On the eve of a marathon.

It is my first attempt at a marathon.  I think this is a good time for some reflecting. 

It started with 7 minutes. 

We were in Del Rio, TX just after Christmas in 2011.  Sarah and I had taken to riding bikes in Boise because the green belt was right there on the edge of the RV park. We impressed ourselves by getting up to a 10 mile bike ride. But, in Del Rio, bike riding meant dodging drivers on narrow, pot hole filled roads.  It just wasn't fun or really safe.  So we languished. 

Then a girl at work, Julie DuPlessis, ran the San Antonio marathon.  It got me thinking.

Maybe I could do that.

I have always had something of an ambivalent relationship to running.  My attitude was, if you have to run, you should have left earlier.  I had to run for high school athletics and boot camp and the like, but I hated it.  I think it was that hate that led me to decide to do it.  I mean, if I hate it that bad, it must demonstrate a weakness.  You don't ignore the weakness, you fix it.  So I decided to run.  Back in high school wrestling, we ran for 7 minutes our first day back from summer.  It was agony.  But it was nothing compared to the agony that awaited me.  I smoked for 19 years and quit in 2004.  I had no real cardiovascular conditioning. 

So I laced up an old pair of work shoes just after Christmas in 2011 (because New Year's resolutions are for suckers) and I ran for 7 minutes.  I thought I might literally die.  My lungs burned, my legs wobbled, my head throbbed and I staggered back, but I made it.  I covered a distance of just under half a mile. 

According to my run logging software, I have run 354 miles in training for tomorrow.  Oh what a difference a couple of years makes. 

So, let's call it.  On the advice of a random internet article I read, I selected three goals for the race.   I have a goal, this is the focus of the day, this is what it is all about.  That goal is to finish.  My secondary goal is the goal that I would like to accomplish.  Not my main goal, but it would be great if I beat 4 hours.  My third one is if everything goes right and race day magic is in effect, I can accomplish my third goal of beating 3:50. 


I am anticipating 4:15.  I will be happy with 4:30. 

We are in a hotel and I don't have access to all my normal stuff, so I will have to do the full, post-race blog post with pictures later. 

Wish me luck.

Playing catch up

Busy, busy, busy.

We have had the normal things, and some abnormal things.  Chaos, disorder, but no panic.

I have decided I don't like Yakima.  There are cool things here, but...no.

To top it all off, our bikes have been stolen.  We have carted those things, literally from coast to coast across the country and someone stole them.  Oh well.

Can't dwell on the negative, it takes positive energy to move forward.  In that vein, we have been having some fun in the new, much less meth ridden RV park.  They have swings.

Sarah loves swings.

Max likes them too.  Especially with mommy.

Michael was bored and wanted to play soccer

Go ahead, take the picture. 

We got to play a little.

But again, this is about traveling.  Not sitting around bike thieving RV parks and playing soccer.

When we need a little boost, who do we call?  You got it, Ruthie!  We managed to get together with Ruthie and her friends Andrea and Andrew and their gorgeous little one Imogene.

And what better way to shake of the blahs than a waterfall hike.  Oh yeah, this is right.  So we packed up the car and headed for green.  In this case, it was near Snoqualmie Pass.  We went to check out Franklin Falls.

But, due to time restrictions and spotty internet, that will have to wait for another post.

And then there was Ruthie.

When last we left our intrepid...well, us.  We were finding beauty in our stark and sere new surroundings.We had to drive a ways, but we found it.  To say we were missing Bremerton and the Olympic peninsula would be a tremendous understatement.  Luckily we had Ruthie and the Gang come down for a quick visit.  They rolled up in the van with their smiles and awesomeness and brought happiness.  Of course we had to reward them with the beauty we found.  So, it was back to the Chinook pass and Ranier area for some scenery and hiking.

With one small stop.  We learned in Santa Fe, with Russell, that ponderosa pine trees smell like butterscotch.  We told Ruthie and she had heard of this, but never experienced it first hand.  Well, on our previous trip we noticed some ponderosas along the way and of course had to stop to sniff some tree.

They got it, but I only smell the scotch part.

With our duties out of the way, we were free to enjoy the day.  And we did.

Back to Tipsoo lake to hike some trails.  Ruthie, it turns out, wants to hike the PCT as well.  So we had to get some pictures.  We skipped the box canyon though and decide on a different hike.

When did the kids get in front of us?

Another view of scenic Lake Tipsoo.

The wild flowers were still in bloom

Max was trying to steer me away from Mexico.

Notice the lack of fear in their eyes.  No Mexico today guys.

Ranier peeking through the clouds.

Our chosen hike for the day.

Amaia, Swahili for: always in motion

Just kidding, it's actually Swedish for:  Always cute in pictures.

Another one of those pretty cool and wobbly bridges. 

Creatures of the night out to play in the daytime. And Amaia

Time for some calm reflection.  Even in an 8 year old.

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.

A bunch of tree hugging hippies

Awesome group picture

Then...this.

Trees are tall

Back across the bridge.

Chillaxin by the river

Kid's got a career on the PGA tour.

And then we were back to the car for a drive home.  We discovered a few waterfalls on the way and, of course, we had to stop and take pictures.

Lava Creek falls

Clear Creek Falls.  I left the non-zoom lens in the car. 

Clear Creek Falls from a distance.

OK, and we're back in 3...2...

That is quite enough of that, really. 

That last RV park was something. We have stayed at a lot of RV parks over the years and this one ranks right up there with the worst.  You know, I don't normally bad mouth anyone on here, but if you are ever in Yakima with an RV, do NOT stay Trailer's Inn on 1st Street.  For those of you on my Facebook, remember tazer penis?  He was found OD'ing against the fence of the RV park and two days later was back for a tazered penis.  All of this happened in the vicinity of the RV park.  Each cop, paramedic or ER nurse that heard where we were staying stopped and gave me that look like I just told them I had a vial of ebola in my pocket. 

And that is just the neighborhood around the place.  I won't carry on though.  I will save the full rant for my review on the RV park review website we use.

Instead, how about a quick trip through a few things that happened while we were away. 

Yakima is different.  Way different than the west side of the Cascades.  It is dry, hot and brown.  What little green remains is clustered around the rivers that join together and cascade down through the valley. 

There is industrial agriculture everywhere. 


None of this is what we came to Washington for, so we headed back as soon as we could.  We headed up the road toward Rainier and found a little pretty. 

The dramatic East summit of Fife's peak from the viewpoint.

The dramatic Max.

We decided to take the Chinook Scenic Byway, which leads up to Mt. Ranier National Forest and then circle back down.  The first place we wanted to go was through Chinook Pass.

Chinook Pass

Yakima Peak above Tipsoo Lake.

One of the ideas that has rattled around inside Sarah and my heads has been to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.  It sounds like just the kind of insane adventure we do.  The kids, however, think we are nuts to even think about it. It turns out, the PCT (That's what the cool kids call it) runs right through Chinook Pass.  We had to at least set foot on it.  The boys were opposed.  They may have believed we would just get crazy and take off. 

Neat bridge going over the road. 

Michael just heard me say we were going to hike the trail.

Crazy to think that trail leads all the way to Mexico.

 We left that area and went into Ranier National Park proper.  We were running out of daylight and kid patience so we decided to see the box canyon and then go home.  The box canyon is a narrow canyon around 150 feet deep with a river slicing through.  It was pretty cool to see.

And the river moves fast.

Not sure what the difference between a box canyon and slot canyon is.

The pictures are cool though.

Satisfied there was beauty near enough, we went home heartened.  Then, Ruthie and the kids came down to see us and we had to go back and see all this again, but that is for another post. 

Oh Yakima

So, I just clicked on to the homepage for RVLife.com and found a picture of all of us staring back at me.  That is kind of cool and kind of weird.

Then it hit me.  I might get a slight uptick in traffic around here.  It would be a good idea to pretty up the place.  Unfortunately...we are in Yakima.

Don't get me wrong, Yakima has some cool stuff.  What it doesn't have is a good internet connection at this RV park.  So I am unable to do much in the way of updating the blog or website until we move to another RV park early next month.  So, sorry guys.  We get all these visitors and me with nothing to wear.

Instead, I'll post up some greatest hits.  Check out the links to the right over there for most popular posts.  The connection here is bad enough that I can't even surf around the blog right now and find some older favorite posts to show.  Ahh, the vagaries of the travel life.

I can, however, offer this.  The article for RVLife is about travel nursing.  If you are interested in travel nursing I have written an article that I am still finishing up for eventual possible general publication.  If you want it, send me an email and I will send it to you.  No, I am not collecting your email address, you don't have to sign up for anything and I don't have a newsletter.  I hope the article is useful and enjoyable and I will just email the document file to you.

Otherwise, just browse around and enjoy.

For those of you who regularly follow the blog...you probably already know this, but we left Bremerton and are now in Yakima for three months.  The RV park we wanted didn't have room for us yet and we ended up at our second choice which resulted in very limited internet access.  We will be back to regular updates soon. 



Until then...enjoy this long exposure waterfall picture we took while exploring Mt. Ranier the other day.

It only took 30 minutes to upload!

Return to Seattle, again.

So today we got back on the ferry for Seattle.  You know, I'm not much for cities, but if you have to go to one, you could do way worse than Seattle.  Of course, we start in Bremerton, so let's get on with the ferry ride.

Must spend some time cavorting about the sculptures at the Bremerton Ferry landing.

We miss you Nana!

Cute flowers, almost match her shirt.  But there is a bee in there.

Stylish, sophisticated. Stay away from the sailors.

The ferry ride was uneventful.  Deanna didn't want to go outside because the wind made it too cold.  So we sat inside and watched the world go by.

When we got to Seattle, we had to go to this one shop Michael had found in a book one of my co-workers lent to us.

Ye Olde Wooden Sign

Curiousities! 

I'll be in your dreams!

Cool steampunk like skull.  Deanna loved it but it was a little spendy.

Curiosities and trinkets!

In addition to the nightmare mermaid above, and yes, that is supposed to be a mermaid, they had some mummified remains and shrunken heads.  Pretty bizarre.

Sufferin succotash!

Looks pretty good for an old guy. 

Sleep tight! 

Always reminded of Beetlejuice.

Sarah had to check out the mummy

Michael decided that was totally weird.

Gorgeous day.

Of course we ended back up at the Pike's Place Market.

Where we found something that would have been right at home in Ye Olde Curiosity Shop

We stopped and had a bite to eat.  While sitting around, we saw this guy.  I peeked over his shoulder. Pretty nice work too.  He got my hair just right.

He was even doing caricatures

Add caption

Trying to find a way to take the picture without the crowd. 

Neat sculpture.

Couldn't do a long exposure...had to settle for a lens flare.

Better than the alternative I would venture.

Of course, on the way out, we had to go by the gum wall.

What the heck is that?

Questioning that whole Sanitary Public Market thing.

Yeah, that's gross. 

We had a lovely day about town.  We hopped the ferry back to Bremerton and called it a day.  Too soon our visit with Deanna will be over. 

Sigh. 

Picture of random stuff.