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Snowbirding 2022: A Few Camper Repairs and Improvements

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Fixing things and coming up with new storage solutions is a part of RV life.

Because I don’t keep my truck and camper on pavement and because some of the roads I travel on can be pretty rough, my camper is constantly being subjected to considerable bumps and jolts every time I move it. This has a direct impact on some of its components and every once in a while, I need to fix the things that break.

Latches

The most important of these are the latches that keep drawers and cabinets closed. Most of these are spring-action latches that are (unfortunately) made of molded plastic. Over time, these latches — or at least some plastic component within them — cracks and snaps due to the stress of the drawer/door against the rocking motion of the RV as it does down the road. Without latches, the drawers/doors can swing open and closed as I drive, either strewing contents inside the camper or, worse yet, causing stresses on drawer or cabinet structures that lead to wood snapping or other plastic pieces inside failing. The trick is to either get these latches repaired or replaced as soon as possible or tie the drawer or cabinet door closed in such a way that it won’t open in transit.

(The other day, I wrote a blog post about how RVing is preparing me for cruising. In it, I listed a bunch of things that are very similar in the two activities. This is one of them — and I have a good example. When I cruised on Nano earlier this year, one of the drawers would not stay closed when the boat rocked — which it invariably did while we were under way. Capt Paul rigged up a bungee cord to keep the drawer closed. I’m pretty sure he drilled something to make this happen. He also spent the good part of one afternoon fixing other little things around the boat that needed attention.)



The outside (top) and inside (bottom) of the drawer latch I had to replace. There’s another park attached to the cabinet, but that is made of metal and didn’t need replacing.

The problem I faced when I began using my camper this autumn was that the drawer under the stove, which holds heavy pots and pans, would not stay closed. In this case, it wasn’t necessarily the rocking of the camper that broke the latch, although it certainly might have weakened it. I had loaned the camper to one of the pilots who worked for me during cherry season and when he left I just put it away. It wasn’t until I did my first trip down to Pasco for an art show that I discovered the problem.

Although nothing fell out of the drawer in transit, I knew from experience that it would evolve into a larger problem if I didn’t fix it. The contents of the drawer weighed 20 pounds or more — the constant slamming back and forth in transit would break the drawer frame in no time. It had to be fixed.

I tried stacking heavy things in front of the drawer in transit and that didn’t work. Those things just slid elsewhere in the cabin. Then I found a way to jam something into what remained of the latch to hold the catch in place. It was a temporary fix.

The goal was to buy a replacement latch. The problem with that was that my camper is a 2007 and Lance no longer makes that style of latch. Fortunately, I didn’t need to make a newer latch do the job. The Lance dealer in Yakima had two just like the ones I had. I bought them both.

Replacing the latch was an easy enough job that required a screwdriver. I was able to retrieve both of the broken pieces of the old latch. I’ll use epoxy glue to put it back together and then put it with the other spare. I know that more of these latches will eventually break and I want to be prepared.

Light Fixture

My camper has a number of DC-powered light fixtures inside, including two florescent style overhead lights I rarely use. One of them didn’t work quite right — one of the two bulbs was never as bright as the other — and replacing the bulb didn’t help. I was willing to live with that because I didn’t really use those lights. But when the plastic cover over the fixture fell and broke beyond repair, having those ugly florescent style bulbs exposed on my ceiling really bothered me.

So when I was at the dealer getting those latches, I asked about a new fixture. The owner came out and tried a new bulb and got the same results I did. He dug up an old fixture that was the right size — I honestly don’t think it was brand new but it looked new enough — and sold it to me for a reasonable price.

After replacing the latch, I replaced the fixture. It was an involved job that required cutting and rejoining wires. It reminded me of the work I’d done when I wired my home during construction. I still wonder whether I would have tackled this small job if I didn’t have the experience of the big job behind me.


The light fixture looks and works great. But I still seldom use it. I threw the old one away.

Baskets

Every time I break camp and move my camper, I have to stow everything in a place where it’ll stay secure until I park at the next camp. Fortunately, this camper has a ton of interior storage space that’s suitable for large or small items. But what about the items you want to keep handy? Things you don’t want to put away and then take out again every time you stop?

For those things, I installed two baskets which hang on walls. The first is a metal basket that hangs over the door. I use it to store the camper registration, a small pair of binoculars, a pair of small lanterns, spare doggie poop bags, and a handful of other items I might need/want to grab in a hurry on my way out the door. This basket is affixed with two screws that hold it onto the wall.

The first thing that happened was that the screws came loose. They just pulled away from the wall. OK, it’s just crappy drywall and pretty thin. Of course screws wouldn’t be enough on their own. So I got a pair of appropriately sized plastic drywall screw do-dads and re-affixed the shelf with those in place. That fix lasted about two years. Then, the other day, after going down a very bumpy road, I noticed that one of the screws and plastic do-dads had come loose and the other was about to do the same.

I thought about how permanent I wanted this shelf to be. The answer was very permanent. I already had two large screw holes in the wall; if I took the shelf down, I’d have to look at those. So I picked up some epoxy glue at a hardware store and, one afternoon, mixed it up. I used a toothpick to put some in each screw hole. I took everything out of the basket and pushed the two screws with their plastic do-dads back into the holes. I held them in place for the 5 minute set time. Then I let it cure overnight. I was able to put everything back in there before moving on to my next campsite.


The basket hanging over the door. If you look closely, you can see where the epoxy oozed out of the screw holes.

The other basket is in the bathroom. It affixes to the wall with suction cups that you put in place and then twist until they’re secure. Because the bathroom wall is smooth, clean plastic, the basket, which holds shampoos, soaps, and my toothbrush, usually stays in place. For a while. Eventually, it comes down, scattering everything on the floor. I was tired of replacing it.

I thought about gluing the basket into place. Some epoxy on the suction cups would make them stick forever. But then there was the question of permanence. Did I — or the camper’s next owner — really want a basket there forever? Maybe not. (The previous owner had turned the bathroom into a large closet by hanging a metal rod across the whole thing; that was the first thing I’d removed and it required me to patch screw holes in the plastic walls.)

I came up with a solution that I hope continues to work. I bought some 3M adhesive hooks and affixed them to the wall under those suction cups. I then attached the suction cups to the wall as usual. The idea is that the hooks take most of the weight off the suction cups while providing two more attachment points. This would also limit the basket’s motion as the camper sways down the road. With less stress on the suction cups, the basket should stay in place.

That’s the theory, anyway. So far, it’s working. And those stick-on hooks can be removed.


Here’s the bathroom shelf. The screw-to-tighten suction cups hold most of the weight, but the two clear hooks I added below them help, especially in transit.

(Note here that I didn’t buy crappy plastic hooks. I bought 3M, which is well known for the quality of its adhesives. I have (finally) come to realize that it’s often worth a few dollars more to buy the good stuff.)

Shelves

My camper has a deep counter area between the fridge and the table. On brochures, it’s referred to as a “food prep” area. In a camper with very little counter space, it’s nice to have.

But it’s also a waste of space. It’s not terribly wide, but it is deep, going all the way back to the wall. Nothing can be left there in transit — it would definitely slide off the countertop.

In the beginning, I’d put relatively large items in there and use a standard spring-loaded rod to hold the items in place. But it was a messy, disorganized solution that really didn’t take advantage of the height of the space.

So I built shelves out of 3/8 inch sanded plywood. There are 3 shelves in the unit and each shelf has a lip that (theoretically) would prevent items from sliding off the shelf in transit.


There’s a lot going on here. First, you see my shelves with a spring-loaded rod to prevent it from sliding around in transit. Above them, you can see the AC and DC outlets, each with a power port plugged in.

If you watched the video tour of my camper, you can see these shelves in their normal messy state. The idea is to use the top shelf, which is close to both an AC and DC outlet, as a charging station for mobile devices and battery packs. The other two shelves would be used for items that I need to access often but are too small to put loose in a cabinet. The result, as the video clearly shows, is a mess. My latest project was to get that space better organized and to affix the two USB charging outlet units to the shelves so they’re neater and easier to access.


Here’s a closeup look at the two power ports I affixed with zip ties. The vertical one is all USB ports and is DC powered. It’ll work any time. The horizontal one is two standard outlets and three USB ports and is AC powered. It’ll work any time my camper is plugged in to an AC power source, including my generator.

Again, I needed to think about permanence. I also needed to think about attachment points on the actual units. Neither has screw holes and I don’t want to glue them on. My solution was to drill holes in the shelf unit and use zip ties around each unit to hold them in place.

So far, so good.

Other Improvements

I can think of three other improvements I made in the camper since I bought it four or five years ago.

The first was removing the two twin mattresses and replacing them with a queen mattress. Not only is my replacement mattress — one of those hybrids that combine springs with foam and come rolled up in a box — far more comfortable than the crappy RV mattresses that came with it, but who sleeps in a twin bed? It was a huge improvement. Unfortunately, I had to set up the mattress sideways so my pups can easily get in and out of the sleeping area. Still, it works.

The second was adding covered boxes for small clothing storage. Because the camper had two twin beds with a space between them, there was no room in the sleeping area for the cabinets that Lance usually builds into place on either side of the bed. That meant I had no storage for items like socks, underwear, t-shirts, etc. I found fabric covered cardboard boxes with lids in the local Fred Meyer Supermarket on sale for 50% off. I bought enough to fill the space next to the bed. They fit perfectly, are sturdy enough to do the job I need them to do, and they fit all the clothes I don’t want to hang in my closet.

The third was adding hooks. Heavy duty, metal, screw-in hooks. I put them on my bathroom door and on the walls in the sleeping area. They make it possible to keep things like coats, scarves, hats, and those clothing items that are neither dirty nor clean in a place where they’re out of the way yet easy to get to. I also use one of them to hold my laundry hamper in place in transit.

These relatively small improvements were an easy step to making such a small space livable for long periods of time.

Snowbirding 2022: Travel Costs

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A breakdown of my travel-related costs by day for my 2021/22 trip south.


One of my favorite campsites so far this year was at Kingman Wash, 3 miles from pavement right on Lake Mead. It’s free, quiet, private, and has great views and an awesome cell phone signal.

A lot of folks think it costs a lot to travel with an RV. These are usually the folks who “camp” by making reservations at a KOA, pulling into a paved or gravel parking space with dozens of other RVs, and plugging in. In that case, sure, it’s expensive. Those KOAs are getting $50 or $60 per night. But camping doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if you know how to take advantage of free or low-cost camping locations.

While last year I spent nearly 90% of my travel time camped out on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in Arizona for free, this year I’m traveling a lot more and splitting my time between boondocking on public land and spending nights at campgrounds where I can dump my waste tanks, refill my water tank, and get a dose of socialization. As a result, this year will probably cost me about twice what last year cost. I’m budgeting $1500/month and am pretty sure I’ll stay within budget.

Here’s what I’m spending my travel dollars on so far. I’ll update this periodically throughout my trip. Note that this only includes expenses related to travel; I am omitting food costs because I’d be spending money on food if I stayed home, too.

As you can see, my biggest expense so far is fuel for my truck. That’s because I’m only getting about 11-12 miles per gallon with my camper loaded and I’ve driven about a thousand miles. But since I’ve pretty much “arrived” in the area where I’ll be spending most of the time, that cost has pretty much leveled out. I expect to spend, on average, about $50/week on fuel until I make the trip back home in February.

Updated: February 11, 2022

DateTruck Fuel1Other Fuel2CampingOther3Total
Dec 10165.42 36.00 201.42
Dec 11182.7912.72 (p)  195.51
Dec 12 5.06 (g)  5.06
Dec 13106.404.98 (g)35.0015.00 (s)161.38
Dec 14  35.008.00 (i)43.00
Dec 15    0.00
Dec 1676.88 57.00 133.88
Dec 17   4.00 (l)4.00
Dec 18    0.00
Dec 19    0.00
Dec 20    0.00
Dec 21    0.00
Dec 22  36.25 36.25
Dec 2373.4612.91 (p)36.25 122.62
Dec 24  36.25 36.25
Dec 25  36.252.00 (l)38.25
Dec 26  35.00 35.00
Dec 27    0.00
Dec 28    0.00
Dec 29  25.00 25.00
Dec 30    0.00
Dec 31111.92 40.00 151.92
Jan 1    0.00
Jan 2    0.00
Jan 3    0.00
Jan 4    0.00
Jan 5    0.00
Jan 6 32.03 (p) 8.00 (d)
14.00 (l)		54.03
Jan 7    0.00
Jan 8    0.00
Jan 9    0.00
Jan 10    0.00
Jan 11    0.00
Jan 12    0.00
Jan 13    0.00
Jan 14    0.00
Jan 15  37.00 37.00
Jan 16125.00  5.00 (l)130.00
Jan 17 21.74 (p)39.62 66.36
Jan 18  39.62 39.62
Jan 19  39.62 39.62
Jan 20  39.62 39.62
Jan 21  39.62 39.62
Jan 22    0.00
Jan 23100.00   100.00
Jan 24    0.00
Jan 25    0.00
Jan 26    0.00
Jan 27    0.00
Jan 28  20.00 20.00
Jan 29  20.00 20.00
Jan 30  20.00 20.00
Jan 31  56.00 56.00
Feb 1100.00  12.50 (l)112.50
Feb 2 19.89 (p)  $19.89
Feb 3    0.00
Feb 496.60   96.90
Feb 5    0.00
Feb 697.48 40.00 137.48
Feb 7    0.00
Feb 8    0.00
Feb 8    0.00
Feb 10    0.00
Feb 11    0.00
Totals1236.25109.33799.1068.502212.48
Total Days:64Average Per Day:34.57

Notes:

  1. Includes diesel fuel as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), which must be added periodically.
  2. Other fuel includes:
    (p) Propane (for my camper)
    (g) Gasoline (for my generator)
  3. Other includes:
    (s) Shower
    (i) Internet
    (l) Laundry
    (d) Tank Dump

Western Washington Wander 2020: Dungeness Recreation Area

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I spend two nights in a pleasant campground, recovering from a weekend of hard work and bad air.

Last year, I spent a weekend in Port Angeles, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula, selling my jewelry — or at least trying to — at a rock show there. I had done very well in January at a rock show in Mesa, AZ, and figured that might just be my niche. It wasn’t. I barely made enough to make the trip all the way out there worthwhile.

While I was at the show, I camped out in a corner of the municipal parking lot. It was surprisingly pleasant — heck, deer came out of the woods right there to nibble on the blackberries that grew beside the spaces — but I knew damn well that I’d be overstaying my welcome if I spent the night after the show there. So I whipped out my public lands campground app, Ultimate CG, and found Dungeness Recreation Area, a county park just down the road in Sequim.

It was raining gently when I arrived just before dark and I found a campsite in one of the loops. It was surprisingly large and private, as were most of the other sites. Very pleasant. And I had the added bonus of finding a few very healthy lobster mushrooms at the back of my site in the woods.

Settling in at Dungeness

All that was on my mind when I left Eatonville and headed west. It was a 2-1/2 hour drive and I arrived at least a half hour after dark. With those lobster mushrooms in my mind, I tried to remember what site I’d been in. I wound up in the site right next to it.

Campsite1
Here’s a photo I shot in the morning of my truck backed into our campsite. There was lots of privacy with dense vegetation on either side of us.

Campsite 2
The campsite was spacious with a picnic table, fire pit (just out of the shot), and enough space to erect multiple tents. Because there was no campsite behind ours, we had the illusion of woods going on forever.

I was dead tired and tightly wound when I backed into the spot, using a lantern as a parking guide. It was darker than I thought possible for a county campground. I absolutely hate driving at night in an unfamiliar area and the last 45 minutes had been stressful for me. I was glad to get in. I had just enough energy left to take the girls for a quick business walk, make us all dinner, and then take one more short walk for good luck. I had the pay envelope, but it didn’t give a rate anywhere on it and I certainly wasn’t going to walk all the way back to the pay station in complete darkness anyway. I’d pay in the morning.

I slept surprisingly well. Well, maybe not so surprising when I think about how tired I was. I made my coffee while the girls were still asleep and managed to finish half of it before they woke up. Then it was time to take them for a walk.

And that was the drawback of staying at a real campground: I couldn’t just open the door and let them out to pee. I had to put them on leashes and take them for a walk.

I got dressed, grabbed the campground registration form I’d filled out the night before, put some money in my pocket, and leashed up the girls. Then we set out toward the pay station.

Fire Map
There were fires burning throughout Washington, Oregon, and California (not shown on this map). The smoke in the west had become “hazardous.”

It was a pleasant walk despite the foglike smoke that had settled over the area. Visibility couldn’t have been more than a half mile, but since we were walking in the damp forest, it didn’t really matter. We cut through the campground on a path I’d remembered from the previous year. The girls sniffed and did their business along the way.

At the pay station, I put $26 in the envelope and noted the 12 noon checkout time. I grabbed a park map and we headed back to the camper. I finished my coffee and made us all breakfast.

Full Day at Dungeness

The plan that day was to hike out on a path along the ocean known as “the Spit.” There was a lighthouse at the end that I’d never seen. So after breakfast I packed up a small daypack with rain gear — there was rain in the forecast — bottled water, and some snacks. I almost put the binoculars in there but then wondered what I expected to look at with visibility so low and put them away.

We cut out along another path through the woods that took us toward the Spit trailhead. I really love the forest in that park. It was dense and damp but somehow still bright. The forest floor was thick with pine needles and branches and leafy undergrowth. In wetter conditions, it would likely be full of all kinds of mushrooms. It had a sort of atmosphere that seemed to absorb sound, or at least make it quieter.

We emerged at the end of the trail at a parking area and crossed it to the trailhead. I looked at the signs to learn more about the hike. Of course, the one I noticed first was the one that said “No Pets.”

Okay, to be fair it was a wildlife refuge. And yes, I do get the fact that park managers don’t want big bumbling dogs — or even small ones, for that matter — chasing wildlife. But I was still disappointed. I was really looking forward to a walk on the beach with my pups.

Fortunately, Dungeness has many trails. Without wasting anymore time there, I headed off on the one that went along the bluffs with my two little dogs in tow.

Hike Map
The orange line marks our hike route. You can see it on GaiaGPS, along with the one crappy photo I took.

We spent the next hour or so meandering on trails throughout the park, passing a handful of mostly masked hikers along the way. (I’m sorry, but although I do believe that masks help prevent the spread of the virus, I don’t believe they’re necessary when hiking outdoors, especially in places where the chances of passing another person are slim. I should add here that all the people I saw wearing masks along the trails were seniors so maybe they felt more at risk? I kept my distance from them.) The only wildlife I saw were squirrels, birds, and a single deer.

At one point, a woman with two medium sized dogs warned me that her dogs weren’t friendly; as if to prove her point, the two dogs strained at their leashes, growling and barking as they tried to get at my pups. To their credit, my girls hurried past them on short leashes. (Poor Lily looked absolutely terrified.) But it makes me wonder why someone wouldn’t better socialize their dogs before taking them out in public where there might be other dogs. Seriously folks: either you’re going to make your dog a part of your life and train it appropriately or you’re not. There’s very little middle ground.

One thing I noticed along the walk was that I was getting tired a lot more quickly than I should have been. The trails were relatively flat and very easy walking, yet I felt exhausted and had a headache within the first mile and a half. My left knee was aching. I definitely did not feel like hitting the road again to places unknown. I felt like taking a nap. And it wasn’t even 11 AM.

So we stopped at the pay station on the way back to camp. I filled out another envelope and stuck another $26 into it. I’d spend the day there at the park, just taking it easy, and head out the next day.

To my credit, I did hike about 2-1/4 miles that morning — basically the same walk I do three times a week with a neighbor at home.

A Lazy Afternoon

Rosie and Lily
The bench seat on my RV’s dinette is small, but both pups managed to squeeze in a nap sitting next to me sometime during our stay at the park.

After a satisfactory visit to one of the campground’s coin-op showers, I reheated the previous night’s leftovers for lunch and did a little work on my blog outside at the picnic table. I tried leaving my pups off-leash at the campsite, but they invariably got “the zoomies” and chased each other out of the campsite boundaries, winding up at someone else’s site where Rosie went in for pets and Lily played keep-away. Around 2 PM, I went in for a nap with the girls. They’d skipped breakfast — sometimes they’re finicky — but wound up eating most of their food for lunch. We all climbed up on the bed together. I read for a while and then fell asleep.

I had begun wondering whether my spent feeling was due to the bad air or possible COVID exposure during my travels. I’d been with two other people, all of us maskless in a large open indoor area, all weekend. As I’ve been doing occasionally since the virus has begun spreading, I cataloged my symptoms: mild cough, mild sore throat, headache, general feeling of fatigue. I managed to get a good enough Internet connection to check the air quality in my area and saw that it was over 300: Hazardous. Maybe breathing bad air was making me sick? Whodathunkit?

Rack of Lamb on the Barbie
I used aluminum foil to protect the meat from the flames I knew would start up when fat hit the burners. My portable BBQ grill is very temperamental, but keeping it set to low and closing the lid gave me the ovenlike cooking I wanted.

I started dinner at 5 PM. I’d defrosted a rack of lamb and had decided to cook it on my grill instead of coating my camper’s tiny oven with spattered lamb fat. I’d never cooked rack of lamb on the grill before. I also didn’t have a meat thermometer with me. Amazingly, however, I managed to pull it off, ending up with a perfectly cooked rack that I served up with pan-fried garden potatoes and the last of my garden scallions. I had sliced figs on the side. I put half the rack in the fridge for lunch the next day.

A Feeling of Malaise

We went for two more short walks before bedtime. The nap had really helped me. I think that just taking it easy and breathing less of that bad air is what really helped me.

But I had also begun feeling as if I’d fallen into a sort of mental funk. Was I depressed? Maybe.

The situation in this country is really out of control. Between the virus and the wildfires (and their smoke) and the bullshit politics, I really don’t know how anyone can remain upbeat. There’s just too much stupidity, hate, and anger in this country these days.

I’m looking forward to a Biden presidency, but if it’s stolen from him (as it was stolen from Clinton in 2016) by foreign players and Electoral College inequities, I don’t know what I will do. I know I can’t live through four more years of what we have now but I don’t want to abandon the life I’ve built for myself and become an expat. I can’t see a compromise without putting on blinders and ignoring the damage being done to our country, its reputation in the world, and its people.

And even if Biden does win, I have worry that wacko Trump supporters — and I do mean wacko — will try to start a civil war, spurred on by Trump and Fox News. They’ve been fed a steady diet of lies about Biden and the democratic party and they honestly fear for their way of life. How can we hope to undo the damage of those lies? How can we help them see reason? I think it’s impossible.

Every day more negative stories about Trump are emerging — even stories with him on tape admitting that he misled the American people! Yet none of these stories are penetrating the thick skulls of his supporters to help them see reason. They truly are cult members. Cult members with guns who don’t think twice about ending another person’s life.

Anyway, I’ve been avoiding talking politics in my blog because, honestly, I’m sick of it. But I needed to get this off my chest, to explain the general feeling of malaise that has come over me. I think that it’s a combination of these things: COVID, smoke/fires, and politics. I suspect that if COVID and the smoke weren’t part of the big picture in my life, I’d be able to better deal with the politics. But I can’t.

[And if you’re a Trump supporter reading this, FUCK YOU. I have zero tolerance these days for people STUPID and UNPATRIOTIC enough to support the greedy, racist, narcissistic conman in the White House. I hope someday you WAKE THE FUCK UP and realize how much damage he’s done to this country. In the meantime, please leave a big, long comment on this blog post so I can have the pleasure of marking it as spam without even reading it. I want you to waste your time trying unsuccessfully to share your bullshit with my blog readers. You might want to read this if you’re worried about your First Amendment rights.]

A Peaceful, Restful Night

Sometime during the afternoon, a light rain started up. I love the sound of rain on the roof of my camper and that cheered me considerably. It was the first rain I’d experienced since June 28 and I was ready for it.

The campground was amazingly quiet; no generators, no barking dogs, no screaming kids. I think that’s what I liked most about the campground — large private sites, sparsely populated on weeknights, with very little camper noise. It gave me the illusion of staying someplace like Buck Creek Camp with the benefit of toilets, showers, and garbage receptacles.

Throughout the night, the rain came and went. Even when it wasn’t raining, I could hear big drops from the trees on top of the camper. It was like music to my ears. I slept well and woke refreshed.

The afternoon before, I’d booked a campsite at one of the coastal campgrounds in Olympic National Park. Although I had my doubts about the campground, I was able to get a site right on the ocean. It was 2-1/2 hours away. After breakfast and two dog walks, I packed up my grill, neatened up the camper, and pulled out for a leisurely drive west.

I would definitely get my walk on the beach that day.

Western Washington Wander 2020: A Driving Day with a Crappy Campsite

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I spend much of the day on the road, driving into smoke and spending the night in a crappy place.

Friday was a driving day for me that was a lot longer than it should have been. The only highlights were lunch with friends and a long-postponed trip to Trader Joe’s. Even my campsite that night sucked.

So I’ll keep this short.

The Long Drive

I needed to be in Maple Valley at noon to meet some old friends for lunch. Normally, that would be less than an hour from where I was camped at Buck Creek Camp: Go northwest on 410 to Enumclaw and then north on 169 to Maple Valley. Easy.

Route to Maple Valley
Not exactly the most direct route to my destination.

But a fire had route 410 closed at Greenwater and there was apparently no way to get through. So I had to go around to the south before going west, basically circumnavigating Mt. Rainier National Park. That made it a 3-hour drive.

Of course, I didn’t know that when I pulled out of my campsite at 8 AM sharp. I knew the road was closed and that I’d have to go around the long way, but I had no idea how long that long way was. I had no Internet access and couldn’t use Google Maps to calculate drive time. So I thought I’d make a leisurely drive around the park and get there with time to spare.

I realized this wasn’t the case after stopping for fuel at Packwood and using Google Maps to give me a good route with timing. That’s when I discovered, at after 9 AM — I guess I forgot to mention stopping at a bakery and going about 5 miles out of my way in search of a ranger station — that I still had a 2 hour and 16 minute drive ahead of me. If I left at that moment, I could be there by 11:52.

Holy crap.

So I drove. I took a winding road north from Packwood to the National Park Road and continued west on another road and another road through a succession of towns, each getting a little bigger and more traffic-filled than the one before it. For the first time in days, I was stopping at traffic lights and seeing red lines on Google Maps.

And that’s when I started experiencing the smoke that has blanketed the entire state. It started as a haze and got thicker and thicker until I couldn’t see far ahead. I couldn’t smell it, but by the end of the day I’d have a sore throat.

Air Quality
Here’s a picture of the air quality situation on Friday. It hovered around 300 where I was.

Anyway, after a miserable 2+ hours of driving, I finally arrived at my destination: a restaurant in Maple Valley, WA. I parked my rig, took my pups out for a quick pee walk, stowed them in the camper where they had access to food and water, and met my friends for lunch.

A Few Hours in Civilization

The friends I met were Don and Johnie, a couple I’ve known for at least 10 years. Don was a Robinson R44 owner and helped me find hangar space at Deer Valley Airport in Arizona for a season or two before my divorce, when I really tried to make a go of helicopter charter work down there. Don has since sold his helicopter and embraced retirement. I don’t see them often, despite the fact that their summer home is right on the other side of the mountains from me and he has a helipad in his yard. Even stranger is that, like me, they go to Arizona in the winter time and I seldom see them there, either.

It was nice to catch up with them. They’ve been mostly sheltering in place, seeing very few people. This particular restaurant was one of the few they felt comfortable eating at, although they preferred eating on the outdoor patio, which was closed that day due to the smoke. They’re heading back down to Arizona later this month and I’ll make a special effort to meet up with them when I’m in their area.

After lunch, I had Google Maps direct me to the nearest Trader Joe’s. I was in search of figs, which I buy at Trader Joe’s every autumn. They did not disappoint me; I bought three pounds. I also bought some of their olive oil sardines, sugar free chocolate bars, tamales, and the fixings I need to make my granola — mostly unsweetened coconut and flax seeds which are nearly impossible to find at a reasonable price in Wenatchee. By the time I left with my three bags full of food, there was a line to get in; I didn’t realize it, but they were limiting access to the store during the pandemic and I was lucky to be able to get right in.

One more quick stop — this time at a Lowes. I bought a pair of leather gloves and eye protection that I’d need for the blacksmithing course I was starting the next day.

The Crappy Campsite

By that time, it was after 3 PM. I needed a place to park for the night and I didn’t see any decent options between there and my morning destination in Eatonville. I took a route that kept me as close to the national forest as possible, hoping for a forest road I could slip down and park along. But no joy.

In the end, I wound up parking in a mostly empty lot in the town of Eatonville. I spoke to the guys at the used car place across the street and they assured me that the owner of the lot didn’t care who parked there and that semis parked there all the time. I did notice a police car cruising through slowly to check me out, but no one bothered me.

Bad Air in Eatonville
Here’s a view out my window in my Eatonville “camp.” That tiny orange dot just under the wires is the sun.

I took the girls for a walk to a nearby restaurant called Shaken, which had outdoor dining. I figured I’d get a drink and a snack. I thought the place might be nice but it turned out to be kind of redneck. They played country music and none of the servers wore their masks properly. I ordered a drink and food; the drink came quickly and was okay but the food never came. I flagged down the waitress and told her I’d take it to go. She came back a moment later to ask me what I’d ordered. They never made it; I think she forgot to put the order in. I got the check for the drink, paid it, and left. Against my better judgement, I did give her a tip. She had, after all, gotten water for my pups.

I had a terrible night’s sleep. I heard cars go by all night and it didn’t quiet down until after midnight. Some people walked by at 2:30 AM, talking loud enough to wake the girls and get them growling.

I was out of bed by 4 AM. I spent some time working on blog posts and drinking coffee. The girls woke up when it got light out and I took them for a walk. There was a coffee place across the street and I got a breakfast sandwich from them. Pre-made, microwaved. Edible but barely.

By 8 AM, I decided to move on.