Driving Day … Jefferson to Gig Harbor

Saturday, 12 May 2018
Gig Harbor RV Resort — Gig Harbor, Washington
Temps: 70F (21C) / 46F (8C)

We changed states today.  Nothing new in that, really … we’ve been doing so since we left Houston over three weeks ago.  The difference is that we’ll be staying in this state for a while.  The other thing we did today was to cross the 45th parallel — which is half way between the Equator and the North Pole.  There was a road sign that marks the crossing, but it came up much too fast for me to take a photo of it ;-)

Thirty seven years ago, Mui and I got married; he got his green card a month later … I already had a US passport; we packed our bags and made the big move to the USA just a few days after that.  We arrived in Washington State on the second day of 1982 … to the home of friends of friends who did not know us from Adam, but who graciously opened up their lives to us.

During the 15 months we lived in Washington, we traveled a great deal … exploring all that the state offered every single weekend … sometimes sleeping in the car because we didn’t have the extra pennies for a hotel room.  We have wonderful memories of those days.  But that is a story I’ve already told in our Blasts from the Past blog [1982 thru March 1983 in the archives], so no sense getting into it all over again.

Our time in Washington on this road trip is planned to be just over five weeks … based at a campground south of the Seattle hub-bub.  Our goal is to see just how much the area has changed since we left it in 1983 and see if we might want to settle down here again when we eventually wrap up our vagabond lifestyle.  We’ll do some sightseeing as well … but that will be our secondary focus … and will likely mostly involve revisiting old haunts.

In London … waiting for our onward flight to Seattle.

On that note … let me get back to today’s story … which started with a wake-up at 6:30a.  We were on the road north shortly before 9:00a.  Our first stop was in Oregon — at the French Prairie Rest Area.  We dallied just long enough to give Mui a stretch-your-legs break and take a quick wander around to enjoy the lovely rhododendrons that were adding color to the forest landscape in which the rest area is set.

At 10:30a, leaving Oregon’s “we’re sorry to see you go” overcast skies behind, we were welcomed to Washington with “we’re happy to see you arrive” cheery sunshine and blue skies.  That’s something worth mentioning since the state is prone to more cloudy skies and rain than not … or so the locals say.

Hello Washington … nice to see you again.

The Toutle River Rest Stop at MM54 on I-5N — in a lovely forest setting — was our next stop.  Picnic shelters invited us to dine al fresco.  But it was a breezy 66F (19C).  The unwelcome chill kept us indoors, so we didn’t dally over lunch.

Our final stop was at the Pilot Truck Stop at exit 99 on I-5N. Topped off in no time, we took advantage of the scales at this ‘quieter’ truck stop to get the Phaeton weighed.  Nice to see that she has indeed ‘slimmed down’ … our spring clean-up has paid off.

Traffic really picked up as we continued on from the Pilot station.  Yes, Toto … we’re in the outskirts of a major metropolitan area now.  I put the laptop away and enjoyed the ride as we passed by familiar places — Joint Base Lewis-McChord … which back in the day was two separate bases; Tumwater Falls Park … where there once was a brewery; Mount Rainier … which had thrown off its cloak to give us a distant view.

Despite the traffic, we were sailing along nicely when red brake lights started coming on in quick succession ahead of us.  An overhead sign indicated there was a collision … just two miles from our exit.  Darn!  At least the traffic kept moving slowly through what turned out to be a 10-car bumper buster.  Passing the scene, we took exit 132 off I-5, crossed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to Gig Harbor, and left the traffic behind.

The span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that we’re on was built in 1950 to replace the bridge that was destroyed in 1940 … just three months after it had opened to service.

We arrived at Gig Harbor RV Resort around 2:30p.  I checked us in and inquired about rig washing … which we are allowed to do as long as we don’t use any kind of soap or chemicals and do mostly a bucket-wash.  This is good news as the Phaeton is in desperate need of a bath.

The campground is situated on a hill … with terraced gravel sites.
We’re all the way at the bottom … hidden behind the trees on the right side.

Site 5 is one of the 50A-FHU back-in sites … exceptionally wide, as are most of the sites here.  The forest setting is lovely, though it means getting a satellite signal is iffy.  We’re in one of the few sites that can get a signal, but it requires careful positioning of the rig.  When we first parked, we got as close to the utilities as possible to leave space to park the car.  That didn’t work for the satellite dish, so we pulled out and positioned a little further from the hook-ups.  The second time was the charm.

At first it looked like we might have trouble getting level, but we managed to do so without effort.  There’s cable TV … and wi-fi.  The latter is not very good from my desk inside the rig, but quite speedy if we sit on the sofa on the opposite side or when we sit outside.

We’ll park the toad on the driver’s side to give ourselves more patio space.

Thus our days of driving have concluded for a while.  We are looking forward to exploring our former home state from our base in Gig Harbor.  Fingers crossed the weather cooperates.

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