A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 187 miles from Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington. (Departure omitted for privacy.)
Travel from Shelton to Concrete, Washington
We drove our coach 187 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington.
The map route, heading north (exact start omitted for privacy):
A narrow road:
Paladin on the dash, unusual for him when driving:
On the dash in front of Jenn isn’t acceptable, though:
Freeway:
Joining I-5:
A bridge over I-5 in Olympia, the state capitol:
Paladin on the back of my chair:
On the dash again; he seems to be getting more comfortable with seeing the traffic outside:
While driving through Tacoma, a semi truck got too close to us and clipped our mirror with theirs, shattering the upper mirror glass:
Tacoma Dome:
We stopped at a rest area for lunch:
The SeaTac northbound rest area is rather nice, with a dump station and separate RV parking:
I got out to inspect the shattered mirror; more on this in a future post (I should be able to replace just the glass):
Lunch for us and my Pokémon buddy:
(My trainer code is 5198 7224 2799 if you play; my referral code is BT9H6KRBC, if you don’t but want to start.)
Paladin on my lap:
Boeing Field:
Seattle:
The freeway goes under downtown buildings:
Paladin on my lap:
And sleeping on the back of my chair:
We stopped at another rest area, and used their dump station:
There was a handy map of rest areas and dump stations:
Our exit:
Paladin on the floor between us:
Highway:
Our destination:
Half-bath door hinges
The door for our half-bathroom was sticking. I investigated, and determined that the issue was that the hinges were bent; here’s an old hinge after being removed:
So I removed the door to replace the hinges:
The old hinges were non-mortise, i.e. designed for surface mounting. But I determined that there was enough room for regular hinges, so bought some of a similar size (with a removable pin, for safety):
An installed hinge:
The half bath door works much better now:
Washingtonians
We have been Oregonians since moving from New Zealand to the US in 2001, but now that we’re traveling the country, we have fewer ties to Oregon. We decided to move our domicile (i.e. where we vote and have as a home base) to Washington state, since we have family there, so more of a connection.
The first step in officially changing our domicile was to get new driver licenses, and re-register our truck and coach. Here’s the old Oregon truck license plate:
And the new Washington truck license plate:
The old Oregon coach license plate:
The new (and very expensive!) Washington coach license plate:
I guess we’ll need to remove that “heart in Oregon” sticker now; Washington is now our home base.
We have a new mailbox service in Washington, to forward mail to us as we travel. We’re working on changing bank accounts and my Dejal company registration. We’ll change doctors and dentists when due for our next checkups. And more. There are lots of things to update, so it’s certainly not something we do lightly.
Video: Eatonville, Washington to Shelton, Washington motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 84 miles from Eatonville, Washington to Shelton, Washington. (Arrival omitted for privacy.)
Travel from Eatonville to Shelton, Washington
We drove our coach 84 miles, about 2.5 hours of driving, from Eatonville, Washington to Mom’s place near Shelton, Washington.
The map route, heading northwest (exact destination omitted for privacy):
Jenn driving our coach:
Paladin:
Windy road:
We turn around our knife block to prevent it from falling over while driving… but forgot this time, oops:
I picked it up while we were driving down the road; Paladin watching me, plus the GPS on the TV:
A water tower:
Not a huge fan of tight roundabouts in our coach:
Entering I-5:
Paladin on the dash; unusual when driving:
Shelton exit:
Shelton sign:
Not a huge fan of this narrow bridge in Shelton, either:
Paladin on my lap:
Not a huge fan of the narrow roads near the destination, too:
But happy to arrive at Mom’s place. Here’s our coach and truck in their driveway:
Slides in:
Slides out:
While “moochdocking” at Mom’s place, we hooked up the coach to an electrical outlet in the house. Our coach has a 50 amp cord, so we used an adapter to convert the 15 amp house plug to a 30 amp connector, and another to our 50 amp cord:
Not enough power to run ACs, but it keeps the fridge going, plus lights and such.
Me in the backyard:
We spent a week at Mom’s place, sleeping in our coach to keep Paladin company, showering and hanging out in the house during the day. It was great to spend time with Mom and Mike. Thanks for putting up with us!
Mount Rainier National Park
We visited Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.
The entrance arch:
Entrance ranger station:
Park buildings, with a glimpse of the mountain:
Ancient log:
Museum:
Picnic lunch:
Waterfall:
Mt Rainier:
River and trees:
Top of a waterfall:
Paradise visitor center:
Flowers:
Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground
We stayed at Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground in Eatonville, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A delightful lakeside view.
Dates:
- Check in: 2022-08-07
- Check out: 2022-08-09
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 90°F, lows at 58°F
- No significant wind
Noise:
- Next to a highway, so a bunch of road noise; no train noise
- No significant neighbor noise
Site:
- #423, pull through, asphalt
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Not very level, sloped down from the driver side
- Smallish site: about 60 feet long by about 25 feet wide
- Partial hookups:
- 50 amp power conveniently located
- 55 PSI water pressure; conveniently located
- No sewer
- Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
- Several trees on the driver side for privacy
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 22 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
- AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 682 ms ping
- Verizon: 8 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage bin
Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:
Lovely view of the lake and close to Mt Rainier
We stayed at the Rocky Point campground in site 423 and had the best view of the lake from our site. However, getting to the site was a little gnarly with our 40′ motorhome, as the road inside the park is very winding and narrow with many overhanging trees. The site was one of the few pull-throughs in the campground and just long enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle. There wasn’t a camp host on duty, but it was pretty easy to just go to our site and get settled. A ranger came by while we were at Mt. Rainier the next day and left our check-in paperwork under our wiper. There’s easy access to the day use area next door, so it was nice to cool off on a warm afternoon. The only limiting factor to this campground is the lack of a sewer connection at each site; otherwise, we would have happily stayed for much longer than two nights. We camped at Alder Lake Park in a Motorhome.
The RV park map:
A delightful lake view from our site:
Our site:
Only electric and water hookups:
Not a sewer dump:
Lake view:
Dinner with a view:
View from our site:
Moon:
Another night:
Aerial views:
Day use area:
Entrance:
Campground full:
The road in the campground was a bit tight for our coach:
Tiny trailer and tent:
Gate to the day use area:
Day use area:
Video: Welches, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 163 miles from Welches, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington.
Travel from Buxton, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington
We drove our coach 163 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington.
The map route, heading north:
We pulled into a maintenance area to hook up our tow bar:
Our new Sinclair Trails logo sticker is visible inside with the slide-out in:
Jenn driving; yes, she drives our coach:
Enjoying some coffee at a traffic light stop:
Sandy:
Interesting MAX light rail station:
MAX light rail:
Heading towards Seattle:
Paladin on the back of my chair:
Leaving Portland:
Leaving Oregon:
Stopping at a rest area:
Lunch:
The rest area had an RV dump station; nice:
Paladin:
Bridge:
A small plane taking off:
Driving:
Another Tiffin joining the freeway:
Paladin passing over my lap:
Gee Cee’s Truck Stop; quite nice and not busy:
Another bridge:
We have Sinclair Trails logo Yeti coffee mugs:
Sleeping Paladin:
Mayfield Lake:
Jenn driving:
Paladin asleep:
Highway 12:
Hey look, another bridge:
Hobo Inn, staying in train cars:
Day use area at Alder Lake:
Our destination, Rocky Point campground:
A rather narrow road within the campground:
