July, 2014 - Through the Eyes of the Selphs

We prepared to leave Mount Rainier and head north towards Seattle. While we enjoyed our time “off the grid”, we were looking forward to once again having cell phone service, internet, and yes, satellite TV. This is not a vacation but a lifestyle, so we need internet access to check credit card activity, pay bills online, and stay in touch with family and friends. We also missed having access to news and weather via TV.

Our last day at the campground we met a couple from Holland. They flew into San Francisco, rented an RV from Camping World, and are now exploring the western U.S. They plan to be in Vermont in time to see the leaves change in the fall and then travel down the East Coast to Key West before returning the RV in Miami and flying home. He flew fighter jets at one time and was a pilot for British Airways. It was interesting talking with him but also alarming to hear him say it is so cheap for them to do this in the U.S. but would be much more expensive for us to do the same thing in Europe because their pound is worth so much more than our dollar. At one time they were almost even in value. So far we have met couples from Australia, Germany and Holland RVing around the United States.

On our way out of the park we noticed a “Volcano Evacuation Route” sign. Now we have seen “Hurricane Evacuation”, Tsumani Evacuation” and “Volcano Evacuation” route signs! After a short trip north we arrived at Dash Point State Park. The sites were pretty close together but we had good cell phone service, satellite TV, and it was a short drive to Seattle where we planned to do some sightseeing.

Instead of the Space Needle we decided to go to the Sky View Observatory at Columbia Center. Located on the 76th floor, it is twice as tall as the Space Needle and the tallest observatory on the west coast and the second tallest building west of Chicago. It is 932 feet tall and stands 1,043 feet above sea level. It provided us with a 360 degree view of Seattle and the surrounding area including Mt Baker, Mt. Rainier, the Cascades, the Olympic Mountains, as well as the Seahawk stadium. The day we went was relatively clear so we had a great view.

Seattle skyline as we drove into the city

The Seattle ball fields/stadiums

Bill was in his glory as we visited several technology and aviation museums. One was the Museum of Flight where he was able to go aboard a Concorde as well as the Air Force One used by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, including the place where Johnson stowed his Stetson. He saw a M-21 Blackbird spy plane and a F/A-18 Hornet. He also saw the world’s first fighter plane, the only one of its kind in the world, as well as artifacts from the original Boeing factory including the first Boeing 747, aircraft from World War I and II. The museum included exhibits from the space age including a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The presidential air force one

Air force one where Johnson hung his stetson hat

One of twenty concorde aircraft

Interior of the concorde airplane

The cockpit of the concorde airplane, notice the MACH Meter under the right side steering wheel

The F-4 fighter jets established many records

I helped train crews for the F-4 fighter jet

Wernher von Braun, known as the “rocket boy”, was the genius behind the USA Saturn rockets and spoke at my graduation in Jacksonville in 1973

John C Houbolt is the american engineer credited for the “Lunar Orbit Rendezvous” mission technique

With the help of automobile assembly techniques Boeing was able to make 35 B-17s in three days!!!

We left Seaquest State Park the day before the 4^th of July. We noticed that early in the morning the rangers had put new reservation cards on all the campsites. The park was going to be full for the holiday and we had been able to enjoy the quiet before the storm of campers.

After a brief time on the freeway, we turned east and were on small state roads as we headed towards Mount Rainier National Park. We arrived at a very small private campground for our four night stay. We were unable to get cell phone, internet or satellite tv as we were under a thick canopy of trees. This campground was very convenient as it was less than a mile from the entrance to the park.

After setting up we headed to one of the Visitors Centers called Paradise in the park. The drive there was beautiful as we rose to an elevation of 5400 feet, passing small waterfalls fed by melting snow along the way.

Mount Rainier National Park became a park in 1899 and was the nation’s fifth national park.

More than 97% of the park is wilderness which includes glaciers, forests, meadows, lakes and wetlands. One of the Rangers at Paradise told us that this area is the second snowiest place on earth, with Mount Baker, also in north Washington State being the first. This is due to the amount of moisture it receives from the Pacific Northwest. We were somewhat taken aback when we asked the Ranger about hiking trails and he told us the trails at Paradise were currently snow covered with three to six feet of packed snow. If we wanted to do any hiking in the park without snow we would have to go to a lower elevation.

We looked out of the massive windows at the Visitors Center and could see people walking up and down one of the snow packed trails. We could see those coming down often slipping and falling as the snow packed trail had turned to ice.

No thanks! We were unable to catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier as he was hiding behind a thick cloud cover. Once we reached a lower elevation on our drive down, Bill was able to capture a picture, though he had to be patient and wait for some clouds to pass.

The next day which was the 4^th of July, we arose early to get a head start on the holiday crowd. We drove to another location in the park called Sunrise Visitors Center. With an elevation of 6,400 feet, this is the highest point you can drive to in the park, and the views were amazing.

It was a bright sunny day and we were able to get great views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding mountains and valleys.

Along the way we came upon a brown bear eating some grass along the side of the road.

We were pretty amazed to see him! We stopped and rolled down the window to take some pictures. He ignored us and kept eating, at one point crossing the road in front of the car to continue his lunch on the other side. By this time cars on both sides of the road had stopped to take pictures.

Mt Rainier is a 14,410 foot tall ice covered volcano. It is in the same class of volcanoes as Mt St Helens. Though the glaciers are not as massive as they once were, the 35 square miles of glaciers constitute the largest single peak glacier system in the lower 48 states. There are at least 25 glaciers with six of them originating at the summit ice cap. Each year approximately 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Rainier. Almost half of those reach the summit. When we were at the Visitors Center they had a telescope outside and Bill spotted three climbers who looked like tiny dots high on the mountain.