Playtime!: Wonderful Washington: Travel & Day 1

Yesterday’s travel day was uneventful! Kendra and May kept my car and drove me to Dulles. I got there in plenty of time and whizzed through security! I got to ride the cool new train out to the B terminal! I am sad to see Dulles’s “space age” shuttles go by the wayside though. When they built Dulles back in the 70’s it was very “futuristic” which of course just looks silly and dated now, but I think it has a certain charm!

The flight from Dulles to Long Beach CA was 5 hours! Thank goodness for the seat back TVs on Jet Blue! I channel surfed the whole way there! I had a 4 hour layover in Long Beach. Let’s just say 3 hours and 45 mins would have been sufficient to exhaust all possible activities at the Long Beach CA airport! The gate area for Jet Blue was simply a big room with about 4 gates – looked like a temporary building! Thank goodness they had free wifi! And as a bonus, I found a plug so I could play away and not worry about losing power!

When we finally arrived in Seattle the sun was setting over the mountains and I got great views of Mt. Rainier and other mountains! The setting sun bathed the mountains in glorious pinks and oranges! WOW! :-)

I successfully navigated my way to the courtesy van pick up point and got the shuttle to my hotel for the night! I arrived at the hotel around 9:30 and I was in bed by 10! (after 1 am on the East Coast) It wasn’t the best night of sleep, but it will do!

This morning Dad picked me up at the hotel and we went back to where they were camping. It was a glorious clear sunny day and we were rewarded with awesome views of Mt. Rainier as we made our way to the campground!

Soon we were on our way to Everett to pick up my motor home! We got there about 2 hours before our appointed pick up time, but my motorhome was on the lot and ready so they let us pick it up! After we headed over the Fred Meyer and mom and dad went on a little wild goose chase to find the mail and I stayed behind and unpacked all my stuff!

I have a “compact” RV – it’s only 19ft! It’s a breeze to drive, but it’s tiny! Lots of little “hidey holes” though for all my junk, I just hope I remember where I hid everything! My favorite thing so far though is that it has an MP3 jack so my iPod plays through the speakers!

After a quick lunch at Wendy’s we hit Fred Meyer for supplies. We had gone to Fred Meyer in Alaska so I was looking forward to going again, however this was the most ghetto Fred Meyer ever! I saw so many atrociously dressed people I think it needs it’s own “People of” site!

Finally, about 2:00 we were on our way to North Cascades! What a drive! We started on the highway and could make out the mountains in the distance. Eventually we turned off the highway and headed up the back roads to the park! The mountains just got bigger and bigger! Soon there were lakes and rivers too! I think North Cascades could be the love child of the Kenai Peninsula and Denali in Alaska!

We rolled into the National Park campground around 5:30 and had a few moments of confusion about how to proceed. We had reserved sites so we decided to go right to the site. We weren’t sure how to get there so when we stopped at a stop sign Dad jumped out of his MH to look for direction. Seeing that he was going for a walk I decided to take that opportunity to go to the bathroom so I put the MH in park and got up. I was mid-pee when I heard his big diesel engine roar off! Oh NO!

I quickly finished up and started driving, but I quickly lost my parents! I had no idea where they had vanished to and no idea where I was. I kept driving. The road eventually turned to a narrow gravel road and it was pretty clear that they hadn’t come that way. There had been no sign or anything to let me know where I was, or that I wasn’t supposed to be driving there. I had no way to turn around so I had to keep going and hope for the best! Luckily, the road ended at a maintenance building with enough space for me to turn around! Then I was worried I’d encounter another car on the 1 lane road as I made my way back. Luckily I did not!

Finally I used the radio and figured out where mom and dad had gotten too! Later I was looking at the map and the road I was on is a dashed line – meaning that it’s not really a road meant for vehicles! yikes! :-)

After dinner we spent the evening planning what we will be doing the rest of the time we are here! Right now it’s 9 pm and it’s not even dark (you could read a book sitting outside) but I’m ready for bed! The time change is a pain!