7/29 - Tumwater, Washington

Not much to write about today and not many pictures.  

It took the entire morning to get the oil changed in the truck (2 1/2 hours).  That's what happens when you want to continue with the same brand of oil and only one place in the region carries it.  The time was extended by an additional half hour because the very nice girl who helped with the oil change and checked our tire pressure....who may have been a trainee....took it upon herself to let 15 lbs of air pressure out of all our rear tires so they would match the label on the door frame. It would have been so much better if she had just asked us first. The door label says 65 lbs but we need 80 lbs because of the extra weight of the fifth wheel. You'd think a one-ton dually with a fifth wheel hitch might have given her a clue that maybe she should ask if there was a reason for the high pressure, but obviously not. The inside rear tires are not easy to reach so she had her work cut out for her to get them back up to 80 lbs. We hope she learned a lesson about asking. If Jim hadn't thought to ask her about the pressure he would have discovered it later and been livid. Having just got new tires last week we would also have been worried that something was wrong with them.

The traffic on I-5 on our way to the shop was awful as usual.  Gabe recommended a different route to meet her in Tumwater (25 miles away near Olympia) which kept us off the interstate. It took us through a lovely tunnel of trees and the beautiful little town of Steilacoom (pronounced Stillacom) which is right on the water. We were very glad to see something other than interstate and also to find that there are such picturesque areas nearby. 

An aerial shot of Steilacoom, borrowed from the town's website because I couldn't get any pictures of the town as we went through it.

We found Gabe reading a book under a tree in the Fred Meyer parking lot (a big grocery chain here) and went to lunch at her favorite Chinese buffet. It was quiet and had good food.....what more could one ask for?  

After lunch our one sight-seeing venture of the day was a nearby cemetery which is the home of two of the very few remaining healthy American chestnut trees.  A quote on the plaque below them refers to the taller one...."the 88-foot American Chestnut thrives....(and is) the largest healthy American Chestnut in the United States..." Discover Magazine, 5/29/2004  

The two American chestnuts at Mills & Mills Memorial Park in Tumwater when a special monument was dedicated in their honor on 2/20/2015. I couldn't get a picture which captured so much of the trees so I got this one from the article about the dedication (which is the reason for the flags).

This is the larger of the two trees with Jim below for perspective.  They really are massive.

The plaque also contains the information that Tumwater was the first American settlement in Washington state in October 1845. One of the first settlers was George W. Bush (W for Washington). In 1846 one of the other original settlers planted American chestnut seeds he'd brought from the east coast, so these two chestnut trees are now 170 years old. 

Jim and Gabe in front of the chestnut trees which have a columbarium between them. (At least I think that's the name for a place where cremains are kept. If there's another term for it, someone please let me know and I'll correct it.)

We said goodbye to Gabe for this trip with the expectation that we'll see her again when she comes to visit her daughter who lives in Marion and a grandson and great-granddaughter who are in Asheville.  We've had a wonderful time with her in Spokane, Yakima and the Olympia/Tumwater/Tacoma area.

Our drive back to the campground turned out to be much better than we'd anticipated. Traffic was at a standstill on I-5 for 12 of the 21 miles back to our exit. We managed to avoid all but two or three miles of it by following back roads via google maps on the phone. What a tremendous help the phone's google maps and our Garmin GPS have been in our traveling. 

Tomorrow we head off to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula to see Olympic National Park. We are looking forward to the outstanding scenic beauty, much less traffic and the drop in temperature of ten degrees or more. The Seattle-to-Olympia area has been in a heat wave the past few days with temps from low to upper 90's. Not the norm for this area at all and probably not appreciated by anyone.