Go ArnoldsI’m rather excited to have a lil’ story about my company and our RV trip in this week’s Indianapolis Business Journal. It’s always a little nerve racking having a story written about you, because a good reporter doesn’t exactly let you proof it before it goes to press. This could have just as easily been “Local Fool Runs Business Into Ground” but it turned out much more flattering than that. On Indy newstands this week, or online (subscribers only) at http://t.co/EsVVlaE4.
Today was one of my favorite drives. But more on that in a second.
We spent Friday at Mt. Rainier National Park. Unfortunately the clouds were low and thick and completely covered the actual mountain. (Apparently, Mt. Rainier is only visible 20% of the year.) We saw it from a distance a few other times since we’ve been in Washington, but it would have been nice to see it up close and personal.
This cross section was from a tree that started growing in the late 1200’s. Crazy:
Check out some of these dates! Sorry, I just think this is amazing:
Vandals: Beavers:
This isn’t necessarily an interesting photo, but it represents a fascinating aspect of these forests. All around us, we see fallen trees in various states of their return back to dirt, and all the different types of life they support along the way. (Cue Elton John “Circle of Life” song…)
Taking a final walk through a Washington forest at Mt. Rainier:
I find this interesting how just a trickle of water runs down all the rivers around here, but you can tell the raging river that was once here (and will be again come Spring):
We made a couple stops along the road, trying to soak up as much of Washington as we could before reaching Oregon:
We stopped in Portland to check out the local Saturday Market:
One of the more interesting street performers. This guy stood completely motionless until money was deposited in his bucket. Emily and Natalie are running away after dropping in a dollar:
A gasoline transfer technician at work. I would love to know the history behind this Oregon-wide custom of not being able to pump one’s own gas:
This trip is truly a full sensory experience. Beyond just sights and sounds are the smells. I love that just yesterday I was sniffing the pine-filled air of Washington, and today I filled my lungs with the salty sea air of the Oregon coast:
The trees near the shore are all shaped like this. Think they’ve seen a little wind?
We pulled off to let some traffic pass and it turned out to be rather picturesque:
…AND we heard sea lions barking down below. Very cool:
Just some other pics from today as we drove along Highway 101:
We’ve stopped in Brookings, Oregon at Harris Beach State Park. The internet seems decent and the beach is within walking distance, so it seems like a great place to spend the week.
I’m going to do a mid-week update so everything doesn’t pile up and I forget something again. (On the last update, I forgot to include watching salmon swimming up stream which was pretty great.)
So, here is the public RV park we crashed at on Sunday evening in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. It was a beautiful cloudless morning on Monday and the first day since we got back to Washington that I didn’t have to wear a jacket.
The next night we stopped at a random RV park in Everett Washington. I wonder what the folks in the $500k rig next to us thought of my $6-scrap-wood leveling system.
On Tuesday we took the Boeing plant tour and saw where all the 747s (and a few others) are made.
I couldn’t take my camera or phone on the tour, but here’s a photo from the wikipedia article about it. They said it’s the biggest building in the world by volume:
Here’s a Google image of the goings-on inside. I thought it was fascinating. Boeing is awesome.
Microsoft headquarters in Redmond WA, however, was not awesome.
We wanted to see their visitors center (they have a bunch of old tech artifacts and showcases of their newest stuff) but it was closed due to some other event taking place there. Bummer, but oh well.
They did give me a brochure, however. It’s homemade from a color laser printer on standard paper, and then sloppily folded into thirds. I especially like the stretched logo. Nice effort, largest and richest software company on the planet.
They did have a store though. It’s like the Apple store, right? (Answer: No…no it is not.)
I’m glad we stopped, just to say we were there. It’s a nice campus.
We tried to fit a lot in yesterday since it was my mom’s last day with us. That night we had dinner out — a rarity for us.
Let me just say this about my mom and the last 10 days she spent with us on the road: I thoroughly enjoyed having her with us. It was great. Maybe even a little surprisingly so.
Let me explain: Going on vacations as a kid, I learned to brace myself for what would be a brutal sight-seeing schedule. Vacations were exhausting. My mom has mellowed a bit over the years, but I figured at least some of those old tendencies would surface while traveling with us, but they never did. My mom was as easy going as I’ve ever seen her, and we look forward to having her aboard the Arnold RV again soon.
We are back in Bellevue WA now staying at the same parking lot RV park we stayed at a couple weeks ago. No scenery here, but I LOVE the 4G connection and my girls are enjoying the pool.
It’s $42 a night though, so we’ll be moving right along in the morning…
I expected a great week, and Washington did not disappoint. We settled in Sequim Bay National Park for most of the week. Great place; the internet was strong and the views were scenic:
We took a couple walks out on this dock where we could see starfish, jellyfish, and crabs. Seeing my girls get excited about nature like that was a great reminder of why we’re doing this.
I had all my work done by Thursday, so we broke camp and headed West. While my mom is traveling with us, we’re trying a cover a little more ground than normal and make the most of her time with us. Here’s our spot at a little park West of Port Angeles. Across the water is the foreign enemy territory of Canada:
Wandering deer:
This was an old WWII bunker near our campsite. Judging from the conditions inside, it’s now a place where teenagers gather to examine the ethical and moral dilemmas of military theory over cheap beer.
A choppier, colder shoreline:
Check out this leveling job; my most ambitious to date:
Ugh, I’m reluctant to even include this part, but it’s such a strange anomaly that I have to record it: we watch Project Runway. When we were in Indy after my dad died, my oldest daughter Carrie got hooked on that show, and then my sister bought her a DVD set of one of the seasons. And now we all watch it.
Amy, the girls, and my mom did some more exploring the next day along the shore:
After lunch, we hit the road and headed toward Olympic National Park, stopping at a few spots along the way.
I am trying hard to capture the awesomeness of these rain forests, but it just isn’t happening. There’s moss everywhere, and it’s beautiful. Mile after mile.
This is one of dozens of photos I’ve taken just looking up at the trees. I know we’ll see bigger trees when we get to northern California, but these trees are pretty huge. And I can’t stop looking up at them.
One of our stops was at Lake Crescent. Crystal clear water. I wanted to drink it.
My mom traveled a lot as a kid, so she has fit right in:
From one of our walks in the rain forest:
We were well off the grid at this point, and our camp site at Sol Duc in Olympic National Park had no electricity or hookups of any kind.
It was simultaneously uncomfortable and liberating not having internet or cell service. Due to the season, it gets dark so early (and even darker deep in the forest). Once all the iDevices died, there was really nothing else to do except go to sleep. It was great.
It had been mostly overcast up until this point, but the next morning there was a cloudless blue sky and a morning sun that sent sun rays piercing through the morning mist.
This tree is 550 years old!
During a walk, we encountered a well-hung elk with a multi-point rack. It’s mating season, so we had seen warning signs advising people to stay far away from the elk (elk charge). I know you can’t really see much of the elk here, but this photo is more about us being ready to run.
That night, we stayed at Bogachiel State Park in Forks Washington. We don’t have many campfires (too much trouble), so when we do it’s sort of a big deal.
I was slightly apprehensive about returning to this park; this is where we were on August 1st when we got the call that my dad had died. But it felt good to be back, if only to balance a sad memory with a happier one.
It may not seem so, but efficiently stacking 5 bikes on a bike rack is more complicated than solving a rubik’s cube. I took this photo so I could both document and replicate my achievement today:
An alternative application of moss:
Today we took a ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island. Here we are waiting in line to drive onto the ferry. (Amy was with the car in another line. They keep us big rigs together 😉
On the ferry:
Off the ferry, just in time for sunset:
We’re stopped for the night in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island at some city RV park. The first place we stopped was at a beautiful park, but it was also an internet black hole. Here we have full hookups for only $20!
I’m looking forward to Tuesday: a trip to Microsoft headquarters [insert evil music]…
This is a longish post, but I’m playing catch-up here.
Our RV trip officially resumed on Tuesday morning when we said goodbye to my mom and headed off to the airport at 4:45am.
Southwest has a 50 pound limit on checked bags. Two of ours were at 51 pounds. Our 3rd bag, however, was at 48 pounds, so some clever on-the-spot reshuffling of contents got all 3 bags past the gatekeeper.
After that, it was a pretty smooth trip. I’m not at all afraid to fly, but whenever I safely land somewhere I feel like I’ve cheated death once again.
Had a layover in Las Vegas. Slot machines evvvverywhere.
Once in Tacoma Washington, Debbie (read all about Bruce and Debbie here) picked us up from the airport and drove us to the storage facility where our RV and car were parked.
Going back to the RV was…heavy. It brought back so many memories of August 1st (the day my dad died). The scene inside the RV felt like a family had abandoned it in haste. It was pretty trashed.
Later that afternoon we returned the luggage that we had borrowed from Bruce and Debbie.
Bruce had alerted us earlier via email that one of our tires was low and that he had it filled. It turned out, however, that 3 of our rear tires were completely trashed. The tread had always been fine, but the sides had these huge bulges in them that I could not see until they were off the RV. I can’t believe we had been rolling around on those. They were awful. I guess you can’t judge a tire by tread alone.
Unfortunately, the guy who was going to put on new tires didn’t have the right tires (something he didn’t tell me until he had already taken the old tires off) and his “new” tires were actually almost 3 years old.
Let me do a little public service announcement on tire replacement. When you get new tires, you can make sure they are actually new. Every tire manufactured since 2000 has a coded date like this:
We had the guy put the old tires back on and I paid him for his time (he was, after all, the one that discovered our tire problem in the first place, so I feel he still did my family a service). We rolled down the road to Camping World and had the right tires put on the next morning. It cost a lot more ($1600!!!) but, as I said, they are the right tires, they are actually NEW, and they smell amazing.
This is us at a nearby Starbucks waiting for our RV tire job to be completed. The kids are doing school and I’m doing work. It had the feeling of a family running from the law, which was sort of fun.
Once we had our wheels back, we drove to an RV park in Bellevue Washington, which is just outside of Seattle. It was as nice as a parking lot next to a noisy freeway could possibly be. We spent 4 nights there.
I’m not going to lie: up until this weekend, we weren’t really having much fun. Coming back to the RV was hard, the RV was a mess, everyone was grumpy, the weather had been mostly rainy, and my fix-it list was as long as ever. Clearly, it’s going to take us some time get our RV groove back.
But the metaphorical and actual clouds lifted on Saturday when we spent the day in downtown Seattle. What a town!
We hit the public market:
These guys sold us the best fresh fruit I’ve ever had in my entire life:
Seattle, as viewed from the Space Needle:
One of the many, many street musicians and groups around Seattle. Most of the ones I heard were quite good:
Behold, the original Starbucks:
It was a fun day (finally).
Today my mom flew into Seattle to join us for 10 days on the road. While Amy, Carrie, and Natalie went to pick her up, Emily and I went to the Museum of Flight (Amy and the girls went earlier in the week but I had to work). Glad I got to go; it was very cool.
Since Emily had been there earlier in the week, it was like having my own little tour guide. She took me straight to the good stuff like the Concord and the first Air Force One:
We spent the rest of the day traveling and landed in Sequim Bay State Park, just outside of Olympic National Park. We are surrounded by pine trees.
We got here sort of late and the light was fading, so no good photos yet. But when we got out of the RV and took in a deep breath of crisp pine-filled air, Amy and I commented to each other that this finally felt right. Hopefully we’re one breath closer now to getting our groove back.
It’s good to have my mom here with us. I’m looking forward to a great week.
I’ve got a general RV/Arnold family update on the way, but I wanted to take a minute and document a story of unusual kindness.
It was the morning of August 1st when we got a call that my dad had died unexpectedly, and we needed to get back to Indy as soon as humanly possible. Not yet knowing exactly what we were going to do with the RV or how we were going to get our stuff back to Indy (we brought no luggage on this trip), we started the 3 hour trip towards Seattle/Tacoma, the closest major airport city.
Amy made some calls along the way and got connected with a storage place in Tacoma that could store our RV and car, and she confirmed with the airline that we could simply load up some cardboard boxes with our clothes, etc, and check them like any other baggage. We were told that someone would meet us at the storage location to unlock the gate and take our payment info.
When we arrived at the storage place, we were met by the owner, Bruce. He asked us a few questions to make sure he understood our situation correctly, including our lack of luggage. He called his wife Debbie and before long we had more than enough luggage and a ride to the airport. We never signed any papers and Bruce never took any payment info; we just exchanged email addresses so we could let him know when we would be coming back to Washington.
Fast-forward two months, the Arnold family returns to Tacoma Washington.
Debbie picked us up from the airport and took us back to the RV. She told us that we could return their luggage to their main office a couple miles away whenever we were unpacked. I asked Bruce earlier what we owe him for the two months of RV and car storage (or the use of his luggage and the chauffeur service, for that matter), but he would not take anything for any of it. In lieu of payment, he just asked that we keep an eye out for someone else in need as we travel the country, and be ready to help them out.
Oh yeah, before we arrived, Bruce noticed a tire on the RV was getting low and had it filled up, and had both our RV and car washed.
As I said, this was a story of unusual kindness, and it came at a time when I needed it most. Consequently, Bruce and Debbie are a permanent part of Arnold family lore. We can’t thank them enough for their compassion and generosity.
There are still some good people in this world, folks. Hopefully this story will inspire you to be one of them.
P.S. If you ever need storage space in or around the Tacoma Washington area, contact Bruce and Debbie at Maxi-Space.
“I’d love to do that someday.”
That’s the most common response that I get from people when they comment on our RV trip. I’ve gotten it consistently – more than any other response – ever since we started planning back in January. And it’s always troubled me. In fact, it’s what compelled me to snap this photo at one of the Montana RV parks we stayed at:
Someday needs to be now. Otherwise, it just might never come. Here’s a recent example:
Like my dad, my mom really helped us prepare for our trip and in doing so caught the RV bug. In fact, she and my dad had recently gone RV shopping to start researching their options. There was even talk about them buying our RV if Amy and I ever upgraded to a bigger rig. With retirement just around the corner for my dad, I was anticipating some cool memories and sharing the RV lifestyle with my parents someday soon.
Well, that’s one ‘someday’ that will never happen. I can’t help but wonder how many of the ‘somedays’ I hear from others will never happen either. And that is what troubles me.
Let me be clear: I’m not even talking about RV trips anymore. I’m talking about whatever it is you dream of doing but have been putting off for ‘someday.’
‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. So take that trip. Start that business. Get that degree. Write that book. Quit that habit. Start the exercising. Learn that language or instrument. Mend that relationship. Quit that job you hate. Whatever it is, take that plunge and make it happen.
Two months on the road with my family showed me how beautiful life is. Losing my dad before he saw retirement showed me that it’s too damn short. Stop waiting for ‘someday.’
We fly from Indy to Tacoma Washington to reunite with the RV on October 4th. The journey continues…
Talk about recalculating one’s route.
We’ve been in Indy all week preparing for a funeral, and today we buried my dad. Because this relates so closely to our RV adventure, and as a tribute to my father, I am posting a blurb I wrote and had read at his funeral:
I’ve heard of people, when they lose a loved one suddenly and unexpectedly, regret not spending more time together, and wish they had gotten to say goodbye. Not me. I got to spend more time. I got to say goodbye.
You see, just a couple months ago, my family and I were in the final stages of preparing for an epic adventure, taking life on the road in an RV for a year. Despite our best planning efforts, though, various scheduling challenges resulted in my family and me moving in with my parents for our final 2 weeks in Indianapolis.
We loved sharing the normal, day-to-day activities, like knowing my mom and dad’s appointments, eating meals together, morning greetings and goodnight kisses. Living in their space meant truly living life together, something we valued at the time but cherish even more so now.
There was work to do, however, if we were to leave by our target departure date. Fortunately, my dad was THE project guy. Working with him on the RV in the evenings and on the weekends brought back memories of building go-carts and model airplanes. We cheered when we linked our tow car’s taillights with the RV’s, we high-fived when the supplemental breaks finally worked, and we sipped beers after concluding that the daunting inverter installation just wasn’t “mission critical.”
It was hard work, but we did it. We did it together. And like the thousands of projects before, my dad took satisfaction in a job well done. We finished everything in time for our original departure date, but we decided to take an extra day and spend one last, un-rushed night with my mom and dad.
Then on the morning of June 14th, after everything was loaded and all systems were a ‘go,’ my dad huddled us together by the RV and said a prayer for our safe travels. I was surprised at how emotional of a moment this was, but it seemed fitting and I welcomed such a rare and tender moment with my dad. Then he gave me a big embrace, and we exchanged what would be our final face-to-face words: “I love you, son.” “I love you too, dad.”
I would have happily taken a few more calls and texts from my dad in the weeks that followed. But I take so much comfort in how I spent the last 2 weeks in town with him.
I got to spend more time.
I got to say goodbye.
Dad, you showed me what it means to be a man, a professional, a husband, and a father. You will be my example for as long as I live. I am who I am because of you, and I will miss you very, very much.
We’ll be here in Indy with my mom for as long as necessary…there’s a lot to take care of. The RV and the car are in storage in Tacoma Washington, so when we’re ready, we’ll be flying back out there to resume the trip.
Great week; we finally reached the ocean. This is my family literally running to the water as soon as we arrived:
Our campground was not exactly high class (I saw one trailer with a plywood door), but it had a good feel to it.
Had a couple windshield chips fixed this week:
I had a pretty busy work week, so the only side-trip I went on was to the Tillamook cheese factory a few miles away:
After trying some samples, we had to get some Tillamook cheese for ourselves. Especially their “squeaky cheese”…that stuff will change your life.
It was cold and windy most of the time on the beach, but still quite beautiful.
Friday night we took a final walk at sunset.
Emily and I walked out on this long jetty to see the fog horn that we had been hearing all week. It was sort of eerie, this odd piece of equipment connected to a battery pack, a quarter of a mile out from shore, emitting a very loud tone every 30 seconds.
I half expected to hear a message in French playing in a continuous loop. (LOST reference 🙂
The next morning Amy and I drug everyone out of bed for a walk on the beach.
Emily and Natalie collect shells and crab carcasses, and Carrie found a starfish.
Speaking of starfish, there were tons of them stuck to the rocks of the jetty, along with mussels, anemones and barnacles. It’s cool all the stuff you find at low tide.
After all that, we hit the road and drove along the Oregon coast.
We stopped at a little farmers market to pick up some fruit and such.
Our official destination for the day was Fort Clatsop, which was where Lewis and Clark wintered before their return trip across the continent.
Having been immersed in Lewis and Clark history for the last month and a half, I thought it was a pretty cool place. This guy did a musket demonstration, which was also pretty cool:
(For any of my family reading this, we had to get our picture taken with the musket guy. He could have been Uncle Emil’s twin. His sense of humor, his mannerisms, and his engaging storytelling voice was so much like Emil’s. You would have loved him.)
At the end of the day, we picked a random campground to stay for the night. Don’t let these Las Vegas-esque lights fool you…it was a very forgettable campground. We were happy to leave first thing this morning.
We just made it to Forks, Washington, which is apparently where they filmed the Twilight movies. Seriously, here are their trucks:
Now we’re trying to find a place to stay for the week. Our intended destination has no internet.
I can’t recall a July where I was wearing jeans and a hoodie, standing over a campfire to keep warm.