Thursday, July 11, 2013

Texting

Pasco, Washington, is probably not on anyone’s’ list of highly acclaimed tourist attractions. We, ourselves, never ever dreamed of going to Pasco. Pasco ‘s main attraction for us was a truck repair shop that could align the bent axle on our trailer. We left Donnelly early enough to drive the 350 miles to Pasco by 2PM. The truck shop got right on the work so we were out of there after a couple of hours and a mere $360. It seems that not one but two axles were bent. The last axle straightening cost us only $100. I don't believe we will ever plan on revisiting Pasco.

Trailer having a bath.

While in Pasco we had the RV cleaned at a truck wash. They use high-pressure hoses at these places. The dirt was blasted away in no time. Unfortunately part of the decal on the trailer was blasted away as well. We are now towing a “RO KWOOD” travel trailer.
 

Our "RO KWOOD"

We also stopped by The Country Market Place. This was highly recommended to us. It was worth the stop.  It is like a large farmer’s market under one roof.

We parked next to this rig at the Country Marketplace - I have no idea what it is.

The next night we stayed at the Yakima Nation RV Park in Toppenish, Washington. This was a really nice RV Park on the Yakima Indian Reservation. There is a pretty interesting Museum there that, after going through it, makes you a little embarrassed of your heritage.

Beacon Rock

We stayed at Beacon Rock State Park on the Columbia River. This park has five RV spaces and two regular spaces. When we pulled into this beautiful park we had our pick of spaces. The camping area was empty.

Our campsite at Beacon Rock State Park, Washington.

As we were setting up I noticed that the highway was very near the campground. About the time we finished setting up a train came by. It passed by, missing the rear of the trailer by about 100 feet. It was dawning on me why the place was empty. We actually had a good night’s sleep and the whole campground to ourselves. Not more than 20 trains came by.

Between Beacon Rock and Ilwaco we had to get on the interstate. I hate interstates. This one wasn’t too bad.

The thing about interstates is driving on them is no fun.  Especially pulling a travel trailer. You have to keep to the right where the trucks have pot-holed the road. You constantly have to watch for vehicles entering the roadway from the right. You have to be alert for the vehicles cutting in front of you from the left to exit the freeways. Trucks are streaming past you. The scenery is terrible. After a few hours of driving interstates my mind is numb.

We will be driving more interstates before we get home.

I’m thinking I need to do something to keep my mind fresh while driving the interstates. Text messaging seems to me to be the kind of challenging thing that might work. I’m trying to come up with a workable text messaging process for me. I will have to use my good left hand to do the text. I can hold the phone in my right hand. I’ll have the right foot for the gas and breaking. That leaves my left knee for steering.  I need to think about this some before I put it to practice. But I think it will break the monotone of interstate driving.


You may wonder why we are in Ilwaco. You may even wonder where Ilwaco is. Tune into the next episode for the Ilwaco Adventure segment.

1 comment:

  1. I am really impressed by the Tango rig. The entrance does look a little high, but, on reflection, no higher than climbing up into a boat you are towing. Just need to have a step ladder in the bed of the truck.
    When we were camping at Oceana a couple of years ago, we noticed trailer towers were stopping nearby to pump up their tires. When we drove out on the beach (one of the few places it's allowed) we realized that these people were taking their big 5th wheels out there, and letting air out of the tires to give them better traction in the sand. The tires on Tango look like they could handle the sand quite well.

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