Our drive from eastern Washington to the State’s extreme northwest corner went without a hitch. We had some concerns regarding the heavy traffic around Seattle but our timing was good and we were able to scoot by before the Friday afternoon traffic started. Our route was all on freeways so driving was stress free. While driving on country two lane roads is certainly more scenic and ascetically more enjoyable, especially with the unique ranches or farms and rangelands or forests dominating our views, it is much more stressful. With a big 25 ton, 40-foot-long, 9+ feet wide bus, driving the narrower country roads takes a lot more skill and attention to keep the bus “within the lines”. Thus, our stress levels are always higher whenever we drive LeuC down the more scenic routes. This means that when we arrive at that day’s destination after taking rural roads, we are more tired than when we take the wide, four-lane freeways.
When we arrived at the RV park that we will be parking LeuC at while we stay with my brother and his wife, we decided that we were so happy that we would be staying with them. The RV park was the pits, with a set up that required four RVs to be packed in together to share a common utility pedestal. This means that each unit is literally just inches from each other. Yuck!
What is surprising, is that this RV Park is part of Thousand Trails, a premium RV Park association that costs huge amounts of money to join. The parks within this association are all supposed to meet certain standards and they are supposed to be the “upper end” of the RV park spectrum. Well, if this park is representative of the other parks in the association, we question the value of spending big bucks to join.
After setting up LeuC we called Don and Debbie and told them we had arrived and that we would like come over in a bit. They were all excited and their enthusiasm had not diminished when we did arrive. During this last year they had retired and had bought their beautiful house, which looks out over the 7th fairway of Semiahmoo Golf Course.
After the tour of their lovely home, Don whipped up a batch of his very special Margaritas which were slurped down in fine style. Ahhhhhhh, this is the life!
The rest of the day and well into the evening was spent catching up and enjoying each other’s company. A delicious meal of wild Alaskan salmon that Don grilled outside over a cedar plank was the perfect complement to a perfect day.
Yesterday was spent taking it easy and planning things to do while here. What is on the list is looking at some houses that are for sale, playing some golf, cruising around the San Juan Islands in Don and Debbie’s boat, touring some museums and just enjoying each other’s company.
Today, after a hot breakfast of eggs, toast and smoked bacon, Don and I were off to play some golf while the ladies spent more time together catching up. Debbie and Mary Margaret are the best of friends and they enjoy spending time together. It makes me happy knowing that my lifemate and Don’s lifemate so enjoy each other’s company.
The golfing was great as the course was absolutely beautiful and challenging. It was designed by Arnold Palmer and is rated as one the best courses in the Pacific Northwest. The pictures I took while playing should help convince you of the merits of this claim.
Neither of us have played very much in the last few years but it did not show during our first nine holes. We each had our mojo working and scored a number of pars as we worked our way to a score for the front nine of 46 each. Whoo Hoo! Such fun!
Don kept his mojo working during the back nine, as he shot a 48, finishing his round in style by sinking a pitch shot on the last hole that was 30 yards from the green. Double Whoo Hoo!! I ended up fading a bit as my irons failed me on a couple of holes. I finished the back nine with a 54, to complete my round with a score of 100. Not what I had hoped for but I was pleased with the number of great drives I had on a course that I had never played before.
Tomorrow, we will be going to an oyster house to slurp down some fresh local oysters and then take in an open house or two. We are interested in checking out this area as a possible place to settle down in when our nomad days come to an end.
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 