Day 312: A Run for the Border

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Ben

This morning we played with Zander a bit before we left. Here he is pondering the implications of a mobile lifestyle:

Bubbles with B:

Trish took many more photographs of our visit, hopefully they will soon appear on Tricia’s blog.

Continuing North, we passed the stately Capitol dome in Olympia and then skirted the SeaTac metro area to the East, stopping briefly in Mercer Island to stock up on what might be our last opportunity to purchase kosher meat for the next couple of months.

Online sources showed a 45 minute delay at the two I-5 border crossings, so we headed due North to cross at Lynden, Washington, which had a 20 minute delay:

Crossing with our passport cards went fine, but handing in our firearm transit form resulted in an extra 30 minute search of the RV while we had to wait in the customs office. I would think they would want to more carefully search those who do not declare their firearms, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

Welcome to Canada, land of six-dollar diesel!

After a brief stop in Vancouver in which we inadvertently did a bit of damage to the WiFi Antenna with some low trees, we continued on to the Walmart of North Vancouver to overnight, arriving a bit after midnight. See the trip map for details.

Day 310: Fifi is a Big Girl

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Ben

This morning we drove North from the Walmart in Chehalis to visit Liz and Jason and their kids near Tumwater, Washington. They live a bit South of the Olympia Regional Airport, and there’s an airshow scheduled for this weekend, so I thrilled when I heard the drone of four massive engines and called everyone out of the house in time to see Fifi, the only flyable B-29 in the world, fly over at about 200 feet. It was amazing!

The kids took advantage of their new dry erase wall. Ironically, the wall built to separate their bedrooms was used for the first time to create a cooperative mural:

The shower knobs are very easy to turn, and this morning clothing fell off the upper edge of the shower door and turned on the water, soaking our dirty laundry which we keep in the shower. Adding these shock cords should solve the problem:

The kids had a great time playing with Zander, Liz and Jason’s oldest child:

On Sunday, we will be heading North to cross the border into Canada. Good Shabbos from near Tumwater, Washington! See the trip map for today’s drive.

Day 309: North towards Alaska

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Ben

This morning ended the run of atypical Oregon Coast weather with a drizzle that became a drenching rain. My flying dreams crushed, we packed up and began our trip North to Alaska.

On the way back to Portland, we stopped at the relatively new Tillamook Forestry Center:

The museum shows a great video about the fires in the 1930s through 1950s that burned almost 500,000 acres of what later became the Tillamook State Forest. An aggressive replanting campaign which had convicts, volunteers, and school children plant 17 million Douglas Fir seedlings throughout the burn area has today yielded a restored woodland.

The museum was very well done with interactive displays and exhibits:

Watch the fake salmon swim!

Magnetic matching works:

The view from the bridge out back is of the Wilson River:

On our way out we climbed the fire tower:

The museum from the fire tower:

Continuing to Portland, we got caught in rush hour traffic on the Sunset Highway. Rather than crawl up I-5 to Vancouver, we got off onto US-30 and headed up past Sauvie Island to Longview, Washington. The timber loading area there is amazingly vast, see here.

We are overnighting at the Walmart of Chehalis, Washington. See the trip map for details.

Day 308: Sand Lake, Day 2

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ben

This morning the winds were again calm, so I tried again:

Great inflation, great run out, and I’m in the air!

I was up for about 18 minutes and overflew a bit of Camp Meriwether, a Boy Scout camp I attended back in the day, and then flew South to circle Whalen Island. My landing flare was great, but somehow I forgot to get out of my seat, so my landing run didn’t exactly go as planned. Check out this video, which is also my debut of video editing using the most excellent (and free!) Lightworks:

M helped me carry back my wing:

Trish put this map work together a couple days ago to teach South American geography:

The kids shucked corn for lunch:

PPG pilots fly all day at the beach, but I had no way of knowing if the afternoon winds were normal, so I decided to wait. We all built castles and sculptures at the surf line:

And then we broke out the little kite:

Finishing touches:

At sunset, it seemed a little gusty, so I decided to try for another morning flight tomorrow.

Trish has been making wire wrap jewelry at night. Hopefully she’ll write about it on Tricia’s blog:

Day 307: Sand Lake, Day 1

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ben

This morning, the winds were calm. Excited, I got all set up to fly. Unfortunately, the fuel line quick disconnect I recently purchased was faulty, so I could not get fuel from the tank to the engine. By the time I diagnosed the problem, the winds were howling, so we stowed the paramotor in the RV and worked through a morning of homeschool.

In the afternoon, we drove into Pacific City, about 10 miles South of here, and I purchased a male-to-male barb fitting that I could use to replace the faulty quick disconnect, as well as a tarp to cover the paramotor.

Heading North back to the RV, we stopped at Cape Kiwanda:

The main attraction here is the massive sand dune at the North end of the beach. I trudged up to the top with the kids and we ran down:

Continuing North, we pulled it at Whalen Island and walked out to an overlook. It was very beautiful and peaceful. With days like this, it’s hard to remember that the Oregon Coast receives about 90 inches of rain a year:

Winds this afternoon topped out with gusts of 25 miles an hour. Tonight, it was still windy so I did a bit of kiting:

The kids ran down the dunes with my kite’s stuff sack. The best part was B yelling “clear prop!” before M started his run. At the end he would turn around and bring down his “wing” just like in training:

Hopefully tomorrow will be less windy. Goodnight from Sand Lake, Oregon!