5-30-2023 Vantage, WA

 Five surprisingly sunshiny days have passed.  We spent them with several of the family including Rick and Trina, parents of last Saturday’s bride.  The boys spent 2 days at SIR (Seattle International Raceway) where Rick raced and Rob was the pit crew.  With the boys out of our hair, Trina and I had lots of fun digging around and acquiring antiques and other junk that we don’t need.  We laughed, scratched and had a great time.

 

At times in the past, this area has been a fun opportunity to revisit old favorites.  Leavenworth is one, a tiny little town that seems like it was lifted up out of Bavaria and dropped here.  However, there aren’t a whole lot of places to park a 53-feet-long beast.  Maybe you could shoehorn into some microspot but then there’s the issue of getting back out.  So we passed through, wistfully staring at the pastry shops, bakeries and taverns where beer and brats are the specialty.  Seattle, the home of the Pike Place Market was also an experience we used to not miss, but now, sadly, it is the nucleus of homelessness, violence and crime and an experience to avoid.  So we behaved and stayed in our yard.  Today, we are packed up and moving east to Vantage, WA, a pretty little resort on the banks of the Columbia River, and then on to Lewiston where, hopefully, there are 2 new Noobee keys awaiting our arrival, for one thing.  Actually, the ONLY important thing for this Type A Virgo Kraus.

 

Rob relaxes in our back yard at
Wanapum Campground

Wanapum Campground is on the banks of a wide area on the Columbia River, which is classified as a lake.  Wanapum Lake, oddly.  It was warm and sunny, nearly the cocktail hour, so we took a leisurely stroll over to see the river.  The breeze grew a little stronger.  Then a little stronger.  Now it’s wind.  Big wind.  By the time the dinner hour was over, it was big fucking wind, so much so that we feared for the slide toppers and decided to withdraw the slides and hunker down.  It was the worst night we have spent in any rv, crawling over each other to use the facilities and otherwise, listening to the raging wind outside trying to capsize Noobee.  Facing a forecast of 40 mph gusts today, in an unprecedented move, we pulled up stakes and said adios.  There are things to see here, like the petrified forest, but well, maybe another time.

Overview of our campground on a
wide spot in the Columbia River

 

Next stop:  Clarkston.  This is familiar territory.  Years back, we parked Bee in Clarkston, drove the Jeepster west, parked at #2 Son Mike’s home, then rode a paddlewheel boat from Astoria to Clarkston on the Columbia River, then the Snake.  When the cruise ended, we deboarded at the boat dock a few steps from Bee and picked up right where we left off.  Today, Rob finally tells me our next campground isn’t in Lewiston but Clarkston.  He explained:  I just tell everybody it’s Lewiston because everybody knows where that is and nobody knows where Clarkston is.  Got it.