8/3 - Port Angeles to Castle Rock, Washington

Not one of our better days. As we were leaving our last campground we noticed water dripping from underneath the RV.  Water in places it's not supposed to be is never a good sign, and our RV and water have a love-hate relationship.  Jim figured there was nothing we could do at that moment so on we went. 

Before getting out of Port Angeles we had a "cat event," one of Goblin's occasional traveling accidents. (We keep a pee-pad in his carrier so it's rarely serious.) Jim spotted a casino and knew we'd find room to get in and out without too much trouble since they cater to RVers.  We dealt with the accident but, in the process, discovered that turning on the water pump caused a lot more water to come out of the bottom of the RV. Investigation upon arriving at Castle Rock would definitely be necessary.

We had another 120 mile drive on a two-lane road to get off the Olympic Peninsula but traffic was much lighter today than on Saturday. We did have a 20-minute delay from following a lane-stripe painter and another short delay for fallen tree removal.

Tree removal on Hwy 101. What you can see up the side shows the extreme angle at which trees grow on these road-side banks. It's a wonder they don't all fall.

One of the exciting events, both going up and coming back, was a trio of super-narrow bridges.  Hitting one or more of these with traffic coming towards us is really unnerving.

Notice how much the roadway narrows going through this bridge. This is not a comfortable situation for a large RV when oncoming vehicles tend to take more than their share of the roadway. Maybe the big logging trucks scare oncoming traffic more than an RV does. We made it through every one without scrapes, thanks to Jim's skill, but it wasn't for lack of opportunity. We entered another very long and narrow concrete-sided bridge near Ruby Beach on Monday just as two rental RVs entered the other end. That created a momentary case of jitters for Jim because rental RVs may very well be driven by inexperienced people. Once again he squeezed us through without damage.

We made it to our campground in Castle Rock just before 2:00. It's a nice campground with the exception of having a train track right next to it. Campground reviews said the trains weren't bothersome so we're hoping the number decreases greatly overnight. So far we've had 12 trains in four hours. They shake the RV but the noise isn't too bad.....however, we're not trying to sleep.  

Jim started working on the water leak problem as soon as we got set up. After four hours of doing and undoing of the cracked hot-water-shut-off-valve and its accompanying hoses, he settled for having no hot water. The sun was on the side of the RV he had to work on so an already unpleasant job was made much more so.  We now have cold water but there was no way to keep the hot water running with the cracked valve. The closest RV parts store is 18 miles away and, thanks to texting pictures to them, we were able to determine they didn't have a workable replacement part. We'll have to make do without hot water until we get to our next stop in Troutdale, Oregon, on Friday which is only 3 miles from a Camping World.  Our fingers are crossed that Camping World has the part.

With no hot water we've had to resort to using the campground's showers which are beyond horrible. Two out of three don't work at all and the third was barely usable. There was hardly enough water to get the soap off and it was either full-on hot or cold.  I hope we aren't in serious need of a shower tomorrow night because we don't plan on going back for a second round.

This is only the second time in 8 1/2 years we've had to use campground showers, the last time being when we had neither water nor electricity on our way home from our southwest trip 15 months ago. That situation was ever so much worse. Our first night with no water was in a campground with no bathrooms at all. The second was in a campground with a very good shower which we really appreciated. 

Jim back in the basement dealing with water problems. Reminds us of so many previous occasions.  RVs and water....arrgggghhhh.....

The final fix.....clamping three handles from two wire-cutters into the hoses so we could continue to use cold water.  Jim says to mention that one of our redneck friends will recognize what he's done (won't you, JB?).  Jewelry tools are still very useful and not for what they were intended. We hope we don't need wire cutters for anything until this problem is properly repaired because we don't have a third pair.

Our original plans for this afternoon were to visit the closest Mount St. Helens visitor center so we wouldn't have too much to see tomorrow. The water leak made that impossible. We'll see as much as we can tomorrow with the time we have.