Well, pretty SSDD except for having a follow up appointment with my sleep Doc in Olympia. And stopping to borrow an antenna analyzer from a friend of mine in Grapeview. And catching up on my “usual” chores. And laundry. And cleaning up this mess we call a house. And cleaning the Caravan. And the BBQ.
Trip to Olympia and back was nice; when it wasn’t raining. Spending time trying to tune that HVT-600 antenna I put on the truck. Got 20-meters tuned great. Having a bit of trouble with the rest. (Also have been shocked twice which means I need to check my ground wire!)
Our trip: Started at 0500 Saturday morning. Took all of 5 hours to get to the camp ground just a couple of miles “south” of the Dry Falls. Nice place. They kind of put us out all by ourselves (since I’m new at parking a Caravan?) which really was kind of nice. Weather was absolutely wonderful. T-shirt warm. Sunny.
We got set up and everything working and took off to see the Dry Falls, then back down to the Lake Lenore Caves. I don’t know what it was, but, during the first part of the walk, UP, I got my usual winded and legs complaining about it. Once at the top of the cement stairs (about a quarter of the way UP), my legs kicked into high gear and I could have walked/climbed another 10 miles. They were like “FUCK YEAH! LET’S DO THIS A LOT!” Not “restless leg syndrome” feeling, but, oh yeah feeling. Felt absolutely great! So we explored more than we have before. SWMBO did absolutely great also.
Then back to the camp ground for dinner. Note to self: next time, bring butter, salt, and pepper. Also, next time, MAKE SURE YOUR DAMNED LP GAS TANKS ACTUALLY HAVE GAS IN THEM! Neither did. (I thought the dealer had turned one tank off so “you’ll know when that one is empty that you have only the one tank left.” He didn’t and I didn’t check. My bad.) Good thing “dinner” was grilled steaks. (We microwaved the corn and spinach.)
Just kind of spent the evening lounging around reading or whatever. No real internet available (just barely enough to check mail) so spent more time reading. SWMBO was trying to do Genealogy and listening to her (strange ass) music. I also made several contacts in Mississippi on 20-meters in the evening. Nice. The only thing I heard on 2-meters was the Sheriff. (And they don’t like to “rag chew.”)
So, around 0200 I woke up with the creeping of the cold through the summer quilt (which I’d never heard of before. Summer quilt? Isn’t that like sorta pregnant?) and scrambled to turn on the little electric heater I was smart enough to stop and get on the way to camping. It was Cold! And SWMBO was trying to skootch me off the bed trying to get close for warmth. Didn’t take long for it to warm up enough though. And the Caravan got nice and warm too!
Started our trip back at 1100 Sunday and made it home about 1600 (lots more traffic). Not bad. Truck worked great and only slowed down going uphill. Which ain’t unusual when you consider I was pulling 4500 lbs. About the slowest I ever got dragged to was 50 mph. Used way too much gas though. Way too much. Totaled 3 tanks for this trip. 540+ miles. So I need to figure something out; not sure what. But something. Otherwise we’re going to make only a couple of trips a year and that just seems a shame considering how much this Caravan cost.
So, other than the above “problems” and forgetting my cpap machine, it went well. Best part was spending time with my schweetie, as always.
You can see the pictures of our trip here.
