Day 16 - The Boring Stuff, Seattle WA

Day 16 started with fog in Seattle and I am happy to say that nobody was sleepless.  We are packed in like sardines; I call it cheek by jowl camping.  The RV caravan returning from Alaska left this morning and the park cleared out for a while but it is quite full again.  This isn't my favorite way to "camp" but the campground is clean, the people are friendly and it is convenient (17 miles or so) to the University.  It will do just fine.  We visited with the neighbors for quite a while this morning.  They are full time RV'ers and wanted to tell us their tales.  This couple, though older, still works and travel mostly around Washington.  We asked for their favorite places to see and routes to take so that we can plan the next leg of our trip.  So far, the consensus is to take I5 (excuse me, THE 5) to Longview and then cross over to Highway 101 for a look at coastal Oregon and the redwoods.   Sounds good to me.

It was chore day. 
Pay all the bills, tidy up, get a grocery list together, write postcards, prepare a crockpot meal (did you know that you can do lasagna in the crockpot? I saved half of it to take over to Lowell tomorrow), give Brett a haircut, reorganize all the boxes in the basement now that we've moved Lowell's stuff into his apartment and do the laundry.  It's just as efficient to stay with the laundry and wait for it as it is to come back and keep going over to check on it.  But there wasn't much in the way of reading material today.  Brett will read just about anything!
We did chat with a nice lady from Germany who is traveling with her husband from Las Vegas to here to Yosemite and back to Vegas.  They are driving a 25 ft Class C rental and need to find a repair shop because the mirror got broken (been there, done that).  I was in the office this morning when they checked in and ended up "translating" for the reservation clerk.  No, I don't speak German but for some reason I could understand their accented English where the clerk could not.  I felt very helpful.

I read recently that one was to be a successful traveler is to look at everything closely and then look at it again.  While roaming the KOA I did notice these few things:

All of the rental bicycles are chained and seem to be stored away for the winter.  They must do quite a brisk bike business in the summer because there certainly are a lot of them.  You cannot rent a bike but you can still swim in the pool.  The water is heated but our new German friend said that it was cold.

There is a very large chess set out in the play area.  It looked very nice with all the pieces waiting for a game.  About 10 minutes later a group of children passed by and not a single piece was left standing.

We saw these people carrying the little dog in a sort of sling attached to a pole earlier in the day.  This evening they had the dog harnessed into this four wheeled contraption.  The dog seemed able to move his legs and get around a bit.  There were several other dogs at the campsite who all seemed in good health.  The owners must care a lot about this dog.  He seemed to require quite a bit of special attention.

This terra-cotta statue is at the front of the main building.  It is one of 16 which used to adorn a building in downtown Seattle built in 1909.  The building was demolished in 1976 and the 800 pound statues (consisting of 18 pieces each) were removed and reconstructed at new locations throughout the state.  This statue was obtained in 1977 and reconstructed at the KOA site.  Keen observer that I am, I walked by it three times before I noticed it!  I will get better at seeing.

Lowell checked in with us this afternoon.  He had a successful orientation day and wants to meet up with us tomorrow.  We can hopefully find a grocery store so he can get supplies and then possibly we'll go see a few of the Seattle sights.  I am sure that it will be another eventful day.