Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Toppenish

April 21, 2014
YEA. Time to hit the road. We left Kent this morning at about 9 heading to Toppenish for three nights.We try to get out for a short trip every Spring just to make sure we know how to travel. Mostly though just because we can. I-90 is closed to two lanes so we decided to go over White Pass which we have never done before. It was a nice 220 mile drive of 5 hours with a couple delays for construction and personal stops. Quite a pretty trip but we decided we will go home over Snoqualmie.  We are staying at Yakama Nation RV Park. It's a nice park with all the amenities and paved sites. When we arrived there were only about 6 other campers and we have a site that is away from all the others. It got up to about 70 degrees by 4 o'clock. Then clouds came in from the West and East and the rain started at about 7. I mean HARD rain like we haven't seen in Eastern WA. So it was go in for dinner and watch TV til bed time. It rained pretty much all night long.

April 22, 2014
It was very windy today but sunny. After breakfast we went to the Rattlesnake Hills wine area. We went to Bonair and Paridiso del Sol wineries. Both are very nice small wineries with good selections. At Paridiso del Sol Paul, the winemaker, has a theory that you should eat while tasting. He gave us 9 very small bites of things to taste with the 9 wines we sampled. What a great experience. He is very knowledgeable about his and other wines. He has a tree in front of the tasting room where a barn owl has laid 5 eggs. She sits on them for 40 to 45 days not leaving the nest until they hatch. The male owl brings food to her every night. Paul has a camera mounted in the nest so we could see her move the eggs around while caring for them. Very cool. Then back to the RV park for lunch. We took a walk around the park and to the Yakama Indian Cultural center. Then back to the trailer to sit outside in the wind. It was blowing 30-40 mph so I set up a little shelter using the truck, a moving blanket and propane bottles. Worked for a while but it was too cold in the wind. We cooked inside again. I haven't even gotten the barbecues or fireplace out this trip. We stayed in watching TV for the evening. It's supposed to be nicer tomorrow so we plan to explore Toppenish.

April 23, 2014
After breakfast we drove I into town to enjoy the mural tour. There are about 75 murals throughout Toppenish depicting the history of the community. We set out from the traveler's center before noon. It was threatening rain so we took umbrellas.Some of the murals go back to the 30's and others are from the past decade. After about an hour we had a few rain sprinkles, then the wind kicked up and rain got more consistent. I think we saw about 50 murals on our walk of about 2 miles. Back at the mural office they have pictures of all of the murals so we did get to see all of them. Only one victim. My umbrella got caught by the wind and was turned inside out becoming a rain catcher. Then we went to the Indian Casino to help them pay their light bill. We invested $40 and took out $15 so I guess that's a good day. We went to Dad's Drive In for lunch. It features handmade burger patties and Dad's Root Beer in a frosty mug. Pretty good stuff. Then back to the park. It was sunny but windy. I sat out for a while but it was not pleasant. Dinner inside again followed by TV and bed.

April 24, 2014
We decided to go home over Snoqualmie Pass even though with construction they say there could be up to 2 h our delays. We hit the road at 6:30 in hopes of beating the rush at the pass. We got home in 3 hours. No delays. Back on the road on May 13.

Toppenish

April 21, 2014
YEA. Time to hit the road. We left Kent this morning at about 9 heading to Toppenish for three nights.We try to get out for a short trip every Spring just to make sure we know how to travel. Mostly though just because we can. I-90 is closed to two lanes so we decided to go over White Pass which we have never done before. It was a nice 220 mile drive of 5 hours with a couple delays for construction and personal stops. Quite a pretty trip but we decided we will go home over Snoqualmie.  We are staying at Yakama Nation RV Park. It's a nice park with all the amenities and paved sites. When we arrived there were only about 6 other campers and we have a site that is away from all the others. It got up to about 70 degrees by 4 o'clock. Then clouds came in from the West and East and the rain started at about 7. I mean HARD rain like we haven't seen in Eastern WA. So it was go in for dinner and watch TV til bed time. It rained pretty much all night long.

April 22, 2014
It was very windy today but sunny. After breakfast we went to the Rattlesnake Hills wine area. We went to Bonair and Paridiso del Sol wineries. Both are very nice small wineries with good selections. At Paridiso del Sol Paul, the winemaker, has a theory that you should eat while tasting. He gave us 9 very small bites of things to taste with the 9 wines we sampled. What a great experience. He is very knowledgeable about his and other wines. He has a tree in front of the tasting room where a barn owl has laid 5 eggs. She sits on them for 40 to 45 days not leaving the nest until they hatch. The male owl brings food to her every night. Paul has a camera mounted in the nest so we could see her move the eggs around while caring for them. Very cool. Then back to the RV park for lunch. We took a walk around the park and to the Yakama Indian Cultural center. Then back to the trailer to sit outside in the wind. It was blowing 30-40 mph so I set up a little shelter using the truck, a moving blanket and propane bottles. Worked for a while but it was too cold in the wind. We cooked inside again. I haven't even gotten the barbecues or fireplace out this trip. We stayed in watching TV for the evening. It's supposed to be nicer tomorrow so we plan to explore Toppenish.

April 23, 2014
After breakfast we drove I into town to enjoy the mural tour. There are about 75 murals throughout Toppenish depicting the history of the community. We set out from the traveler's center before noon. It was threatening rain so we took umbrellas.Some of the murals go back to the 30's and others are from the past decade. After about an hour we had a few rain sprinkles, then the wind kicked up and rain got more consistent. I think we saw about 50 murals on our walk of about 2 miles. Back at the mural office they have pictures of all of the murals so we did get to see all of them. Only one victim. My umbrella got caught by the wind and was turned inside out becoming a rain catcher. Then we went to the Indian Casino to help them pay their light bill. We invested $40 and took out $15 so I guess that's a good day. We went to Dad's Drive In for lunch. It features handmade burger patties and Dad's Root Beer in a frosty mug. Pretty good stuff. Then back to the park. It was sunny but windy. I sat out for a while but it was not pleasant. Dinner inside again followed by TV and bed.

April 24, 2014
We decided to go home over Snoqualmie Pass even though with construction they say there could be up to 2 h our delays. We hit the road at 6:30 in hopes of beating the rush at the pass. We got home in 3 hours. No delays. Back on the road on May 13.