Heading South

5 and 6 July 17

We departed Dan and Corrie's and headed south to Warrington, OR to start our slow journey home.  We camped in Fort Steven's state park, OR.  It was a heavily wooded camping area with good sized sites and a nice place to camp but for the huge number of mosquitoes! This mosquitoes’ problem was mentioned in the reviews. They were so thick in the air, I could barely get the hookups set before I fled back to the RV.   The state park has a very large land mass including many recreational spots and some historical areas including Fort Stevens.

 Before departing the park, we visited the historical Fort Stevens, which was originally built during the Civil War to protect the Columbia River entrance.  Its complete history can be read here.

The wreck of the Peter Iredale, a four masted steel bark stranded on the beach in Nov 1906. It became an instant tourist attraction and is so today despite the fact that not much of her remains on the beach.

We then headed south on 101 and enjoyed the scenic views along the coast with a stop at Seaside. And more stops along the way. We camped in Tillamook.

Fourth of July fireworks

4 July 2017

Our last day staying at Dan and Corrie’s was the 4^th of July. Dan went all out with the fireworks and their two grandkids were clearly enjoying every minute of it.

We had a great visit and tomorrow we will be heading south along the coast.

Road trip to falls, Roslyn, and remembering a Coast Guard hero

2 July 2017

We set out on a driving tour with our hosts Dan and Corrie to enjoy a nice summer day.  Our first stop was the Snoqualmie Falls. The falls drop 270 ft and is a very popular attraction in Washington State.  It gained international renown for its appearance in the TV show, Twin Peaks.

Our second stop was the town of Roslyn.  It has a long and interesting history founded in 1886 as a coal mining town.  Today, it’s two main industries are forestry and tourism.  I was interested in seeing this town as it was used as a filming location for one of my past favorite TV shows, Northern Exposure.  Our arrival was on a very big festival day with lots of people everywhere.  Still, I was able to find some of the buildings I remembered from the TV show.

Our next stop was Cle Elum cemetery.  Douglas Albert Munro is buried here, in the town where he grew up.  Signalman First Class Munro was killed while in charge of ten landing boats removing Marines overwhelmed on the island of Guadalcanal. He placed his boats in a position to protect the marines while they were removed from the island. Near the end of this operation he was fatally wounded.  Munro was awarded the Medal of Honor and remains the only Coastguardsman to receive this medal. He was 22 years old.

On our way out of Cle Elum, we spotted a small telephone museum and stopped to have a look. The museum claims to be the oldest complete telephone museum west of the Mississippi with displays from 1876 to 1970. It did not take long to see it, but it was interesting.