Category Archives: Washington

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November 12, 2018

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USA Travel, Washington

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The World’s Greatest Waterfall

November 12, 2018

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The Long Long Trailer

Fortunately, the snow in Keremeos only stuck around for a few hours and it didn’t hurt any of the flowers.  We checked weather forecasts for the coming week, and our best time to leave was today.  Snow is coming to Oregon on Wednesday, and we need to get through Deadman Pass before the snow arrives.

Deadman Pass is located between Pendleton and La Grande, Oregon, and that stretch of highway is considered to be one of the most dangerous roads in the US.  The best time to attempt the pass is around 10 am, after the frost has melted.  We stopped for the night in Pendleton and already there were warning announcements that visibility was down to 500 feet in the pass this evening.  We noticed a lot more frost the further south we went today.

On our way, we stopped at Dry Falls State Park, which a friend in our RV park recommended. It was stunning.

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For scale, look at the kayak to the far left

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Find the 2 kayaks

Click on each image to enlarge:

 

It was strange today because we weren’t travelling with little Daisy. It’s our first time in 15 years not to be on an adventure with her. Poppy decided to take the opportunity  to fill my lap. Yes, her dream came true and she became a lap dog. She was a lot calmer today. However, we know that she gets worse as the miles click by. Maybe cuddles and a warm lap will get her through this travelling ordeal.

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April 18, 2018

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British Columbia, Canada Travel, Chinook Motorhome, USA Travel, Washington

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Yakima, WA: Birthplace of our Chinook

April 8-9, 2018

Due to the rain on the coast, we decided to head inland and enter Canada in Osoyoos. Rain is messy to deal with in an RV. Our next stop was Avery Park near Wishram, WA. This is a beautiful free campsite on the Columbia River. The area is government property and free to use, but during the salmon run, it is closed to the public and only the local native tribes can use it. There are picnic tables, fire-pits, pit-toilets, and a garbage bin. The problem with the site was the trains. All. Night. Long.

After a sleepless night, we moved on to Yakima. We had heard on the Chinook forums that an RV shop, Aubrey’s, bought as many Chinook parts as they could when the company was liquidated. The parts manager, Carolyn, was most helpful. We were able to get new lenses for our porch and patio lights, but we had no luck on getting a step replacement.

Yakima had this old-school McDonald’s restaurant and a car wash for my dad’s GTO.

We camped overnight at Cabela’s and then made the final trek north into Canada.

Re-entry into Canada
April 10, 2018

In Canada, everyone jokes that B.C. stands for Bring Cash. B.C. has lots of economic woes, and so it taxes the heck out of its citizens.

On the US side, two US agents boarded the Chinook and opened drawers and doors. They were friendly enough, but I’m not sure what they were looking for since we were leaving their country.  Then, we travelled on to the Canadian border guard. It was our lucky day. She was wonderful! Because we have no space, we didn’t really buy any goods, but we did have alcohol. We rattled off our amounts. We were over our limit of 1L each (we had 7L total), and we were expecting to pay the duty. Most of our friends cross in Coutts, AB with much more than 7 liters and just pay the duty. It works out to be a big savings even after paying duty. Well, this border guard said that she was going to give us an education that day (and not charge us) and advised us to cross in Alberta or Saskatchewan next year. She said that in BC, the duty is (are you sitting down?) $1.50 PER OUNCE over your 1L limit! If our vehicle had BC plates, I don’t think we would have been so lucky. Lesson learned: Never ever ever cross into BC.