This is part 5 to start reading at the beginning, click here.

Phase IV: Eastern Washington

At Coeur d’ Alene, we stopped again to refuel at Costco, then to a nearby laundromat to do our weekly wash. We made our way through Spokane traffic to Riverside State Park, where we had reservations at the last available utility site, anticipating cool evenings. Using our Senior Off-Season Pass, we only paid for the utilities, so justified the splurge, and planned to spend two nights, to have time to ride our bike and explore the hiking trails.

The campground, officially called the Bowl and Pitcher for distinctive rock formations in the Spokane River, is a gem: we hiked across the swinging suspension bridge for views of the gorge from a different perspective. Taking advantage of electric power, we reheated leftovers packed for us by Judy’s sister-in-law for supper, a rare hot meal on the road. And, we appreciated our new sink for making dish washing a breeze. We talked to a bicyclist we met on the trail about routes into the city, but decided we would drive to a trail head in the morning for a ride on the Centennial Trail up the river toward Idaho, as the only practical way out of camp was on the busy Riverside Road, which has a few steeper climbs and no shoulders.

The planned morning bike ride turned to disappointment, as we found every trail head we visited infested with homeless folk, one promising turnout was closed for freeway construction, and more homeless on the trail ahead. So, we returned to camp, intending to explore the hiking trails across the river after lunch. As we crossed the famous swing bridge, the first raindrops began. We walked down the river until the rain began an earnest drizzle, and returned to camp before it became a downpour.

The cold and rain was starting to wear us down. We have electric hookup and the small heater kept the van at least in the high 50s at night, versus the high 40s we experienced a previous night when it got down to freezing outside, with no electric service.

In the morning, we headed north, then west on the remote WA Hwy 20, then Hwy 21 to Curlew Lake State Park. We checked in, then drove to the trail head at the north end of the lake. We rode to the other end of the lake and back on the Ferry County Rail Trail, a total of 11 miles (18 km). During the ride, we were paced by deer through a cut and by a chipmunk on the trestle across the north end of the lake. Another bucket list checked. There is one more “improved” section of this trail, north of Curlew, which we planned to check out the next day. “Improved” means they swept the railway ballast to the side and laid down fine crushed gravel. Most of the 40-km trail from Republic to the Canadian border is not improved, except for those two sections, reserved for non-motorized traffic.

By Sunday morning, Judy’s cold had set in with an agenda. We drove to the trail head at Curlew, but neither of us was game to get out and ride, so we turned about and headed for Wenatchee, where we got a no-utility site at Wenatchee Confluence State Park. It was good to arrive early, as the campground filled almost completely by dark. Another fitful night ensued, and in the morning it was obvious the best course was to head for home, just four hours away. We arrived home just before noon, and in time to get settled and prepare for a Zoom board meeting. We had been several days with minimal to non-existent network access, with no WiFi along the way and the usual “No Service” showing on the cell phones, so finding reliable WiFi and privacy to run a Zoom session would have been problematic.

So, our fall expedition came to an end, after 25 days wandering the Pacific Northwest across 2500 miles of driving and 93 km of bicycling. We look at it as a shake-down tour to prepare us for our planned late winter 2025 excursion.

Epilogue

After being home for a few weeks, recovering from colds and catching up on chores we couldn’t do with minimal internet access, we took a couple of days to escape to the beach. We returned home after a blustery night of wind and rain, and loaded the washing machine. At the spin cycle, the sewer system backed up. A late Saturday call to the sewer service got a quick response, but the blockage was obviously downstream from the laundry, the last point in the line, and the technician was unable to clear it. So, we spent a third night in the van, in our driveway.

Sunday brought another look-see, with a camera, which merely verified the general location: a crew would arrive on Monday to open the line to make it easier to deal with. We were preparing to retreat to a nearby state park when our son called us and offered a guest room and shower, so we took them up on it. Two more days of digging, blasting roots out of the system, putting in an external clean-out, and installing a high-tech liner to seal the joints in the old concrete pipe sections and extend the life of the sewer system finally ended the ordeal. But, we’re now left scrambling to arrange to liquidate a substantial percentage of our dwindling retirement funds. Full-time van life might be closer than we planned: our biggest asset is now our house. We probably can’t sustain any more maintenance expense. But at least the sewer will hopefully pass inspection when we go to sell, along with the new furnace we replaced earlier in the year.