Alaska 8. Road Warriors July 17

Despite our general distaste for camping in established campgrounds, this beachfront site overlooking Vancouver Island was a nice little spot. There are bonuses to campgrounds — namely bathrooms. I’m an EXPERT outside pee-er. It’s the pooping that messes with my head. Once you get over the initial hump, it isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds, but still: tell that to yourself at 7am in a dispersed site where you have to get out of your camper, find some shoes and probably some clothes so you aren’t walking through the woods naked, bring a shovel to dig a hole, adequate toilet paper, and walk far enough away that your husband is not going to WITNESS the atrocity. Then do your business and PACK OUT the TP — no easy task. And undoubtedly the reason you find so much damned toilet paper in the wilderness. But people: if you are going to use the great outdoors, you can’t leave FRICKEN TOILET PAPER laying all over the ground. It’s that simple. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And go to a CAMPGROUND.

I’m sure that’s more information than anyone who subscribed to these updates wants to know but THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE GONNA GET from here on out — though I promise not to talk about poop again. 

*I hope*

Low tide was at 7:05, which is important if you want to walk the “spit” — a long finger of land that juts out into the water. (I would have said ocean, but someone is going to tell me it’s the Sound. Or the Sea. Or WHATever. So I chose water.). It was nice. You can walk 5 miles out to the lighthouse but it’s hard to imagine making that trek on a rubble-strewn beach. What IS interesting is that they have a volunteer/pay-to-play program for the lighthouse that I think is GENIUS. You can sign up to become a “keeper” and go out there for week-long stints with groups of up to 8 people. You have to mow the grass, polish the brass, give tours to anyone hardy enough to walk the 5 miles to get there, along with other menial tasks… All for the low low price of (something like) $400 for the privilege of being there and working (going off memory). Genius. And we did see two keepers being shuttled back from their week as we started our walk. They seemed happy enough. But maybe just happy to be done? haha

Given that we are generally killing time until tomorrow when the new hitch is supposed to be delivered, we weren’t in any great hurry to leave — though “check out” is at 11am… *eyeroll*. Dave showered. Not me. Though I do feel a certain amount of peer pressure to do likewise, I am resisting. Instead, I participate in — what are they called? — sink showers? — where I wash “the basics” and I think that’s good enough for me. Not sure Dave agrees, but I’m not asking cuz I don’t want to know. Washing my hair is a COMMITMENT that I try not to do more than a couple times a week at the most…

Back on the road. Destination Olympia to walk the boardwalk, on the recommendation of my high school friend Kristi, who lives there — but happens to be in Minnesota while we are passing through. How ironic is that? No offense to Kristi, but I find Olympia to be much like the rest of the PNW. I’m not sure why I expected it to be more like Minnesota, but it’s not. We have yet to find any midwesternly fake-friendliness — which I personally value a lot — and find that I miss it when people are honking at us and flipping us off as we cross the roundabout crosswalk for no apparent reason as they drive by with their huge nose rings and tattoos all over their faces. Maybe it’s just me.

We had a nice lunch out at Row and dallied some more as we tried to figure out where to stay for the night. I mean, we are in URBAN TERRITORY, so it’s mostly state parks, which, frankly, we are kind of OVER. (and, after much research, they are also all FULL, too, so it isn’t even an option.)

Much texting back and forth with Kristi ensued as we tried to glean some insider information. Where I landed was a resource I had previously sworn off, but for stupid a reason. (Yes, yes, I’m talking about hipcamp.com. I know people love it…) But, I HATE that they make you set up an account to see much of anything. Still. I caved out of desperation. I have to admit it was a good option for our current circumstances. We don’t want to be too far out of the Seattle area because we have an appointment to replace the Bronco hitch tomorrow. We need to pick up our AMAZON stuff and we also need to stop at CABELLAS on our way north to pick up a couple of Redington Wrangler rods so we can slay the salmon in Alaska! Not sure why we didn’t take care of that before we left home, but what else is there for me to do in the car while Dave drives and drives and drives? I mean, besides doing math equations on tongue weight levers?

We landed at “Dean’s Campground” — not because it sounded the best — but because they were the only ones in the area on HipCamp that accepted reservations inside of 24 hours. I mean, what the HELL? After this, I plan to delete HipCamp from my phone because the ONLY reason I would EVER use it was BECAUSE I NEEDED a place to stay INSIDE of 24 hours. Again, is this just me?

*rant over*

Dean’s campground is JUST FINE. It even surpassed our expectations. The description is accurate (the fully owned the road noise). But the other campers were quiet tent people who all left early in the morning and we were even able to even take showers since no one was around. Yes, I even washed my hair.

I get ahead of myself. Let me tell you about DINNER: we bought a small piece of halibut in Olympia and made tacos with the Napa cabbage and tomato.

The fridge is looking good for the border crossing tomorrow (hopefully!). Good night from your favorite Urban Warriors.