December 29, Monday - Damn Lucky (Washington)

On Sunday Snee-Oosh was packed up and Hannah, Joan and I headed for Sacramento. I drove the Coastal Highway with its dips and dives. We dragged the trailer hitch on a couple of occasions as we swung in and out of bridges crossing streams – the Pacific Ocean off our starboard side.
Again the low outside back right tire was of concern but we couldn’t find a tire shop open on Sunday.
We stopped for naps then had supper with Inger again in the capital city. For an after dinner treat, we went to the theater to see a great performance of STOMP.
On Monday Joan jumped ship by staying in Sacramento with her friend while Hannah and I finished the trip north. We left the city before the rush hour. As soon as 8:00 showed up we were in a tire shop along Interstate 5. The man said that the outside air pressure on the RV was fine. It looked low because the inside dual tire was flat and was taking the whole weight of the right back RV!! He pulled out a broken link from set of tire chains. (It was the blunt end that went into the tire!!)
Eight days earlier we saw many piles of chains on the freeway in the Seattle area and had run over a few when we were heading south . We had been driving about 1,100 miles on a flat tire! We almost fell to our knees thinking about the highway along the coast with the immense stress put on that outside tire as we drove the curving roadway. A blowout with the RV going over the side to the ocean far below was a very high probability scenario. We gave thanks. We were blessed.


Hannah and I continued north making it from Sacramento to Portland after eleven hours of driving to spend the night on the street in front of Will and Caitlin’s home. We got to spend time again with them over supper. How sweet to be able to be with them both at Sea Ranch and Portland.
Unlike our first swing through the Rose City a little over a week ago, there was no snow on the streets but the evidence was everywhere with plowed piles of snow in every parking lot and street corner.
When Hannah and I arrived back at our home valley, we found the same condition – piles of snow wherever it was out of the way of automobile movement.



It was so nice to finally drop anchor in the storage lot of Shelter Bay. For the first time since March, I was home to stay for a length of time. I could finally confront the temporary move back into my space that happened when I returned from my circumnavigation. I was very slow in opening boxes and putting items back where they were earlier in the year. I wanted a change in my living space. I wanted to clean out items that I was afraid of throwing away. Now I can do it with purpose without the pressure of hitting the road again. I am finally home. Amen.

This will be my last entry in my blog for a while......

Cheers, Ron