Day 2: Yakima Bound

I woke up this morning in Crystal Mountain Resort. At some point during the night River must’ve gotten cold because when I woke up, we were spooning. It’s the first time since I’ve known him that he hasn’t slept through the night in his crate, (the door is always open).

We got up and I took a cold shower. I have a water heater, but it takes half an hour to get the water hot, and I didn’t want to wait. I went all through high school taking cold showers after wrestling practice, so I was no stranger to the experience. 

Then I took River for his morning play. There really wasn’t much to this place, so we basically just revisited all of the places we liked from yesterday that were close by. I unhooked and put everything away. I never saw anyone around that looked like they were manning the place. I did see two other motor homes parked there, but never saw any people. The only people around were doing maintenance on the gondola and painting the chalet. 

Chalk it up to inexperience, but I didn’t know if I should pay. There was a booth and envelopes, but I felt weird about leaving cash in it. I kept checking back to see if there was anyone there, or any evidence that someone was there. Was I wrong? Should I have left money in the envelope? It’s weird how, at the time, it seemed weird, but in retrospect, it seems like I should have. Oh great. Now I’m a thief. And someone probably came by in the morning and took down my license plate and now I’ll get a ticket. Anyway. We hightailed it out of there. It wasn’t that impressive of a place. 

I was more impressed with the drive to and from. Highway 410 is just a brilliant winding stretch through two national forests, and it is just more spectacular after every turn. In an evergreen forest, I was shocked by how many fall colors I was surrounded by. And then, after we exited the forest, the river started to take center stage. A few times, I passed a perfect scene, but couldn’t brake in time to safely make the pull off.

I felt like an idiot because I pulled the RV over to the side of the road, just to stop and take in the view, probably more than six times in the half hour we spent on 410.  At this point I was thinking, “This RV is ridiculous.” It’s no small act just to pull it over to the side. And then pulling back out into traffic is another major ordeal. I thought having all that vehicle behind me was sort of cramping my spontaneity. If we were in a small car, we might have stopped ten or eleven times, or more; but it wouldn’t have seemed like such a fuss. 

view of Mt Rainier from one of our rest stops

River looking regal at another rest stop

I think he's getting sick of these photo ops

Eventually I found a nice big pull off next to the river. I pulled off and we got out. It was beautiful, and it looked like there was a place we could climb down to the water. But first, I went into the house and flipped the generator on, got out my coffee maker and made myself a cup of coffee. I sat on the stoop, looking at the river, and watching River investigate all he could in the 30 foot radius his mega-leash gave him. It was at this point that the motor home totally redeemed itself. How nice it was to sit and sip my morning coffee at the perfect little crook we found in the Natches River. 

After I finished about half of my coffee, I topped off my cup and took River climbing down some rocks to get to the shore of the river. We made our way in and, following River’s lead, I rolled up my pants, and took off my shoes and socks so we could wade out to the big rock and be right in the middle of the water. It was awesome. 

I just want to take a moment to brag about River’s manners. I could go on and on, because he’s so well behaved, but this is amazing: He sometimes gets carsick. He has a lot of tell-tale signs, so it’s no secret. But, two times on this trip, he has vomited immediately upon being let out of the passenger side door.  Like he didn’t want to barf IN the car, so he was holding it until he was on the ground. Actually the second time he wasn’t quite on the ground yet, but from his seat in the car, he literally turned his head so he could vomit into the dirt. 

So we pull into the Yakima Sportsman State Park around 2pm. It’s a nice, state campground with plenty of open spaces. I pull into a good one and once I could locate the hose, hooked up electrical and water. Tomorrow, I’ll empty my sewer tanks. (In RV parlance that’s known as a “Full Hookup”)

This park has bathrooms and showers, and a jungle gym (so I can do my workout tomorrow). Lots of grass and trees and bugs and billions of stars in the sky at night. I saw a hiking trail but it was already dusk, so I guess that’s what we’re doing in the morning. 

The biggest thing I worry about is that River is so fascinated by the grasses and vegetation. I feel like he’s asking to be picking up ticks or poison oak or something. I thought poison oak wasn’t found this far north, but I’m seeing a lot of plants that look suspicious, and River is running all through them. 

I figured out how to get food. I placed an ad on Craigs List saying I’d exchange a massage for bringing me $50 worth of groceries. So that worked like a charm and now my fridge is stocked with organic produce and a few cuts of meat. I even got some paper towels, drinking water and some cookies. It’s nice having a skill that’s totally mobile. 

All in all, a great day. Tomorrow we’re going over White Pass and through another forest. I don’t really have any specific plans for the next couple of days. I know I want to swing through Olympia before heading back, and I’m aware of keeping the whole trip under 420 miles, lest I pay a whopping forty cents a mile after that.