Alaska 6. Road Warriors July 15

This is a beautiful – and very strange – area. I don’t know if it’s me, my age, my general hermitage life, but when did people get so weird? There seems to be a much higher density of weird people out here. I don’t know how else to put it. And it’s also sad (really sad!) to see how people treat nature. We walked down to the river as it got dark last night and there was so much garbage. Dirty diapers, plastic water bottles (why are these even still being made?), toilet paper, broken glass. Ugh. 

There was also the strangest thing going on in the mostly empty campground. We have tried so hard to figure out what ON EARTH was going on — definitely some type of scam or way around paying — but for the life of us we couldn’t figure it out. It just left us with that whole, “Let’s get out of here” vibe. We didn’t even eat breakfast. Just coffee and a chat with a weird campground host. But that wasn’t weird cause most campground hosts are weird. That’s why they’re campground hosts. 

No breakfast meant a much delayed Road Warrior ritual: Egg McMuffins FTW! (At a weird McDonalds for what it’s worth). 

More driving. Lots of driving. It’s what we do. We drive.

It’s hard work, though our Apple Watches don’t seem to want to give us credit for it. I am more exhausted after driving all day than when I hike 8 miles and spend my day with boots on the ground. Seems unfair. Apple Watch should have a Drive activity.  

There isn’t much to report in the way of vacation activity for the day. We definitely drove more than we needed to, due to my distaste for backtracking. We should have backtracked. Dave wanted to backtrack. Oh well. 

One of the things that has been absolutely dogging us since starting out is the refrigerator in the camper. Due to a problem we had last year, I had to re-route the electrical. And now, the connection for the electrical is ridiculously erratic. It’s been super stressful, especially with such hot weather. On our drive today, we stopped to get some new hardware so I could go after it. —Among my many and varied talents is a strange affinity for electrical work. (Though I think it’s less talent and more a disregard for danger. )

We went more out of our way than we needed to for a decent spot to stop (because we wanted SHADE). And, of course, it took way longer than I thought it would. I couldn’t use the stuff I had just bought. I pinched my hand with the pliers and now have an angry red blister… but… I think I fixed it! My confidence is growing each time I open the back hatch that, once opened, the fridge will, indeed, still be on. 

So we drove on.

We had delusions that we might be able to find a spot to stay along the Washington coast, but one turn into a promising campground on the map turned out to be more shocking than the circus in Wilson River. It was a cacophony of campers and just… total chaos. I physically recoiled. No possible way. We peeled out so fast I didn’t even get a picture.

We drove on.

And headed toward what we know best (besides driving): 4WD roads in national forest. We knew we wanted to see the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, so we headed up the road toward that and veered off onto a dirt road and found a decent spot to park it for the night.

We took a nice little walk (finally getting some exercise) and had another RIDIC dinner. The only problem being that the STEAK I brought from home was actually fricken’ lamb chops. Who eats LAMB CHOPS camping? Even I am embarrassed about that. Given that we no longer have a functioning grill, Dave got to work finding wood for a fire (our first of the trip!) — and harder than you might think, given we were in a rainforest. Injured himself chopping it up. But redeemed himself in the grill mastering.

And the mosquitos were baaaaad. I fired up the Thermocell I had the presence of mind to bring with from MN. I even had the foresight to order replacement fuel for it ahead of time. I could not believe how well it worked! Wow! Amazing! It gives me hope for Alaska…

I seared a head of cabbage from MN to go with the lamb that was — and I’m starting to think it’s just cuz we are camping — THE BEST WE’VE EVER HAD.

We do way more talking about food, Dave and I, than almost anything else, so it’s in our nature to rate the meals so far — and while our rankings are different — the veggies have been the stars of the show for sure. Yum. But sadly we are reaching the end of those. We are not supposed to bring any fresh meat or vegetables over the border to Canada, so we’ve got to eat them fast. I still have one head of cabbage and lots of Napa cabbage to get through. 

Dave says we have to also drink all the wine and beer and vodka, and I am working hard to comply.