Leg 4 Rob and Cheryl’s NARVO

 San Francisco, California to Vancouver, BC (1431/5306 miles)

Day 23 and 24 May 7^th to 8th, San Francisco CA   – Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

Day 23 (May 7^th) – We left early to meet up with Dave and Delia, with our overnight bags for downtown SFS all bright eyed and bushy tailed on the CALtrain. The CALtrain is a double decker train, as is Ontario’s GO Train and does the same suburban commuter job as GO, but that’s where the comparison ends. It looks like they gave the design job to a grade 9 high school class. We spent the 45 minute trip making notes of how much better the Ontario design was than the California one – go Bombardier.

We decided to risk our next Uber ride to get to our hotel for the night in SFS. Somehow we stumbled into Uber Pool and so halfway through our ride we stopped to pick up another passenger, a young female student from San Jose. We asked her why she does Uber Pool – her answer “its cheaper, and I get to meet new people”. It’s all very pleasant, and civilised and I stand in awe of the technology that makes it all happen so effortlessly.

We walked the ten minutes uphill (we’ve discovered SFS only has uphills) to meet Dave and Delia where we had a fond reunion and hatched our plans for the day. 

The weather was cold, gloomy and threatening rain, so we decided Hop On, Hop Off was the way to go to give us best bang for the buck. The bottom line was that we bought the 24 hour pass which gave us the run of all the main highlights and we drove the city flat in that time. Mind you I exaggerate – to think of SFS being flat is like considering Rome without the Colosseum. One involves the other. By around 5pm we had seen the sights, walked across the Golden Gate bridge and were almost frozen stiff.

It was time for something to eat, so wandered around by Pier 39 until we found the Chowder Hut for a reasonably priced meal. We had been delivered half the food and were in the middle of giving thanks when the waiter arrived with a flourish with the other two orders. When he realised we were praying, and he’d interrupted us, he was so embarrassed, that from then we were treated like royalty. We Ubered it home to our hotels and because 4 of us were travelling together it is incredibly reasonable including it being quick and efficient - the wonders of modern technology.

Day 24 (May 8^th) – We caught our Hop on Hop Off downtown in the morning and then we did a steep uphill to the Crookedest Street in the World. This was truly impressive – the hill is so steep that they have deliberately slowed the road down by zig zagging it down the hill. Along with that they have built beautiful gardens in the all of the zigs and zags. While we were there, there was a constant stream of tourist cars “driving the crookedest street”.

We then walked down the hill, yes we found one, in the opposite direction and up the other side, which helped us burn off some of the calories we had over stocked on at breakfast. We then headed down towards Pier 33 to begin the long process of boarding the Alcatraz Ferry. We had a snack lunch en route and the next thing we were heading out to The Rock, where almost a 100 years of criminals had been incarcerated. It is now run as a National Parks Board site. We did the audio tour and it was very well done. Suffice to say that I would not like to have been put in solitary confinement in that place. It was grim and harsh, but well worth the trip to gain that insight.

Our final task of the day was to figure out how to catch an Uber back to our hotels, pick up our luggage and then get back downtown to catch the CalTrain back to Dee and Lach’s place. Amazingly the four of us did that for about $23. We could have hardly caught buses for that amount. We got back to Dee and Lach’s, and spent the evening catching up on laundry, settling Dave and Delia into their RV hotel accommodation, so we were ready to hit the road running tomorrow for an early visit to Facebook headquarters, after which we are heading out towards Dutcher’s Creek tomorrow in the heart of the California winelands. We’ll see what the next leg of our adventure holds. 

Day 25 (May 8^th) – Who Wants to be my Friend?

We were up bright and early to make our way over to Facebook headquarters, where Lach was going to give us the guided tour. One cannot visit Facebook on an organised tour, it has to be with a friend or family member who works there, so we felt very privileged. We started the tour as one should at the new campus, which is apparently the largest open plan office in the world and is about a quarter of a mile long.

Lach took us, as is natural at Facebook for a free breakfast at the Full Circle restaurant. All staff, and their visitors apparently, can have free breakfast, lunch and dinner every day if they wish. This was just the beginning of a number of free/subsidized perks such as free doctors on site, free bicycle repair, free gym and on and on. We walked right by Mark Zuckerberg without realising it and then onto the roof garden which even had a café up there. We then went over to the original campus which is still operating and took a walk down the main outside drag viewing all of the free restaurants, video gaming centre and so on. The place is abuzz with amazing things including an interactive world map showing how Facebook is connecting the planet. All in all it was a fascinating experience and thanks to Lach who carved out the time to host us.

We then hit the road proper and began the arduous task of making our way out of the city towards the Napa Valley where we expected to check to see if the California wines ever have a hope of catching up to our already established fine Ontario wines. No sooner had we arrived in Napa Valley than we popped into a Walmart en route to do some groceries and for Dave and I to fill up with gas and check the air on our tires. Bottom line we discovered we had a gash on one of our inside back tires and air was pouring out. So we called on Good Sam (CAA for RV’s) to come and rescue us. Three or four hours  and two brand new tires later we were back on the road, feeling bruised but not beaten and thankful that we had been spared what could have been a nasty accident if both tires had blown together.

We finished our day with a lovely drive through the Napa Valley – we never did get a chance to compare their wines to our own excellent Ontario ones, so the jury is still out on that score. 

We slept at Dutcher’s Creek RV site in Cloverdale, which we had thought was going to be rather upmarket but turned out to be rather basic. After the excitement of the day we all slept like logs.

Day 26 (May 9^th) – Gentle Giants

Today we started off at a leisurely pace and continued on through beautiful and seemingly endless winelands. We were heading for Route #1 which follows the coastline north. The road was extremely windy and slow, but very pretty. When we did get to the coast, unfortunately the sea was covered in mist and what should have been a spectacular drive turned out to be merely an amazing one. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed a couple of coffee and lunch breaks to enjoy the view and the mist receded as the day wore on.

We then cut back inland again en route to the Humboldt State Park to see the famous giant Redwood trees. The drive was the most windy I have ever experienced. Most turns were 15 to 25 mph turns and I had to be very wide awake to keep us all in the boat. We made it, but the constant to and fro of the road became quite mesmerising and we were almost in a hypnotic state at times. 

At one point we stopped to see the Drive Thru tree, which as it claimed had a driveway cut through it for a car to pass through. We watched a couple of cars go through and were tempted to try it with the RV but good sense prevailed.

We ended the day in grand style as we did the last 25 miles in towards our campsite at Ancient Redwoods RV park. We travelled down the Avenue of Giants, which goes on for miles and miles, and were in awe of the majesty and beauty of these gentle giants of the forest. We look forward to spending more time tomorrow walking and exploring in the area, to make sure we leave no stone unturned to appreciate this marvellous feat of God’s Creation.

Day 27 (May 10^th) Stop and Go along the way

We had a relaxed start to the day and got going around 10.30am. Our campsite owner had told us of a pretty drive, but with a much narrower road where there were some good redwood sightings to be found. He said taking our RV down that road would be no problem. We’d no sooner got going down the narrow road when we saw a sign recommending RVs not venture onto the road. We were already a few hundred yards down the road and didn’t fancy reversing that distance so decided to give it a shot. The road was narrow but my strategy was to drive down the middle and keep an eye out for oncoming traffic. That worked quite well until I spotted a big dump truck heading towards us. As it turns out it’s amazing what one can squeeze side by side onto one road if you go slowly enough. After playing Stop/Go with some roadworks crews for about 45 minutes we arrived at our destination and discovered a large school group doing their thing. We moved on a bit further and found a nice private spot from which to launch our viewing of some of the Great Ones.

After a lunch stop en route, our next stop was the State Park Visitor Centre, where we learned more about the background of the area. While there we did a short hike through the forest on a laid out trail. It is so peaceful walking amongst the Redwood giants. Their size is so overwhelming that they continually evoked our awe and wonder.

We walked down to the river, and on the way back, there was a difference of opinion between the ladies and the men as to the “right path” back to the RV. We decided to test our theories and so the men and the ladies each headed 180 degrees in opposite directions. Dave and I toyed with running to the RV as fast as possible and have the tea waiting for when the ladies returned, but we decided to be gracious and walk at a leisurely pace. As it turned out the two groups both met up about 15 minutes later when our respective paths converged.

Our final stop of the day was at the Founders Trail which was the most hiked trail in the park. It came with a good guide book and we learnt a lot about these magnificent trees. Even after a day in their company we were still enthralled by their sheer size. Everything about them is on a large scale.

We returned to our camp tired, but satisfied, thankful to the Lord that we have had a chance to enjoy this part of his Creation. Tomorrow we hit the coastal road through Northern California and up into Oregon. We’ve heard good things, so it’s early to bed for us.

Day 28 (May 11^th) – Four by Fouring it

We’ve been on the road for four weeks today. In some ways it hardly feels like we’ve started. In other ways, our first night at the theatre and truck stop seem like an aeon ago.

Today we made an early start and skipped breakfast. We didn’t have far to travel (150 miles), but we had lots to see along the way. We stopped in at Eureka to do a Walmart grocery top up and had breakfast at McDonald’s and enjoyed not having to do the prep and clean up ourselves. We were in search of cheap gas – and of course there is no such thing in California. We failed, and ended up looking for a luxurious private club which used to be a Victorian mansion belonging to a wealthy timber baron from the 1800s. We finally found it after a bit of a GPS runaround and it was duly impressive.

We then set out looking for the Trinidad Point some miles north, where whale sightings were reputed to be common. We ventured onto a road that started off looking promising, but became increasingly precipitous. At times the road came down to single lane gravel. It was a bit hair-raising to say the least. My Beautiful Baby is not really designed for 4 x 4 work, but today it got close to doing that. It rocks and rolls and wheezes and bumps and rattles, but eventually gets the job done. The views were to die for, but no whales unfortunately.

We then headed for Patrick Point State Park, where we visited a Yoruk Indian replica village. It was truly fascinating – their houses, made of large wood planks were half buried under ground. The only entrance was via a round hole cut into the planks. Once inside, the houses were on two levels, one platform at ground level, which presumably was a sleeping area, surrounded a fire pit/cooking area in the middle of the house which was dug down about four to five feet deep into the ground. Presumably the fire in the middle kept everyone warm who was sleeping on the top level. We then ambled down to Wedding Rock to have our picnic lunch. We parked on the edge of the parking lot, perched up high, overlooking the sea and oh my goodness, did we have a million dollar view. Dave spotted a whale and from then on we saw probably 10 or 12 of them over the next half hour. One of our fellow spectators said he thought they were gray whales. We didn’t really care - we were just happy to have seen whales.

Delia had seen some bookmarks made of redwood at the camp store where we’d stayed the night before. She had intended buying some today, but we had then decided to make an early start. We were still travelling through redwood country today, so we were then on a mission at various gift stores en route to find more of the bookmarks for her. We kept being referred from one gift store to another, further up the road. By 5pm, and without success, we decided to close the book on the search and Delia will call our camp store and ask them to mail her some. Our search had taken us to some lovely stops.

As we entered Oregon today, from California, we finished off a wonderful medley of sightseeing for the day, with a trip to the Azalea Park in Brooking. The azaleas were a bit beyond their best, but still pretty impressive. We ended our day at Whaleshead RV Park. It is perched up high on the hill overlooking the sea and an absolutely magnificent view. The campsite itself is a bit grubby and run down, but you can’t wear out natural beauty.

This ends our sojourn in California. It is an amazingly large state. We’ve gone from Death valley in the eastern desert to the lush redwood forests in the northwest. Every step of the way has been a treat. Who knows when/if we’ll ever pass this way again?  

Day 29 (May 12^th) – Sunset to Die For

We had been advised not to take the RV down the beach road at Whaleshead – too steep apparently. We decided to walk it. It was steep but nothing my BB couldn’t have handled. Nowhere else in the world have we ever seen such outbreaks of massive tall rocks out into the ocean. It’s all very fascinating, but I’m guessing must make for treacherous shipping and local fishing conditions, with multitudes of barely submerged rocks. We’ve also been struck by how peaceful the sea has been – at times it’s felt like we’re on the edge of a massive lake. Dave informs us that this is why it is called the Pacific Ocean - makes sense.

We moved on from Whaleshead and spent the day stopping at breathtaking views and looking for whales. We had another couple of whale sightings, which has been a great thrill – nothing much more than a spout and a flash of dark but definitely notched up as a sighting.

We stopped in at the Visitor Information Centre at Gold Beach where the two ladies outdid themselves in being helpful. We narrowed it down to “what are the top three things we absolutely must see on the Oregon coastline in the next two days. The top three “must do’s” duly noted, we pressed on.

Our first real stop was the Crazy Norwegian fish and chip shop in Port Orford. This was the best value find we’ve had so far. Along with enjoying a great lunch and a dose of Norwegian humor, we also learnt the meaning of “Uff Da”, which by my reckoning means something like “Aw Shucks” or “Drat” or “Duh”.

We then went down to the Port Orford working “dolly dock”. This was fascinating – for some reason the pier has been built up high above the water requiring the boats, and fish to be lowered and raised up onto the dock by crane and onto dolly trailers which then get parked out of the way. We found fish and various sea life being brought in  being sorted and then stored alive in tanks, for delivery to market. It was really interesting.

Around three pm, after our lunch break we headed over to see the Umpqua Lighthouse. We were too late for the official tour which closed around 4pm, but we met the volunteer lighthouse keeper, Dwight, who said he would be happy to show us around. He was a real character, in his mid 40s, and in the course of his lively explanation of the lighthouse we learned that he is single, available, and therefore happy to have his photo on Facebook. He lives full time in his 1999, 40 foot Class A RV and volunteers his time for worthwhile causes for free accommodation, whilst he works online to keep some dollars coming in. He and I swapped tips on RVs, as it is always good to find a kindred spirit. By the way did I mention that he’s single? 

We arrived at Sunset Bay State Park, one of our Golden Girls “Top 3 Picks” around 6pm and lo and behold we lucked out with a full hookup RV site which had been impossible to book by phone or online. We walked down to the beach with our drinks and snacks in hand to watch the sun go down and just happened to sit next to a fire pit where the embers were still alive. It was a very cool evening, so we scrounged leftover firewood from other fire pits and soon had a roaring fire going. We watched the sun going down, whilst we entertained ourselves watching a bunch of young guys egging each other on to swim in the presumably freezing sea. What a lovely ending to an enjoyable day.

Day 30 (May 30^th) – Boys and Their Toys, Slipping and Sliding

We made an early start as we had two out of our Top 3 Oregon sights to see and a long drive. The weather was promising to be awful all day, but so far God has defied most weather predictors, so we kept going. Our first stop was ten minutes’ drive back in the direction we had come as we had been told the night before where we could find a large colony of sea lions at Cape Arago State Park. We were not disappointed – there is a colony of about 800 seals, sea lions, and elephant seals all barking, playing and singing their praises to the Lord their Maker. In the distance we saw a few whales, to complete the picture. What a wonderful way to start the day.

We then drove through Coos Bay, a large town en route to our breakfast stop in the Oregon Sands National Reserve a few miles north. This is a long stretch of golden, sand dunes, some of which are 4 – 5 miles deep. We stumbled into what looked like an ATVers “died and gone to heaven scenario”. The dunes were alive with ATVers climbing and descending dunes. There were boys and their toys everywhere – massive trucks, large trailers and the little town nearby looked like they’d been invaded by a horde of bikers, excepting they were ATVers. We had our breakfast in the relative peace of a parking lot on the beach and fled.

We couldn’t resist seeing more of the dunes and stopped once more where we decided to climb one of the high dunes and I found an abandoned toboggan which put me in the leagues of the downhill sliders who were trying their luck with snow boards. It had been raining; the slopes were damp and the sliding a bit tame. Nevertheless, I can now say that I have slid on the sand slopes of the Oregon coastline – been there, done that.

From there we pressed on to Perpetua Bay, which was our Golden Girls number two pick. The main attraction seems to be the dramatic wave action on the rocks at high tide, but the tide was out and unfortunately the weather was really closing in and our time was getting crunched, so we did a short walk and then drove to the highest point on the Oregon coastline where we had lunch and looked out at the rather misty, but dramatic outlook.

As we headed north, our final target for the day was Depoe Bay, fondly known as the Smallest Harbour in the World” where our Golden Girls had more or less guaranteed us whales frolicking in the harbour – perhaps they had over reached themselves this time. The weather was pretty bad, so we did a flying park and peek visit for about 15 minutes during which time we saw the harbour; no whales and then ended up at the Whale Watching Centre and as promised we saw a couple of whales spouting far off in the grey and gloomy distance.

So we had seen the Big Three of the Oregon coastline and we headed through rain and mist for our destination for two nights at Cannon Beach RV Park. This is a private RV park and it shows – hot tub, swimming pool, cable TV and sharp service at the front desk and some monster RVs which always gladden my heart. 

Day 31 (May 14^th) – Down Day in Cannon Beach.

After a full week of hard sightseeing we all agreed we needed a down day in Cannon Beach. We found a good church in the morning, did a bit of a walk to see the gigantic rock, the Haystack, perched in the middle of their beach and then came “home” to our RV site where we are rained and misted in for the rest of the day. We are catching up on laundry, logs and naps – just the way a Sunday should be spent.

Tomorrow we head for Washington State, where we will be visiting Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier before making our way to Seattle towards the end of the week. The big question of the week will be, “will the road up the two mountains be clear of snow?” Watch this space.

Day 32 (May 15^th) – A “Chance” Encounter

We took a relaxed day’s drive to cover a couple of hundred miles. The church folk in Cannon Beach had highly recommended that we visit Ecola State Park nearby, so we popped in on our way out of town. It was steep and windy – are there any roads in this part of the world that aren’t? We emerged onto a beautiful panoramic vista with ocean up and down the coast. We almost immediately spotted a whale or two off in the distance, so that was a fun way to start our day.

We were needing to get some shopping done, so we found a Home Depot in a little town a few miles up the drag. Dave and I did some emergency repairs on the bike rack which was showing signs of dropping it’s load of four bikes. It should now be safe again. We then meandered up the road to find some groceries at a local Safeway in Astoria and had a late lunch in the parking lot before crossing the State line into Washington State.

We arrived at Seaquest State Park around 5pm which was to be our base for the next two days as we explored the two largest peaks in the area, namely Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. When Cher had done the campsite booking we were under the impression that the campsite was fully booked and we were lucky to get in. When we arrived, the place looked like a ghost town – there was hardly a soul in sight and it felt eerily quiet, excepting for the only other camper in the whole place who God had just “happened” to place in the campsite next to us. He had an ancient old trailer which looked like it should have retired decades ago. The truck he was using to tow it was probably from around the 1950s and looked the part. His campsite was littered with tools, piles of old gear and junk – we thought we’d stumbled into a garage sale. The hood of the truck was up, so Dave wandered over to see if he could offer any help while I did the set up on the RV.

As it turns out our neighbors name was Larni, in his early 60s. He joined us for supper and turned out to be an interesting character. He was in the most recent intake of Vietnam veterans and somehow had achieved the status of being a “disabled vet” after being one of five survivors out of 15 in his unit doing covert operations in Asia in 1976. It turns out he had seen a lot of disturbing action and his arm had been smashed in a close encounter with an enemy rifle butt. Larni was not in great shape, emotionally. He and his Russian wife and her son, had returned a few months back from 16 years of running an English language school in Korea. His wife had never lived in the USA. They were experiencing settling in pains and he had retreated to the woods, in the words of his wife “to get himself sorted out”. This poor guy was in a very distressed state. Dave and I sat up late, outside in the cold, chatting with him and sharing the gospel. Larni confided that at one point he had hoped to be a preacher, but then life had taken some bad turns. We offered to pray for him but he turned us down as he said he could not speak to God with a beer in his hand. We promised to continue the conversation the next day and went to bed to warm up.

Day 33 (May 16^th) – Devastation Unlimited.

We took the 50 mile drive up the road to witness the epicentre of the Mount St. Helens volcano which took place on May 18^th, 1980. We resisted the impulse to stop along the way, as we were racing potentially cloudy weather and we wanted to reach the top before the weather closed in. We met a guy along the way who had been 10 miles away when it blew up. He said they were covered with sticks and blobs of mud from the explosion and were unable to escape the area. They were lucky to have escaped with their lives. Those kinds of stories abounded.

When we got to the Visitor Centre at the top, we watched the intro movie which explained what had happened. I have never seen anything so dramatic. They had been expecting the mountain to blow at some point so had cameras all set up and waiting to capture the moment and oh my goodness did they have some dramatic footage. The sheer power and speed with which the slurry of goop travelled was extremely impressive – initially blasting out at 300 mph. At the end of the movie, the theatre went dark and then the curtain was raised, revealing a huge window through which we could see the eye of the volcano. It `was very dramatic. I’m not surprised that lot in Pompeii were caught napping in their beds as clearly these volcanoes can move like runaway freight trains.

When we got “home” to our campsite, Larni had been waiting for us and quickly came over to join us while we sat around a fire and all chit chatted. Once supper was over, Cher and I stayed outside with Larni and continued our conversation of the night before. Long story short, after a brief discussion Larni reached out his hands to us both and said “lets pray” at which point we prayed the Lord’s peace on him and he said he would be up at 7am the next morning to wave us goodbye. Thank you Lord for arranging those two side by side campsites which gave us the chance to help Larni refresh himself in your grace and goodness. 

Day 34 (May 17^th) Seaquest to Seattle via Snow Capped Scenery

Our main objective of the day was to visit Mount Rainier. We needed 2.5 hours driving to get there and the weather report had said it would be clear at the top until noon, so we left at the crack of dawn, bid adieu by Larni, who true to his word was up and waiting to see us off.

It was a beautiful drive to the main visitor centre at the top of the road, but we realised early on that the chances of seeing the peak were going to be slim as the cloud cover was low and we were climbing. 

When we did get there we found that this particular spot claims to have the highest recorded levels of snow in the world, averaging 680 inches a year. There was lots of snow around to support their claim and the length of the snow markers to guide the snow plows must have been 20 to 30 feet long - amazing. They clear the road daily during the winter apparently. 

 As we weren’t going to see the mountain top we watched the intro movie and I, along with many other sightseers, got some lovely photos of Mount Rainier on the handful of days in the year when it isn’t clouded over.

After a slap up brunch we headed for Seattle where we checked into our RV Park around 5pm in time for a swim and hot tub before making our way to an early bed. 

Day 35 and 36 (May 18^th and 19^th) – Sightseeing in Seattle City.

On our first day in Seattle, Dave and Delia had a friend to meet up with for lunch, so we left them in the morning while we made our way downtown to get a head start on the sightseeing. Cheryl had discovered a “Free Walking Tour”, where there is no charge, but at the end one tips the guide according to how happy one is with the tour. We had done a couple of these in New Orleans last year and really enjoyed both so had decided to try again. Our Seattle guide was really good and we were pleased to “graduate” our Seattle 101 course at the end of our two hour walking tour.

We had time for a quick picnic lunch before meeting up with Dave and Delia. We wandered around the Pike Place Market which is one of the main tourist attractions. We saw the Seattle Fish Market, which is famous for using humour to sell their product. They are famous for throwing their fish orders from one side of the stall to the other, chanting a ditty while doing so, dancing with their customers and generally using light hearted humour to get people in the mood to buy. Business courses around the globe use them as a case study on how to do this.

We had arranged to meet up with Howard and Cecile Robson for a fish and chips supper on the waterfront. Howard and Cecile are mutual church friends of ours from 35years ago and now living in Seattle. They have opened a South African “Tea Room” in Seattle with their daughter Natasha. They took us up there for dessert and treated us to some outrageously delicious South African treats, which was special. Howard and Cecile then delivered us back to our RV Park, saving us having to figure out how to navigate the bus system.

The next day we had a relaxed start before we caught the bus into town and then transitioned onto the Monorail over to the Space Needle and the site of the 1962 World Fair where there are all kinds of fun and interesting activities. 

The monorail apparently was intended to be a two way system with two trains bypassing one another. Supposedly they built the rails too close to each other so now they have to take it in turns. Apparently that’s a true story – I wonder if the engineer in charge of that project kept his job.

The ladies went to see a blown glass art display which was very good, and Dave and I went to an Imax movie on National Parks in the USA. It was spectacular. We then took a stroll over the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Centre to see what they are doing around the world to help the disadvantaged.

After that we wandered over to the Klondike museum to catch up on the background of the Gold Rush of the most concentrated gold find ever. Seattle was the jumping off point for the hopefuls and the receiving point for the shiploads of gold that came out. We will be seeing much of the Klondike end of things when we do our Alaska cruise.

We ended our sightseeing day with a trip to the 73^rd floor observation point in the Columbia building. It was 50% higher than the Space Needle, which is the much publicised observation point and one third of the price. That tip was thanks to our tour guide of the day before. We had supper at an Irish pub, which was a 50% happy hour meal, which was another tip compliments of our tour guide. After that we caught a bus back to the RV tired after having done a lot of walking that day.

I had one more job to do before bed. I had to sneak out of the RV on the pretence of going to the “restrooms” having filched the cell phone from Cheryl. Delia had reminded me a couple of days earlier that it was Cheryl’s birthday the next day. I had forgotten - a first - and being on the road I was not at all prepared, so I snuck out and made Cheryl her first ever “singing Birthday Card”, followed by a late night email with a coupon promising her a gift. I did feel a bit self-conscious, making the video in the middle of the densely packed RV park in the dead of night, but what the heck, we only live once.

Day 37 and 38 (May 20^th and 21^st) – “If it’s not Boeing, I ain’t Going”.

Day 37 - In the morning I got up early to make Cheryl her cake which consisted of 3 apples, some left over date and chocolate squares with the “light of her life”, her cell phone in the middle, as her virtual candle, so she could receive her Birthday Card and gift. Dave, Delia and I sang her happy birthday while she read email and Facebook birthday greetings and we enjoyed a cup of tea.

Boeing was the theme of our morning. We left early to get through the traffic and then Dave and Delia treated us to a breakfast at the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the Boeing
“Future of Flight” Centre. The Boeing tour was great. The sheer scale of it all was quite awe inspiring. We took our time wandering around the various exhibits and watching planes taking off on their test runs. I’m now a Boeing Boy and if it aint’ Boeing, I ain’t going.

In the afternoon, we took a relaxed drive over to Debbie and Tim Hedberg’s house near Mount Vernon. They are friends of Dave and Delia’s. Our plan to park in their driveway never worked out as the RV was too high for their low hanging trees. We ended up parked in the in laws driveway nearby, which was nice and flat and came complete with water and electricity hookups which was great. Debbie fed us the most amazing supper, before we headed back to the RV for a good sleep.

Day 38 - This morning we went to church with Debbie and family and are now parked in a Rest Stop on the freeway 10 miles short of the Canadian border, en route to meeting up with our friends, Dave and Brenda Killick, for a couple of days in Vancouver before boarding our cruise for Alaska. We have known Brenda for over 40 years, having met her in our studying days in Durban, where I was studying accounting and Brenda nursing. This ends the front end of our Lower 48 trip and we are feeling a bit sad that’s it’s over. We are more than half way through our trip, but have lots still to do. Watch this space…