Well we traded in the rain and wind of Western Washington for the sunshine and wind of the Eastern side. The temperature only reached about 45
during the day and dropped to below freezing at night, but we loved the sun
and the blue sky of Eastern Washington. We
stayed three nights at the Potholes State Park Campground which promised water,
sewer and electric, although the foremost was missing at the pitch. (Water is available at the main gate during
winter.)
We were nice and toasty with the electric hook-up keeping
our heater humming (yes, it looks like we’ll have to use electricity until we
are out of the below-freezing area of the country—not even our solar can keep
up with the demanding heater) and we
celebrated being one of only three campers on the lovely grounds, letting the dogs run
free and having a campfire each night.
It felt great to be out of an RV Park!
The area is filled with hunters during the day (duck,
apparently this time of year, evidenced by a very calm, nice-sized deer wandering through our
camp one morning.) We did our own
hunting trying to find a hiking trail, but the one we found only yielded only a
couple miles worth of hiking—not nearly enough to justify the chips and
Manhattan’s from the previous night. So
Day 2 found us hiking the Potholes area where we wandered until the fenced and
posted “Wildlife Refuge” area stopped us. (Truth be told, we did consider crawling through the fence, but River had
already crossed over and was barking at something in the bushes. We thought it wouldn’t be much of a refuge if
terriers were allowed to terrorize, so we turned back.)
It was an enjoyable hike, sunny but cold—a short DITL movie
will be posted soon. We stopped to fish
twice in Corral Lake on the way back but caught nothing (I have yet to catch
anything with my new rod—its ROI is going to take forever!) A quick stop at
the creek near the campground on the way back to Salt left us defeated and without
fresh fish for dinner. Man, were we spoiled in the Eastern Sierras!
A special note: This was written on November 30, the three-month mark in our
Three Months No Matter What Deal with each other. So far we are still on. I’m not saying it as has all been easy, and I
will say it’s much easier to live in a trailer in 72 degree weather than in the
rain or cold. So come late January, watch out Texas: We’ll be shedding Polartec and wool socks all
the way to the Gulf!
-K
PS: If it is not warm
at the Gulf in February, would someone please warn us? Otherwise I fear we’ll be shedding more than just clothing.
