The End and A Beginning. Summer in Seattle

As it worked out I returned to Seattle for the summer of 2013.  It was a fitting journey and an end to the trip.  I'm sure it won't be an end to my travels.

I had posted the above picture of the memorial at Fisherman's Terminal in Ballard taken in December 2012 and mentioned how grey it was.

To right a wrong is is the same place on a glorious Seattle summer day!

Here are the overall (rounded off) numbers:

Trip  ( May 2012 - July 2013)

Miles driven: 30,000

Gallons of gas: 3511

States: 42 
(6 states I've been to before but not on this trip Louisiana, California, Oregon,Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada)
(2 states I've yet to visit Wisconsin and Michigan)

Months away: 14

Campsites: 100

Days worked: 6 (as a PA)

Days missing work: 0

Time under water: 9 hours 36 minutes

Times crossed the continental divide:  4

Road kill: 0
Bugs killed on the wind shield:  2,000,000 (I actually counted a few times and multiplied up)

Total $ spent: $50,000

Cost of gas: $15,000

Propane: $500

Food / Dining: $10,000

RV parts/repair:  $8,000

Camping fees: $4,000

Health insurance:  $3,000

Cell phone / Internet : $1,500

Other travel:  $2,500

Everything else: $3,500

Time

10,000 hours (418 days)
600 hours driving
3,500 hours sleeping
1,250 hours eating
50 hours working
600 hours on ADL's
4,000 HOURS HAVING FUN!

A few more photos:

Columbia River, Eastern Washington

Snoqualmie Pass May 21, 2012 heading east on the first day.

Snoqualmie Pass heading west return trip July 2013.

After driving 2000 miles from Missouri the first traffic jam I hit was I-90 through Mercer Island.

A nice day at Golden Gardens Park.

My house in Ballard of 15 years as I left it.

This is what they did.  (Notice the big red building in the back yard? )

I had fun living out my "This Old House" dream and saving a 112 year old original Seattle house.  It was in good enough shape when I left that they could't knock it down.  But there was enough room in the back yard to build.  Seattle's plan to slow urban sprawl by increasing the density in the city.

Road Warriors.

Not really in trouble.  Just having fun with the Sheriff.

Snoqualmie Falls.

So many beautiful places to see.  Denny Creek.

Sun setting over Seattle and my time there.

Rail Trail Tunnel under Snoqualmie Pass.

There is a light an the end of the tunnel ;-)

RV Birth. Canned Meat. Retail Overlode

The beginning of the return has started towards the end.  Yesterday I left Missouri and aimed towards Seattle.  As I had come east on I-90 I decided to head west on I-94 (and go north to get out of the heat).  I made my way up through Iowa and into Minnesota.  When I looked up the camp ground it mentioned some near by attractions.

The first was Winnebago Industries factory!  I had looked it up before but forgot it was here.  The factory started and is still in Forest City, Iowa.  In 1986 this is the place my RV was born!  It felt like coming home again after 26 years.  In 1986 I was still in college and had just bought my first new car.  It was a Toyota 4-Runner and I kept it for 20 years and put enough miles on it to drive to the moon (230,000)

A 1967 Motorhome.  Looks a lot like mine.

The factory tour was interesting.  It covers a huge area with many buildings.  There are about 2400 employees (down from over 4000 a few years ago).  Winnebago makes most all of its own parts.  From the pillows and covers to metal frames and plastic formed body parts and wood cabinets (most all from raw materials).  They buy the chassis from different manufactures but do all the motorhome assembly.  They take about 6-10 weeks from start to finish to put together the 3000 parts.

The man who made Winnebago it's name.  He had his customers figured out.

This is the inside of a new RV.  Bigger then apartments I've had.

I stopped at a Jiffy Lube the other day for an oil change.  There were a couple of younger guys helping with the service.  One told me the brake lights on the top back of the RV didn't work.  I don't think they'd seen a vehicle without a center break light.  Those were just running lights.  The other kid tried to start the RV after they finished.  It kept turning over and the older guy finally yelled at him to step on the gas.  I don't think he had every started a car with a carburetor instead of electronic fuel injection.  Another thing I noticed was that my RV model is a "Chieftain". Winnebago is from the local indians and in 1986 it was still okay to use indian names.  I guess I'm getting old along with the RV.


The next big attraction was the SPAM museum!  Hormel Foods, the maker of spam started in Austin, Minnesota.  Here's what I learnd.  Spam is pork, ham, salt, water,modified potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite.  It's all mixed up raw and put in the can.  It's sealed under a vacuum and then cooked in the can.  They have 11 varities now.  At the two plants in the US they can produce 44,000 cans an hour.  The process 19,000 hogs a day.  It take 45 miles of labels to cover a days production.  So far they have made 8.6 billion cans of Spam.

Who's the SPAM?

Where SPAM comes from on the pig.

SPAM delivery guy.

I will have to say it made me think about processed food after coming off the farm.  On the farm all the meat is from animals with names raised on site.  One pig one bacon.  Who knows how many different pigs are in one can of Spam.

On a slightly different note I listened to a radio program during the drive.  It was talking about the german scientist Haber who invented the process to "fix" nitrogen from the air for fertilizer.  Before this all the fertilized came from natural sources like manure and guano.  One disturbing thing was that they have estimated that 50% of the nitrogen in our bodies is from man made fertilizer.


The last stop for the day was the Mall of America.  It's the second largest retail space in the county with 530 shops.  It is over 4,000,000 square feet with an amusement park in the middle complete with a roller coaster and aquarium.  It employees 12,000 people with 40 million visitors annually.  The mall would cover two 40 acre farms.  It could hold 7 Yankee stadiums.

The park in the center of the mall.

It's hard to tell from the photo but that's a two story Lego transformer and 1/2 size helicopter.  All made of Legos.

I didn't buy anything.