Day 10 - Kent to Sultan, Washington - 60 Miles

Probably the first thing you're going to ask is how ANY RVers worth their salt manage to travel only sixty miles in one entire day? Well, it's simple: it's the fault of the Internet. When we got up this morning, I was intent on penning at least a few lines on yesterday's blog since I had arrived back at the camp much too late to start Sunday's narrative. But when I tried to connect, the mobile device was indicating only 38% reception, and I was having no luck connecting to anything; no email, no Facebook, and certainly no blog editor.

So, what to do. I knew that we were headed into the mountains and there was good chance that we would continue to have connection problems in our afternoon camp somewhere east of Seattle. In addition, Verizon has been warning us for several days that we were close to using up ALL of our month's data, and the month wouldn't be over until mid June. Now THAT'S a bigger problem than reception. No data capacity means no photographs for the blog.

We decided that the only answer, since I could not go online to boost our allowable data supply, was to seek out a Verizon store and let them do it for us. We easily found a Verizon store quite near us, 8/10s of a mile I think it said on the screen. But when we got to the supposed site, there was nothing at that address but an empty building. So we chose another Verizon store that unfortunately was six or eight miles away. This we found without difficulty.

When I presented myself at the Verizon counter it was my great fortune to have the manager, a chap named Lawrence, offer to help me. After discussing my need for more data, Lawrence suggested that I should change over to "unlimited data" while we were RVing so that we wouldn't have to go through the task of upping the data again if we guessed wrong on our future data requirements. I thought that sounded like a great deal, and told him to make it so.

While we were chatting about data, I brought up the subject of perhaps acquiring a new Jet Pack, which is our mobile device that we always use on trips. We have our own mobile device because the Internet at the majority of RV camps is quite overloaded and slow. Having your own Internet means only two of you are using it, which is just lovely.

Anyway, I asked Lawrence if he would recommend the newest version of the Jet Pack and he told me he definitely would, since the new ones are 5G ready. Plus, he said, he could make me a super deal on the new one that I would just not be able to turn down. Well, Lawrence was true to his word, and we now have the latest Jet Pack onboard, which sure seems to be faster than the old one.

Also, while we were at the Verizon store, Concetta complained to Lawrence about how her iPad just doesn't seem to want to attach to the Internet since we've been on vacation. Lawrence happily tested her device against the store Internet, as well as our new Jet Pack, and discovered that the usually reliable device had indeed quit working. Lawrence suggested that he'd make her a super deal on that device as well, and Concetta now has an iPad that works perfectly.

As you might guess, our travel time was ticking away as all this was going on, but we weren't done. During our conversations with Lawrence we grew quite fond of him. We were sharing everything from family photos to stories of our work histories. At one point he asked me what my email was, and I gave him the "writeguy47" address. He asked me if I was a writer. I told him that I had chosen the email address while I was in the middle of writing a murder mystery.

"Wow!" Lawrence said, "Really? I write mysteries, too?"

Now we began to really get acquainted. I gave him a copy of my mystery, and he gave me a copy of each one of his two published works. We traded contact information, and promised to keep up with each other, and I really think we will. Lawrence is a super guy, headed for wild success I suspect, and I wish him the very best of luck in his future endeavors, whatever they may be. So, if you happen to stop into the Verizon store in Auburn, Washington, tell Lawrence I sent you. He'll definitely take great care of you, and you'll probably make another friend as well.

Naturally, after all this palavering and getting to know Lawrence, our potential travel time had dwindled to half a day. No reason to move until we had lunch, which we did in the Verizon parking lot. So by the time we got rolling again it was 1:00 p.m.

Our intended goal for the night was a camp along Route 2 going east out of Seattle, which we accomplished without difficulty. Well, we didn't have any difficulty until we got to the camp, 9 miles south of the town of Sultan, along Route 2. There we discovered that it was a Thousand Trails camp and it was only with a great deal of difficulty that we were able to sign up on line, pay our fee, and then gain access. Good thing we got here when we did, as they only had two spaces free for the evening.

The last thing I'll tell you about is the terrific frescoes that we ran across in the town of Sultan (all photos save that of Lawrence are Sultan). I don't imagine that more than a couple of thousand people live around the town, but they truly have some wonderful fresco artists. So now we're set up beneath a huge canopy of trees, on a not quite level space, with a crashing dumpster lid that seems to resound throughout the camp every few minutes nearby. But as we finish dinner and things have quieted down, I think we'll be fine here for the night. Tomorrow we're headed east again, we're not entirely sure to where, but until tomorrow, we wish you exciting destinations and memorable travels from the Davises, the Happy Wanderers.