Day 95. Champoeg SP, OR

The name Champoeg isn’t French after all. It is said to be a corruption of a Kalapuya Indian word meaning ‘place where carrot-like roots are found’. Kalapuya is now a dead language; prior to this bit of research I’d never even heard of them, must have been a small group. They are now included in the Grande Ronde nation, as are several other small area tribes. It so happens that my niece Carina is the housing director for the Grande Ronde group.
.
This park was the site of The Champoeg Meetings of 1841-43. The Meetings were held to organize a much-needed provisional government and to vote on which country the citizens wanted to be a part of, the US or Great Britain. It was a near thing, with the US winning by only 2 votes. The Brits had more of a presence in the Portland area at that time, had a large Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading post in Vancouver, WA that was established in 1824.
.
In the mid 1800s, there used to be good sized town here called Butteville. It was wiped out when the Willamette River flooded and was never rebuilt. One old store survived and is still in operation.
.
Trish and daughter Laura are doing the factory outlet stores today (eeeeeeeeeeuuuuu!) while I research movie streaming. Can I stream movies to my laptop via the droid when the two are USB tethered? Also have to check on the replacement EDGE radio at Camping World. It was supposed to arrive last Thursday and they were supposed to call me when it arrived. From my rants in prior posts you know how much confidence I have in CW, gotta keep bugging them until they’re so sick of you that they actually do something to get you off their back.

Day 94. Scappoose, OR

What the hell is that?

.
We’ve seen some odd looking rigs in our travels but none odder than this one. We returned from running errands yesterday to find it parked beside us. Last night we were sitting around the campfire having drinks and snacks with Jim and Paulette, and the owner of the rig joined us briefly. He provided us with the history.
.

This guy owns a trucking company in eastern Oregon. He had this 30-year old motorhome with a dead engine, and decided to marry it up with a newer Kenworth semi tractor with a sleeper cabin. He chopped off the tractor sleeper cabin and the entire front end of motorhome and proceeded to put them together, said it only took 3 weeks. Obviously, he knows his way around the automotive shop and sheet metal work. Three weeks? Would have taken me 3 years. And the end product would be hands-down winner of the RV Pig Party prize.

.
When he was all done, his son gave it a paint job, and from 30 feet away it looks pretty darn good. Weird but good. Up close, you see a lot of dents in the motorhome body, and also the old painted-over graphics. He says it has a lot more power than a traditional, comparably-sized motorhome, and it also gets better gas mileage. ‘Better’ is a relative term, wouldn’t take much to beat the fuel efficiency of those humongous class-A rigs.

.
Night before last, we had dinner at the Dockside in St Helens with friends, Don and Jan, who live near St Helens. Don was one of the regulars at my poker table for several years; Jan is an accomplished artist who works in clay.

.
We’ll be hitting the road again today, headed to Champoeg SP several miles south of Portland for a few nights. Funny name, Champoeg, pronounced shampoo-ee. Looks like it should be cham-pig, don’t you think? It must be French: everyone knows that any similarity between the spelling and pronunciation of French words is purely coincidental.

Day 91. Scappoose, OR

The boys next door.

.
One’s from Nebraska, one from Portland, brothers, in their mid/late 60s. They go salmon fishing on the Columbia every day, all day, for 8 days straight now. Until yesterday, they never got a bite. Night before last, I took mercy on them and gave a blessing to older bro. You know, like the pope does from the Vatican gallery. Sure enough, older bro caught a 26 pounder yesterday.

.
Sheer coincidence? Most likely. Can’t help but wonder though. Should I bestow blessings on other hapless fishermen, frustrated job seekers, and the like? Should I put on my sandals and try walking across the Columbia? The brothers apparently haven’t become true believers, didn’t rush over to thank me or ask for another blessing. We’ll see how they do today.
.

These guys are serious about fish. They have a collapsible fish cleaning table, a food saver type shrink wrap device, and a small portable freezer that sits outside their camper. Younger bro filets the fish, older bro does the shrink wrap, stuffs it in the freezer.

.

In other ho-hum news, Trish and I spent yesterday weeding and pruning at the CC house. You know what? I don’t miss that activity a darn bit. There’s no lawn at my AZ house, just pavers and gravel. Attractive gravel, mind you. Plants are limited to low maintenance cacti, fan palms and a mandarin orange I planted last spring. There are still a few weeds to spray or pull every couple weeks but that’s the extent of it.
.

We’re heading into Portland today, stopping at REI to return the unused mosquito netting headgear. We survived without using them although Trish is running about a quart low. Thing is, you’re quite restricted when wearing the net-hats. Drinking is cumbersome and messy. Food is a challenge, too, limited to items like strained carrots and pabulum – and even then you have to really force it through the fine mesh. A rolling pin might work.

Day 87. Scappoose, OR

Pix are of precautionary steps taken to protect the EDGE (see text) and our Scappoose campsite.

.

We checked out my house (vacant/for sale) on Monday, did minor interior cleanup and fixup, will go back later this week and do yardwork. A yard maintenance outfit does the mowing, etc but doesn't maintain the property like an owner would. Well......some owners anyway.

.

Tonight we're dining with Columbia City neighbors/friends Jim and Paulette; they live a few doors down from my house. Great folks, always enjoy their company. They visited us in LHC last season. Our friends John and Mollie will be joining us also.

.

Trish is off to visit one of her daughters in Portland today, while I finish removing 12000 miles worth of tar, grime and bugs from the front of the EDGE. Or maybe not, supposed to hit low 90s today and I can't do crud removal until the work area is out of direct sun, mid afternoon.

.

Got a couple new chips in the front EDGE fiberglas but nothing drastic. When we drove from OR to AZ late last October, an early snowstorm hit east of the Cascades and the roads were graveled for hundreds of miles. The lower front of the EDGE was beat all to hell, dozens of chips. To cover the chips and avoid recurring damage, we applied a heavy coating of brush-on pickup bed liner material to the damaged areas. I also installed mud flap extensions to the stock mud flaps on the pickup, adding 5" of depth and 3" of width. These 2 precautions greatly decreased the damage and tar buildup on the EDGE front and were well worth the effort.

.

Our park is a county facility bordering Scappoose International Airport. Yeah, right, 'International' - who am I kidding? There are only 6 rv hookup spaces here and only 3 have usable sewer connections. The dufus that laid out the utilities obviously never spent any time in an rv; if he had he would have known that rv sewer hoses aren't 35' long. We may have to pull out and dump mid-stay - not a big deal but still a pain in the butt.

.

Back to the smartphone, it's a Motorola Droid that uses Google Android software. I'm debating what to name it. I kinda like Floyd. Trish suggested Ann, and commented that when I say I'm going outside to play with Floyd, it sounds like I'm maybe light in the loafers. Huh! She's getting pretty sassy (again), gonna have to increase the frequency of spankings (again).

.

Do any of you readers want to weigh in on this? No, not the frequency of spankings - the best Droid name. Input is welcome - as are additional name suggestions.

Day 85. Shelton, WA

LLCCILDT (Lost Lake Country Club Invitational Lawn Dart Tournament). The rest of the story.

John and Tom have been close friends since they were youngsters and classmates in Aberdeen/Hoquiam, WA. Their long term mates, Mollie and Elsie, grew up there also. I met these guys when we all worked at Allstate Ins in Seattle in the early 70s, our first job after leaving the military. John and Mollie now live in Beaverton, OR; Tom lives on Lost Lake near Shelton, WA.

Twenty plus years ago J & T scrounged up a few sets of lawn darts (outlawed long since) and invited several of their classmates to Tom's place on the lake for a tournament and pot luck. Yesterday was the 19th such event and about 50 people attended, most of whom participated in the lawn dart competition. Prior to the start of play, someone sings The Star Spangled Banner, the scoring rules are read, and a blessing (irreverent, funny) is given by a 'man of the cloth'. Teams are then determined and announced, and the tournament is started; play starts about 1 pm and it takes about 5 hours to get through the double elimination format.

Winners' names go on a trophy (a 4"x4"x8" block of wood, painted gold), losers' names go on the booby prize, and a there's a special Helen Keller award for the most erratic thrower - usually the person who manages to toss a dart into the lake, 20' off course. This year, one person threw 2 in the lake, meriting 2 white canes instead of one.

It's alway great fun and this year was no exception. Our friends from Spokane, Dave and Verna, participated for the first time. John and his partner won, the 4th or 5th win for him; Tom has never won so everyone cheers him on; Mollie's been in the winners' circle 2-3 times. I've won 3 times but was really lousy this year, darn near got the booby prize; Trish won her first year but didn't get to the finals this time around.

We're off to OR this morning, heading for a campground near Scappoose for next few days. I like that name, Scappoose, much more character than Columbia City - where I lived for several years - in a house that's still unsold, been on the market for a year plus.

Day 82. Potlatch State Park, WA

We were hoping to stay at Potlatch another 2 nights but we have to boogie cuz there's no room at the inn. Trish and I will be competing in the annual LLCCILDT (Lost Lake Country Club Invitational Lawn Dart Tournament) near Shelton, WA tomorrow so we need to find a nearby place to park for a couple nights. There's a casino that allows RVs to park in their huge lot so we'll probably try that. More later on this over-the-top, world class event.

Grilled live oysters over the fire our first night here, said bounty provided by Dave and Verna - and they also bought some fresh Dungeness crab for the second night. We'll have to make it a point of joining up with them more often! Trish marinated and grilled peaches and apples for the desserts. Yummy stuff.


Hood Canal and southwest WA coast is prime shellfish and crustacean territory. Dungeness is my favorite crab; Alaska king crab comes off a very poor second, okay for crab cakes but otherwise you can keep it.


En route we stopped at Camping World in Tacoma to have them 'diagnose' a radio problem in our RV: the station scan feature doesn't work, never did. Ever had CW perform any service work on your RV? Don't! They totally suck. Shitty service, bogus charges, Rip Offs Are Us. They won't fix anything or even order any parts until they've done a 'diagnostic' (not covered by the warranty of course) and charged you $70 for it.

Yeah, dumbass, it doesn't work does it? And you don't have a radio in stock to replace it do you? No, gotta order the damn thing through another CW service center somewhere down the road, then schedule the installation after the part arrives - and pray that it arrives in a timely fashion so you're still near the city when it arrives. Then, you pray some more, hoping they have a service time available to do the installation before you die of old age.

And get this, they have the audacity to charge an extra $6 for 'shop towels'! I was tempted to ask the service manager, "If the technician takes a restroom break while working on my rig, will I get charged for toilet paper? Do you count the number of TP squares actually used or do you use a running (no pun intended) average? How about soap and paper towels?" Nary a shop towel was used anyway; I was standing beside the rig the entire time and would have noticed. Bunch of nickel-diming bloodsuckers.

So, I contacted the CW national consumer complaint dept and bitched. End result: no charge for the freakin shop towels or anything else.

Day 81. Carnation, WA

“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again.” Tomorrow we’re off to Potlatch State Park. It is on the Olympic Peninsula, bordering Hood Canal. The campground is in the forest but a large portion of the park is across the highway right on the Canal, has lots of grass and picnic tables and a great view. We’re meeting up with Dave and Verna again, last seen in the SD Badlands about 10000 miles back. They have a LazyDaze class c motorhome, which is best of breed according to many avid owners.
.
“On the road again” reminds me of poor old Willie, who should get off the road instead of on - looks like 20 miles of bad road himself. Maybe 30. Saw him on TV awhile back and it was kinda sad. The backup group did most of the singing, Willie made sporadic attempts, mouthed a few lines, seemed hardly able to stand up on his own. Don’t get me wrong, I like Willie and I’m an old fart myself; just saying I think Willie should hang it up rather than give pathetic performances. Hell, for all I know he was into the sauce that night and is still capable of putting on a hell of a show.
.
We’re doing a marinated flank steak over a wood fire tonight. I’ve done many a flank steak on the grill but this is first on a real fire. Jill, one of the blog followers and an old bud of Trish’s is joining us for dinner. She’s quite the fun character, takes a special interest in those blogs that mention automotive maintenance (not!) so I’m preparing a lengthy dissertation on tire rotation and lube jobs.
.
Played golf today at a nearby course and played well – unlike the prior abortive attempt. Don’t know why I run so hot and cold, but I guess everybody does to some degree.