To view the photos click on “Photos October 2006” above. We remained in Spokane, WA until October 12th, filling the time with numerous errands and chores that had been on hold while we were in Canada.  We also toured the surrounding lakes and mountains, visited a museum, and attended a Brahms Violin and Piano Concert which was quite enjoyable.   At 11:30 on the 12th (mileage: 52602) we left, heading southwest on I-90 to Ellensburg and on to Yakima via I-82, where we left the Interstate.  On Highway 12 we drove west to House Creek Campground in the Wenatchee National Forest, shortly before Rimrock.  We spent three nights there in the middle of the forest with no electricity or water--just pure nature!   The first night we had a campfire with grilled steaks.  The next morning we left the RV there and drove to Mount Rainer  (< -- Please click).  The weather was sunny and beautiful.   We arrived in the park from the east, driving through the park, stopping for a picnic and mountain nature walk.  Leaving the park on the west side, we drove through the town of Morton (see photos) and then back to Highway 12 to our campground. The weather on the following day wasn’t quite as spectacular when we visited Mount St. Helens (< -- Please click), but we had a picnic in dry weather with a good view of the volcano.   Here are a few more good links: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Lake_(Washington)      http://www.nps.gov/archive/mora/home.htm On Sunday, October 15th, it was raining as we left the forest campground.  We drove back to Yakima and took Highway 97 through the Yakama Indian reservation to the Columbia River (< -- Please click) which forms the Washington-Oregon border at this point.  We crossed over the Columbia River into Oregon near Dallas Dam, and then drove through the Columbia River Gorge with beautiful landscape and vineyards on both sides of the river.  As we arrived near Portland, we were stuck in crawling traffic for quite a while.  A “colleague” of ours (another 5th wheel RV) had somehow flipped over on the road and it was quite a while before the road was passable again.  Southwest of Portland, we spent the night at Mulkey RV Park.  This is the hazelnut region and across the road from the RV Park we bought 20 pounds of fresh, cracked hazelnuts, directly from the grower.  They had just begun selling this year’s crop on the day before!  Then we drove on Highway 18 to the Pacific coast.  In Lincoln City we stopped at an outlet center and found a few bargains.  On that evening we had our first encounter with an Oregon State Park.  All of the state parks along the Oregon coast have electricity and water (some with cable TV) at about half the price of commercial campgrounds.  They also have a check out time of 2 PM instead of 11 AM.  This was quite impressive but the big surprise came when we discovered that veterans with a service-connected disability are allowed to stay at any state campground for five nights free for a total of ten days total in a month!      The first night we stayed at Beverly Beach State Park but we paid since we had not yet discovered the veteran benefit.  The following night we stopped at Siuslaw National Park, shortly before Florence.  It was a nice secluded forest which we liked so much that we stayed for seven nights.  Four young cats were our daily guests.  They seemed to like dog food with milk (see photos).  It was a short drive to the sand dunes and the beach (see photos).  We also went to town a few times for seafood.  We spent a lot of time preparing and eating various apple dishes.  We had collected a large amount of apples while in Washington.  There were so many that they were rotting on the ground and no one bothered to harvest them, so we did!  The shells from the twenty pounds of hazelnuts also had to be sorted out.  So we kept busy in our forest hide-away. On Tuesday, October 24th we left Siuslaw and that evening stopped at Humbug Mountain State Park, where we discovered the free camping for qualified veterans.  The following day we arrived at Harris Beach State Park, shortly before Brookings (see photos).  We spent two more free nights there! On a clear sunny day we left Oregon and arrived in California.  We tried our luck at a California State Park near Trinidad but the sites were too short to park without unhooking the RV.  Also, there were no hookups so we drove down the road to Azalea Glen RV Park where we had a pull thru site with full hookups.  After driving through Trinidad and having a look at its lighthouse, we drove to Eureka to see its major attraction, the Carson Victorian mansion (see photos).  We then took a slight, but nevertheless important detour to the Avenue of the Giants (see photos) in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  Our RV is 13' 4” at its highest point but it looks like a little toy under a Christmas tree (see photos). In Leggett we turned westward again to travel down the coast.  This piece of road was one of the most difficult we have encountered, with 10% grades and hairpin curves.   However, we were rewarded with a campsite directly on the ocean (see photos).  We prepared our steaks over a campfire and had supper while listening to and watching the Pacific’s surf in the moon light. The following morning was overcast with a heavy ocean mist.  We drove along the coast to Fort Bragg, then on Highway 20 thru Willits, Calpella, Nice, Lucerne and Glenhaven before arriving in Clear Lake.  We spent the night there in the Wal-Mart parking lot and had supper at Jack-in-the-Box.  Quite a contrast to the romantic setting of the evening before.  On the following morning, the sunny weather returned.  That afternoon we arrived at Beale Air Force Base, where we settled in for the remaining days of October, with plans to move north, in early November, to Chico where Renée’s cousin Terry lives with her husband Larry and their three boys. Mileage:  54297 We have driven 1695 miles since we left Spokane on October 12th. To be continued in November….

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