Days 356-356, July 24-26, 2011
South Shore Campground/Pacific Ocean-$10, 16247 Bay Ridge “home”--$60 + utilites
Gas $3.76 and $3.86 per gallon
We were up bright and early the morning at Ed and Ilona’s but we knew that their circadian rhythm runs later in the day than ours so we lazed in bed in the camper until it was a “reasonable” time to go into their home. Imagine our surprise when we found them already on their second cup of coffee around the kitchen table waiting on the sleepy heads in the camper. What a treat to have coffee ready and waiting for us.
When we left Centralia we headed a bit south on I-5 to get to a road we had never traveled: Hwy 6 out of Chehalis. We made a brief stop at the local Walmart to stock up on ice and some fruit and commented to each other how weird it felt to be shopping in a Walmart so close to home. Even through we have relied heavily on Walmarts across the nation, it’s not our preferred grocery store at home. Once one Hwy 6 our stomachs started rumbling and we knew that our days of eating out were counting down so we stopped at a little hole in the wall in Doty and had a terrible breakfast. Maybe road food is just starting to lose its appeal for us.
We head up north at Raymond on Hwy 101, a highway that is so familiar to us since it runs all the way around the Olympic Peninsula…our stomping grounds. As we wound our way through tall Pacific Northwest trees and by ugly scars left from past timber harvests we tried to see the area through tourists’ eyes even through we’re “home”. We have come to realize that there is a distinct beauty to every part of our country, Washington being no exception. But I noticed that we didn’t take random road pictures and didn’t stop at places most tourists would because, well, we’re not tourists. Been there, done that.
We got to the campground by the ocean mid-afternoon and the place was a parking lot as we expected it to be on a Sunday afternoon in July. It had been gloriously sunny all day until we got to the ocean where it was foggy and chilly. It was beautiful. We found a little spot back from the front rows of ocean-front camping and while we didn’t have a perfect view of the ocean, we were able to hear the relentless pounding of the ocean waves...music to our ears. It didn’t take us long to make friends with the folks camped next to us and by the end of the evening we had made friends with a couple who did have the perfect camping spot on the ocean. I had taken a romantic picture of them that was postcard-perfect so told them to go to our website and lift the picture for their Christmas card this year if they want to.
Our second day on the ocean started with musical campers. One by one the people in the front row packed up and headed home so we packed up and headed to the front row. After we got settled in it was time to head to the beach for a nice long walk. The air was delightfully cool and the wind was in our face as we walked hand in hand up the beach. We stopped to examine a huge monster of a tree that had fallen into the ocean many, many years ago and now lies as a monument to the power of the ocean.
Back near the camper we stopped to gather driftwood for the evening’s fire. It’s amazing that there was any driftwood left since we had watched person after person making the trip down to the beach and back up with big bundles of it, but I guess Mother Nature makes sure that there is an ample supply from year to year.
We ate leftovers that day: steak, chicken soup, chips and salsa, carrots. It’s a weird thing to know that we will not need to do any more shopping between being at the ocean and getting back to our home. Where did the year go?! After a relaxing but melancholy day we toasted our trip and ourselves while we sat around the crackling fire, reminiscing about the adventure as I’m sure will be do many, many times in days to come.
Today we awoke to a very foggy and cold morning; people were huddled around smoking fires waiting for the sun to break through. We didn’t waste any time packing up the camper and heading on up to Forks, the home of the vampires and werewolves of the Twilight stories. Those movies pumped new life into a little logging town that is better known for rainfall that is measured in feet instead of inches. We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant we have been to before and therefore knew we’d get a good meal: crispy chicken fried steak smothered in gravy and pancakes larger than a platter. Our last meal on our “eating up the road” journey. And thank goodness, too…we both have put on weight that needs to get lost as soon as possible!
After breakfast we headed east still on Hwy 101 around Lake Crescent and onward to Port Angeles, the home of Jake’s Aunt Kate. Jake had called her from the restaurant so as not to give her a heart attack by just showing up. After exchanging big hugs we had a delightful visit but I’m afraid we talked her ear off trying to condense a year of stories into a 2-hour visit. Aunt Kate faithfully followed the blog all year so I’m sure some of the stories were repeats but she didn’t seem to mind.
On the way home Jake turned on his favorite radio show, The Men’s Room, and was thrilled to hear The Question of the Day: What streak are you on? The Mariners have lost 17 games in a row, a streak of dubious honor, so the guys wanted to know…for good or for bad, what kind of streak are you on? Jake looked at me with astonishment and said, “I HAVE to call in!” so we pulled over, Jake got in the camper to make the call, and I sat in the truck and listened to the show. It was a really cool way to end the trip, even if it was bragging.
Now we are home. We were going to just sleep in the camper tonight but decided to break the seal on the garage, our storage unit, to see what exactly might be accessible for comfort in the home. We could see our mattress buried in the far end of the garage and it called to us. Before we knew it the front layer of “stuff” had been moved into the other bay of the garage and we were carting in the sofa, our table and chairs, the mattress, a bag of sheets and towels, and the coffee pot. We don’t need much more than that to be comfortable and we don’t want to move any more than we have to in case the Idaho job still comes through.
It is strange but good to be home. The renters took excellent care of the house but the outside landscaping has turned into a jungle that will need to be attacked as soon as possible. Oh, we also walked up the road to get our dog, Kanela. We had wondered if she would remember us and boy, I guess she did. She practically turned herself inside-out when she saw us, going back and forth between Jake and me, not knowing who to touch and lick first. If she had been any more excited she would have had a heart attack.
We will have plenty of time to reflect upon this year in the days, weeks, and months to come so I won’t wax poetic here. It feels good to be home but it feels strange to not be planning where to go “tomorrow”. The days ahead will be filled with seeing old friends, going through all of our “stuff” (there is so much!!!), and settling into a new rhythm. And planning the next trip.
Jakeism: THAT WAS AWESOME!
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| Our welcome home meal. |
