Dry Camping – Riveted

More Port Townsend, Again

Laura Domela — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:37:44 +0000

I know you want to see more photos of Port Townsend, don't you?

After work we rode our bikes around some more, enjoying the gorgeous weather. Where we're staying (Point Hudson Marina and RV Park) is just beyond all those docks in the above photo, on the right.

Back at our campsite we grilled up some salmon for dinner with an arugula salad, and then headed back into town on the bikes to catch the movie Chef, playing at the Rose Theater. What a great theater…popcorn with real butter, and a little bar of seasonings to choose from. I put Parmesan, brewer's yeast, a little salt, and chili powder on mine. Kevin did Parmesan, yeast, and a hickory smoke seasoning. Yummy! The movie was super cute…we really enjoyed it!

After the movie (at 9:15pm) it was still light out, so we rode back to the Airstream to grab jackets and happened upon a couple from France taking a photo of the trailer. The man said they LOVE Airstreams in France and we invited them in to take a look. They were sweet. Also, just before we arrived there were apparently several otters right down on the dock! Dangit! We missed 'em! (The couple from France showed us photos though….they were right there!! So cute.)

We headed back into town and rode along the waterfront a bit…windy tonight, but beautiful.

Tomorrow we're off to Bellingham!

More Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 14:49:00 +0000

Last night we went out for another bike ride around town. This place is AMAZING when the weather is as good as it's been the past couple days. It's so clear and from my Airstream office here I can see the Olympic mountain range, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker and the Northern Cascades. (I can see Canada from my porch!)

Driftwood sculpture:

Last night for dinner I pounded out a couple of chicken breasts, browned one side in some oil, then rolled them around a couple pieces of prosciutto, some asparagus, and a little bit of parmesan cheese, then closed 'em up with toothpicks. Kevin smoked/cooked them on the Traeger. They came out great! Here's the original recipe (sort of). Last night I forgot the tomato, but it wouldn't have fit anyway. I don't have a meat pounder in the Airstream so I improvised with a jar of almond butter inside a Ziploc freezer bag, and the meat didn't get as thin as I'd ideally want it to be. It was super tasty though!

View from the Airstream dinner table last night:

We'll be here at the marina working for most of the day today, but I couldn't dream of a better office.

Bicycling Around Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 22:02:03 +0000

This afternoon we took a break and rode our bikes over to Fort Worden State Park to check it out. It's nice…seems like a great place to stay…but I like our spot here at the marina way better. But that's just me. You might prefer Fort Worden. Full hookups, beach right there, a cute little laundromat, a lighthouse. In fact, you'd definitely like it better. Forget I told you about the marina campground at all.

The fog came in and hung around for a little bit this morning, but it's back to being sunny and clear and perfect now. Whew! Every single time we've been to Port Townsend it's been perfect, Chamber of Commerce weather. (It's not usually like this…you can tell by how excited the locals always are.)

More Fort Worden:

The lighthouse:

After checking out the Fort Worden campground, we headed over to the Safeway in town to gather some groceries. We used our Reclamation Department bags as panniers, and I put my Brooks basket on for carrying stuff back home.

Cutting back across the peninsula:

Riding through town along Water Street:

The Airstream and Point Hudson Marina RV Park taken from across the marina at the Northwest Maritime Center:

We put our groceries away and walked not very far at all over to Doc's Marina Grill for some lunch (we shared some fish & chips and a crab louie salad, both very good). We sat inside by a window, but they also have a nice big deck with lots of outside seating, and they'll give you a loaner straw hat to wear out there when it's really sunny (there are no shade umbrellas at the tables). It's pretty cute though…all these people wearing straw hats on the deck. Right outside our window I registered two middle-aged women wearing straw hats with pink and purple fabric on them, eating salads…but then, oh hang on, no…it's two 20-something guys with muscles eating salads! Pretty great.

Tomorrow night we're going to ride our bikes into town and check out the Rose Theater (on Leigh & Brian's recommendation).

And now, back to work!

Oh yeah, here's our route:

Walton Lake and Painted Hills

Laura Domela — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:35:57 +0000

After we left Detroit Lake we met up with Tiffani and Deke over at Walton Lake Campground in the Ochoco National Forest in Central Oregon. This is a gorgeous little lake with campsites on both sides. There are no hookups (and only a tiny bit of Verizon service).

We arrived first and did a couple loops around the campground looking for spots. There were a couple of spots (not together) that looked potentially not occupied or reserved and just as we were trying to decide what to do, the camp host lady drove up in her little car:

Camp Host Lady: Are you looking for a campsite?

Us: Yes, we're actually looking for two sites, for two nights…our friends are meeting us here.

Camp Host Lady: Well, I'll tell you what. Why do you go park over in the small group site, and I'll just charge you the $15 per night same as everyone else, instead of the $100 a night that site is normally. There's plenty of room, but just one fire ring, and if I need to put someone else over there I may have to do that. If that's okay with you, you're welcome to have it.

Us: That's fine with us…we're friendly! Thank you so much!

We set up camp and pretty soon Tiffani and Deke arrived and it was a perfect spot. I mean, it wasn't on the lake or anything, but weekend campers without reservations can't be choosers, right?

Pretty sweet! We set up the Traeger(s) and the hammock(s) and the chairs(s) and we were ready to get to some serious lounging and visiting!

Tiffani and Deke (and Lucy) making fire while Kevin swings in a hammock:

Walking the trail around Walton Lake:

On Saturday after a delicious iron skillet breakfast prepared by Deke, we headed out to check out the town of Michell, Oregon, and the Painted Hills. Mitchell is tiny and most of it is in this one photo:

We went in "Judy's Place" and Tiffani found a tiny pair of salt and pepper shakers that said Mitchell, OR on them:

Check out the paint surface of this place:

Arty sidewalk shadow:

And here's the obligatory photo of the "Whole in the Wall" curiosity shop that is never open and is owned by the trust of someone who's long gone. Apparently the city wants to tear it down, but one local told us it's really what Mitchell is known for and they can't tear it down!

Kevin was getting gas while we were looking at junk antiques and had a fabulous story to bring back along with his gas. (Regular was $4.19/gallon)

Kevin (making small talk): Gas prices going up or own these days?

Old guy selling the gas (with grumpy old man tone): Up. Always Up.

After the 4 minutes it took for us to see all of Mitchell, we headed into the Painted Hills.

This place is pretty spectacular. We did the short hike out to the overlook:

Next we drove a little further to another trail (this one quite short, partially on boardwalk where you could get up close but not too close to the brightly colored hills):

Here's what that texture looks like close up:

And see this lavendar part in the foreground here? That part is rhyolite flow and it's 40 MILLION YEARS OLD!!! (Shh, we touched it.):

Reds and golds:

Another freaky shot of the path:

Pretty neat! We headed back to camp after oooohing and aaaahing our way through Painted Hills and once back, we decided to get our bikes out and ride around the lake.

It was a short ride, but still it led straight to some hammock time. Here's my view from the hammock:

We read books and magazines and made fire and good conversation and enjoyed our afternoon and evening very much. We cooked a feast for dinner: tenderloins, seared scallops, pork chops, asparagus, and baked potatoes (we had leftovers, of course).

In the morning, we all headed to Redmond and then waved and honked as Tiffani and Deke headed for Bend and we headed back to Portland. I didn't tear up at all. (Total lie.)

We meet so many people while we're traveling around the country the way we do, but it feels pretty rare to meet people we'll probably be lifelong friends with. We are so grateful our paths crossed with these guys a few years ago when they moved to Seattle. Bon voyage, Tiffani and Deke! We'll see you soon!

Oh yeah, and this thing (!!!!)…a coathook in the ladies room of a mexican restaurant where we had lunch in Sisters, OR:

Kevin says his legs and arm just must have broken off. I checked. I assure you that is not the case. I'll concede this this could have been intentionally modified by an artist/ironworker, but it was not an accident. At all.

Airstream on an Airstrip in Bigfork, Montana

Laura Domela — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:09:49 +0000

We left Glacier yesterday and stopped in Hungry Horse, MT to have lunch at the Elkhorn Grill. Elk burgers seemed to be their specialty so we went with two of 'em. Solid burger, good fries, and exactly the ambiance you'd expect from a place called the Elkhorn Grill in Hungry Horse.

After lunch we headed over to meet up once more with our friend Kyle at his family's home in Bigfork, Montana. They've got a beautiful place and they let us park right out here near the grass airstrip that borders their property — great view of green meadows and mountains (only one plane so far, but last night we heard a who-ing owl and a pack of coyotes loudly celebrating probably something gross).

Last night we headed down to the family cabin in Flathead Lake for a relaxing evening on the water.

Delicious dinner on the porch overlooking the lake, and a lakeside campfire after dinner. It was a great time with great company!

Later this morning we'll head into town for some walking around and some breakfast or lunch before we make somes miles toward home.

Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Icefield

Laura Domela — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:45:11 +0000

We left Banff the other day and drove the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper. We decided to stay at the campground/parking lot at the visitor center for the Athabasca Glacier and it was one of the coolest views ever.

We got (kinda) level and then headed up to the glacier in one of the Ice Explorers. What a blast! When Kevin and I were here before, we hiked up onto the glacier from the bottom and that seemed pretty cool, but nothing even close to as cool as what we did yesterday. I'm about to post far too many photos. Oh well.

Tiny black dot at the end of the road is one of the Ice Explorers on the glacier:

Kyle trying the glacier water:

Kevin walking around on the ice (looking back down at our tiny tiny Airstreams):

Tiffani and Deke:

We took a bus from the visitor center to this spot where we transfered to the huge-tired Ice Explorer to go out onto the glacier. You can see one here about to head down the hill.

We all had a BLAST! We got back to the trailers and set up our chairs and the little propane heater and had dinner and watched the stars for a bit. It was lovely.

I'll post more photos from the drive later.

Some Aerials from Aluminogan

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 11:46:08 +0000

Kevin took the hexacopter up for some aerials yesterday of our aluminum enclave here at Aluminogan:

And now, on to Kelowna! Should be quite a site, all of us caravanning together. I think we're going first, so that means I should get some good photos of the whole lineup.

Aluminogan Day Two

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 03:30:01 +0000

Today was spectacular. We did an awesome group hike up the road, around the back and to the top of the mountain, and then back down the front to our campsite (about 4 miles). Some shots from the hike:

Interesting sign at some of the neighboring property:

Zoom in here:

Evidence left from a lightning-caused fire:

We hiked about 2 miles to the top of the hill overlooking Leigh & Brian's property (and our very tiny, far away enclave of aluminum…right in the middle tiny dots of gray):

Looking back toward the top of the ridge:

Back at camp we showered, prepped some food for our group dinner, played guitars, sang songs, mixed drinks, played with sticks, and took tons of photos. Here's Dave and Ann (and THOSE CLOUDS!):

And after dinner:

Dinner was fabulous. Everyone just made stuff to go with a "taco night" theme and it worked out beautifully. We had pulled pork (three different varieties), grilled zucchini, guacamole, salsa, corn salad, black beans, delicious homemade sauces and salads and cheeses and, well, a big bowl of bacon thanks to Dan of Mali Mish…a great hit, actually! Amanda (Watsons Wander) made two pies for dessert…both vegan, both amazing: chocolate, and peach, with vanilla ice cream.

And here are a bunch of pretty shiny trailer photos (L to R: Watsons, Mali Mish, Works, Riveted):

And here's everyone:

(L to R: Watsons, Mali Mish, Works, Riveted, Democratic Travelers)

Tomorrow: Canada!

Aluminogan!

Laura Domela — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 13:02:05 +0000

We're now parked up at Leigh & Brian's property up in the Okanogan area in Washington state for a little gathering of Airstream travelers/bloggers. Tomorrow we'll caravan into Canada: Kelowna, Glacier, and Banff (where we'll meet up with Kyle and the Wanderly bunch), but for now we're all just spending some quality time getting to know each other better. Fun group!

This is what it looked like as we approached:

We're almost all here! Left to right: Watsons (Amanda and Tim), Mali Mish (Dan, Marlene, Ava, Mila, Luca), The Works (Josh, Jessa, and Jack), Riveted (us), Democratic Travelers (John and Laura), and the Zimmermans (Dave, Anne, and Wynne). Out of frame: Aluminarium (Brian and Leigh). We'll get some good overall photos as soon as Weaselmouth (Tiffani and Deke) arrives.

Leaving Skamokawa

Laura Domela — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:08:24 +0000

Last night after dinner (clams!!) we went for a walk down on the beach. It's not a very long beach when the tide is high, so last night's walk was a little short. When we came back to the Airstream it had gotten dark enough for all the solar lights to come on so I snapped a few twilight photos with my iPhone.

I'm glad this area of the campground is dry camping. It's so beautiful and uncrowded. The rest of the campground is nice too, but over there you can't see the ships from your office like we can here.

We're leaving this morning and heading to Champoeg for the week.