The last few days we’ve been hanging around Puyallup by ourselves while Katie and Jordan work.  It’s good to have someone employed.  Anyway, we dropped off the camper Monday morning for evaluation.   Since there was a possibility that the camper might need major repairs we started looking at replacements.  Fortunately there are several RVdealers in the area, so we got to see many campers we didn’t like.  The only possibility was (conveniently) at the Keystone dealer where ours was to be evaluated. 

Tuesday we decided to go to the Washington seashore for a day at the beach, about 2 ½ hours away.  Twenty minutes into the trip the skies clouded up, by 35 minutes we realized the beach probably wouldn’t be much fun, so we returned.  We also received a call from the RV shop indicating that the leak test was completed and the news was not good.  After a cup of coffee and some discussion we decided to return to the dealer, get some more detailed information, and decide what to do.  The service manager advised us to do nothing here, if we wanted to repair the damage we should bring it home to be repaired as it could be a long (and expensive) process.  Sooooo…… we now will own a new camper as of tomorrow morning.  Quite the souvenir.

Yesterday Katie gave us a tour of the Washington State University Puyallup Research Extension Center where she is doing her research.  In addition to the labs the facility includes greenhouses and a couple of farms where researchers grow plants and trees for research.  There also is a fish lab for research on salmon.  Jordan works in the support division of the center.  During the tour Katie showed us various labs she uses as well as explaining some of the samples and experiments she is conducting.  We got a tour of the farms as well as the buildings.

Today we went back to Charlotte’s Blueberry Park in Tacoma to pick more berries.   The plants had more ripe berries and we were able to pick a couple of gallons in less than an hour.  In a few more days there will be zillions of ripe berries, but we won’t be here.  On the way back home we stopped at a local furniture store, The Old Cannery.  We don’t need furniture, but it is a unique place, decorated whimsically around the furniture.  It is a huge building, much of it has model railroad track suspended from the ceiling with large gauge trains running around.  Trains and transportation are a large part of the Puyallup area, so the trains are appropriate.  Dinner was at a local Italian restaurant both last night and tonight, so we’re leaving town with new tummy spare tires to go with the new camper.

 the living area and kitchen

 ooohhh..... shiny!

 a fungus amongus

 Katie's babies

 ....I now pronounce you healed

 a berry good job indeed

 no bacon and eggs served at the Old Cannery table

Family style!

Saturday July 20

Friday was buy-the-camper-move-out-of-the-old-camper-into-the-new-camper day.  The buying part went really well and really quickly.  People are extremely friendly and helpful when you are giving them money.  After payment it was time to hook up and check that everything was OK.  Of course this is where it got a little sticky.  Because of this and that the hitch part of the camper would hit the tailgate and sides of the truck when turning very sharply.  Sooo, I had them install the pinbox from the old camper on the new one.  All better.  Then it was time to move our stuff.  The campers were next to each other, but there’s a reason I’ll never move out of our house.  There was an amazing amount of stuff – good, bad, & ugly – that had to be moved.  For some reason the dealer didn’t want any of our treasures.  It took about four and a half hours.  We finally hooked up and travelled 2.6 miles to the campground for the night, but not before moving out of Katie’s house and fridge.

Today was a travel day on the way to Glacier National Park.  We drove north from Puyallup to meet U.S. 2 near Everett, WA, then turned east for the first time.  The road goes over the Cascade mountains at Stevens Pass, an easy crossing.  The changes in terrain and vegetation are amazing.  On the west side of the Cascades the land is flat and fertile with trees, plants, and people.  In the mountains there are pine forests and crystal clear rushing streams and rivers.  Shortly after crossing the pass the forests start to thin with trees giving way to sagebrush.  The valleys are irrigated and are covered with orchards.  As we continued east the topography changed to rolling hills covered with millions of acres of wheat.  Now we are camped at Little Diamond Lake KOA near Newport, WA on the Idaho border.  Part way through the trip we stopped at Leavenworth, WA.  This is still in the mountains, and they have transformed the commercial part of the town into a Bavarian theme village.  Lots of shops selling pretzels.  It’s also a center for rafting and kayaking on the white water rivers.  We had lunch, bratwurst and kielbasa and beer.  One for the road. Tomorrow we’ll be at Apgar, Glacier park, hopefully we’ll be able to get a site in the park campground.  No pictures tonight.