Sunday to Yakima

We had planned to stay at Chehalis until Monday, but we had an order sent to friends' daughter's house which arrived on Thursday last week, and thought it would be good if we got it picked up... We checked, and could get a reservation at Yakima Sportsman State Park, so arranged for a one-night stay in Yakima. 

We packed up on Sunday and started heading east on US 12.

When we drove over to Paradise RV Park near Silver Creek, Washington, last week, we had seen a number of Christmas tree farms -- we saw more on our drive -- while we were still west of the Cascades. You may be able to distinguish the Christmas trees over on the hill to the right through our very dirty windshield...

Looks like a nice straight road... so far!

Mt Rainier just peeking up over the trees past the fuel station.

Starting to climb...

We had seen a couple of pull offs, including a sign for a scenic view, and, although we pulled off frequently to allow other vehicles to pass, we hadn't really seen a pulloff that gave us a good view until we were a ways east...

What a magnificent view of Mt Rainier from the east side!

One of the other visitors to the view site offered to take our picture and it came out nice!

... another view of Mt Rainier...

... and yet another.

Gracie stopped at the scenic view

Does this hillside make Gracie look small?

A beautiful lake on the right in the distance... we didn't find a pulloff to get a better picture of it. I think it was Clear Lake, though Rimrock Lake is just beyond Clear Lake according to my map.

On the way down the Cascades on the east side, such different topography - very few trees, lots of exposed rock.

Coming in to Yakima

In Yakima, a tractor and baler that we passed.

Yakima is known for its fruit growing -- especially apples. On the way into town, we've seen a number of fruit orchards and a processing plant. It is (unfortunately for us) quite hot here right now -- high of 107F predicted for today. We'll be heading out on Monday morning... the weather is supposed to break this week and highs will "just" be in the 90s...

Paraprosdokians

This also might be considered a "funny"... we've been at Chehalis for almost 2 weeks, and we haven't done a lot of touring around, so I'm posting non-travel content!

I copied this from somewhere...

Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected and is frequently humorous. (Winston Churchill loved them).

1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you ...but it's still on my list.

3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up -- we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

7. Knowledge, is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

9. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

10. In filling out an application, where it says, "In case of an emergency, notify..." I answered "a doctor."

11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

13. I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

15. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

16. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

17. I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Funnies

Some smiles for your day...

1. When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison.

2. To me, "drink responsibly" means don't spill it.

3. Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 pm is the new midnight.

4. It's the start of a brand new day, and I'm off like a herd of turtles.

5. The older I get, the earlier it gets late.

6. When I say, "The other day," I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago.

7. I remember being able to get up without making sound effects.

8. I had my patience tested. I'm negative.

9. Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers.

10. If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, "Did you bring the money?"

11. When you ask me what I am doing today, and I say "nothing," it does not mean I am free. It means I am doing nothing.

12. I finally got eight hours of sleep. It took me three days, but whatever.

13. I run like the winded.

14. I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning and don't know whose side I'm on.

15. When someone asks what I did over the weekend, I squint and ask, "Why, what did you hear?"

16. When you do squats, are your knees supposed to sound like a goat chewing on an aluminum can stuffed with celery?

17. I don't mean to interrupt people. I just randomly remember things and get really excited.

18. When I ask for directions, please don't use words like "east."

19. Don't bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That'll freak you right out.

20. Sometimes, someone unexpected comes into your life out of nowhere, makes your heart race, and changes you forever. We call those people cops.

21. My luck is like a bald guy who just won a comb.

Visiting another campground

We are ending up staying at Chehalis RV Campground for 2 weeks instead of our originally planned 1 week... this is for a couple of reasons:

• Listening to other campers and reading reviews made us think that skipping Leavenworth (planned for this week) might be prudent - it sounds like they have very few sites large enough for Gracie and that the campground roads are narrow with tight turns...
• We considered splitting the week that was supposed to be at Leavenworth between staying longer at Chehalis and going to Crescent Bar in Quincy earlier... but... there is a heat wave through Washington this week, affecting everything but the coast, and Quincy is getting 105-110F temperatures. Chehalis is getting into low-to-mid 90s, but... that's 10-15F cooler, so we decided staying put was a better plan.

Initially we were told that Chehalis was full for the coming weekend, so I looked into other options, including Paradise RV Campground, a Thousand Trails property not far away in Silver Creek, Washington. As it turned out, the staff here at Chehalis were able to accommodate us through the weekend, but we decided to go look at Paradise just to know what it was like in case we ever wanted to stay there.

On the way up to the Paradise campground, there was an overlook that was just breathtaking:

We aren't *positive*, but we think we could see Mt Rainier peeking (peaking?) up on the left side and Mt St Helens on the right side (where the arrows are).

The campground was ok, not stupendous, so we're happy that we can continue to stay at Chehalis through the weekend.

Observing antennas

On our walk around the campground over the last few days, we have been interested to note the different techniques people are using to get online from their RVs:

We are starting to see Starlinks in campgrounds -- since they do best with an open view of the sky, folks are putting them where they can best achieve that.

There are still Dish satellite dishes around...

Another Starlink...

... and yet another Starlink...

A Dish tailgater with a red ratchet strap securing it to a tree.

A Yagi directional cellular booster

This one is a bit hard to see...

... zoomed in, it is a bat-wing over-the-air antenna with a omni-directional cellular booster installed on top.

This one is also hard to see...

... zoomed in, an omni-directional cellular booster on top of a tall pole.

A DirectTV dish

Another Starlink -- this is a ways away from the camper -- I'm not sure I would think it was safe to position it that far away.

It is hard to see what is on the back of Gracie...

... zoomed in way up in the tree branches -- we also have a Yagi antenna to boost our cellular signal. While Starlink needs a clear view to the sky, cellular boosters don't care about shade or trees, but need "electronic line-of-sight" to the cell tower (trees can be in the way, but not buildings or mountains or hills).

A couple of tailgator satellite TV receivers -- we wondered why they would have two for a single rig, but then we noticed that the cables went to two different RVs.

A batwing for over-the-air channels and an old-style satellite dish on the roof.

Another Yagi directional antenna -- I don't think pointing up into the air is good... don't know if it has slipped or was positioned this way on purpose.

Another type of over-the-air antenna - replaces the bat-wing and does not need to be retracted during travel.

A bat-wing over-the-air and a Dish or DirectTV satellite dish mounted on top. They both fold down for travel.

A Starlink mounted on the side of the pickup that they use to tow their 5th wheel (would have to be removed whenever they want to go somewhere in their pickup).

We had not seen one of these before -- the guy that has Starlink attached to his pickup also has this -- it is  an omni-directional antenna plus router that you can tune to the cellular towers. The fellow who sells them makes them on his 3D printer. https://instyconnect.com/

Another type of satellite dish - Winegard Pathway X2

RVers want to stay connected! Like us, many of them learn from or create YouTube videos, or write blogs or just want to stay in touch with others! The options are continually changing.

Friends found in the campground

While walking around here at Chehalis, we met a couple parked a few sites down from us who are also members of Escapees...

new friends, Jerry and Phyllis

When we told them our story (including initially meeting at the Escapee Christian Fellowship gathering in January, 2015), they were happy to hear that we were also believers. I am not sure whether they had heard of the Escapee Christian Fellowship previously, but later they went online and looked up more information about the group -- turns out that Jerry used to be related to our friend, Steve, of Steve and Nancy (Jerry's sister was previously married to Steve's brother!). It is indeed a small world!

Meanwhile, back in our rig...

... Carl was trying out some pictures of Miss Kitty using the "portrait" setting on his camera.

She isn't particularly photogenic, but she sure is sweet!

She is also now addicted to the mouse videos on YouTube. She gets up in Carl's chair and stares at the blank screen, sometimes batting it with her paw as if she is imagining seeing things on the screen. And if the video is running, she is right up there in front of it.

In case any of our readers would like to try out mouse videos with your cat, Miss Kitty highly endorses this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbreU5ChmA

Caution: she definitely gets up-close-and-personal with the computer monitor...batting it and trying to bite the mice on the screen.

Viewing the Milky Way

I mentioned a few days ago that we went stargazing at a spot in the campground in Chehalis... Carl remembered that I had looked up and mentioned that the weekend was supposed to be a good time for photographing the Milky Way. You may remember that we were hoping to see it back in March when we stopped for one night in Quartzsite, but it was cloudy (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/03/west-to-california.html). Well, Saturday night was clear of any clouds, so we decided we should try to take advantage of it.

You can find the guide that we used online:

Google "CAPTURE THE ATLAS MILKY WAY" to download the yearly calendar
for your location and get our Milky Way photography guide

Taken with Google Pixel 5A mounted on tripod, 4 minute exposure controlled by the phone camera.

Taken with Google Pixel 5A mounted on tripod, 4 minute exposure controlled by the phone camera.

With the naked eye, or, at least, with our 60+ aged naked eyes with or without glasses correction, we could make out a bit of a "cloudy" type of look, but we did not detect the depth of the Milky Way that the phone camera was able to display.

Visiting friends

A friend, Kim, that I went to college with (William and Mary, Physics study partner) now lives with his wife, Jing, and teenage daughter outside of Portland, Oregon, and they invited us to come to visit on Saturday and to enjoy an authentic Chinese meal.

Kim told us that if we arrived early, we could help in the preparation of the meal, so we got there relatively early and were able to participate in some of the preparation. Note: all names of dishes and Chinese characters were provided by Kim in a text message -- I can copy and paste!

We helped in making the 饺子 jiao zi (pronounced "ji-ao dze") ...

... we put the pork meat mixture into the pastry wrappers and sealed them up for cooking (Patti, Jing, and Kim all working on the 饺子 jiao zi).

Jing continued on with other preparation -- here she was working on a spicy beef that Kim indicated he had specifically requested.

Kim gave Carl a 花椒 "hua ji-ao" or Sichuan peppercorn to try. He suggested Carl just put it into his mouth in front of his teeth and experience it. Initially, Carl said that it had a citrus taste, but as he held it in his mouth and chewed it a little, it got more intense, and spicier. Then his bottom lip started getting numb. They gave us some to take with us -- Carl gave one to a neighbor here in the campground -- he had much the same experience, but indicated that at the last, it was a salty taste (we think that Carl may have missed this because we started eating our meal before that would have occurred). Just in case Carl offers you something that looks like a peppercorn -- be forewarned!

The 饺子 jiao zi cooking.

Our beautiful dinner

Refreshing lychee fruit after the meal

Some of the extra 饺子 jiao zi and the package of potsticker wrappers that we used to form them.

We had such a good time - enjoying food and fellowship, catching up a little on our last 40 years of life.

It is so nice to visit friends!