the park. This afternoon the RV park is having a free 4th of July picnic for all the residents. With a pie eating contest, bingo & fixing "smores" around a campfire. Will went down at 3:00 pm to watch the pie eating contest & I was sitting frustrated in the RV screwing with the stupid computer. Will was back at 3:07...no one signed up for the pie eating contest so it was cancelled. At 4:30 we headed down for the picnic & there were lots of people there for the free food. They did a fabulous job with lots of salads, devil eggs, desserts & of course hamburgers & polish hot dogs. Plenty of food for everyone. We sat with 2 couples we didn't know at all and enjoyed ourselves and dinner. One couple was from Texas and have been full timing for 21 years...that's living in an RV, together for 21 years. YIKES They asked us if we knew what geocaching was? Of course we didn't and had never heard of it. So they said to come back to their RV & they would show us. There is a website http://www.geocaching.com/ that has items & logs buried all over the world & people, I guess like you & me, try to find it. You put in the zip code of where you are, then the GPS numbers...they called it another name, oh yes, you MUST own a GPS to play this game. Then go out & find the item. Well what transpired after that was really hysterical (to us) but we went along with it. As luck would have it, something showed buried on the RV park we were in. Tete, (the lady) could hardly work her beautiful Mac computer, I mean like not even being able to sign in correctly (however, she DID HAVE A SIGNAL) and Gordon, the husband put the numbers in the GPS & off we went. We walked & walked in this field, this way, then that way, the GPS kept changing its mind. So whether Tete, got the numbers wrong or Gordon put the numbers in wrong we never found the item. I doubt if Will & I would ever do this but maybe someday we can try. Anyway, it was a fun evening, we had planned on going to the car races at the fairgrounds across the street (our next door neighbors son was racing) but were having so much fun geocaching, we didn't go. Maybe next time!



Sunday, 7/5/09 We did absolutely nothing, on my morning walk into town I bought the Seattle Sunday paper & laid my butt on the couch most of the day reading. In the afternoon, with directions in hand, we headed back to Olympia to go into Costco & Fred Meyer. That was our really big outing for the day. We missed you Kim & Bill for lunch at Costco. Oh yes, we did make our reservations for our trip to Victoria; we booked our ferry passage over and a hotel on the island for July 22, 23, 24 returning on Saturday, July 25th...we are both excited about this trip.



Monday, 7/6/09 Will had noticed several days before that the front headlight fixture was coming loose, I mean loose that it could fall out. We had also had a leak in the living room slide several weeks back and knew we had to get that fixed immediately. This was our day to find a Fleetwood dealer so we could get it fixed under the one year warranty. As luck would have it, we found such a place in Chelalis, WA where our friends, Ann & Al that we met in Yuma, AZ live. So I called the dealer & they said we could come right in & we called our friends & they said after we had delivered the RV to the dealer we could all go to the Indian Casino for Senior Day Lunch. What more could you ask for. We found the dealer, Poulsbo RV in Chehalis, very nice people, game them the information & called our friends.



It was wonderful seeing Ann & Al again, Will & I like them so much when we met them at the lettuce festival in Yuma & they took us into Mexico. We drove over to the casino & had our $5.00 lunch, Mr. Big Spender (Will) bought our lunch and I lost at Keno again..... After lunch they took us to their home which is a beautiful home on 2 acres. Ann has the home furnished with many antiques, a spinning wheel her great grandmother actually used and lots of glassware. Al has refinished old trunks and they have them in every room. He has a wonderful shop, garage area & has built a covering for his 5th wheel. We sat out on the deck in the back that is thick with big Douglas Fir trees - almost like redwoods. He has many squirrel & bird feeders in the backyard & lot of guests that use them. It was a wonderful afternoon. At 4:oo pm we headed back to the RV dealer to pick up our Bounder & found that the epoxy that holds the light in was still not set up so they could put the light fixture back in. So we are now parked on the frontage road of I-5 in front of the dealers store overnight while it drys. Now Will doesn't sleep all that soundly in a quiet park I know he's dreading this but with his ear plugs in...he will give it a real try. I of course will sleep through anything and best of all we have a fabulous Internet connection sitting here on I-5....find the positive in everything!!! Most important and hopefully, they got the leak fixed & tomorrow the light will be fixed. Our mechanic said he would come into work at 7 am so he could finish the job & get us on our way. We will return to Elma and leave out of there Thursday morning heading for Hoodsport, WA. Signing off with love to family and friends.