V14E6- Washington Roll-Back Remastered

It is quite, but not torrentially, rainy and the wind isn't terrible either. It's really pretty here, but it is raining and we think we've developed a leak in the side window by the kitchen of the Rebel. How's our leak? Still. Still leaking? There's not much we can do about it. No, there's not. Just keep it dry. That's it. When it rains, it pours. Sometimes, very literally. This past week, we were in Vancouver, Washington getting some very minor issues with the Winnebago Rebel fixed up. Well, as I was editing last week's episode, number V14E5, we discovered that RNG, my Jeep, would no longer start. We'd turn the key and hear the starter motor whirring, but it would engage the flywheel to turn over. So we drove the van to AutoZone to get a new starter and I thought, all right, no problem. I'll get under the Jeep for an hour, swap it out, and we'll be on our way. Well, the ground was wet, it had been raining, all I had were very basic hand tools, and I couldn't unbolt the old starter for the life of me. I even split the only 15 millimeter socket that I had trying to get the starter off. With a heavy heart and very reluctant to resign to defeat, I threw in the towel and called in a tow. First time for everything. This is unsettling. Five years of reliable service and adventure, almost 200,000 miles. All right, RNG gets a pass. Bye, RNG. We'll see you soon. Beach? Let's go beach. Let's go beach. So the Jeep is out of commission this week. It's at the shop. Shannon and I traveled in the van together to the Washington coast just in time for the October 2021 cyclone bomb, which has been a torrent of wind and rain that's been pounding the Pacific coast this week, especially down in California. We spent one night at the campgrounds in Cape Disappointment State Park, which is in the southwest corner of Washington state, right on the coast. We came in last night and we were like, let's go to the ocean. And it was dark. So it's hard to appreciate how like creepy this was. We had no idea how close to the ocean we were. We could hear it, but we just weren't sure. All right, let's go this way. Finnegan. Finnegan's first time on a beach. There's a lighthouse down there. And right now to weather the storm, we're just a few miles north of Cape Disappointment in Long Beach, Washington. We decided to look for a place to stay in town and we found the Southwestern Lodge and Vintage Travel Trailer Resort. It's a really rustic and artsy inn with classic buses and travel trailers that you can stay in. And there are also a handful of small RV sites with hookups that you can reserve if you have your own rig. Let's take a look inside a couple of them, shall we? I think the artwork is really neat. These heated items and the wire items. Lovely modern fridge. Certainly do not judge a book by its cover here. From the exterior, all these buses and trailers look fairly, well, dilapidated for lack of a better word. But when you step inside one of them, you see that it is a very clean, well put together, almost luxurious space. Thank you to the folks at the front desk at Southwestern Lodge for letting me take a look at these units. So aside from wandering around at the campground and on the beach, there's no new adventure this week. However, since we're in Washington, which is a beautiful state, I feel like it's a good time to take a look back at some of the previous memorable experiences that I've had here. Most of these video clips are from my visit to Washington in summer of 2018. It's 2 30 a.m. The wind is out of hand. All right, and now there's a little bit of rain. I'm not doing this. I just closed the camper. The rain is sideways. I did, in fact, check the weather forecast before bed, and it didn't show anything. It showed perfectly clear. It showed calm winds. So this is probably just a squall or something. I'm on top of a mountain, so I'm getting hit by the worst of it. But I'm just out of here. I'm not doing this. While this passing storm was unpleasant at the time, it's funny how three years later it became a fond memory. After all, what's an adventure without an unexpected storm, or a fallen log, or a little bit of adversity to spice things up? We'll come in Leavenworth. I don't know the inflections and the stuff like that, but Leavenworth, Washington. A very distinct Bavarian theme. All right, here we go. Nice and slow. See how big we can climb this vehicle. This way. A little more. Nice and slow. All right, we're going to announce the winners of all of the cooking competition, but I want to get all the teams to come up here because we're getting the non-winners. So the raffle at Northwest Overland Rally is pretty serious business, as you can see. Yes, it really is. Who here has a rim out in the rig? Whoa, like a lot of people. I do too. They're really handy. The x-grip deal for your phone is awesome on the dash. I use it for nav all the time. It's Monday morning, and I'm in Chelan, Washington, still with 410 Expedition, and what I think we're going to do is follow the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route from here up into Winthrop, Washington, and I don't know what to expect. It's going to be winding mountain roads. Oh god. That wasn't making us nervous. Good content. This is Winthrop, Washington. To feed a family of five with this thing. Oh, we don't only get rice here, we get rice inside the burrito too. This was one of my favorite hikes of all time. It was a day hike along a section of the Pacific Coast Trail up in northern Washington, not too far from the Canadian border. As you can see, the scenery was stunning. The mountains were jagged, and I was particularly surprised to have to cross snow fields in midsummer. I hiked three miles in, and I'm at the summit of Tatey Peak along the Pacific Crest Trail at approximately 7,400 feet. This is extraordinary. The color of Diablo Lake in Washington's North Cascades is absolutely eye-popping. I spent the better part of the day out in my kayak on the emerald green water. While the air temperature was warm and comfortable that day, the lake was still quite chilly, so I took a brief swim, but immediately changed my mind. It's not the hottest hot spring I've ever been in. It's more like a very warm spring, but it's still very comfortable. Distinct smell of sulfur, per usual. Definitely should have brought a towel. As a refreshing change of pace from the backcountry, I decided to take a day and explore a little bit of downtown Seattle on foot. This is gong. I am with Paul from Shug's in Pike Place Market. It's an old-fashioned ice cream parlor with a twist, and he treated me to a s'more sundae, which looks absolutely fantastic. Housemade marshmallows, housemade fudge, and a delicious vanilla ice cream. Tonight I was faced with a dilemma. Do I want to camp down in the valley, maybe by a stream where it's quiet, or do I want to find a mountaintop with an amazing view that might be breezy and a Behind me, you can see there's Mount Rainier. A beautiful view. I'm excited to see that in the morning. I was out photographing seaplanes in northern Washington when I was approached by a gentleman named Long Bok-Win. Long saw me taking pictures, and since he was both a pilot and an aerial photographer, he invited to take me up in his Cessna. I eagerly accepted his offer, and we spent about two hours flying around the stunning Washington landscape. Cole and I are on our way to Cape Flattery, which is the most northwestern point in the 48 states, I believe, I think. Is that right? Yeah, it should be. It should be exciting and beautiful. There's a hiking trail we want to try. I found a pair of glasses on the ground. They almost look like mine. What do you think? I can't, I can't see anything. I think the, uh, the arms are bent. They are. I noticed that. Out. Water. In the shower, anyway. Tomorrow morning, we'll find a place. We're back in present day in October 2021. I got a call from the dealer today, and the jeep is done and ready for pickup. The starter was small potatoes. They had it replaced and working again in short order. However, I also asked them if they'd look over everything, and that's where things got complicated. R&G needed a new clock spring, new ball joints, new rear brakes, new radiator, cam position sensor, rod ends, alignment. We're gonna pick up R&G this weekend, so my fingers are crossed that everything goes smoothly, and that next week I'll be back in the field. I hope you all enjoyed this week's look back at Washington Adventures. Thanks for following along, and I'll catch up with you again next week.