Day 3 - We are in Canada!

The above picture sums up our first couple days of the trip. It has been raining fairly consistently since about 3:30am on Tuesday morning. We spent Tuesday night in Tumwater, Washington. That was supposed to be our long day, about 9 hours in the RV from Mount Shasta to Tumwater (Map). Nothing to exciting on Tuesday, just spent the day on the road.

Today was supposed to be a short day, Tumwater, Wa too Hope, British Columbia (Map). Instead it turned into a total fiasco. The main highway had a major mudslide (details here) which blocked traffic in both directions. Fortunately we have a GPS unit with us and it warned us just in time so we bailed off the highway before we got stuck in the backup. The detour took us down a back road called highway 7. The GPS gave us a thrill when it took us off highway 7, led us through a neighborhood then down a dirt road towards a quarry before getting us back on the highway. For a moment I thought we were in big trouble, it spent most of the day raining on us so the road towards the quarry was a bit muddy. Wasn't really sure how I was going to explain to Kim and her Mom that I got us stuck in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately we made it safely and are now in the campground in Hope. Unfortunately, it continues to pour rain on us.

We took a bunch of pictures with one of our cameras today. However, it seems I have left the cable to upload those pictures in Santa Rosa or Flagstaff. I am going to look for it some more tomorrow and if I can't find it I'll see about picking up a card reader.

We are heading towards Hell's Gate tomorrow. Thanks for reading - Post comments and let us know if you are following our adventure. Doug and Kim

Day 1

We left Santa Rosa at about 8 am this morning and have made it to Mount Shasta. It was a pretty uneventful day. The one item of note was Denny Hamlin's marketing trailer pulled in next to us at a rest stop on I-5. The guy was cool and I got a tour, he was hauling 1 display car and lots of merchandise.

After arriving at the KOA we walked downtown to what has to be one of the worst farmers market's I have ever seen. There were, I think, 7 booths total selling crap like Kale. Where's the corn on the cob? Not down there. It was a nice walk, about 3/4's of a mile each way and Mount Shasta seems like a cool place, sort of a miniature Flagstaff. Nice big mountain with a surprising amount of snow for mid June. I didn't get any pictures of it yet, maybe tomorrow depending on when we leave.

Amazingly, I already have 2 mosquito bites. Kim and her Mom have a combined total of zero. This does not bode well (for me) as we head north into serious mosquito territory.

We should be in Olympia Washington this time tomorrow. Here's a link to a google map of today's trip.

The trip starts in about 8 hours!

We plan to leave at 7am tomorrow, just a bit less than 8 hours from now. The first day is a short one, we drive from Santa Rosa to Mount Shasta. I'm pretty wound up but spent most of today in the sun at the Nascar race in Sonoma. The race course let fans walk the track after the race, here I am in front of Ryan Newman's pit box. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight. Let the trip of a lifetime begin.

35 Hours til go time.

We plan to leave Monday at 7am! The RV is mostly packed, just a few last minutes items to get together. Kim and I are off to the NASCAR race in Sonoma tomorrow!

First RV Picture

I should have more up on Picasa later tonight or tomorrow. Here's a wide angle shot of our summer tour chariot. It's a 26' Jamboree. Got the pictures of the RV posted. Here's the link.

Golf at Bodega Bay 6-20-11

Links style course on the ocean. Beautiful - I played really good for me, shot a 90 from the blue tee's. Scorecard

Final day

Today marks my last day of work at the Hopi Jr/Sr High School. We are also moving out of our apartment today. It's going to be a long one!