Timmer's Travel Trailer Tales

We arrived at this cute little Washington state park about 3:30pm on Sunday afternoon after a short. 80 mile drive north from our home. This park is situated on Padilla Bay about 8 miles west of Burlington, WA with campsites on the east side of the Bay View - Edison Road, and the beach on the west side of the roadway. The beach is easily reached via an underpass. There is a small community called Bay View and interestingly one of the houses has the address 12745 which was the address of the house in Seattle that my parents built and that we later owned. Our cost is only $10/night for utilities as we have an offseason senior pass. Our camp setup process is pretty routine now and within an hour we were set up in campsite #30, The RV sites here are mostly a bit small except for those closest to the beach and near the camp host. We are parked next to the bathroom which is sparkling clean and heated and has showers. We also have a view of Padilla Bay out of our dining

After our last trip to the ocean, I decided it was time for new tires on our F250 pickup which is our tow vehicle.  So I went to Les Schwab ( our regional tire dealer and got a new set of tires installed on some nicer rims that I had purchased several years ago.   They couldn't check the alignment due to worn ball joints.  Their estimate was $800, which I passed on.  I watched a few You Tube videos and determined that I could do this repair.  So I ordered a set of Moog ball joints and a tie rod end off Amazon.  When the parts came in, I borrowed a bearing press from our local Oreillys auto parts store.   I started with the right side and that one took about 8 hours spread over 2 days.  The left  side only took about 5 hours. This is a heavy job to do with heavy parts and high value torque settings. I don't think I'll do it ever again. Due to a sore back I waited a couple days before installing the tie rod end. While I was at it, I adjuste

I've been coming to this location (South Beach) since I was a boy which is now 55-60 years ago.  We brought our kids and our kids are bringing their kids.  We've come here with a pickup & camper, tent, class b motor home, hard sided tent trailer, soft sided tent trailer, motorcycle tent trailer, Class C motor home, and now our new 2020 Primetime Breeze travel trailer.  I wanted to specifically come this time in order to rest my back from straining it over the past few weeks, do nothing but read, listen to the surf and search the log rip rap.  So on Monday. we packed up the trailer for which it now it's third voyage.  I fueled up the truck and the plan was to depart at 7:00am on Tuesday, 7/14.   Day 1 - Tuesday, July 14, 2020 My alarm went off at 6am on Tuesday morning and I stumbled out of bed and took a quick shower.  We had just a few last minute items to load, and then I hooked up the truck to the trailer, fastened the load equalizing hitch

This final full day began as normal with clear skies and a full sunrise.  Lessons were completed, and a breakfast of pancakes and bacon & eggs was enjoyed.  It was then off to McD's for our few hours of daily internet access.  Today before lunch we took a little walk around the area to look at decor.  And today's lunch marked the 5th straight day of cheeseburgers.  What was different was that the self service drink machine was off limits. On the way back we filled up with gas at the Seaview Mobil who was selling regular gas for $3.149 per gallon compared to the Texaco at $3.349 per gallon. Back at camp the kiddos mounted up their bikes and I packed a couple kites to try flying them.  At the beach it was simply too windy to fly kites, but the kiddos were thrilled to do some more rock climbing. There were 3 prospectors hunting for gold today. We abandoned the beach and took a different route back to our campsite.  They did a bit more schoolwork and had so

Today's weather was spectacular starting with a cloudless sunrise.  Since we face the ocean, it takes a while for the sun to rise above the hills behind us.  The kiddos early morning lessons went well and we were off to get on the McD's WiFi for the kiddos tests and lessons.  I found myself once again playing technology administrator to resolve ways of accessing sites with a collection of Apple devices.  After lessons were done, it was time for our fourth round of cheeseburgers.  We're definitely in a rut. Around 2pm we headed back to the park to explore the North Jetty and Waikiki Beach.  The kiddos were totally enthralled with climbing the large jetty rocks although they can be a bit dangerous.  On the way back to camp we toured a number of other sites and are quite satisfied with our choice.  We even saw a couple of deer. They completed the last of their school work and I escorted them back to the beach where they rode north toward to North Cape Lighthouse.  I

Hump day was a really good day.  We enjoyed French toast & bacon and sausage for breakfast and the kiddos did some schoolwork until I hooked up the trailer to dump the sewage tanks about a mile away.  The grey water tank was the most full at 3/4 of a tank, but I dumped them both.  After re-parking the trailer we headed off to town to find WiFi for the kiddos lessons.  McD's to the rescue again.  We sat in the parking lot and did that.  Jakob's lesson required a flash player which is not a native Apple IOS app.  But I found a browser called Puffin Pro, and it played the lesson well.  After a few hours in the lot, it was cheeseburger time again.  We then headed to find the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and Lewis & Clark interpretive center.  The parking lot is about .2 of a mile down hill from the center and is built on the site of a former coastal defense battery which ceased operations in 1948 after some 60 years of service.  There were three large gun mounts