Tag: Washington

The first winter I lived in Seattle, a bad storm sank the Hood Canal Bridge. The winds were hurricane-force, and despite efforts to stop the action, down she went! It took them until 1982 to reopen it. In the interim, they used Ferrys—essentially very short floating bridges with big motors attached.

After I left in 1990, the I-90 Floating Bridge sank. This time someone fucked up and left the hatches open. I am glad I didn’t have to deal with that. I regularly crossed in when living east of Seattle in the early 1980s and working at Boeing.

That leaves the Evergreen Floating Bridge. It, to the best of my knowledge, has never sunk. Jake and I found comfort as we crossed it, heading for our next stop in Bellevue.

---

Our first floating bridge today was the rebuilt Hood Canal Bridge. The skies were beautiful, with high clouds. There is no place I have ever lived that has the natural water & land combo beauty of Puget Sound. Sweden’s archipelago is similar, and I can see why so many Scandinavian peoples settled here.

That led us to the Kingston Edmunds Ferry.

Jake had his first ferry boat ride, and I made my first aw-shit with the trailer. I forgot to retract the door handle, and it got whacked when I pulled on board. One of the guys loading told me he heard something. I was dreadfully embarrassed. Surprisingly, it still works fine – just one trim piece missing and a stripped screw!

That leads us to the area north of Seattle. It came back quickly, as did the drive down I-5 into Seattle. The Seattle area now has many clusters of high-rise buildings poking up out of the trees, like a city of cities. It was obvious with today’s beautiful weather. All surprisingly familiar to me.

After we crossed the Evergreen Floating Bridge (aka 520 – just like Cocoa Beach!), we drove through Bellevue to the RV spot. I spent a lot of time here; other than buildings everywhere, it looks oddly familiar.

The RV Park is a grandfathered gem in an area I frequented. I probably drove by it hundreds of times. They have a great bonus – a European-style pool area with a hot tub and sauna! Bonus points!

Seattle redux

I spent the next two days with my nephew Adam and his lovely wife, Zeynab.

I also had the Starship Excellent Adventure docked at the local BMW dealership for a new set of shoes and some other work.

We hung out and visited the Center For Wooden Boats on Lake Union. We drove around – most of the area was surprisingly familiar to me again. We even drove by all that remained of the famous Pink Elephant Car Wash. It’s now located smack dab in the middle of a bunch of Amazon office buildings!

The Center for Wooden Boats mostly features spaces where boat owners can work on building a restoring the boats. They have a lot of boats on the docks, including some very large ships. It was an enjoyable, low-key visit.

We also made a visit to my old Alma Mater, the University of Washington, to pick up some merch.

Being a passenger (thanks for driving, Adam!) gave me a different perspective. I had not really wanted to revisit some of these places – too much baggage associated with my time here. Instead, the memories were fondly revisited. Go figure!

I did a good walk with Jake at a nice park near their house. I have noticed in several spots I visited that there is an effort to preserve some of the natural areas deep in the urban areas. Seattle is often called the City in the Trees.

The weather for both days was glorious 🤩. It was a clear reminder that this was undoubtedly the most beautiful place I had ever lived. Maybe under different circumstances, I would have wanted to remain here. One thing is for sure, though – the place is intolerably crowded now. Humanity has stamped its indelible footprint on Mother Nature here!

---

Seven Weeks Out

We start the journey south with the Starship back in fully operational mode, and my wallet is significantly lighter! New tires all around, front brakes, and they figured out why the check engine light was coming on. It was worth the rather expensive repair not to have to look at the damn light for the next month or so!

Today marks day 50 on our journey, beating our previous record in 2021 of 49 days out! I am still in no hurry to get home. I am not so sure about Jake, though! I am afraid I am wearing him out sometimes. However, he is ready to go on another car ride every morning we head out!

The first time I ever stayed at a Bed & Breakfast was in Port Townsend. In the early 1980s, it was a getaway for Seattlites. There was an excellent restaurant on the water somewhere that I went to on several occasions. What I remember the most was Fort Worden.

The movie An Officer and a Gentleman came out in 1981 and featured scenes from town and the fort. I had a massive crush on Debra Winger. Port Townsend seemed to increase in popularity over the years, so I thought I would check it out. Plus, I scored a great RV spot at the Marina near downtown.

We set up the Excellent Adventure. We finally got a site with a killer view! We headed into town. Then it started to drizzle.

---

Fort Worden

We woke early to the sound of drizzle. If I learned anything from the nearly eight years I spent here, it was to ignore the rain. It made for some dramatic skies as we explored the beach and lighthouse.

I spotted an Eagle up high in a tree. Resting from the morning hunt? Trying to get out of the drizzle?

Later we hiked up to an old military installation in the fort. Some big guns were perched here in the late 1800s. Like the fort we saw in Maine last Fall – it never saw any action.

The view from the cliffs where the guns were placed was stunning. You could see across the whole range of the mouth to the Puget Sound.

You could easily understand why this was such a strategic location.

By the end of our morning outing, the drizzle had pretty well stopped. Thanks be, Oh Noodley One!

Port Townsend

Staying in the Marina was a great experience. We had some great walks in the drizzle and otherwise!

Jake stayed in the trailer in the afternoon as I wandered into town. Very, very good vibe here. No Fuck You Biden flags to be seen!

As advertised, the town was full of art galleries and shops with unique and numerous ways to unload yourself of those cumbersome wads of cash. I knew I was in trouble when I saw a gallery for woodworking.

I wasn’t disappointed and left with a few unique items, including a carving of a humpback whale in a rare buckeye burl. Stunning 🤩.

I walked up a long flight of stairs to get a shot.

As I walked up to take a picture, a momma deer and her two fawns cautiously strolled across my path before disappearing into the bushes on the steep hillside. How cool is that!

---

We enjoyed our time here in the mystical Port Townsend. The vibe alone was worth it. I had never seen so many Bernie stickers on Prius anywhere! Not a tRumper in sight!

Next, we head to Seattle to visit the fam and get the X6 serviced before heading southeast again toward home.

It’s official: The Banana Slug is a thing. Some clever marketing type decided to capitalize on people’s utter disgust and fascination for what I used to call the state bird of Washington State. It turns out it uncannily parallels my time in the Evergreen State.

When I made that trip to Seattle some 48 years ago, it made an impression. It was so different than anything I had experienced so far. For some reason, I was compelled to move there only to discover how much I disliked living there. Especially these fucking banana slugs that oozed their slime everywhere and ate your lovely plants. Pretty much the story of my life – fire, ready, aim!

When I arrived, my goal was to become a Nuclear Engineer. When I left, I was a marketing type for a big, prestigious high-tech company. WFT? When I was offered the job, I thought to myself:

What the fuck do I know about Marketing other than I’ve spent most of my time thinking this kind of stuff was complete bullshit?

Me in 1984 after being offered a job in marketing for Hewlett-Packard

Here’s what it was – I would get to travel the world to do this. After all, when I finally left Seattle some eight years later, it was to move to Germany. Was it worth it?

Ask the Banana Slug.

The Big Kahuna

We drove to the further reach of the trip today.

We started the drive by crossing the massive Astoria-Megler Bridge outside Astoria. I am glad I didn’t have to do it in a windstorm! The long drive across the causeway dumped us into Washington.

The drive north seemed comfortably familiar. Very green and had lots of water, large production plants for forest products (and the various smells that accompany them!), and small towns that looked somehow stuck a bit in the past.

We eventually reached the Quinault Reservation and into the Olympic National Forest. People and several named rainforests, including the Hoh. A series of beaches along the coast marked 1, 2, 3, and so on. It seemed sort of unimaginative to me!

Our stop for two nights is Forks. Forks is also famous (as I quickly learned) for being the backdrop for the Twilight Vampire books. There are several themed stores in town for the faithful to score merch. The RV Park was not the greatest, and a pack of obnoxious dogs was in a private residence across from me. One did a divebomb on Jake out of the blue before the owner yelled at him enough that he left.

---

Hoh Rain Forest

I visited here before in the Winter, sometime in the early 1980s. It was a bright sunny day, although it had been raining earlier. I remember the thick moss sparkling with moisture and the green glow everything had.

It maybe wasn’t quite what I remembered, but it was stunning!

I walked the Hall of Mosses trail. I saw the nurse tree, whose name came from new trees that would take root in the fallen log. When the nurse tree finally decayed, it exposed the newer tree’s roots.

Although it had been drizzling, it held off until I left the park.

The Hoh River flows out of the park. There was a fair amount of road damage where the river had caused damage from Spring runoff. There were a lot of large trees in places held together by substantial concrete blocks explicitly shaped to keep them more or less in place.

As we left the park, it started to rain harder. It was our first good rain since we left the South over a month ago. It was refreshing! Thank you, Oh Noodly One, for the most excellent weather!

---

Rialto Beach

In the afternoon, we drove west to the coast. Rialto Beach sits on the north side of the mouth of the Guillayute River. It is littered with driftwood of all shapes and sizes from hundreds of years of flooding.

I learned the islands that sit off the coast like this are called stack islands. There were some very nice ones here!

The weather was spectacular – cool and breezy with a great mix of clouds and sun.

The Big Kahuna – Indeed!

---

If it could, the Banana Slug would say something like Slime On Dude. I saw a sign at the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center that the Banana Slug is queer because it can change sex at will. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Time to make something else up! Can I get a ‘ramen? 🤣.

Everything is as it is supposed to be. More memories to update. Another checkmark on the endless bucket list. Next stop, another memory to investigate, this time in the mystical Port Townsend.