Days 1-3: On the road again. Finally.

Day 1: Richmond to Bellingham
Day 2: Bellingham to Woodland, WA

Hard for us to believe, but we find ourselves at the present moment far down the I-5 in Woodland, Washington,  on the banks of the Columbia River. After a lot of coughing and sneezing and, yes, my friends, snorting, which delayed our departure a week, two days ago we managed to make our way out of Richmond, over the border, and into Wonderland. We're on an extended trip in our RV, heading south. This is supposed to be a get-H-out-of-daycare, pre-kindergarten, educational tour, lasting up to three months, but we shall see.

Originally we planned to meander down the 101, poking around, gazing at redwoods, marvelling at birds, riding cable cars, investigating zoos, aquariums, and children's museums, visiting friends, and just generally having a grand old time. But with El Nino's exuberant presence causing slides, flooding, and road closures,  as well as the methane leak,  a few wildfires  and a lot more rain along our proposed route, we're heading for the desert.

"We" are me, him, our daughter and her four-year-old, Mr. H. With a four-year-old on board, we weren't sure if we would get past Bellingham — but we did!

The distance from Richmond to Bellingham is not far, 50 miles, to be precise, and the border was easy that day, so the trip took us about an hour and a half. Mr. H. was terrific at the border, charming the border guard with an ebullient "HI!!!", but he was later horrified to learn that on subsequent days our travel time would be much longer — the Richmond-to-Bellingham hour seemed about the right length to him for a travel day, maybe a titch long, in fact. We are anticipating that he will learn many things on this trip and hopefully the relationship between time and distance will be one of them. Basic physics. E=MC2. Harvard, here we come. In the meantime, we pursue truth and knowledge. And patience. Only 932 miles to go.

Our first stop once across the border is always the Bellingham RV Park and then Trader Joe's. We don't carry provisions across the border anymore. They ask you if you're carrying food and if you say yes they may very well send you off for an agricultural inspection, which we did once, and once was enough. The inspection isn't a problem but the two hours it took to get it done was a drag. So now we don't take food, don't get inspected, and stock up at TJ's in B'ham.

Nothing noteworthy here, just that we actually managed to cram all our stuff on the bus and actually left town. Amazing. And now we get used to living in a tin can together for the next few weeks. Cool.

[Burd flash: a half dozen western grebes floating by our window, as I write this, diving and bobbing, hopefully catching breakfast. Ah yes, birding. That, too.]

Hookup time! H is getting right into being the first mate, loving attaching things, turning on the water and power.

The mighty Columbia and a tug with a tall conning tower--good for high loads, I assume.

 

Off the bus and ready for birding!

First order of business: Throw rocks in the water.

So far, the weather has been poor to fair, with a few splotches of sun, but mostly cloudy and rainy. But that's okay--not freezing, so we've been able to dump the anti-freeze and have water in our lines, a major bonus.

Not a lot of time for blogging with a wildman on board, so that's it for the first couple of days.

First night: Bellingham RV Park
Second night: Columbia Riverfront RV Park, Woodland WA

Day 3: Woodland to Coburg (Eugene), OR

It was a short day -- theoretically 2 hours from Woodland to Coburg -- that took us five hours. More provisioning at WalMart (turns out Trader Joe's doesn't have EVERYTHING) and since one of us is celiac, all labels must be read. Took an hour and a half there and then we all fell in love with the Flying J Truck Stop further down the road in Oregon for a gas fill up (50 gallons, $114 -- WOW!), a stop for truckers filled with all kinds of wondrous things -- aisles of junk food, but also fresh fruit, fresh-cut salsa, cheese and apple snack trays, usb-to-12V plugs, CDs, spare automotive things, various trucking aids, spotless washrooms, happy clerks -- and one of us got a 2-inch toy snow plough -- my goodness!!! And special gas pumps for RVs. Unheard of.  So another hour or so there. And a two-hour drive becomes five. So it goes.

Went down the I-5 to Vancouver, then ducked around Portland on the 205 -- piece of cake. Getting through Portland is always a little tense as the signage isn't good and there are layers of freeways going here and there. Our new Garmin GPS is a huge disappointment, but it warned us about the wind on the bridge going across the Columbia. A bit hairy as it was really blowing and keeping the RV in its lane was a bit of a wrestling match, especially with huge trailer trucks barrelling by on either side. But we persevered. And I begrudgingly gave the new GPS a few points. But just a few.

As always, Ron gets nostalgic when we drive through Oregon and the wide lush flatland of the Willamette Valley. No different this time. Saw lots of hawks and eagles along the way. And fields of sheep. And lots of traffic on the I-5.

We were into Premier RV Park in Coburg (Eugene) by 3:30, in time for a walk around the pond where there were lots of neat birds -- common mergansers, a bufflehead pair, gadwalls, heron, egrets and a whole field of turkey vultures right next door. And then back to the Coburg Pizza Company for long awaited pizza -- a treat that Ron especially looks forward to for miles ahead of time. The company has expanded, but the pizza is still great AND they have gluten free!!

H and A enjoy the pond at the RV park.