Monday May 26, '14

I had almost 18 hours at home before we headed out on Thursday May 22 for our Memorial Day camping trip.  Just enough time to get a good night's sleep, clean out the refrigerator, and wash a couple of loads of clothes in Shelley and brother Dave's washing machine.  I was waiting for the second load to finish its final spin when the machine started smoking and smelling like burning rubber.  I swore to David that my clothes weren't THAT dirty.  Don't think he believed me.

We are up on the banks of the Skagit River in Rockport WA, a little town on Highway 20--what most Washingtonians call the"North Cascade Highway."  This highway crosses the Cascade Mountains closest to the Canadian border of any of Washington's passes and is the most scenic, with the central peaks rocky and rugged.

We older folks arrived Thursday afternoon (five RVs of us) and the younger folks arrived Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.  All told, a group of about 35 or 40 campers, with day visitors adding to the fun.  The weather has given us a bit of everything except ice and snow. Sun, wind, rain, drizzle, grey clouds, white clouds, and lots of fog on the mountain tops.

I think of this as Howard Miller's Main Street.  It comes down the hill
to the three main circles of camping sites.

This time of year the park and the river are both amazingly green.  I think I am especially paying attention to the green having just spent those weeks in the desert.

I took this picture in the rain.  You see the gray reflected from the sky and
a bit of mist along the far side of the Skagit River.

The campground was full to capacity Friday (except for the tent sites).  Some people packed up and left early Sunday morning--it hadn't even started raining yet that day!  Actually, Saturday was sunny and fairly warm most of the day.

Brother Dave and nephew Tim--our two chief BBQers
may be discussing pulled pork.

We had great weather for campfire sitting by us experienced campers and assorted game playing by the grandkids.  Some of the intrepid antique shoppers checked out an estate sale in Concrete (nearby town) and came home with treasures.  Various campers' had friends come up for the day on Saturday or Sunday.

Some of us followed the trail down-river through the meadows and berry patches that are on park land.

Sunday, unlike Saturday, was not a sunny day.  We may have had a peek at the sun, but I can't remember for sure.  But we got together for breakfasts of biscuits and gravy or belgian waffles and hash browns.  A tough choice to make, and I'm not sure some campers didn't try both!

You can see the clouds sitting on the ridge.

Even Chuck and Patty's flamingos were pretty unhappy!

We all cooked for Sunday night's potluck.  Wonderful food--pulled pork sandwiches, beans and other side dishes, potato and every other kind of salad.  As usual, about twice as much food as we could eat.  We topped that off with home-made ice cream with hot chocolate sauce a couple of hours later.

The playground is bordered by brilliant azaleas.

This is monday, and five of us "experienced campers" have refused to go home, so we have three RVs hanging out here in our circle, when we had ten RVs this morning.   No kids remain anywhere--the playground is empty!  And even we will hit the road tomorrow.

I'm not sure where my next trip will be, but I plan to do a lot of trekking this summer.  Most of the trips will be fairly short, but I'll keep posting as I go, so check in every week or so for more news and pictures.