November 2, 2005

November 2, 2005

Port Angeles to Chimacum, Washington

YEAR 2 DAY 138

 

Today was cloudy and mild.

This morning I wasn't able to shower. We hadn't expected to "boondock" 2 nights in a row, so yesterday morning I was very liberal with the use of water while showering. This morning as soon as I began showering, the bathroom grey water holding tank was full. Normally, with a bit of water conservation, we can take 2 showers each before the holding tank is full. I did today's regular preventive maintenance, then went into Wal-Mart to ensure that they had an identical battery in stock to the one in the truck that I was going to bring in for warranty replacement. They did. I removed the battery out of the truck, brought it into the store, exchanged it for a new battery under warranty, went back out into the parking lot, and installed the new battery. By then Joanne had everything inside ready to travel. She went into Wal-Mart, bought some milk, and off we went.

We headed east on Hwy. 11 on Washington's Olympic Peninsula following the shore along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, past the town of Sequim ( pronounced "Skwim" ) until the highway turned south following the shore along Puget Sound. We turned northeast on Hwy. 20 towards Port Townsend, then east along Anderson Lake Road to the Evergreen Coho SKP Park at Chimacum. We checked into the SKP Park and go settled into our assigned site. I hooked up power, refilled the fresh water tank, hooked up water, cable TV, and sewer, drained the holding tanks, and unhitched the truck from the trailer.

I had a shower, we had lunch, then I napped briefly. We drove into the town of Chimacum and went to the Post Office to pick up 3 pieces of mail I was hoping would be there waiting for me at General Delivery. A reimbursement cheque from General Motors, a batch of investment related mail from my cousin Bruce in Thunder Bay ( where our investments legally reside ), and a batch of incoming mail forwarded by Sharon. All 3 pieces of mail were there. Yippee ! We drove around the small village of Chimacum, then decided to explore the surrounding area a bit. A few miles over we came to the town of Port Hadlock where we crossed over the Portage Canal to Indian Island. As we crossed the bridge over Portage Canal, Port Townsend Bay was on our left, and Oak Bay was on our right. We stopped at Lions Park on Indian Island, and went for a walk along the shoreline. The beach at the water's edge was covered in mussels, clams, kelp, and dulse. We drove back across the bridge to Port Hadlock, then a bit north to the town of Irondale. One of the notable differences between Canada and the United States is that down here there are many more small towns and villages, only a few miles apart from one another. Not like driving 350 miles from Winnipeg to Regina with nothing but Portage La Prairie and Brandon in between.

We drove back to Chimacum, to Evergreen Coho SKP Park. We walked around the park, and to their main clubhouse. What a great RV park. There is a large covered picnic area, with many picnic tables, and a commercial kitchen building attached, for outdoor community events. The clubhouse has a huge main meeting room filled with tables and chairs, a large fireplace and big screen TV, a huge commercial kitchen, and stage. Around the periphery of this main area of the clubhouse there are a laundromat, games room with a couple of pool tables, bathrooms and showers, a library, an exercise room, a crafts room, and a mail / e-mail room. Outside the clubhouse and picnic area there is a grass park area with large shade trees. All around the buildings are landscaped gardens, including Rhododendrons, which this area is noted for, and a totem pole carved by the park residents. This is a really lovely place. There are very few "permanent" trailers. It appears as if this park is the northern / summer home base for a lot of travelling Escapees. While Joanne chatted with a very friendly, welcoming, old couple who reside here, I wandered around picking up a movie to watch tonight, and a book to read from the library's book exchange.

We returned to the trailer, and while Joanne fed the animals and prepared supper for us, I did today's accounting and began working on today's journal entry. We had supper, then watched The Apprentice : Martha Stewart. We watched the movie "Tombstone", the story of Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, Doc Holliday, and their shootout at the OK Corral with Ike Clanton, his brother Billy "The Kid", and the rest of the Clanton boys. I had wanted to see this movie ever since we visited Tombstone, Arizona last winter.

DSK