We are officially on Roadtrip 3.0. An incredible amount of planning and organizing to get to this point. Yet, here I am, at Wanapum State Park, sitting out behind our camper, with a glass of wine, and Vicky sitting next to me. We are looking out over a field where several Magpies are playing. There is an abundance of silence. And an abundance of heat--94 degrees when we arrived. Boy, can you ever get different climates in Washington by driving only a few miles.
Off in the distance, above the hills, lightening is flashing. You can see the gray skies in the photo. Even though it is hot, and humid, it feels like we could get rain. No matter. We will be driving tomorrow anyway--into Montana--and couldn't get outside even if it was nice weather.
I have only been to Montana once in my life, when my family drove across the state on our way to Seattle, of all places, where we spent some time one summer in the early 1960s. We went into a store somewhere along the route, and my father remarked to the old man working there about how beautiful Montana was. He said, "Yeah, the view is pretty, but you can't eat it." Why do I still remember something like that?
Because of the amount of organizing that was needed, Vicky went into full "list" mode." In the month before we left, she made dozens of them. Finally got her a computer program for lists, and that has added to her fun.
Vicky's list "app:"
We created a staging area in the garage--every time we would think of something we would need we either took it to the staging area, or put it on one of her lists, or both. Even with all of this advanced planning we forgot to bring the badminton set I had purchased for us to use some evenings at our campsites.
In the final week before we left, there were many last-minute details. We had to clean all of our bird feeders so they would be ready in the spring when we returned, plus, being the bird lovers we are, we left about 25 suet packets in all of our suet feeders. At about $1.25 per packet, this tells you how much we want our birds to be fed even if we aren't there to enjoy them.
Vicky mowed the lawn one last time, and I cleaned the gutters. Loaded the camper back onto the pickup.
We have an enormous amount of food to bring. Although there are grocery stores almost everywhere, we are often miles from the closest one. And it saves a lot of money to do a Costco run before we go to load up on V-8, Diet Coke, refried beans, and other staples.
About a dozen 20-packs of our favorite low-carb tortillas. These are hard to find anywhere.
We loaded up the camper with water, propane, and gasoline, along with all of our food. And were so excited to get it weighed at the CAT scales. With our F-250, no matter how hard we might try, we couldn't get under the weight recommended for the axels and tires.
Well, not so with the F-350. The weight we can carry, legally and safely, is 14000 pounds. We were at "only" 12,040 on the CAT scales. Instead of being 600-800 pounds over weight as we were with the previous truck, we are about 2000 pounds under weight.
And the gas mileage shows it. Oh well. The price paid for safety. We were happy. We have invested a lot to be safe, and to have a vehicle that will take us places the F-250 couldn't.
After we left Whidbey Island this morning, we stopped to see our family in Seattle--Jessica, Jules, Adam and Ian, celebrating an early birthday for Jessica. As a birthday gift, she got Jack. He roamed around the house while we were there, exploring, and having a hissing contest with their cat Thisbee, but seemed to settle in fine. (the next day Jules and Jessica emailed that he sat on Jessica's lap for the Seahawks game. Jack is a lap cat, and needs a lap to sit on, so that made us happy). It feels so right to have him there, even though I miss him already.
Off we go to Seattle and then on to the rest of the trip:
We left Seattle for Wanapam State Park early afternoon. That night, the storm that we saw in the distance while sitting out behind the camper blew through, and did it ever blow. Not a lot of rain, but a lot of noise. Safe and snug in our camper (unless a tree fell on us).
Our first day of our 7-month road trip. Already I have seen things I have never seen before. A good start. Our Whidbey Island home seems so far away already. The back of our pickup bed now seems like our home which is good since we will be living there for seven months.
A road trip isn't official until Vicky puts out her bird lamp!
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