Settling or Being Realistic – What’s the Difference?

Have you ever asked yourself if you’re just ‘settling’ with your life, or do you make a more realistic and positive assessment of what is around you? You can ask this question about many aspects of your life—relationships, houses, traveling, friendships… basically anything.

Settling can mean different things. It could possibly signify that you are maturing and are ready for new and exciting challenges. However, it more usually has a negative connotation, meaning that you’re sacrificing your happiness. That is when you need to be concerned.

We finally got a 100 mile drive done!

We actually got the required number of miles logged yesterday, despite the fact that we didn't really get going until almost 11:00am.

We have to be in Mission, Texas around the 28th of this month. That means, we're trying to do at least 100 miles (160 kms) a day on average. And even at that, we know there will have to be some longer days because we will want to have some rest days too!

More fun on the Oregon coast, and sunny days ahead!

Early start to the day yesterday because we had promised the folks at the Newport Municipal Airport that we would be gone at sunrise. Good thing we were too, because there was definitely some activity around the airport at that hour and there was not a lot of parking.

We actually hit the road at about 6:50am, but we only drove to the first scenic stop, which was not very far away. There is not much distance between attractions here on the Oregon coast!

October Expenses

No, I haven't been procrastinating due to the abnormally high expense report! But yes... we have had another expensive month. We're really looking forward to having a month go by without spending yet another $1,000 on Sherman!

But, it wasn't only Sherman's fault... whenever we travel back to Ontario we seem to spend a fair bit of money.

Well, we didn't get very far!

And no, Sherman is not giving us problems. He's doing just fine.

Its just that there is so darn much to see on the Oregon coastline!

We drive for ten minutes, we stop for half an hour... we drive for ten minutes, we stop for an hour.

Back to the Pacific coast!

First thing we did yesterday morning was go for a walk around the campus of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. It's a big property and we probably did 1.5 miles (2.4 kms) just walking around it.

Lots to see even if you don't go inside the buildings. They have a very cool indoor water park on the property as well.

That was a full day!

Had a great sleep boondocking in the forest. It's not that easy to find decent free camping in the Columbia Gorge... it's simply too popular of a place, so there are a lot of "no overnight parking" signs around. You have to go up into the hills on Forest Service Roads, and we're just not comfortable doing that given how much rain there has been.

The rain stopped around 9:00am, and we set off looking for the first waterfall of the day. There are lots of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area!

Gorgeous views from Beacon Rock

We slept surprisingly well at the ilani Casino overflow parking lot, so close to the I-5. We must have been tired!

We needed to do a grocery shop, so I planned a route that would avoid both the I-5 and most of the congestion of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. We first headed to the town of Battle Ground, where they have a fairly new Walmart Superstore.

We must be crazy!

It rained all day.

And we're getting pretty tired of it. But, we keep smiling because we know that it's a pretty safe bet we won't be seeing much rain during our upcoming four month trip to Mexico.

Still... it's just a little wet up here in the northwest United States...

Sherman is back to his old self, and we are back on the road!

Parked on the street outside of Atwood Engine Services in Aberdeen, Washington is not the best place we have ever spent the night in the motorhome! In fact, it's probably near the bottom of the scale. I think somebody in Aberdeen could make a killing opening a muffler shop.... there are so many vehicles with loud exhaust!

Despite that, we slept surprisingly well.

Sherman's mechanical repair saga continues...

Yesterday morning at 7:45am (when the sun comes up around here!) I tried to fire up Sherman. I had changed all the spark plugs and plug wires late Sunday afternoon, and hadn't yet tested to see if it did any good.

He fired up fine, and idled fine to warm up. After 10 minutes or so, I put him into gear... moved about five feet, and he promptly sputtered and died. Arrrggghh. Trying to re-fire him immediately didn't do any good.

More mechanic work on a rainy day

We spent the day parked at the Home Depot. Not exactly where we like to spend our free time! But, it would have to do while we try to figure out these mechanical problems.

It rained most of the morning, just like they said it would. But then, it cleared up a bit, which was not in the forecast. When it did that, I seized the opportunity to go for a walk to the auto parts store... again!

A little frustrated...

We got on the road yesterday morning to try to make it to Aberdeen, Washington... a distance of about 75 miles (120 kms). With Sherman not running properly, we honestly didn't know if we would make it. But the alternative was to call roadside assistance. We figured that if we drove, the worst case scenario would be that we have to call roadside assistance anyhow.

So off we went.

Obviously, there is more to the problem.

We spent the morning waiting for the new spark plug wires to arrive in Forks, Washington.

We walked over to get a few groceries. Pretty expensive! The prices were similar to Canada, except we had to add on 30% for the exchange rate. Yikes.

On the way back, we noticed a laundromat in the building right next door to where we had been parked the last two days. No idea why we hadn't noticed it before, but Ruth went over and got a load of laundry done while I was changing the plug wire.

A little bit of Mexico in Forks, Washington

When we arrived here in Forks, Washington Sherman was sputtering. There was a definite misfiring in the engine. We were still mobile... but you could tell something was not right.

We had to find somewhere to park for a day or two so we could get this problem sorted out.

Made it to Cape Flattery

One of the things we wanted to see here on the Olympic Peninsula was Cape Flattery... the furthest northwest point on mainland U.S.A.

And we made it! Sure glad we didn't attempt this in the middle of summer though. We can only imagine how busy this area is at that time of year. The weather may not be as nice now... but it sure is better that there's hardly any people around!

When you visit a rainforest...

...you have to expect that it's going to rain!

We were actually pretty lucky yesterday though. The forecast wasn't great, and they're calling for showers on and off for the next week or so. Of course... the Olympic Peninsula gets a lot of rain.

First stop was a hike up to Marymere Falls.