Tonopah tonight

Where have Bill and Peggie been? No posts in three days!
Last Friday, the 8th, we took the ferry to Victoria from Port Angeles. There was fog all the way across, so we sat inside and visited with a couple from Oregon/San Francisco. When we arrived, there was a Gray Line former London double-decker bus to take us to Butchart Garden. It was fun for me to be a passenger as someone else gave the tour. I am not good at it, though, I couldn't think of a single stupid question to ask. The gardens were amazing. I especially liked the before/after photos of the former quarry and the present-day garden. After we were dropped back in town, we walked around for a bit, had a fresh seafood lunch and reboarded for the trip to Port Angeles. It had rained lightly while we were in the garden, but stopped before we got back to town. We rode atop the ferry on the return trip and enjoyed the views.
Saturday I left Peggie in bed and went to Les Schwab to get the fifth tire mounted. She was ready when I got back and we headed south on 101. The tire situation cost us the day we intended to use going to the Pacific side of the penninsula, so that was the first adjustment we made to save some time. It rained on us all the way from Sequim, down I-5 to Salem, and through the mountains on SR 22/126 to Sisters. There, the rain stopped. Outside of Sisters we passed a rolled-over truck that had apparently been transporting enough golf balls to make the roadsides look like the aftermath of a really bad hailstorm. We stayed in Bend that night.
This route was our second adjustment. We had planned to go down the coast and spend an afternoon in Ashland.
This morning we left Bend on 2o to Burns. Unfortunately, this meant we were going to backtrack on road we traveled northbound last spring. But, road looks different when you are going the other way, so it's all good. We left Burns on 78 to 95, heading for Nevada. There were two areas of inexplicable fog along the way. The sky was basically clear and the temps were in the 50s.
Observation: In Oregon, the speed limit is posted at 55 on these roads. I drove 65 and was passed more than 20 times, while I passed none. Across the line in Nevada, the posted limit is 70, which I drove. I passed an amazing number of people doing 55-60 and was passed by one guy going about 90. I think everybody was on the wrong side of the border.
We really enjoy the scenery of rolling sage covered hills and volcanic bluffs in Eastern Oregon and central Nevada. It is very stark, colorful, and peaceful. Unlike BC and Yukon which look inviting, but have few residents, these areas look forbidding, yet have residents all over. The higher peaks in Nevada have snow again, just as they did last spring. Really pretty, especially at sunset.
One has to carefully plan fuel, meal and rest stops. There are miles and miles between places. Today we purchased a sandwich and salad at a deli in Burns so we could stop for a Thomas picnic somewhere in the middle of nowhere. (can there be somewhere in nowhere?) Weather was perfect all day. Traffic was light enough not to be a problem. And nothing broke.
Well, okay, one thing went wrong. Peggie discovered she had left her wear-everyday wind breaker in Sequim. We decided not to return for it. But she called the hotel, and they agreed to send it to her.
Last time we were in Tonopah, we were burning the last two drops of gas in the tank, and the town looked really run-down and dirty. Today it was dark when we got here, so it looks better. And we still have a quarter tank of gas.

Let me rephrase....

Did I say "no huge repair bill?"
I made a second trip to Les Shwab here in Sequim (pronounced Squim) because even after rotating the tires, I could still hear that 'thrump-thrump-thrump' and it bothered me because I don't like to ignore warning signs just because I think I know what they are. It is like getting the check engine light fixed even though I knew it was a false indication. Anyway, I was going to have them switch the spare and the thrumper. Soooo, when I looked again at the thrumper, I noticed a split at the tread edge. I looked at the other three tires and two of them also had tiny splits near the tread edge. But, these tires are warranted at home. Surely I can wait. So I asked them to switch the spare and the thrumper. Then I met Ron. When he handed me back my key after making the switch, he commented on the splits, suggesting that he wouldn't try to drive to Arizona on those tires. Yeah, but it's my money. And I can make it. Right?
Back to the hotel. Thinking. Thinking.
By bed time, having discussed it with Peggie, we decide to call the home town dealer, find out if the warranty is transferable, and if so, get new tires here. That's what I did this morning. The warranty can be honored here if I get info on the tread depth and splits and return to Tucson for a credit/refund.
The thing is, I thought I had five identical tires. But the spare is still the original equipment that I replaced two years ago because I had six flats in a year from cactus thorns. So I decided to get five new tires and have a spare equal to the tires on the ground. So let me rephrase: The thrumping tire problem has been fixed for only $1200. Plus another few hours of not-vacation-time. Including postponing the Victoria trip for a day, and returning to Les Shwab again on Saturday to get tire #5 mounted. (they only had 4 in stock, of course)
Oh, and it wasn't that easy. I keep a padlock on the spare so nobody will steal it. Fine, the key is in the glove box. Well, it was in the glove box before somebody broke into the jeep at Casey's apartment last year and stole the owner's manual....and, apparently, the key. So a quick (quick? this is me) trip to the locksmith. On TV any cop or PI can pick a lock in seconds. In real life, a professional takes five minutes, gives up, then goes and gets the cutter and cuts it off. So add a new $14 padlock and another detour on the way to solving a problem. The silver lining? I never needed that spare in a place where no cutter was available.
But now we had some time to spend here. We decided to follow a suggestion I got from a passenger earlier, and go up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. On the way up I redeemed part of my 62nd birthday gift from Casey, and purchased my Senior Pass. It will get me into National Parks free from now on. Thanks, Casey. And Hurricane Ridge is SPECTACULAR scenery. It is atop one of the higher peaks in the Olympic Mountains. You can see a lot of other mountains from up there. And we avoided hitting another road-crossing deer.
Tomorrow we will go to Victoria and see Butchart Garden.
Sorry, I just can't let it go.......now our Jeep is also retired.
I can already hear Margie groaning, and I haven't hit "publish" yet.

Adventure means interesting, not catastrophe.

While we were at Heike's, we explained to her about our blog title. "Adventure" means a catastrophe averted.
Today wasn't even close.
Two days ago I noticed an uneven wear pattern on the left front tire. We were still in Canada, so I didn't want to get into something like new tires or shocks or anything. So, perhaps risking a blowout (not really) we continued until we got back into the U.S.
We had to get a check engine light checked out and lost half a day of travel last spring when we were in Omak. So while we were in Omak again, it was natural to get the tire situation fixed, (rotation) change the oil, wash the car (and our clothes) and lose half a day of travel.
But we were traveling again by 11:00. No long delay, no huge repair bill, no adventure. We headed down river on 97 then switched to 97A just because we had to choose one or the other. The U.S. side of the Okanogan (new spelling) Valley is also fruit growing country. The big difference is the lack of fruit stands. They seem to be more comercial type. Large packing warehouses, Treetop plant, trucks of apples going somewhere else. But we did find a stand. Lots of good, fresh apples, pears, nectarines, etc. We settled on some plucots. Sooooo gooooood!
We went down to Wenatchee, then headed across the south cascades loop (route 2). I don't know if it is because we just left BEAUTIFUL British Columbia or not, but I think the north cascades loop is more spectacular.
Anyway, we got to Seatle and headed for the Port Townsend ferry, since we want to spend some time on the Olympic penninsula. When we finally got close enough to figure an ETA, we called and made a reservation on the 7:30 ferry. But we arrived at 5:58 and made the six o'clock, barely. Cool. We got to cross in daylight. Tomorrow we will explore Port Townsend, then ferry over to Victoria on Thursday.

Culture shock; too much, too many

We knew that driving south allows us to acclimate to a warmer climate slowly. You know, unlike flying, where you enter a plane in winter (Skagway) and arrive a few hours later in late summer (Tucson).
But the other thing is getting used to seeing lots of people. Today, as we drove through Kelowna, impatiently weaving in and out of veerrrry heavy traffic, I realized that within a five mile radius, were more people than live in the entire Yukon Territory. Really. If I had seen ALL the people within 500 miles of Skagway at the same time, it would have been fewer people than were in that 5 mile radius.
We started the day in Williams Lake. Proceeded on hwy 97 through Kamloops and on to Vernon, before heading down the Okanagan valley. The valley is the fruit and wine basket for Canada. Every 100 yards is a fruit stand or a winery. (Except in Kelowna. It has 3 miles of every retail business in the world. And all those people are on their way to or from at least one of them.) We looked hard for a Thomas place name, but no luck. We crossed into Washington at about six o'clock. As we headed to Omak, we saw a sign warning us that the next 13 mile stretch was a "high kill" zone for deer. Since it was dusk, we slowed down a bit. Sure enough, a doe walked onto the road. I saw her in time to stop and let her pass. A few miles later we saw three cars pulled over, with people out and talking. As we passed them, I think we ran over parts of a deer one of them had killed. But we were undamaged. We are staying in Omak. We went through here in April on our way north. Tomorrow we will head over to the Olympic Penninsula.

Williams Lake

We thought we had construction delays yesterday....
today, we had construction delays. Someday, British Columbia will have really good roads, and new, improved bridges; then they will start all over again. Construction never ends, it just takes a break for the winter.
We would like to post pictures of the two bears we saw, or the beautiful mountains and gorgeous rivers, but we are tired and pictures take forever to upload at these hotel web connections.
We are in Williams Lake, BC. We alternately drove through breathtaking landscape and sat in line behind the flagger at one or another road improvement project. We also managed to see deer in peoples yards and fields and beside the road. Two plump looking bears were eating the greens at roadside. We did not turn on our blinkers while we took pictures.
If you are looking at our progress on maps, we took hwy 29 from Ft. St. John to Chetwynd, where we rejoined hwy 97 to Prince George and on to Williams Lake.
I really don't know how many construction projects we encountered or how many deer we spotted. Too many to count.

On the road again, day two, Muncho Lake to Ft. St. John

We awoke to stormy skies at the Northern Rockies Lodge on Muncho Lake. As we hit the road we got the leftovers of a good rain storm. This section of road hugs the lake shore at the base of a range of mountains, so it is still the 1943 alignment of curves, though it is slightly wider and paved now.

Yesterday, we saw many bison along the road east of Watson Lake. Today we spotted too many deer to keep track of, and we got good photos of these two black tail bucks.


Continuing on, looking hard for moose because signs kept warning us to, we encountered several parties of caribou. This was the largest gathering of young females and some calves.



We also noticed that some of the 'pine' trees were turning yellow along with the aspen. It is a strange sight. They are larch trees, a deciduous conifer.


Finally, we saw this cow and calf enjoying the soothing properties of this roadside pool.

I learned that one shouldn't put on the emergency flashers when viewing wildlife. People stop to help you and scare away the animals. On the Skagway tour route, flashers are how we inform each other that we have a sighting. So from now on, we just pull over and try not to look like we are having trouble.

We also ran into two long construction delays, so we are spending the night in Ft. St. John.

Many wayside stops are closed for the winter, or just closed for good. So it is still a good practice to get fuel whenever you can. We also find that more frequent stops keep our joints from getting locked in one position.

On The Road Again

We left Skagway on Thursday afternoon and headed to Heike and Stefan's B & B in Tagish. The sunlight on the snow-covered mountains was so pretty we, of course, had to make several stops for pictures so it took us three hours to make an hour and a half drive. We also forgot about the hour time change so when we finally arrived at Tagish cabins it was 7:00 p.m. and Heike said she was beginning to worry if we were going to make it. We had a beautiful cabin, and a great moose liver dinner (above and beyond the typical Bed & Breakfast, eh?). After a leisurely breakfast, we got on the road and drove and drove and drove. We did start to see wildlife--BISON--first in singles and then in herds. We stopped at Muncho Lake at Northern Rockies Lodge--another beautiful place. We're getting ready to head out to Fort St. Johns and maybe beyond. We'll check in again when there is internet service.

We need the temps in Arizona to start moving downward in a big way.