End of A Chapter

 I am sad today.  On Sunday 18 July 2021 at 9:44 pm Pacific Time at our home Salem Oregon my beloved Valerie, wife of 53 years, mother of two wonderful daughters, grandmother of two awesome grandchildren, took to her angel wings and departed this life.  Although her final year of battling ALS was often a struggle, it also was a time of intense closeness and added numerous new memories we could both take with us on our future journeys, now physically separate, but forever together in spirit and heart.

I dedicate all future posts in this blog to my loving wife Valerie as we together revisit old places and explore new ones.

.To Valerie,  

I love you.  💕

A Side Road To 11,000 Feet

Day three of the trip we take Lamb Chop to see some Alpine Meadows in the Snowy Mountains south of Laramie Wyoming.  A little off route, but we made 500 miles per day on the first two days so we have a little extra time to go exploring.

"Oh No!" says Lamb Chop.  "I can barely breathe."

Definitely worth the extra miles.

Lamb Chop...Are those your cousins over on the far 

hillside?  No, they are just rocks.

OK, sorry.  That was just a really bad Davidson family joke.  Only Jess, Blaine and Val

will get it.

View from the room at "Hotel Walmart".  Actually better than the cheeseball motel I
stayed at last night.  I was actually afraid someone might try to steal the Unicorn.  They wouldn't have got far, it weighs a ton

Good night from Ogden Utah.
Brad (& Lambchop)

Note - I feel a little like Tom Hanks and the volleyball.

And I haven't shaved yet.

Dinner Stop

Lamb Chop likes Culvers burgers. Seems wrong on a couple of levels. But what the heck, drivers
choice?

This Was NOT My Idea

At a recent dinner with family (Lichons, Loffredi's, et.al.) at Vanessa's condo in the Loop, I was tasked with escorting a full-sized fuzzy stuffed sheep (herein-after "Lamb Chop") to Lamb Chop's adopted mother and Vanessa's good friend (aka Sheep) who resides in Portland.   I guess because I was solo-driving to Oregon anyway to deliver the 1st load of stuff to the new house, (and because I wasn't paying attention at the dinner table), somebody figured I wouldn't mind some company on the 5-day run.

So the next week or so of the ongoing Funmobile saga will be chronicling our trek across the great plains of Iowa and Nebraska, through the mountains of Wyoming, and into the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest.

19-24 July North Cascades and the Final Sretch

For one last gasp of some thin mountain air, we head to the North Cascades (/Mt Baker) National Park.

We're going WHERE?

Alright... Enough of this...

Its much easier if you just drive up.

Only 16 feet more to melt and we can actually
hike the upper meadows.

In the meantime, back to the primordial forest.

The wildflowers kinda like a little forest fire action.

The last bridge to home.

From the Cascades we make our way to Leavenworth (Washington, not the prison) which is the Christmas Shopping Capital of the lower 48.  The traffic is bumper to bumper so I just make Val jump out the door on the run with instructions to return to the same spot in an hour, while I go take a nap in a Safeway parking lot at the edge of town.

Then a 2-day run to Boise Idaho for a visit with Val's very best high school Bud.She has to find her own way home from Boise while I continue on to Reno for my Navy Reunion.  Val seems to prefer the company of her long-time friend over the company of my crusty, cantankerous, sometimes a little off-color shipmates.  Go figure.

I'll probably do one more post to cover the reunion and the solo drive back from Reno to Downers Grove, but don't expect anyone but me will ever look at it. However it may be interesting to see just how much I can go to seed without the positive guidance of my loving better half.

Good night from Desert Rose RV Park, Fernley Nevada.

(After a splendid dinner of cold bake beans over hard boiled eggs with a side of cheese ball from Val's buddy Pat.)

14-18 July -Olympic Penninsula Washington

The Olympic Peninsula has a legacy of names tied to the ancient culture of Greece. Mt. Olympus, the highest peak of the Olympic mountain range did not receive its name from a "name that mountain" contest. The name is the result of the inspiration of Captain John Meares, who in 1788 named it with the following exclamation. "If that not be the home where dwell the gods, it is certainly beautiful enough to be, and I therefore will call it Mt. Olympus."

Twenty-five mountain peaks on Mount Olympus are named for Greek, Roman and Norse gods. The local native Americans believed that the mountain was the home of their most important god, Thunderbird.

Enough of the history lesson.  After the night at Walmart, we snagged a camp spot at Olympic Nat'l Park and spent the day hiking on Hurricane Ridge.  Excellent  trail with even "excellenter" views.  Unlike our previous visit 40 some years ago, we could actually see our hands in front of our faces.

The next day we drove out to the farthest western point in the lower 48, Cape Flattery. The area is owned by the Makah Indian Tribe who charge $10 per car entry fee onto tribal land.  Probably fair given the history.

Another "tree hugger" shot.

Finally headed down the eastern side of the Olympics where we found a nice 100 ft water fall.

Then the Port Townsend Ferry back to the mainland.  A side story is that we camped at Deception Pass State park on Widby Island (which is also home to a Naval Air Station).  Posted on the entrance station to the park was a schedule of the "Aircraft Carrier Landings" which I thought might be fun to go watch if we had time the next day.

Well little did we know that the Navy Station was right next door to the campground and that Navy F-18 Hornet attack aircraft would be practicing night "carrier landings" at the air station and the down wind leg of the approach would be through the back window of the Funmobile.

Felt sorry for the other campers, but I thought it was kinda cool since I spent a large portion of my Navy career on a destroyer trailing about 1,000 yards behind carriers picking up pilots who ditched due to battle damage, or just missed.

Good night from Deception Pass Washington.

10-13 July - Canada or BUST

Well to make a long story short, the plan to spend a week or more on Vancouver and then take the inland passage ferry up to Prince Rupert was a complete failure.  The timing was off such that we would spend the weekend in Tofino.  However, it seems that everyone else on the island and probably the city of Vancouver as well had already booked every accommodation north of Victoria.

Stuck without a place to lay our heads, (or wheels as it may be), we decided to head straight or the north end of the island and catch the next ferry to Prince Rupert only to find out that the next available space on ferry to Prince Rupert was 3 weeks away.  So we decided to bail out and head back stateside.

That said, we did get a look at the southwestern coast and some of the inland area, (as well as Butchart Gardens).



The first stop was Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew were lucky enough to hit it at low tide.








Then a nice drive back east from Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan and spend the day hiking on the Trans Canada Trail.  (Oh and we saw our first, last and only bear crossing the road a few hundred yards ahead of us.

The most tenacious tree in Canada

Then after the drive back to Victoria, an afternoon walk around the downtown area before catching the evening ferry back to Port Angeles.







An amusing side story... As we and and a hundred or so other cars are watching the offload while waiting our turn to board, a car alarm sounsd from inside the ferry.  The 7:15 boarding seems delayed...then 7:30...  Then several people walk off the boat and feverously start dumpster diving near the end of the pier.

Another 20 minutes, and you guessed it, the folks who had lost there car keys come sheepishly driving off the boat.  I told Val I wanted to start a "horn salute" but she said that would be cruel.  Woulda' been sorta like the walk of shame on Game of Thrones.

Didn't hit the stateside dock until a little before 10 pm with no campsite.

The finally did find one.  It wasn't crowded, had clean restrooms, lots of nearby provisions, and a pretty view of the Olympic Mountains in the morning.

WELCOME WALMART CAMPERS!
Today's special is......

Goodnight from ???????

Brad and Val

July 10 Greetings From Canada - EH

About 40 years ago we visited Victoria's Butchart Gardens with two toddlers and a grumpy me who just wanted to get back to his new job in Shelton Washington.  And for that ensuing 40-odd years, Val has whined that she was going to go back some day WITHOUT two toddlers OR a grumpy husband so that she could actually enjoy it.

Well the toddlers are all grown up, and I'm not NEAR as grumpy as I used to be, so off to Butchart Gardens it was.

And I have to admit even an X-engineer like me found a new appreciation for "flower power".  It was truly a a magnificent display of color, shape, smell, and yes, engineering prowess.

So now whether you like flowers or not, here is Butchart Gardens in a nutshell.

So hopefully, a life-long wish of hers fulfilled, I can return to being a grump now-and-then.

Good night from Sooke Campground

Brad and Val

July 6-9 Escape to Canada

After 5 days in Portland catching up on current events, we are headed to Canada!   (And who knows if we'll come back.)  First needed to work our way up the Washington Coast and around the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles.  This is like "home turf" since we lived here for several years back in the mid-70's.  The beaches of southern Washington tend to be much wider and sandy vs rocky like Oregon and Northern California.

And a little colder than the previous beaches.

But then they turn rocky as you go further north.

Complete with a cave.....

...and a fearful Dragon which I felt duti-bound to slay so as 
to save the Fair Maiden Valerie

The even further north into
 the deep jungles of the
Hoh Rain Forest,

DRIVE FASTER or they'll fill in the road and
we'll be trapped forever.

And escape to Canada

And tell me WHY you'd trust your life to a ferry named THAT!

Made it to Canada and through customs without being waterboarded.  (We'll see if that works for the return trip.)  Although one of the ferry dock hands on the US side gave us a list of prohibited fruits and veggies and offered to toss the REALLY delicious cherries we bought just a couple of hours earlier.  I'm a little suspicious since the Canadian customs guy never mentioned anything like that.

Stayed the night in a hotel were I had the BEST chicken-chorizo sausage mac and cheese I've (n)ever had.  It was completely worth the case of almost terminal heartburn about 3 am.

Good night from Victoria BC.

Brad and Val