Navi continues to be a little spitfire, chasing squirrels, harassing cats, destroying toys, barking at everything going on in the neighborhood. She is my little shadow, constantly underfoot, and always wanting to go places, even if it means riding in the car, which she hates. She loves going to visit her Aunt Sherry for Spa Days and Sleepovers. She may nap a little more than she used to, but that’s about it. Without jinxing anything, I hope she continues running the house for a long time!
September ’23
This year the annual Vintage Trailer Rally for our area was held at Elkamp in Mineral, WA at the foot of Mt Rainier. (https://www.elkamp.com/) This is possibly the prettiest campground I’ve ever stayed in.
Dave was busy doing something at home for this trip, but since I had such a successful trip last summer by myself, I decided to go it alone again. Just me and my Airstream, heading up into the wilderness!
It was actually much closer to home than last summer’s solo trip, and the weather was beautiful. I had no problem at all. I did need a little help getting backed into my spot though. Luckily there are always friends around to help at a VAC rally.
What a beautiful, peaceful spot!
This spot was super secluded and peaceful!
Navi stayed home, but since Dave was busy all weekend, she stayed with Sherry, who sent me updates 😀
Navi was much happier being at home than being stuck on a trailer trip!
The next day I headed into the nearby town of Elbe to see what was up. This row of colorful Cabooses was a hotel!
And this is a cool old church. Neat history plaque included.
I headed on up to Mt Rainier National Park. Got to tick another National Park off my list since I’m so close. There were so many people there I couldn’t even get close to the visitor’s center and museum. Maybe next time. I had to settle for pretty viewpoints.
On the way back down I stopped for lunch at a Nepalese resteraunt. My coworkers are in Nepal, so I had to stop and try it. The food was delicious! The best beef stew I’ve ever had!
The owner was a Sherpa who had been to the top of Everest, set a world record for how fast he did it, and ‘retired’ to lead people up Mt Rainier instead.
Very cool! I wish I’d had room for pie. I’ll definitly try to get Dave up there this summer. (https://mt-rainier.com/vendor/wildberry-restaurant/)
Back at the rally I relaxed the rest of the afternoon until happy hour. Everything in the trailer was working, and it was such a wonderful place to crash and read a book, listening to the birds and chipmunks.
The next day I took a walk around the camp. It’s really pretty. I thought I was lost for a bit, but I came right back out in the campground.
Then I grabbed my rod and headed out to find some fishing. There was a lake nearby that I heard was pretty dry, since it was the end of summer, but I heard Mineral Lake was a good choice.
When I got there I had a nice time chatting with a couple from Puyallup who were hanging out by the water. We were talking fishing, and I caught a little baby bass, but that was about all. There were a bunch of ducks getting in the way, including this one with a striking red head.
I went to grab something out of my car, and came back and there was a lady taking pictures of it. I said ‘weird looking duck, eh?’ and she said ‘yeah, I read about it in the paper and just had to come take pictures of it!’. In the paper? ‘Yeah, there was an article about it being here!’ and I thought, wow, that is some slow news day. Good for them!
After that I drove up the road a ways to get a view of Mt Rainier over the lake. You couldn’t see it from the boat launch, but it was beautiful right up the road.
So that was a really nice rally. Elkamp is beautiful, and Mt Rainier is beautiful. I’ll definitely go there again when I have a chance!
July ’23
Update: Found some pictures for context
This was at the Friend’s Landing Campground in Montesano, close to the Gray’s Harbor area.
It’s a really nice handicapped accessible park, with lots of fishing docks on both the lake, and the river, and a round-the-lake accessible walking trail, which turned out to be 2 miles! I didn’t realize that when we started out, or I wouldn’t have taken Navi along. That’s a long ways for an old dog!
She was getting pretty tired by the end of it. No pics on the walk, but here’s a tired dog at the end.
From the far side of the lake we could see our trailer (behind the tree, the shiny one is Gail’s Caravel).
One nice thing was that our friends Scott & Sherry were camping right down the road, so we actually dropped Navi off with them for a day while we went to some Airstream activities. Then we came back and hung out with them in their house-sized 5th wheel and had dinner.
Airstream Happy Hour
One funny thing we did find was we stopped by the grocery store to get something to bring to dinner, and saw these on the counter. Bug suckers!
Those are real bugs!
All in all it was a nice rally. It’s a really pretty park (go check out their website at https://www.friendslanding.org/activities.html ). I hope we get a chance to go there again.
Oh, and Navi got nervous and peed on our bed on the last night. Just in time to go home. She really isn’t a fan of trailer trips!
I fell behind a little bit in blogging – well, a year behind actually! So I am sitting here waiting for the first blizzard of ’24, and finally posting about the snowstorm of 23!
At the end of February we returned from our blissful Hawaiian paradise, to about 6 inches of snow. Welcome back!
I finally had a reason to try out my Wellies! We just don’t get a lot of winter weather, so the Wellies have mostly been for muddy garden chores. They did a good job though, kept my feet dry. It would have taken a lot of snow to get over the top of these!
Snow Dog enjoys snow!
The Rancho looks pretty dressed up for winter!
It blew so much that it coated the Airstream under its cover, and left icecycles hanging all over it!
Even our greek godess got a coat of snow. It didn’t stay long though, as usual around here.
About a week after returning from Camano Island, I had fixed up the problems I found with my remodel (all minor), and we headed back up North to Rockport, WA for a Vintage Airstream Club rally. It was at Howard Miller Steelhead Park, a beautiful county park right on the Skagit River. We had two loops mostly full of Airstreams, with a big field and picnic shelter in the middle.
I was hoping to get some fishing in, I brought my fly rod and gear, but the water was so high from the spring rains, there were no banks to fish from!
The hills around the campground were beautiful, with their heads in the clouds.
This is at a nearby campground we explored while wandering. Beautiful moss covered trees!
We stopped at the Oso Landslide Memorial. I remember watching this on the news. It’s so sad. Such a beautiful area, my heart goes out to those people killed, and the survivors, of the sudden, enexpected landslide that wiped away their neighborhood. That hill in the distance is where the land slid off the face of the hill, and came all the way out to the highway behind us, wiping out everything in its path.
I don’t know what this mountain was called, I was thinking it was White Horse or something. There are amazing mountains everywhere around here. We headed South and did a loop drive around through Granite Falls to Arlington on Hwy 530. At one point we stopped for a quick nap and I took Navi for a quick walk, and there was a deer right by the road watching us! We stopped for lunch at a little thai place in some town and Navi was able to join us on the patio.
Her first time eating out!
I think this was Dave after we got back from an afternoon of wandering, doing tech support for his Dad.
The next morning Dave woke me up at 5:30am to tell me there was a siren going off! Indeed, it sounded like an air raid siren, Id never heard anything quite like it!
It went off for a couple minutes then stopped, and silence! What does that mean? Was the river next to the park about to wipe us out? Did we need to evacuate? I looked outside and expected to see people standing around discussing it, but nobody was up.
So I dressed and took Navi out, and saw lights on in a neighbor’s trailer and knocked, and asked if she knew what it was, and she said she didn’t, but figured we would hear more if it was important. I tend to think a siren is always important!
So Navi and I wandered down to the next loop where my friend/coworker Janet was camped, and knocked to see if she was up, and she was, but she didn’t know anything either. Meanwhile Dave was looking online for emergency alerts and couldn’t find any. I ended up chatting with Janet about work and stuff for a bit.
Later that day my neighbor had gone into town and bought something at the hardware store, and the clerk told her a log truck had crashed, and the siren was how they call the volunteer fire dept out! Mystery solved!
We decided to head East on Hwy 20 and explore more of the North Cascades National Park. Last time we were here we went as far as Diablo Lake, and turned back. Well, it turns out the best roadside views are juuuuust past it: Like, literally around the next bend.
Oh my goodness, so pretty! The turquoise water is caused by glacial runoff. The mountains are so high and craggy! And this is only half the view!
Stunning!
Looking at the tourist brochure, I saw something called the Liberty Bell, and I wanted to see that too, so we kept driving. The good stuff is always just a little bit farther! And when would we ever be out here again? We kept driving until we were on the dry side of the state.
Totally worth it!
We stopped at a roadside viewpoint, and Navi did great walking around all the people, even with the narrow pathways at the stop.
We went all the way to Winthrop for lunch. It’s a little old-timey looking tourist trap. Old buildings and wooden sidewalks. It was packed even though it was a Friday. We got a lunch and went and sat in a shady public area with picnic tables to eat. We could watch people playing mini-golf down below the deck. And of course, on the East side, it was HOT, so I tried to keep Navi comfortable.
On the way back we stopped to play in the snow. I couldn’t believe there was still snow!
We got back too late to join our fellow campers for potluck, but boy did we have a full day!
Navi did super on this trip, but by the end she was getting pretty tired of the whole thing. Tired of strangers coming into HER trailer to check out the remodel, tired of people trying to pet her, and tired of going for rides in the car! She really did good though. It is asking a lot of her.
On the way home we stopped at a McMennamins and thought we would just grab lunch to eat in the trailer, but then saw they had a patio, and dogs were welcome! So Navi got to eat out for a second time, and she had a nice safe little corner next to our table. the hostess brought her a little cup of water, and even came back with a piece of bacon for her later!
So other than getting through all the usual Seattle traffic (which runs roughly from Everett to Centralia it seems) we had a nice safe drive home, and another adventure was in the books!
Our first planned trip with the newly remodeled trailer had to be scrapped because the Flex broke down and was in the shop having it’s rear end worked over. But finally we were able to make it out and try somewhere new – Camano Island, WA.
Because it was close to July 4th, Scott & Sherry were out camping, so Navi got to go camping with us. She doesn’t get car sick anymore, but she really doesn’t enjoy it, so we try to leave her home as much as possible, but this time she was trapped with us.
We got an amazing spot at Camano Island State Park. No hookup, and it could only fit a smallish trailer, but it was perfect for us, and look at that view! The park was pretty full, and this mid-week opening was the only one I could find all summer.
This spot was tight! I would not have wanted to try and squeeze a big trailer in there, the spot was curved and uphill. It was tricky even with the tiny trailer. The tow vehicle ended up side by side with the neighbor’s picnic table, but our spot, being behind the trailer, actually felt very private. The only thing we would have enjoyed more was if there weren’t so many mosquitos!
The new layout was a hit. It was really nice to have a bed always available for lounging, and the table for meals.
What a view from the door!
It’s hard to see but if you look out on the horizon you can see Mt Ranier.
We really enjoyed watching the boats go by on the straight. We spent a day cruising around the island from end to end, found a nice park to picnic in with a view one day. Another day we picked up lunch at a nice resteraunt at the golf course and took it to a nearby beach to sit on the logs and eat, but it was a bit awkward. I guess we are grown-ups now, we’d prefer a picnic table, at least! Still, we had fun exploring.
Seattle, on the way home. I always get a kick out of seeing the Space Needle!
Navi has handled losing Barclay better than we have. She quickly realized ALL the toys, treats, and attention were hers (well, some goes to the cats, but they don’t count). She was a little scared going for walks alone without her gregarious big brother by her side, and the first few walks she spent slinking around with her tail down. I tackled this by taking treats and a clicker, and clicking whenever she saw something scary. The idea was to teach her that 1) those things get her rewards 2) quit looking at the scary thing and look at the person with the treats. That has been working really well, and she is getting much better at walking on a loose leash too, because I’ve been clicking for that as well. She’s getting more confident and likes going on a walk to sniff things and get treats.
Since it’s Christmas season we are getting lots of deliveries for her to bark at, so she’s happy to have a job. When she’s not barking at the front window, she is under my desk or trying to get pets from me while I’m trying to work. She comes up and lays her head on the desk next to me to get attention. So cute!
She’s a good girl.
Lately she’s been getting snappy about having her nails trimmed, so I am working on training her to let me use the dremel on her nails. It’s so much easier to train one dog than two. With two dogs, the other one is always trying to nose in on the other dog’s training time. Now we only have to worry about cats.
I guess we’ve been hearing about the virus in China for a month or so, but it has suddenly hit us hard. With the knowledge that this bad new flu is circulating, but without testing capability, and an already overtaxed medical system, we are now in semi-lockdown. The play we have been rehearsing for over a month (Much Ado About Nothing) is on hold until later in the summer, I’m working from home, and people are wiping out the grocery stores (glad I went to Costco with friends and stocked up a couple weeks ago). Crazy times.
I had just settled on a plan to expand my photography into family portrait work, and decided that this summer I would train and do any odd jobs I could get, and hone my craft. I bought a new (used) lens just for this pursuit.
This is a Sony f/4 70–200mm. It takes really sharp pictures with nicely blurred backgrounds. I’m really happy with the few test shots I’ve done.
Combined with my full-frame a7ii, this is certainly a rig capable of producing high-quality images.
I also plan to dedicate any ‘hustle money’ I can make to my meandering Mustang project. But who knows when things will get back to normal, when I can start hustling, if I will even care about the Mustang when this is all over. Maybe priorities will change? Right now the poor Mustang is buried in the garage under shipping materials leftover from Christmas. The toy shipping season has stretched out significantly. Things are still selling now in March!
But I don’t mind working at home. I’m hanging out with my hubby and dogs and cats:
surrounded by all my craft projects I’ve been putting off. Like my ‘learn to paint’ project. I’ve got my paints, I’ve got my easel, all I need is time.
I can FINALLY follow along with BOB!
It’s actually kind of nice, but I’m only a few days in. We will see how it feels by the end of the month! I hope to sneak off for some fishing when the weather warms up next week. We will see how it all goes. I’m just hoping people handle this sanely, take care of each other, remember to be kind and considerate, and we will all ride out this strange time, stay healthy, and be back to normal sometime this summer.
Until then I’ll try not to spend too much time riding the range in Red Dead Redemption.
One night after an uneventful day in July, Barclay was restless and whiny and couldn’t lay down and go to sleep like he normally would have after dinner. He would come bark at me like he wanted something. We even took him for an extra walk, but he still couldn’t settle down.
I was really worried since it was out of character, so we took him to the vet around 10pm, and the vet decided he might have hurt his back, gave us some pain meds and sent him home. We got home and I took him outside for a potty break, and he flopped over on his side and had a seizure! We called the vet and they said we could bring him back in, or observe him and see if the pain med helped, so we decided to do that since it would be less stressful. But he continued to be whiny and restless, and just couldn’t go to sleep. By then it was 2am, and we were all very tired, and he just couldn’t stop, then he had another seizure and threw up, so we raced him back to the emergency vet.
This time the vet said she thought the whole thing was seizure related. The vet decided to keep him, and we were waiting in the exam room while they got a spot ready for him in the back, and I put him in my lap and he finally fell asleep for a couple minutes, he was so tired!
They gave him medicine to stop the seizures and kept him until the next day, but we were there until after 4am by that point. So i called in sick to work the next day and worried about him all day. Wednesday afternoon he came home, and they gave him an anti-seizure medicine, which sedated him a bit. The vet said it would get better in 2-3 weeks as he got used to the medicine. Navi was happy to have him back, and hung out right with him.
But it’s was hard to get him to eat. We were fussing over him, trying to get him to eat anything, because he was never fat, and I’m worried about him not eating enough. I bought him different dog foods, people food, baby food, but nothing much interested him. Dave and I were handfeeding him all kinds of good food just to get something in him. He seemed like he would take a few bites to be polite, then turn his head away to say he was done.
Also, he was waking us up multiple times a night barking for what seemed like no particular reason. Everyone was getting really tired. It was like having an infant in the house. He didn’t mean it though, he was tired too!
After three weeks of this, he wet the bed overnight a couple times, so I talked to the vet and she decided the side effects were too much, and had me wean him off of the medicine. We quickly saw improvement, with him getting his appetite back, sleeping better, and not being so groggy.
So far so good. He is 11, and has been very healthy, though he did have two or three seizure incidents over the past few years, which the vets could find no reason for. He hasn’t had a seizure since that night. Hopefully he will not have any more issues for a while.
Oh Barclay, our silly, disobedient boy!
He got 3 teeth pulled last week and the vet put him on a special diet for his kidneys, so we are getting used to that. He seems to like it.
Steff Does Stuff! 