Tuesday Trash...

We saw a very sketchy trailer in Yakima.  It looked like it was settled in for the long haul - flat tire and all!  I think there's a limit to how long you can stay in a state park, and these people looked like they were going to push that envelope.

This does not look very roadworthy!

What's up with those lights?  Are they painted over?  Or maybe they have covers?  WHY?  It just looks sort of dodgy, doesn't it?

And the yellow foam?!!  An attempt at insulation gone wrong?

Yep, it  does look that way.  Or something stuck unto the outside of the trailer?

The addition of the tinfoil in the window makes things look even sketchier.

Nice wood window frame though!

Strange...

Yakima

HOT!  We are just not used to such heat.  Good thing we didn't have to spend much time in the car!

 We stayed put in Yakima all day and another night.  Our first night in the trailer was good - the bed is comfy and we slept well.  Other than it being so HOT!

Before heading over to Mom & Dad's house, I took Syd on a nice walk while Michael puttered around the trailer.  It was quite nice, but HOT!  There's a nice trail system around the park.  We walked on just a short little bit, but look forward to exploring more of the trails when we visit again in the future.

Did I mention it was HOT?  We headed over to the land of air conditioning for a while in the afternoon, it was quite a relief.  Dad showed off his mutant zucchinis for us.  He let one go on purpose, but the other went wild while they were on a cruise to Alaska.  Crazy!

That's a gardener's nightmare, that is.

Life in a state park is interesting.  People run sprinklers...

The camp host is ready for anything!  At least at this park... he was the only host that actually did anything.

And there was one REALLY unhappy camper...

Poor little thing!  We had a good time sitting around visiting with Mom & Dad.  But a sudden - and I do mean sudden - wind storm came in and we had to dash indoors.  It was quite exciting.  We were very happy for the trailer, vs. a tent.  Heh.

Syd had one last adventure - he was on his tether and went chasing after something in the dark - his collar broke and he was running free for a few minutes!  Fortunately he came back quickly, and didn't get sprayed by a skunk (which Michael had seen just a short time earlier).

Disaster averted.

First trip!

We did it!  We just completed our first trip with the trailer - 858 miles start to finish.  Are we MAD?  Apparently so.

But we survived.    We took everything slow and steady, and tried not to get too stressed out along the way - though there were moments!  The next few days I'll be posting about our trip, as I get my photos uploaded to Flickr and can appropriately document our experience.  I've managed the first day, so here we go...

We were headed to Yakima, so of course it was a bit of a long drive.  Over the mountains and through the woods, yadda yadda yadda.  Which meant stopping often of course.

We're so tiny!  I felt like I was towing a big hulk, and then we stopped at the rest area next to the big boys.  All right then.  A bit of perspective.

One thing we are lacking in our Durango is a transmission cooler.  It took a bit of learning, but now I know how to drive properly to handle the hills and not blow out the engine.  The first day was a bit touchy, however, and we sat a spell at the top of the pass to let things cool down.

Sure was pretty up there!

We cooled off and headed down the east side of the montains - and were really glad not to be heading west!  This horrible traffic backup lasted for MILES!  At least five, if not more...

Yucko.

We finally trundled into the Yakima Sportsmans State Park, in Yakima (of course).  I should mention that on the way in we saw an osprey carrying a fish, which was easily identifiable  by it's fins and tail as it dangled from the osprey's talons.

I managed to back the trailer into our site, and we were good to go for a while.  We had dinner with Mom & Dad - did I mention it was 94 degrees?!!  UGH.  I was sweating just sitting in one place.

The big excitement for the evening was when Syd went barking after some creature in the dark, and dragged our little footstool off to the far side of the campsite... and knocked over the coleman lantern - broken.

He looks so innocent, doesn't he?  Haha.