Vacation Trip To Washington State (Part-1)

 So August 2021 was the month we finally got to go on vacation. It was a Bat Mitzvah for our niece and had been on the calendar for close to a year. So we boarded the birds at our local pet shop that we've used for the past decade and the dogs got boarded at our favorite groomer who also boards.

The week before our departure we were torn as to which direction we were going to drive ... Phoenix > L.A. Up I-5 to Portland and then on to Gig Harbor ... or should we take the Phoenix > Las Vegas > SLC > Seattle route ? We kept checking the location of the fires and air quality indicators.  

We left home at 1:30pm on Friday and pulled into our reserved RV spot in Gig Harbor, Washington Monday afternoon at 3:00pm. Set up camp, showered, and drove to see the family.

One of the stops along the way was a place called Chiriaco Summit. The General Patton Museum is located there. Unfortunately it was late and closed when we got there. We left really early before it opened so we did not get to see the museum.

Another stop that we make whenever we travel in this direction is Pea Soup Andersen's located in Santa Nella, California. We have always enjoyed stopping here for a bite to eat as we both like pea soup. But this time it was different. The service kind of slow despite only about 40% of the tables being occupied, the 'all-you-can-eat' refills were really slow, the little add-ins for the soup (cheese, croutons, bacon bits, etc.) cost an extra $5 and you had to ask for them. They didn't offer them when you ordered and they didn't bring any with the food. A family of four came in and were seated at the table next to ours ... they waited, and waited, but nobody came to offer them a menu ... that lasted about 5 minutes and they got up and left. The waitress in our section only had about 3 or 4 active tables but was not really in any hurry to work any of them.   

Once we departed Chiriaco Summit and got to the Los Angeles area we drove right into the smoke from all of the wildfires happening in California. Fortunately, the RAM has a great cabin filter and running the AC on recycle really helped avoid a lot of smoke inhalation. There were traces of the current fires along the route as well as signs of wildfires from previous years. We really did not get out of the smoke zone until we got past Portland, Oregon.