rally

Oh, so yous went to Osoyoos? Us too.

July 9, 2016 By drpaddle 2 Comments

You will possibly recall that we have recently visited Wenatchee, Washington. One of the reasons we did this is that we were registered for a big Escape Trailer Customer Appreciation Rally weekend Osoyoos, British Columbia, a place in the Canada “wine country” just north of the middle of nowhere in north-central Washington. And Wenatchee is about halfway to Osoyoos from our house. See?

This Osoyoos place is more-or-less a resort community, clustered around a big lake called Lake Osoyoos. There’s a row of hotels, motels and condos, and a sprawling resort created by the Nk’Mip First Nations tribe. They built themselves a golf course, a luxe lodge, an inviting cultural center and a large, combination campground/RV park, and maybe a winery I think. For money they will let you experience some or all of these wonders.

See? Across the way there lie lodgings. There’s a small town as well. This is what passes for “desert” in Canada, they tell us visitors.

I think the Escape Trailer Industries folk who planned this gathering got us a small discount, and that was fine. The quality of the sites varies widely, and ours was not their finest, but we saw worse. You can’t reserve a specific site at Nk’Mip. You can request one, but there are no promises. I cannot tell whether this is “in order to best serve you, the RVing public” or “because we just don’t feel like it.”

So our site had some good parts and some bad parts. You could see bits of lake between the rigs parked across the street from us. The parking pad was more a small patch of bumpy pasture, and hilly. The road was made of a very fine quality British Columbian dust that worked hard at getting into Toto, and TinMan, and our eyes and ears and noses, etc., every time the wind came up, which is to say almost all the time.

Why are we parked so close to the front of our site, with poor TinMan wedged in between Toto and a tree? Because any further back and you’re on a hill. An uneven, unpaved hill. We were glad we could reach the electrical bush. We had to detach a lawn sprinkler from our pedestal so we could get water. Yes, we are guilty of taking water from an innocent lawn. Note: the Escape campers to our left also drive a Nissan Frontier. A red one. Excellent taste!

But! We didn’t attend to experience scenery and tranquility. This was a rally! People we know (or would get to know)! Free dinner! Free pancake breakfast! Cool giveaways! Gifts from our hosts! All of this stuff was great fun. It would have been even more fun had we not both had colds, and also I had to work a couple of days while we were there. Also, I would offer up pictures of the large gatherings (around 300 people I think) and row upon row of Escape trailers. Not complaining here, just saying next time I’ll get rally pix, not just Nk’Mip campground pix.

There are quite a few campsites along the Lake Osoyoos shoreline. You can see maybe 20% of them here, and that’s the resort’s small marina and swimming area in the foreground. Quite pleasant.

Here is a thing. See that Escape trailer across the way there? They arrived after we did, and they were assigned a site next to a bathroom. They went back and spoke in some sort of highly effective way to the check-in people, and they got re-assigned to… uh… the site I had thought I reserved 7 months earlier. This led me to consider whether my approach to life is at all workable.

You know what they say. When things are sub-optimal… sneezing… slogging through work… intermittent dust storms… in fact no matter what curve balls you find coming at you, you can still go out to lunch.

Yes, the Nk’Mip resort has a Cantina, just down from our campsite. Can you have a good getaway without enjoying a waterfront hot dog? I think not.

One of our favorite activities at the rally: scheduled “open house” times when we could visit other Escape trailers and be amazed at some of the unique ways people enhance their tow-able eggs. We held Toto open too.

At the appointed hour we held an “open house” (like everyone else around us). The red balloon signified our welcome to any and all visitors, of which there were many. People are always so good about saying nice things regarding Toto. It’s really kind.

There is more to say about Osoyoos and the fabulous Nk’Mip RV Park and Campground. For example: getting here, and then getting home, is really gorgeous drive. I will say this and more in a little while.

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NOG. It’s an actual thing, sometimes in Waterloo.

June 2, 2016 By drpaddle 3 Comments

Not long ago we set out for Waterloo County Park in Lebanon, Oregon, USA. It wasn’t our idea; a group of fiberglass trailer enthusiasts chose the park for its 2016 Spring NOG, a Northern Oregon–or, depending on whom you ask, Not Organized–Gathering.

The group gathers twice annually; the next meet, scheduled for the first weekend in October, will be at Nehalem Bay State Park, also in Oregon. Probably Northern Oregon, but I think that is Just a Guideline and the group can stretch its boundaries as much as it wants.

Waterloo County Park, which is in Linn County, Oregon, hugs the south bank of the South Santiam River. The terriers refused to go swimming here.

This is the second NOG we have attended; you will (or won’t) recall our visit last October to Fort Stevens State Park in… northern Oregon.

Why did we attend? Well. The people are nice. The park looked good in the photographs (and in real life). And we had a chance to rendezvous with friends we’d made at previous gatherings here and there.

We also saw people like this, who have Pygmy kayaks and an Escape 21. Ya know, stuff in common. Yeah, I know there are no actual people in the shot, but this stuff doesn’t get to the parks without people to drag them there. We saw them, and their dog, too. Nice puppy.

Side note: there is also a Washington Area Gathering held annually at Taidnapam Power Park near Morton, Washington. We are supposed to go to that tomorrow, but we’re not, because (a) it’s going to be 97 degrees Fahrenheit and that is outside our comfort zone and (b) a good friend needs Sooz’s company and (c) we just got back from British Columbia and (d) did I mention 97 degrees? Unacceptable. Last year’s Taidnapam rally was more temperate.

There are those who revel in hot weather. I do not want to get in their way. We will stay home and dig sprinkler trenches or do something else that’s equally fun.

So, Waterloo County Park.

I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but it brightened up some otherwise gray weather. Not too wet. Just a little gray.

The park has few of these nifty pavilions. People pay actual money to rent them for their gatherings, but the park loves this group so much they didn’t charge us. Probably because the busy season hasn’t started yet, and here we all are feeding the county’s coffers with campsite fees. Which are quite reasonable, by the way. We gathered here at least twice, to cook hot dogs and for a potluck dinner. The reason you can’t see any of us in this photo is that I took it when we weren’t there.

The park has a disc golf course, too. I tried it, with my new set of three golf discs given me last December. The course was hilly, and my disc golf form is marginal — no, not even marginal. So I got to throw the discs many, many times, and walk up and down hills and crawl under ferns, etc., to retrieve errant discs. 1.5 hours, only 9 holes, and many sore muscles. Fun, though.

The campground is quite nice, and many of the campsites are lovely. Ours was just middling, and our picnic table was under some constantly dripping trees. So I rigged a cooking station under the awning.

And I cooked Toto Legs. They taste like chicken, and people at the pot luck ate ’em.

They really do taste like chicken.

One morning the boys and I went for a walk while Sooz went shopping with one of the kayak people. And saw this.

Look! We found a launch ramp. There is a sign warning of a nearby waterfall. It turns out there is no internationally accepted icon for “impending waterfall-related doom” so the sign is text-based. If this were covered in the New York Times opinion section, there would be commentary about how this sign isn’t inclusive enough, and should be multi-lingual or more graphic or something, and then other readers would comment that if boaters want to go boating in this country and avoid waterfalls and other hazards then they should learn English, because America. Yes, I have spent too much time reading the Times opinion section lately. (Note: I don’t have an opinion about the sign or any of that other stuff. That is why I read the Times — so I can enjoy other people’s opinions).

All right I’d better get back to work. Before I form any opinions.

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Rain camping: will we or won’t we?

April 18, 2016 By drpaddle 5 Comments

Our next trip starts in two days — if we go. It’s a five-night affair, highlighted by 3 nights at a county park in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where many fiberglass egg-campers like ours will gather for the annual Spring NOG (not-organized gathering). We will reunite with friends, share a pot-luck meal, admire one another’s rigs, and walk Tyler and Wally a lot.

Except. It’s. Going. To. Rain. Possibly, quite a bit:

Rain is a beautiful thing. Unless you’re Tyler or Wally and need to Get Busy or Hurry Hurry.

We are not experienced rain campers, but our location in the Pacific Northwest suggest that we ought to make that happen.

Here is the thing: we don’t like leaving Tyler and Wally in the trailer alone. We will do it for short periods of we’re nearby, otherwise not — we don’t want them to bark (and they are terriers) (what were we thinking?), and, more importantly, there is the guilt thing. Because camping really is all about them, isn’t it? They certainly think so.

But if it’s raining all day, our socializing is going to be under tarps or inside trailers. The dogs can make that difficult. They don’t mean to, of course, but there it is. And then there is the going-outside-to-take-care-of-business thing, which will involve a lot of towels and wet-dog aroma. Hmmm.

Another risk of going despite the weather: we will encounter experienced rain campers who cope by using fabulous pop-up shelters that cost hundreds of dollars, and nifty Gore-Tex clothes that let them laugh at foul weather, and we will want all that stuff. I am never going to get to retire if we keep purchasing camping and RVing gear.

But the thing is: we really like the people we’ve met at these things, and we look forward to seeing them again.

Yeah, I know: it’s a first-world dilemma. We will confer and report back.

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Fort Stevens State Park Invaded by Toto and 72 other Eggs

October 7, 2015 By drpaddle 4 Comments

A few days ago we trundled down I-5, across the Columbia River and out US 30 to Astoria, Oregon and beyond. (Just beyond.) We have now attended our first NOG, which is a Northern Oregon Gathering of Fiberglass RVs, and also a Non-Organized Gathering. This is the third and largest “rally” we have attended, and it was a great experience. We’re learning that, the more you attend these things, the more fun they are, because (a) you get to see people you met months before, and they have already forgotten your flaws, and (b) you get more comfortable with the routine.

The routine is: walk the dogs around the camping loop, talk to people, admire their dogs (and trailers, of course); then, hang out outside your own trailer, be friendly to passersby, and (of course) try to keep the dogs from too much of their territorial oratory.

We went a day or two early, mid-week, and the campground was deliciously quiet.

Empty campsites on the O loop. Lotsa trees. Nice!

When we arrived on Wednesday, the campground’s “O loop” was quite empty. We found we had reserved a great site for watching other rigs arrive. Excellent!

Just over a day later, things had filled up.

Fiberglass trailers everywhere you look.

The next day, the place began filling up with fiberglass eggs. Even with all the campsites occupied, the campground felt uncrowded; another advantage of small trailers! The “organizer” of this non-organized gathering belongs to that Escape Fiver on the left. Like most fiberglass trailer owners, she seemed energetic, bright, personable, knowledgeable and capable of anything.

With almost zero effort, we made what feels like a few new friends. Really nice folks. Maybe it’s just that they have such good taste in RVs.

Toto the trailer, plus all the usual campsite stuff: chairs, mat, tablecloth, awning, Seahawks flag.

Toto rests comfortably at Loop O, Site 1. That’s another Escape 21 next to us on the left — just recently hatched in Chilliwack and on its wandering way home to Austin, Texas. Note: the Seahawks mini-flag worked; our team won the next game.

It was fun to hook up with folks we met at previous rallies at Maryhill State Park and Taidnapam Power Park, both in Washington. How delightful! We were even able to remember some names, which is real progress for me. One couple actually comes to these things in a non-fiberglass trailer (the nerve!). However, their rig has maximum cool factor, and also they have two nice dogs, and they live on Whidbey Island, so wouldn’t want them around?

An Airstream motorhome from the 1980s I think. Shiny!

Simon and Sharen have restored this Airstream from another century. It’s a motorhome! Also, Simon set up a most fascinating light display. Quite lovely.

You will note a blurry spot in a couple of these pictures. It’s not your eyes! It’s my lens, or more specifically a smudge on my camera’s lens. It has since been removed (the smudge, not the lens). I have been poking around Picasa for a couple of days looking for the De-Smudging Tool, but no cigar. I’m sharing the pictures anyway because, hey, this is priceless stuff, right? Memories, slightly blurred.

So. On Friday night there’s a giant weenie roast. It was fabulous, despite the mail-order, low-carb hot dog buns (our dieting efforts continue). Then on Saturday evening we all gathered for a pot luck. Sooz made a favorite recipe of ours (Chuckwagon Stew) — wisely choosing actual potatoes over any low-carb substitutes — and I sampled lots of chili recipes. Hey, these people can cook!

100 fiberglass trailer enthusiasts, mostly in their folding camp chairs, enjoying a pot luck dinner.

Lots of chitchat here, but it got surprisingly quiet for a while after people had gone through the buffet line.

A hundred (or so) campers, eating, chatting, and surrounded by fiberglass trailers.

How many different kinds of stew or chili are there? At least 20 by my count, and that’s just on this one Saturday evening. Yumm.

We drove home on Sunday — got very lucky with light traffic between Olympia and Tacoma, where I-5 usually crawls along at 5 mph on weekend afternoons. What a wonderful time we had.

Fort Stevens State Park is quite large, and there’s a lot to see. We didn’t even see the whole place. But we definitely got some touring in, which I’ll share any minute now.

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Taidnapam Park, Washington: Are there fish in here?

June 10, 2015 By drpaddle Leave a Comment

Continuing with Team Toto’s stroll around Taidnapam Park: the thing is, this part of the lake is narrow. If you stack about 80 fisherfolk elbow to elbow it spans the whole lake. I did not count the fishers, but this is my estimate. I heard a fellow say that they line both sides of the bridge, from shore to shore, sometimes. Those trout don’t stand a chance.

Fishing Bridge at Taidnapam Park, Washington

This is a good place to watch people reel in 8-inch-long fishes.

Did I mention this visit to the park was part of a rally? It was. This is only our second rally, and we are still getting the hang of things. Let’s see, what have we learned?

A rally is not a time for peaceful reflection — at least not for long. If you’re in your campsite but outside your trailer, friendly people who have never seen you before may approach with questions or comments about your trailer, your terrier, or portion(s) thereof. You may end up discussing just about anything except religion and politics.
The discussion may go on for some time; no one is in a hurry to be somewhere else or get something done. After all, what could be more important, or more rewarding, than discussing the finer points of trailer leveling, or campsite selection, or optional equipment installations and modifications? Nothing.
Similarly, you can approach other parties at their campsites. They will be friendly, and if they are judging you, they will do a good job of hiding it.
Some of your fellow rallyists will not know anything about a thespian Cairn terrier and her role in a 1930’s movie about a Kansas tornado and a whopper of a nightmare (dream?). They may even mistake your trailer’s name for a ballet costume.
Others will nod sagely and point out that none of us is in Kansas anymore.
You do know that the character Toto was played by a female Cairn terrier named Terry, right? Sure you do.
Pot luck contributions don’t have to be fabulous, but it doesn’t hurt.
People come from a long way to some of these events. We met a couple who had driven from their Chattanooga, Tennessee area home to attend. Their trailer was the same model as ours. We traded accessory ideas; Sooz is on a mission for a new towel rack.

Also, things can get confusing. That fiberglass camper back there behind our campsite was NOT there for the rally. We spoke briefly to its inhabitants, who live near where we live. Huh.

Toto's campsite, with an Escape 5th wheel in the background at another site.

Back there behind our campsite, in the trees, as it were, there’s an Escape 5.0 TA fifth wheel. See it? It was only there for one night. We met the owners, who live very near us, in Tacoma, near a very cool minor league baseball stadium. We meant to chat ’em up but they disappeared early the next morning before I got presentable enough to head over there.

And now let’s get back to that stroll. Just past the Fishing Bridge, we peered toward the upper reaches of the lake. The Cowlitz River feeds into the lake just around the corner to the left.

If only you would walk out by the fishing bridge at Taidnapam Park, you could see this view of the easternmost reaches of Riffe Lake, where the Cowlitz River feeds it. (If only!) Yeah, it looks like a pond here. It gets bigger elsewhere.

And then back toward the larger portion of the lake…

The weather was just hideous, as you can see in this Riffe Lake shot.

… and returning to the campsite.

On the right: Wally’s stroller. Yes. He has a stroller. He doesn’t walk so well, as we have discussed, so sometimes we bring it along.

If you look closely you’ll see a few dark spots on the underside of the awning. I have to clean it. I have researched methods, and I believe it will be a walk in the park. We’ll see.

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Lake. Campground. Rally. Heat. Bugs. Fun!

June 9, 2015 By drpaddle 6 Comments

Nine months ago we reserved a campsite at Taidnapam Park in central Washington. The park is owned and operated by Tacoma Public Utilities, and this is on account of back in the 1950s they built a big dam on the Cowlitz River to generate electricity for all those people in Tacoma, and after the dam was complete the water backed up to form a lake bigger than most small countries.

I forgot to take a picture of the dam, so I found this one, taken by a fellow named Robert Ashworth and used under Creative Commons 2.0 licensing, which you can read about here.

Riffe Lake. You have to paddle your canoe a long way from that dam before you find the Cowlitz River again, way up at the east end around some corners, amidst Cascade Range foothills, countless trees and an awful lot of turkey vultures.

So here was this lake, and the utilities people decided to make a park so people could enjoy it. Taidnapam is the name of a tribe of native Americans who lived around the upper reaches of the Cowlitz River. I expect the area was even more beautiful back then. No lake, but more river.

Taidnapam has a large campground, and it’s a really appealing one. Large sites, many trees, spotless everything, and ready access to the aforementioned lake. It was popular last weekend — not completely full but pretty close. A lot of fifth wheels roughly the size of Cleveland come there, probably to fish, and to drink brewskies and trade fish stories.

Except this weekend was different, because this weekend there was a Rally of Molded Fiberglass Trailers (and their people).

Assorted molded fiberglass trailers at Taidnapam Park campground

No, all the fiberglass trailers weren’t radioactive, even if this picture makes them look that way. But they did get warm. Come to think of it, a lot of them are shaped a little like toasters.

Note that the tall conifers in this campground appear to have been limbed a good way up — whether by nature or by human beings (a branch of nature, I suppose), we’re not sure. It’s like being in the woods, but the woods are… airy. All very tidy-looking (taidy?).

We took a “back road” — Washington state route 7 — to get to Taidnapam. It’s scenic, winding, pleasant, and makes Wally carsick. Even Tyler was panting a little. As has been his custom, TinMan handled the hills and curves well.

A “haul road” (something to do with logging, I think) takes you from Washington route 12 to Taidnapam Park, skirting around the lake’s east end. Looking westward, you can see about 15 percent of the lake here. I’ll bet the birding is good around here, too, but I didn’t try it. I was busy.

We had reserved a pull-through site for this trip, because it was one of the first reservations I made, well before Toto was hatched, and I wasn’t sure how adept I would be at backing the trailer. The way the site was laid out, it made sense to pull forward a bit, so we ended up parking TinMan behind Toto. This may have confused both of them.

Toto and TinMan resting comfortably at Taidnapam site 237

Taidnapam Park has a two-part campground, consisting of the old part and the new part. Our little rally was held in the new part. It’s quite appealing. Although most of the campsites are good-sized, some (including ours) aren’t very private. At a rally, though, privacy isn’t really the goal. We give Taidnapam five stars for aesthetics, cleanliness, friendly staff and value.

See, you can see another egg-trailer on the right up above. That one belongs to a very nice couple from Port Townsend who have a Casita trailer. They also have built wooden kayaks (me, too), and they used to live on a boat. We learned that we had mutual friends, after a fashion. When these folks cruised down to Mexico in their boat, a few years ago, they knew some friends of ours who also cruised down to Mexico (and kept going). It’s a compact world.

We did some walking around with Tyler and Wally, checking out the sights.

Here you could launch a boat. I figure I could bring my kayak, and its little wheelie cart, and roll it from my campsite to this ramp in no time. Bringing the boat next time!

So. There is more to show you, and a considerable amount of Rally Angst to discuss. Bugs, too. Also heat. But let’s save it for later. I hafta work for a while or my clients are going to yell at me.

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