Here’s a link to the original post on my old blog: Original Post
If you count my last day of work (Friday 6/10/22) as my first road trip day, then this is 6 am on day 5 of my soon-to-be-epic road trip to Alaska in Rosie. Have you met Rosie? She’s my 2017 Nissan NV 2500, former delivery van turned awesome custom camper. She’s got her idiosyncrasies, but she’s special and I made her (with help from my husband). I guess Rosie is her nickname because her real name is Rocinante, an homage to both Don Quixote’s horse and John Steinbeck’s camper (see the novel Travels with Charlie – great read in general and greatest road trip read of all time!!)
Anyway, I could tell you only the super amazing cool stuff I am doing and seeing…but yuck. That’s not the real story and, if you know me, I am just too practical and honest for that kind of bullshit. So, the title tells you what entertained me yesterday on the mind-numbing 6 hour drive from Mount Ranier in Washington to Harrison Hot Springs, BC, Canada. Oh, God these drives are LONG and mostly boring, with some bouts of frustrating traffic (thank you Portland and Seattle), occasional random stops at roadside “attractions”, and then there’s the best part – the names people have given streets and even whole towns! Yesterday, the most memorable were Chuckanut Drive (near Bellingham WA) and the town of Chilliwack, BC. I had a good hard laugh and repeated Chuckanut out loud an embarrassing number of times, giggling every single time. Then I saw Chilliwack and the silliness continued.
Now that’s out of the way, I’ll give you the highlights and details of the past few days.
Day 1: Drive from home to Ashland, OR, 5+ hours and longer with stops. My first stop on my epic trip….was for gas. Unfortunately, gas is the most expensive it has ever been (literally) and I paid just under $6 a gallon for a whopping $147 to fill the tank.
Side note: Right now I am on my balcony at Harrison Hot Spring Resort, in an overlooking-the-lake room upgrade (thanks to my spaced out bedraggled appearance and whining about the day spent driving at check in).
Anyway, I interrupted the post to tell you about the flock of Canada geese that just went floating by, honking and peeping. There are several mommy-daddy pairs with goslings!! GOSLINGS! I think the most I see for one pair is 6. They have now come out of the lake below me to nibble on the grass. I am listening to their honks and the peeping of the babies and this completely makes my day. I am going to pause in my typing to watch, listen and take it in.
Back to day 1: not much else interesting to say. It was a long drive with a stop in Redding to see the Sundial Bridge and a nice night of camping in Ashland. I was too tired to do much when I arrived except to have a drink and warm up something to call dinner.
Day 2: Before beginning another 5+ hour driving day, I wanted to take an easy morning to have coffee, see downtown Ashland, and have breakfast. It was a wonderful morning. The van power system allows me to have a drip coffee maker and I enjoyed the luxury of that very much! I drove over to downtown and walked around. Since it was Saturday, there were two different popup street markets to enjoy, lots of cute shops open, and then I had a amazing breakfast before heading back to the van. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it really was a wonderful relaxing morning that felt like what it was….my first day of vacation.
Funny note: I love my little van toilet! It is so handy when you just need to PEE. Just as I got in to start the long drive, my bladder told me it was full and I was nowhere near a public restroom. So…I just got in the back, took the toilet out if its cabinet, but up my handy-dandy privacy curtain and let it rip. I gotta say, I have pulled over and peed too many times to be proud of it, but it’s nice to be able to relieve myself without having to hold it until I see a McDonalds.
Back to day 2: I used a new thing that I discovered in google maps and searched for “attractions” along my route. I looked for the strange, the interesting, and things that would be a “good time to stop and take a break”. So, I stopped at a ghost town with an old church and school, a historic carousel with wooden hand-carved and painted animals…and the world’s ONLY suspension bridge, for squirrels! Yes, that says for squirrels. It’s called “Nutty Narrows” and well…it’s a suspension bridge built across a busy road between two trees to let the squirrels go by without the danger of smash. Honestly, I was really excited about seeing this because the idea of it is so corny, the actual seeing was a bit….anticlimactic.
After Nutty Narrows it was only another 30 minutes to my campsite at Seaquest State Park (WA).
Day 3: I got up and enjoyed another relaxing coffee-based morning and then strapped on my hiking boots and went for a walk. It eventually took me over to the Mount Saint Helen’s visitor center where I got confirmation that it DID erupt when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure it it was a memory or a movie I saw…all the footage of a major volcanic disaster. It was real, that happened in 1980 when I was 8. The strangest thing I learned was that former President Harry Truman died during the event. I saw news footage of the warnings and mass evacuations that took place after the multitude of quakes, newly formed smoking crater, and the large bulge that appeared on the side of the mountain. Then here’s the footage of the classic old curmudgeon saying “I’ve lived here my whole life, this is my place, I ain’t going nowhere!” Well, him, his house, and the entire lake that it sat next to simply vanished when the top half of Helen’s fell on it. Seriously, when the people trying to save you say it’s time to leave…get the hell out. Don’t risk their lives – because they will be the ones trying to save your stupid butt later when the shit hits the fan.
The rest of that day was less driving, but somehow it didn’t feel like less. Hours in the car, driving in rain up the mountain to realize that the clouds meant I wasn’t going to get to see down into the crater. Once I was actually driving in the clouds and realized this fact (20 miles short of the goal), I just turned around and began my drive to Ranier.
They should rename Ranier to Rainier. It rained the entire time and I was just kind of done. I got to the campgound and hunkered down in Rosie. I didn’t even hike. I rested, I sewed curtains, and I relaxed.
Day 4: After coffee, I headed out, knowing it would be a long drive but eager to arrive at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort where I would stay in a room and enjoy a soak. Oh, but getting there was a challenge. At first the drive wasn’t going to be too long, just under 5 hours. I followed the GPS but as I climbed up-mountain I started seeing patches of snow. Then it was a consistent 1 foot of snow lining both sides of the road…then 3 feet….then 5 feet! I found myself driving in a narrow column of snow, in the rain, on a curvy road. When the rain turned to sleet and the temp gauge on the van read 31 degrees…I realized I would probably hit ice any minute. The idea of spinning out and having an accident up there all alone was enough to make me reconsider. It got worse and I decided that this was just a bad idea to keep going. I waited to see a “turn out” that was basically a flat spot covered with only 8 inches of slush and used it to turn around and get my ass out of there.
So, the drive became 6+ hours. I stopped in Packwood for what will hopefully be the worst meal of the trip. I had “breakfast” at a pizza place that clearly decided to capitalize on being the only place in town to serve breakfast. What was supposed to be corned beef hash, was inedible. I think, I hope, it was Spam with chunks of potato, but it tasted like dog food. Or, at least what I imagine dog food tastes like. Gross. But the toast was good.
The drive felt unending, especially the traffic when I went through Seattle. The Canadian border was interesting. An 8 inch hunting knife and 2 canisters of bear spray are fine…but a 2 oz. can of pepper spray had to be confiscated. Yep. Anything designed for self defense against other humans is illegal in Canada! Since the bear spray is “for bears” and the giant knife is “for animals”, these things are fine. But, my little 2 oz can of pepper spray is “for use on humans” so it is illegal. I did have the gall to ask the customs officer what women are allowed to defend themselves with, his answer was “whatever you can” and he indicated that, in that instance, both parties would be arrested and the courts would figure it out. So…I guess don’t let yourself be attacked in Canada ladies.