White Water and Samboree-ing

On Wednesday, we packed up, slid in and motored up to the lodge to do our laundry. From there it was off toward Moses Lake and our first Samboree.

We passed cascades, rivers, brooks, branches, creeks, rills, runnels, rivulets and rapids. I tried taking some pics thru Winnie's windows. The windscreen ones look ok:

But the ones thru the side window and screen are not so good:

I was afraid of that..the screen shows too clearly. So I opened the widow, opened the screen and held tight to the camera and got some good pictures as we sped along at 50 mph:

As you can see, the Wenatchee River is full this time of year with loads of snowmelt. Makes for a noisy but spectacular river.

Here we are stopped in a wide spot for lunch, which was crab, shrimp and pasta salad, and tasty if I do say so myself. I made it a day before, so we'd have a ready-made lunch handy. The river is just on the other side of the guardrail, hustling downhill like its on a deadline.

Shortly after our lunch break, we came into Leavenworth. It is such a neat place, but no good places for pictures along the road and we were running late so we didn't stop this trip. Besides, the motorhome parking place has been re-purposed as a city park. Pretty, but not so handy for motorhome parkers!

The clouds began to clear and by the time we got to Moses Lake it was mostly sunny and considerably warmer than Leavenworth had been. We traveled on a road we had not been on before so we enjoyed the scenery very much. I thought I had taken more pictures, but Ray says they are not on the camera, so I guess I don't have any pics of the second half of the trip.

The Samboree was held at the Grant County Fairgrounds. We were late to arrive and got parked in the back 40. It was nice there, grassy and well treed. There were water and electrical hookups, for which we were especially grateful on the day it hit 92 degrees. There was also a nice breeze most of the time so we really needed the a/c only for one day. Norman was glad we had a/c too, I do believe.

There were vendors at the Samboree, and we ended up buying a few things for the Winnie. We bought an Oxygenics shower head, which cuts your water consumption and increases the flow. It was a good purchase even tho we had to go back to the booth and get a new shower head holder to go with. It just didn't fit right in the old holder. I can now rinse my hair in half the time, which is good when you don't have a sewer connection and only 6 gallons of hot water. We did so well on water, I was proud of us! We were parked there from Wednesday supper til Sunday late morning, took showers every day, ate good meals, and when we left, the holding tanks were still not full. It's a far cry from our first no-sewer experience long ago, when we had to dump the tanks two and three times a day. Bigger tanks help! But so does experience and careful meal planning.

Representatives from most of Washington's 78 Good Sam Chapters were there and we met a lot of people and dogs. Seems like at least 85 percent of rigs came complete with a dog or two. We ended up camping next to the people we'd been camping next to at Leavenworth and the folks from the Good Guy Sams from up Marysville way made us welcome. We felt like we knew someone as soon as we saw who we were parked next to! There were scads of first timers this year, about 65 of us, I think. I'm sure some chapters got members out of that.

There were activities ranging from semi-pro entertainment to dog parades, people parades, remote control vehicle races, seminars and bingo. And even more. There was surely something for everyone every day. We ended the week with a pot luck with the Marysville group on Saturday night. Sunday morning there was a church service (good gospel group) and everyone took off after that.

We had a good time and decided we'd go again. We aren't sure about joining a chapter, as that means once a month someone else chooses where you camp and you camp with the same folks all the time and they expect you to do the planned activities and such. We are just not sure about that, and we'll be on the road full time in about 2 years and unable to participate in Chapter events. So we are still mulling on that. Ray is thinking about joining the WA State Military Sams, who meet only 3 times a year at the State Events.

It was straight home on good old I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass, and we stopped in tiny Vantage for some lunch. It was pretty uneventful, but the scenery is always good. Being Sunday, there was no road work to hold us up. The infamous "They" are rebuilding part of the road where it goes by Stump Lake (aka Lake Kachess) and getting rid of the snow sheds. The theory is that with the cliffs blasted back and the road widened that avalanches won't be a problem any more. Uh-huh. I'll bet.

Ray and I arrived back home tired, grateful for a nearly unlimited supply of hot water and sewers and a bed that's easy to make (and for me--dishwasher!). Normie was grateful for the opportunity to have an unlimited dervish around the back yard, up and down the steps and in and out of the house. He'd apparently been saving up some energy.

The bad news this trip added up to the loss of the radio antenna and the discovery of a leaking hydraulic cylinder in the automatic leveling system. It goes to the shop on Wednesday, I think.

Tomorrow we are celebrating Lauren's birthday, Ray's birthday and Father's Day. Jason is bringing a game we have not played before called "Domination". He thinks he'll beat us.