2016 Sides Family Road Trip

I’ve experienced a lot of things for the first time in the last two days:
1. visiting Washington State
2. arranging a ride with Uber
3. participating in a 13-hour grocery shopping marathon
4. driving an RV
5. parking an RV
6. fueling an RV
7. flooding an RV

1. Visiting Washington State:  it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and quite gorgeous.  I’ve heard about the lush greenery and persistent rain/clouds/humidity, but it certainly must be experienced to fully understand.  I got up early both mornings and took a little jog near our airport hotel.  The first day, JT went with me (under duress). We did more walking than running at first, but after we had seen a few curious and unexpected things, he was in good spirits, so we sped up and ended up loping along farther than I expected.  Keeping in mind that our hotel is in what looks to be a depressed industrial section of Kent, WA, southeast of SeaTac airport, here are some of those curious an unexpected things:

Wild black raspberries – lots of ripe ones, too – but in the oddest place: in the middle of the passing highway’s cloverleaf, by the overpass.  I stopped and picked 3 of the most perfect examples I could spot (I didn’t want to stand there eating a whole breakfast’s worth, else passersby would think I was loonie). I ate one, found it delicious, and implored JT to eat one, too.  Even though he’s seen me spot and eat wild raspberries or blueberries on hikes, he still ate it with surprisingly little hesitation, and also found it to be quite good.  I ate the last one myself as a reward for my stupidity in eating something so probably saturated by carbon monoxide and other road pollution.  As I would discover throughout the day, these things are growing all OVER the place, so much so that people probably forget they are there.

Mysterious holes in a field – certainly made by an industrious burrowing rodent, the empty lot on the opposite side of the highway from the fruit had one of these holes ever 15-20 feet.  But they seemed larger, to me, than the typical mole holes I’ve seen back home.  I took a few seconds to try to spot one of the engineers, and we couldn’t wait around long, so I still don’t know exactly what it was that had requisitioned this space.

• An empty condom wrapper – To be fair, we had already started jogging at this point, so I want call it motivation. And, obviously, this is quite a disgusting thing to find on the side of the road, but the remarkable factor is that JT as the only one who spotted it and, at that age, those things are amusing an any setting, I suppose. When he said “ew, I just saw…” I wondered if would really know what it was. Also, unsure whether he had said it was the box, wrapper, or the prophylactic itself, I asked if he saw the brand. He did, and he named a popular brand. Huh. It’s amazing, some of the things a 13-year old knows. Maybe I can get him to start working on my taxes, too.

Geoffry the Uber Driver was great. Once I broke the ice with a couple of questions/comments, he talked excitedly about a lot of interesting things that I didn’t understand at all because of his heavy Filipino accent. Driver and passenger rated each other 5 stars at the end of the trip.

Grocery Shopping at Fred Meyer was not what I expected.  Woah, back up:

Driving this RV is almost TOO easy!  It’s got so much power, it’s easy to forget that behind me I’m trailing more square footage of living space and food, furniture, and appliances than I had in my college form room – all 4 years combined!  It’s so big that at one point I was so unsuccessful in getting someone’s attention to come help me with directions that I had to start calling cell phones.  And it’s so smooth to drive and tracks so nicely, it’s quite comfortable driving itself while I check the rear view camera, read maps, fiddle with the touch screen, and eat lunch.  It’s a good thing we don’t have any DVDs to put in the in-dash system, or I’d never actually watch the road.  The back end is quite long and low, though.  If you come out of a sides street that isn’t exactly level with the connecting street, there’s a big chance of leaving my signature carved in pavement. That’s only happened 3 times today.  But I’m collecting pavement samples from every state, so it’s okay.  When it’s actually possible to get into such a crooked angle as to avoid it, I make sure everyone in the coach is aware of my success.  Also, with how long it is, I have to be careful about how it cuts the angle on the turns, as well as how much the back end swings into the other lane on turns.  Only once did I run the curb, and that wasn’t my fault, because the curb as that close to me when I started the turn.  And I almost bought a junky old Mustang to the left of me in the Fred Meyer parking lot when I turned right immediately upon exiting my parking spot.  But I caught myself in time and aborted the right turn and went across lanes so I could get to an open area.

Yea, parking is an issue. It fits very nicely into exactly 2 full length spots. At big stores, this is fine, but the first sightseeing stop on our trip? The nicely partitioned and garden decorated rows of single-car parking spaces at the Microsoft Visitor Center. (Yea, I really ant a Microsoft watch for Christmas, by the way… and a Nokia 950… just saying). And once you’re in the lot and don’t fit, how do you possibly get out? It took a phone call to the people inside. Anyway, we were EXACTLY on schedule with leaving the hotel on time, getting there on time, and then immediately 30 minutes behind due to the parking fiasco.

Anyway, Fred Meyer was a disappointment.  It was convenient to walk over and shop while the RV was in for an oil change before we departed, but prices were high and choices were actually limited. We finally gave up and asked Siri for the nearest Super Walmart.  It turned out to be a regular Walmart with some of the additional things we needed, but not all.  So we had to go to a regular grocery store to round out our pantry, but really only getting a quarter to a third of what I thought we’d buy.  Dropping JT and Mom at the hotel and unpacking my luggage into the camper, I identified a couple of things I thought I had left at home.  Sean and I returned to Walmart, this time the one closest to the hotel, which turned out to be a Super Walmart and had EVERYTHING I needed and wanted in the first place!  *Sigh*

I’ve “only” stopped for gas 3 times.  I didn’t need gas last night after shopping, but I figured I’d start the real trip 100% full, just because.  It’ only took $12 worth.  Then, early today, we had to make a stop for some Motrin just to have on hand.  I picked a large convenience store, and figured I’d top off while I waited and it only took about $12 more.  That allowed me to get all the way to Albert, MT.  Yes, the warning light was on when we pulled in, and all 3 of the exits in the last 40 mile stretch had signs that said “no services” but it was basically 75 miles worth of gentle downhill slope all the way from the “July 4” mountain pass in Idaho to the campground, so Cheryl wasn’t worried in the least.

We arrived at our campground at 9pm, with plenty of daylight to do the electrical and plumbing hookups for the first time.  As instructed when I made the reservation, I went into the on-premise bar to check in.  Much to my shock, there is also a casino there (i.e. 3 or 4 slot machines). The bartender was happy to give me a map of their facility, circle my reserved site, and give me misleading instruction for what amounted to driving around the front of the building and turning into the 3rd spot on the right.  Maybe she’s never actually been out back and seen the campsites.  She also happily directed me to the nearest gas station a quarter mile away, over the bridge.

She said even though the gas station is closed (because everything in town closes at 7:00pm) the pumps are on and will still take my credit card.  Everything in town, eh?  That would be the gas station, and… yea, that’s it.  Except it’s called a grocery store, whose fuel pumps in an empty lot across the street.  Oh, and if you buy diesel you can either pat $2.53/gallon or $2.93/gallon, whichever you prefer, depending whether you agree the gas tax or not, apparently. Mind you, this is Alberton, MT.  Look at all that green on the map around it.  That’s National Forest, not civilization.  And nearby towns are called “Riverbend” and “Spring Gulch,” not “Booming Metropolis” or “Suburban Woderland.”  In this town of just over 400 residents, just how often does the county sheriff roll in to check what color diesel everyone has in their road vehicles?  Anyway, after exceeding the $100 limit on the gas pump, and standing there wondering if real tumbleweeds might make an appearance, we finally arrived back at our camp sight, just as the last of the daylight disappeared.

Hook-up went quite well.  Electrical was easy.  Water input was fine, after I corrected the mistake of attaching to the outdoor shower instead of the full system.  We tested inside and had A/C power and running water!  Hooking up the sewage hose went fine, and opening the valves and draining the tanks was going great.  Unfortunately, moments later, Mom started screaming “it’s overflowing!” and “make it stop!”  Fearing we had just started flooding our unit with sewage, I started shutting valves and things in a hurry.  By that time, she’d spotted the problem.  The bathroom sink she opened to run the test was never turned off, and since its drain was plugged to block fumes during storage, it had now overfilled its basin.  That problem was solved and mopped up in no  time. Whew!

All-in-all, it was a fantastic start.  We’ve already witnessed some amazing scenery.  Then again, I didn’t really expect anything short.  In fact, I got a fortune cookie yesterday that proves it, so I hooked it on the dashboard: