Taking to the mountains

Day 3 – Portland to Yakima

If you payed attention to my previous blog entry you know that around noon yesterday we had decided to head for the Pacific Ocean west of Kelso, Washington. As fate would have it, we decided quite on the fly not to head West but East to Yakima via Highway 12. There was no deep thought involved. The highway just looked like it transected some pretty exciting and scenic country, running as it does between Mount Rainier to the north and Mount St. Helens to the south.

Indeed the country has been as beautiful and sparsely populated as you could ask for. Route 12 is just a two-laner, and as such attracts far less traffic than the interstate. Dismissing the occasional speeding lumber truck cruising just scant feet from our rear bumper, our sojourn up Route 12 was a dream.

Enter the subject of road construction. Now I have to admit that we were forewarned that road construction on Route 12 would cause as much as ninety minute delays. But as I often do, I chose to disregard that warning, assuming that ninety minutes was probably the longest we could expect and the actual wait would turn out to be a far smaller chunk of time. So it was that we rounded a corner and encountered a road block complete with a very friendly female roadblock attendant who duly informed us that we could indeed expect one 45 minute delay just beyond where she had stopped us as well as an additional 90 minute delay further up the mountain.

“Of course, you could go that way,” she informed us, pointing off to her right. I looked over to where she was pointing and saw a two lane road even narrower than the one we were on. “That way leads to break-a-heart pass,” she said, or something like that. “Not really recommended for motor homes, but you could give it a try. Adds 22 miles to your trip.”

With images of Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball trying to bend their long, long trailer around tiny hairpin curves high in the mountains and barely keeping the whole rig from tumbling into the yawning chasm, I said, “No thanks, we’re not in that big a hurry.”

And that’s how I came to have time to work on this blog entry. The typing table was a little tipped since we were sitting on perhaps a 15 degree upslope angle. But at least the computer kept sliding toward me and not away. I thought about getting out the wheel chocks that I had paid big money for back in Carson City’s Wally World, but then I thought, hey, the 18-wheeler behind us would have to slide backwards first before I could.

In the end I was caught figuratively with my pants down as before I had gotten firmly into the third paragraph of the blog I heard a shout and Concetta said, “better get the truck started they’re pulling out.” I didn’t get to shut down the computer, stow my glasses, or much else and had to dive into the driver’s seat, start the truck and be off before the aforementioned 18-wheeler ran over the top of us.

Fortunately, we never ran into the second road block. I think that dinner time had inevitably called away the asphalt workers and they just went home and left us to continue our journey in peace. Ultimately I had been right from the beginning. Our total wait had been about thirty minutes.

Once over the mountain we coasted down into Yakima and headed for the RV park that Concetta had found in the AAA guide book. We were feeling pretty good. The wait had been shorter than we expected, the sun was shining on us, and it looked like we’d be in camp with plenty of daylight left. We went on thinking just like that right up until the moment we rolled in the driveway of the RV park and up to the office. There, displayed for all to see, was a sign that said, “Sorry, full for the night.”

“Oh, NO! we chorused. But after a moment of feeling sorry for ourselves, we set off in search of the only other AAA sanctioned RV park in Yakima. But when Concetta fed in the address, the little GPS came back and said, “Sorry, no such place,” or words to that effect.

By this time I didn’t really even know where in the city of Yakima I had landed. So, we did the only sensible thing in such an eventuality, we parked the coach and tried to call the second RV place, which was a state-owned and run park. On the first try I got a fax line. Ooops! We tried a different number. But this time no one answered at all. Okay, there was an 800 number listed, too. So, I tried calling that. This time I thought someone answered. Only problem was I had reached a recording, and the man who narrated the message must have been eating a peanut-butter sandwich while the tape was rolling. He sounded completely unintelligible and just a tad dim-witted to boot.

So, we decided to do the only other sensible thing we could in such a situation, stop and ask someone who was sure to know: a motel desk clerk for instance. I pulled the RV across the street from a handy motel and started for the door. But who should pull up in front just at that moment but a cab driver. Even better, I thought.

The cab driver proved our salvation. She knew right where the park was located and inside of fifteen minutes we were rolling in the front gate. Of course both of us were holding our breaths as we waited to see if this new park would be filled to the brim also. But no, the place looked completely empty. Once we got to the rear of the park where the RV folks were directed we did find a couple of dozen rigs in attendance, but we easily found a nice spot for the night.

So, serendipity had triumphed again. Yesterday morning we didn’t even know precisely where we were headed except to say generally north and east. By yesterday evening we had found a park, got a fire going, had barbecued chicken, roasted corn, salad with cucumbers from our garden, and, for dessert, blackberries that we had picked beside a country road yesterday. Everything turned out just fine even though we’d been a tad uncertain at times. Today, I have no good idea where we’re going except to say we hope to visit the Yakima trolley museum before we leave town. Otherwise, well, we’re headed generally east until we reach the Atlantic Ocean. I hope that every day is filled with as much serendipity as possible.

Stay tuned.