Awake: 7:35am Temp 51 Sunny Overnight @ Chimacum, WA
Today we decide to travel south to Portland....earlier this morning I had
called our destination campground to confirm a fairly good weather report.
As we are prepping our coach for travel, Ed & his wife Charlene stop by to
say their goodbyes. Then another Ed stops by to wish us bon voyage. Later
as I am up on the telescoping ladder cleaning off the slide tops, Dick &
Ann walk over to exchange e-mail addresses & take photos of each other. We
hadn’t planned on leaving today so it is a surprise to some of the people
we were hanging out with that today’s the day....if we are going to miss
the rain drops in our travel south.
This campground & its friendly people have made it a delightful experience
for us these past 3 weeks, along with visiting our boys in Seattle, Joe &
Nancy + Winky & Torgey in Sequim. We will miss our boys & the people we
enjoyed hanging out with.
We leave the Evergreen Co Ho Resort in Chimacum @ 11:32am. It’s a nice
travel day, with broken clouds, little wind & some very scenic views
especially on hwy 101 to Tacoma.
Arrive @ the Columbia River RV Park @ 3:22pm. This park is BIG rig
friendly with clean parking sites & a small lawn + patio separating the
parking spaces.
Today’s travel: 3+50 time 194.6 miles 23 gal 8.64 mpg 50.1 avg speed
After parking & extending the slides, I call Mailboxes etc in Anchorage to
have them fax info on their mail services. Then I call Kenny here in
Portland to find out if the Aurora Aviation Country Club is holding its
monthly meeting tonight? It is & he is leaving in 5 min. He gives me quick
directions, then change clothes & get back on the I-5 freeway. Kenny says
they are eating earlier than usual tonight because of a large attendance.
It’s been over 30 yrs since I’ve been to the Aurora airport. En route
south on I-5, I couldn’t help noticing the length of the northbound
parking lot…..from the I-5 bridge over the Columbia river, it stretched
south past the Tualatin Exit….at least 15 miles! Maybe I-205 traffic
merging onto I-5 south was the culprit. I had plenty of time to observe
this northbound traffic as the southbound traffic slowed to a turtles pace
& it took me about 1.3 hrs to reach the parking lot for our gathering. As
I was creeping along in traffic, I began to wonder just how many people I
would know after some 30 yrs, if any.
Once inside the building, Kenny met me in the food line & pointed out my
table & seat he had reserved. Would you believe, the guy on my left is
Lyle….who in 1967 checked me out for my 1st aviation job flying a North
American Navion for the American Can Company. Lyle is 80 now, looks like
68, talks like 58 & still flies his “V” tail Bonanza airplane a lot. I
didn’t have time to visit other tables in search of familiar faces because
I was busy eating my steak, baked potato, corn & green beans + ice cream
dessert.
Then the club meeting was under way…& then the keynote speaker: Del Smith,
founder & president of Evergreen Airways who gave a very impressive
presentation: a DVD history of the company projected on a wide screen. Del
would interrupt & expound on the various updates & “what’s new” in these
cities & countries literally spread around the world. Evergreen Airways
has been housing the famous “Spruce Goose” built to Howard Hughes
specifications during the early 1940’s in their Aviation museum in
McMinnville, Oregon. This also is a fantastic sight to behold.
So I only had time to talk in depth with 3 people during my visit but we
all had something in common to talk about….our wings & it was a nice
feeling being surrounded by so many friendly wings again.
Back to the bus @ 10:15pm where Kathy was hooked on a thriller movie: “The
Jackle” with Bruce Willis, Richard Greer & Sydney Poitier & yes, I did get
hooked on the last half of this thriller too.
Today’s travel high temp=81 Lights out: 12:15am
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