Small town America and a world class air museum.

Main Street U.S.A. Well, actually it is 3rd Street, McMinville, OR.

We are unexpectedly living aboard Sadie again for a couple of days. Patrick's varsity boys' basketball team (Perrydale H.S.) is in the league playoffs. They had a game last night, but it was in McMinnville, OR, about 50 miles from home. Yesterday morning, I said to Jill, "Here's a crazy idea. Let's repack the coach and go to McMinnville for Pat's game." After hesitating for a little while, she said, "OK. Let's go!"

So,we left home about 2:00 PM and arrived in McMinnville at the Olde Stone Village RV park a little before 4:00. If that seems a little slow to you for a trip of 50 miles, I hasten to point out that it was Friday afternoon on a sunny weekend in February, and the road to McMinnville is also the road to the beach! On top of that, you may not know about Dundee.

Dundee is a small town along highway U.S. 99. It isn't big, but it has a stop light and the highway is a narrow two lanes. A few years ago, wine making became a big new industry in the Willamette Valley. Consequently, Dundee has grown in popularity. There are a number of wine tasting rooms in the vicinity. Bottom line: traffic is always stop and go in Dundee, and when it goes, it goes at the speed of a teenager sent out to mow the lawn.

Olde Stone Village RV park is very nice, and the price is very reasonable. We got all set up and drove on in to McMinville H.S. in time for the game. Things went pretty well for about a quarter and a half, but then St. Paul's Buckeroos, who average about a head taller than the Perrydale Pirates, pulled away. At halftime, they led by nine. Perrydale made a run at the end of the third quarter and got back within seven points, after dropping behind by as many as 16. They made another run late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. Pat was proud of his team. They played hard and their sportsmanship made St. Paul look a little shabby by comparison.

Today got off to a sunny start and actually got to be quite warm by midday. We decided to visit the Evergreen Air Museum, which is right next door to the Olde Stone Village. What an amazing collection of aviation history. The central attraction is Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose. This wooden, amphibious, cargo plane is enormous, boasting the longest wingspread of any aircraft in history. It is truly spectacular with its 8 (count 'em) 8 3,000 horsepower engines. It only flew once, and that for about 30 seconds. By that time, technology had passed it by, WWII ended and the old bird was relegated to the ranks of an aviation curiosity. Still it is a marvelous achievement.

Photo courtesy of Google Photos
Here is a photo of the Spruce Goose
And another. Note the size of the other planes in comparison!
Here is the tail section.
This is a Lockheed F80 shooting star from immediately
post WWII, which was used for a trainer for a couple of decades.
And what appears to be a WWII era Navy bird.
The museum has lots of military hardware, including some tanks.

Of course, the museum contains much more than the Spruce Goose. It is, in fact, the best air museum I have seen (I have not been to the Smithsonian). There are planes spanning the history of flight from a model of the Wright Flier to jet fighters used in Iraq and everything in between. I was thrilled by the number of WWII warbirds on display, and today there were several WWII veteran pilots available to answer questions. We spoke to one gentleman who flew the same model torpedoe plane as George H. W. Bush. He was about as modest as anyone I have ever met. He said, "We were just a bunch of kids. We thought it was fun!" In my estimation, this is a world class air museum (and we didn't even go in the space museum section!) and would make a good vacation destination, especially when they have added the planned water park, complete with a water tube that will pass through the fuselage of a Boeing 747!

Following our visit to the museum, we returned to Sadie and took Pogo out to take care of her business. Then we decided to go out to lunch, something we rarely do when we are RVing. We chose the Golden Valley Brewery and Restaurant. The restaurant section is quite reminiscent of the kellers I visited in Bavaria a couple of decades back. The food, was not, although it was quite good. I don't remember seeing quesadillas on the menu in Munich! Jill had a bock lager with her lunch, and I chose a porter. Both were quite respectable.

After lunch we had a nice stroll along the main drag and looked in shop windows. We had an encounter with a street magician, and finally found ourselves in an ice cream shop, where we succumbed to temptation.

Jill had an encounter with Ben Franklin!

I texted Patrick and we agreed to meet for the next game in the playoffs this evening. Jill and I met Pat and Katie at the gym and were treated to a very exciting contest between St. Paul and the undefeated league leader, Country Christian H.S. St. Paul came out on top, which was a mixed blessing for Pat. On the one hand, he would have liked to see St. Paul go down after they beat him last evening, and on the other he is glad to know that Country Christian H.S. is NOT invincible.

A glorious Pacific Northwest day.

It was with great sadness that we departed Potlatch today. The weather was perfect again today. Well, there was a bit of a breeze, but the sky was cloudless and the sun was warm.

We had a relaxed morning, lounging over breakfast and coffee. Watching a little of the Winter Olympic Games and enjoying the view out of Sadie's picture windows.

At last it was time to get ready to go. Thanks to my Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), checking tire pressures is a matter of turning on the monitor and reading the reports. I did add some air to one of the suspension airbags. Otherwise, air was not an issue. I checked the oil and coolant levels, too.

Jill has become the master of preparing the inside of the coach for travel. She stows everything that is loose, checks the cabinet doors and drawers, turns off the furnace, water heater and ice maker, locks the refrigerator door and usually has a cold soda stationed by my driver seat.

I finished up my duties by draining the holding tanks and stowing the hoses and electrical cords. After a final walk around to make sure nothing was unlocked or still deployed on the exterior of the coach, I declared Sadie road-ready. Jill fetched Daisy Mae, and we hitched her up to Sadie's tow bar. Then, off we went.

We stopped on the Indian Reservation for gas, which is cheaper there than on the economy. It turns out that we got the best mileage we have ever achieved while towing Daisy Mae! I won't mention the actual MPG, lest I offend some "greenie" who might happen to be reading this post. Suffice it to say that MPG is going in the right direction.

We had a lovely drive home in brilliant sunshine. There were two stops, other than the fuel stop. First we stopped at the Toutle River Rest Area, where we used the facilities. We watered Pogo and then had a little lunch. Back on the road again, things went well most of the way home. We both heard a noise along the way, and wondered what it was. We stopped at another rest area, and I inspected the tires, towbar, Daisy Mae and the underside of Sadie. Nothing seemed to be awry. Later, I heard the plastic wine glasses that hang over the dinette table clink together and thought, "That is a familiar sound...kind of like what I heard before we stopped."

The end of the story is that we arrived home safely and in one piece. We unloaded Sadie. Jill began doing laundry and baked an apple cake for our Bible study group, which is due to arrive at 7:00 PM. I tidied up the things we had brought in from the coach, and now we are ready to entertain.

It was a wonderful trip, and although we hated to leave Potlatch, we have a pretty wonderful life at home, too. So, being home is also a great blessing!

Lazy daze

No photos today. The weather was beautiful, with a cloudless sky, after the morning fog on the Canal burned off. On the other hand, it was a bit breezy, which made it a little uncomfortable to be outside just sitting.

I spent a good part of the morning working on my lesson for our Bible study group tomorrow evening. We are studying the book of Galatians, and I drew chapter one, so I will be laying the groundwork for the rest of the study.

We talked about going out for an adventure, but the view from Sadie's picture windows was so enchanting, that we decided to just relax indoors. We watched "Singin' in the Rain" on DVD, one of our collection of movies that now numbers about 115. That is just the collection we carry on board. At home, we have a few more. We do enjoy movies, but most of those in our collection are from the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

I went out to grill a couple of steaks for dinner, and found the sky filled with stars. Just outside our door is Orion. Off our starboard bow is mars, and the sky is even dark enough that I was able to see the Pleiades off the starboard quarter.

Jill has remarked several times today that she doesn't want to go home tomorrow, and if we had a clear choice in the matter, I would stay. The weather has been beautiful, and the canal view is spectacular from our front windows. Nevertheless, duty calls. We will head home tomorrow and entertain our Bible study group tomorrow evening. This will give Jill a chance to play a hymn for the group to sing.

So, tomorrow we will head for home, but the bottom line is that the RVing season has begun. As soon as we get our SOWER membership taken care of, we will be able to plan our outings for the year. We are so excited about doing an RV mission trip. In the meantime, we can always take Sadie out for a little exercise now and then!

A day in Port Ludlow

Click on the photo for a slide show of today's adventure. We had lunch at the Port Ludlow Inn. While we were eating, the Kenmore Air seaplane in the final photo arrived with a couple as passengers. They were the only other guests in the restaurant, and apparently they were celebrating the woman's birthday.


Today, we were expecting the poorest weather of our trip. So, rather than be confined to Sadie's interior, as much as we love her, we decided to make a drive to Port Ludlow, some 60 miles further up Highway 101. The further north we went, the worse the weather became. At times, we were driving in a deluge. Nevertheless, we pressed on.

We were rewarded for our efforts by finding Port Ludlow to be a very inviting, upscale community. I had been there in 1981 by boat, but what I saw today was anything but the dilapidated, light industrial community I remembered. The whole area appears to be a resort town built between my previous visit and our experience today.

In the slide show, you will see the Port Ludlow Inn, whose architect has successfully evoked the 1930s with the design of the inn. I pictured myself chatting with Scott and Zelda in the card room overlooking the bay.

The food was delightful. We both ordered the seafood sandwich du jour, which was a grilled shrimp panini with Gruyere cheese, served with real french fries and a wonderful mixed green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. I had a Black Butte Porter and Jill had the house Pinot Gris to complete a wonderful repast.

Our trip home was unremarkable, except for the fact that we moved from heavy rain showers in the Port Ludlow area to clear skies and sunshine in Potlatch. It was a lovely visit, but we are happy to be back "home" enjoying our Sadie.

We're baaa...aaacck!

IMG_1752
Originally uploaded by punomatic

We just can't keep ourselves away from Hood Canal. Today we drove to The Waterfront at Potlatch RV resort and parked in our favorite spot (#7). The weather for the drive up was pretty nice, with intermittent sun and no rain all the way!

I guess direct marketing works. The resort sent us an email saying that we could get one night free if we paid for a night's lodging. Well, that was too much for me to resist. So, we made a reservation and here we are for the first Travel with Sadie of 2010.

It was fun "de-winterizing" Sadie. We brought her home on Friday. My first task was to check all the tires and the air suspension. I got them all aired up to the proper inflation, and then I installed the senders on all the tires for my new Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).

The TPMS I chose is from Truck Systems Technologies. It includes radio frequency sending units that screw on to the tire valve stems, and a monitor that sits on Sadie's dash board. As we drive along, I get updates of the air pressure and temperature of each tire, every few seconds. The system not only monitors Sadie's tires but Daisy Mae's (our towed vehicle) as well! That is very comforting, since we had a blowout on Daisy Mae last spring that we didn't know about, until we heard the bare rim rolling on the pavement. Ouch!!

We had some problems with TV once we got settled. First I tried to find the satellites with our roof top "automatic" satellite dish. According to the system, we found satellite #119, but we could not get any programming to come in. Next I tried our "back up" dish. I was able to find both satellite #119 and #110, which are the two satellites for Dish Network. But I couldn't get a good enough signal from 119.

So, next we tried the free cable TV. We were only able to find 12 channels on our main TV, but our cheapo "Curtis" (I bet you never heard of that brand!) picked them all up. Unfortunately, the reception was pretty awful. We asked at the office whether anyone had had similar problems. The owner came over and tried very hard to make it work. At last I realized that the problem was in our wiring. I made a couple of changes, and now we have a clear picture, but still only 12 channels on the Vizio. How we do suffer.

We are considering taking Daisy Mae, tomorrow, and heading for Port Townsend, a lovely Victorian town up the road about 65 miles. As an alternate, we might go to Port Ludlow, about the same distance in a different direction. Or... we could just have a lazy day in the coach, with books and movies and games and lounging around.

It's the choices in life that wear one down; know what I'm sayin' here??

How long is the RV off season, anyway?

It has been about five weeks since I have seen Sadie. She is, I hope, comfortably nestled in her covered storage area. Jill and I are getting itchy to do some RVing. We received an invitation to stay at The Waterfront at Potlatch for half price in January, February or March. Well, here it is February, and we haven't made a reservation. Jill is going to Denver the end of the month, and we are both headed for San Diego in April. Looks like it will be March before we go, although there is a fair amount of February left yet.

There has been an exciting development in our RV life. We learned recently about an RVers' ministry called SOWERs, which is an acronym for Servants On Wheels Ever Ready. This group provides labor for upkeep, remodeling and construction projects for Christian organizations such as churches, orphanages, camps and so on. Their M. O. is to send RVers to a project for 4 weeks at a time. The men are required to provide 72 hours of work during the first three weeks, and the fourth week is free time for exploring the area around the project site. In return, the host organization, for whom the work is being done, provides the team with RV sites, including water, electric and sewer hook ups.

We haven't decided yet, whether we will apply for membership, but we are seriously considering it. Earlier, we had been contemplating an extended trip, similar to the one we did last spring. Now, we are thinking and praying about what that trip might look like, if we were SOWERs. Stay tuned.