Washington State

Sep 11:  I got up this morning ready to move to the scenic Oregon Coast.  As I pulled out of the park to hunt down breakfast I noticed a light on the dashboard of the truck, a funny picture of an engine!  The gauges were all where they belonged and no funny noises were present but I pulled over and got out the book.  The icon was for the "Check Engine Light" but it wasn't blinking so I continued to breakfast and ask two servers where the local Chevy Dealer was.  They didn't know!  I found an ad in the newspaper and after breakfast set off for the dealer.  I told the service man, Carl, that the "Check Engine Light" was on but I was sure it wasn't the spark plugs (diesel engines don't have spark plugs).  Carl found that I was still within the factory warranty by 3000 miles and they set to work.  I called the RV Park and told them that I might not be leaving that day after all.  I found coffee inside and killed a couple of hours when Carl said the truck was ready.  Yea, I could still get on the road today.  We did the paperwork, shook hands and I got ready to leave.  The "Check Engine Light" was still on!  I drove back into the service lane and Carl jumped right on it and the truck went inside again.  About a half hour later the mechanic came up and explained what he had done and that since the light was still on the EGR motor had to be replaced and, surprise, they didn't have one.  Carl got busy and said they would loan me a car.  I mentioned that I was partial to the Copper Corvette out front.  Carl chuckled.  I have a Malibu, a pretty peppy car but it won't pull the trailer so I'll be here for another night.

Sep 8:  After washing the trailer yesterday, it seems bigger on the outside than on the inside, I drove up to Mt St Helens to look at the scenery.  You could see more of the scenery if there weren't so many trees!  I stumbled across Yale Lake just south of St Helens, real pretty.

Sep 4:  I left Yakima a day early to make it to a PGR mission in Vancouver, WA tomorrow and decided to spend a week in this area.  It was raining as I had breakfast and I thought I might have to hook up the trailer in the rain!  The luck held, the rain stopped, I checked out and was on the road about 9:15.  About 20 miles out of Yakima I got off the freeway and took US-97 through the rolling hills before joining up with I-84 for the next 100 miles along the Columbia River on the Oregon side of the river.  The landscape slowly changed to the northwest that I expected.  Mountains, trees and the river.  Notice the whitecaps on the river, it was a little breezy!

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Sep 2:  I left Hayden Idaho about 9:00 am for the four hour drive to Yakima Washington.  Not far past Spokane the mountains turned into hills and the fir trees began to disappear.  Eastern Washington is much more barren than I expected.  I have been to Wisconsin and didn't see many cows, Idaho and not a single potatoes but, Washington does have apples!  There were a lot of orchards near Othello.  Not much traffic and no particular adventures on the trip to Yakima, just 240 miles of miles.  The campground is full of families and kids for the Labor Day Weekend so I was squeezed into a spot where the satellite doesn't work but the manager said I could have my choice of spots tomorrow as the park will clear out after the pancake breakfast.

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