Sept 10th to 15th - NW Washington

Sept 10th - Mon - to Forks
We drove to Forks this morning, checked in at the visitor info center and decided to go to an RV park halfway between Forks & La Push. It is a rustic park in the trees. Tried the park café for a mediocre lunch and then drove to La Push. Beaches are not readily accessible from there. I walked quite a ways on a path through a forest and still could not see the ocean.
Next we drove to Mora and enjoyed relaxing a while on Rialta Beach. Back at the park Terry tried to hook up the satellite dish. We have not used it for months and had no luck getting a signal and no luck trying to access some web sites for help.

Sept 11th - Tues - Forks
Enjoyed the continuing sunshine by driving to Neah Bay - about 1 ½ hours each way. It is a lovely drive and a larger village than we expected. The road to Cape Flattery (NW-most point of lower US) was closed so we couldn’t go there. We went into Forks for a bit of shopping, had lunch back at the rig and did some “fix-it” things. The RV park was mostly empty so there was no one to visit with, no TV for Terry and the weather was getting cool and windy so we decided to pack up and drive a ways to shorten tomorrow’s drive. We ended up back at the casino in Shelton as we knew we could park there and would have something to do for the evening. We had great Rueben sandwiches there for dinner and with a discount from signing up for their player card, a sandwich and a beer each ended up costing only $13 - great deal!

Sept 12th - Wed - to Puyallup
Took advantage of the inexpensive buffet breakfast at the casino before leaving for Puyallup which also helped us avoid rush hour(s) traffic on the freeway. There was no one at the RV park office so Terry called the number on the door and was told which site to use. We set up but the site was a bit short so we intruded on a small space behind us and our stabilizer on the front was on the road a bit. A car in the spot beside us was parked crooked (no one home) so Terry gave them a bit of room to get out. This made the other side where we had to park the truck quite small so Terry parked in the empty spot behind us. When Terry went to register, he was told to park the truck on our spot which put it right beside the steps. He told them how bad it was when he went to get change for the laundry so they gave us another spot which was longer. So we unhooked everything, put in the slides, moved a few feet and set up all over again!
We found a Costco to see about getting a couple of tires on the back of the truck. They seemed quite expensive so I found the receipt from Discount Tire in Spokane where they were quite a bit cheaper. We called the Discount Tire in Puyallup and they were cheaper but they did not have any in stock. The guy first said it would take 3 to 5 days to get them but when we said it had to be tomorrow he suddenly could get them by 8 am. We drove by and then he said it might be 9 before he could get them. We are going to the fair tomorrow so figured that would work.

Sept 13th - Thurs - Puyallup
No call from Discount Tire so by about 9:30 I figured we should head for the fair since the parking yesterday looked like a nightmare. We were early enough that there was lots of room in the city lot across the street, but unlike Spokane where the parking is free, here it is $8.00 for the day. In fact, the gates did not open until 10 so we had a short wait.
The grounds and fair are huge! We were there from 10 until 5:30 - on our feet except for a lunch stop and about half an hour to watch the “Mutton Busting” - kids riding sheep. Our feet and legs were very tired. We made use of a “JiggleFoot” machine which are all over the grounds. You sit with your feet on a platform which, for 25 cents, jiggles the heck out of your feet for a couple of minutes. Your legs and feet do feel better - for a short while.
We never did hear from Discount Tire!

Sept 14h - Fri - to Rochester
The reason that we hung around the northwest was to attend a surprise birthday party for our son Dean. It is his 40th birthday today and the party is tomorrow. I called him today to wish him a happy birthday and told him we were in Sequim when in fact we were ½ hour from Rochester. Dean said his family had all been sick but were getting better. They were going out for dinner tonight for his birthday.
We are staying at the Lucky Eagle casino again. We ran around looking for a birthday present for Dean and got some groceries. After dinner we had to visit the casino. It treated us quite nicely - allowed us to play for several hours on little money.

Sept 15th - Sat - Rochester
Spent the morning ironing, hemming a pair of pants, getting a veggie tray ready for the party and cleaning the inside of the truck. Skip & Kathy (Terry’s brother) arrived about 1 and followed us to Jennifer’s cousin’s house where the party was being held. Dean was told that Jennifer was taking him somewhere special (just the 2 of them) for his birthday. She blindfolded him and drove him around for half an hour so he would not know where she was taking him. He was indeed surprised when they took the blindfold off when he was in front of all his friends and relatives. We chit-chatted, drank and ate for the afternoon. We and Skip & Kathy left about 7. Skip & Kathy are staying at the hotel here at the casino. We had to visit the casino but it was very busy and we were tired so it was an early evening.