We woke up at the Walmart parking lot of Mt Vernon this morning. Little did we know, Josh and Jessa have been staying at the campground right next door ever since we parted ways 3 days ago.We have been waiting for the green light to be able to drive across the North Cascades mountains as a recent landslide had taken the only road through there out of commission.
When we got back to the Airstreams in the campground at Anacortes, both of our batteries were really low. Even though we have solar panels on the roof, the thick canopy from the trees prevented from charging. We ran our generators to get them back up so we could spend last night here before heading out this morning.
So many of you might know that we are woefully behind in this blog. These posts are dating back nearly 5 months. Part of the reason is because we are clinging to the daily post format. Although we are not officially abandoning that format, but for the sake of expediting the pace as well as getting our memories documented before they escape us, we will be switching to more of a location-based posts until we are up to date. With that out of the way, enjoy reading about the rest of our time on San Juan Island.
This morning we got our tent camping gear ready and packed everything we needed for a couple of days into the van and headed to the ferry terminal. Our plan is to boat across to San Juan Island and possibly island hop for a couple of days without the Airstream. We got to the ferry terminal and found a bunch of people who also had the same idea.
Yesterday as we rolled into Deception Pass State Park, it was finally drizzling rain as we expected the entire region to be since we got here. We have a lot of road grime on the rig so I took the opportunity to stand out in the drizzle to scrub her down a little.
Last night as we pulled into our spot in the Port Angeles Walmart, it had a distinct chill in the air. After all, we are now just a short ferry hops from Canada.
There are many people who dislike spending the night at a Walmart but not us. We welcome it. It is one of the constants of our life on the road. Even when the Aberdeen Walmart parking lot was a giant construction zone, we slept like babies. In the morning however, we did blast out of there since we knew we had a lot of road to cover in order to make it to Port Angeles via the long but scenic way.
This morning we woke up to our last morning in Oregon before heading into the state of Washington. Our experience in Astoria has been amazing. It was exactly the kind of visit to a new city we always wish for: Seeing it like a local instead of a tourist.
Last night we got to Astoria to find that there are no Walmarts or truck stops that allow overnight parking. In a pinch, we contacted a Facebook friend we met last time we drove through Austin, Texas who have since relocated here to Astoria. Greg and Jenn of BareNakedFamily.com.
While we were boondocking at the parking lot of the Tillamook Air Museum last night, we met another couple from Washington state taking advantage of the free camping opportunity. They had not camped here before either and if it wasn’t for them already being there, we probably would have left to find another spot
One of the benefits of having kids is that they wake you up at dawn and you get to take pictures of the sunrise.
Our stay at Beachside State Park lasted only a couple of days as we will need to move on today. We had a few pieces of wood and instead of carrying it around, which you are not suppose to, we had a little morning fire before we left.
