As we crossed the Columbia in Longview we saw
to the Pacific Rim or milled locally.
After following the Columbia down river about 15 miles we arrived at “County Line Park.” It is a county park right on the river. There are about a dozen parking spots on the river and the same on the back side. It is a parking lot style back it spots with electricity. It was a little tight for us with our four foot slide on one side and the steps on the other so we picked a spot without neighbors. One spot away on both sides were neighbors. There was a sign in the park telling about Lewis & Clark having a hard time finding a suitable place to spend the night on their voyage through this area. The Oregon side is low and marshy and the Washington side has bluffs. Very near here they found a place to camp. Too bad the county hadn’t leveled this park for them.
The weather was nice so we gathered the
neighbors and found a meager amount of wood for happy hour, then a campfire after supper.
We soon realized we were camping with local who come here often. Most knew each other from previous trips here. Salmon season opened in two days and most were here to fish. We love these situations where we can be with locals. It gives us the best chance to learn about the immediate area. Again, we had instant friends. Denny & Cheryl live in Washington in the summer as well as Jerry & Marge, and both live in Quartzsite, AZ in the winter. The more they talked the more mutual friends they have. Both have been to Alaska several times, in fact Cheryl lived there. They had many fun stories to tell. It was fun listening to them.
Jerry & Marge mention they were married in a little Methodist Church west of this camp.
Saturday, May 14, we were up and at’um early and off to see Mt St Helens. We could see it from our camp site, but it was predicted to rain starting early afternoon. When we arrived at the visitor center we were told by the rangers to go all the way the Johnston Ridge Observatory at the end of the road before the clouds and rain set in. This was the first day the road was open all the way for the season. We could see the 
mountain as we neared the end of the road, in fact in this picture the observatory is on the ridge on the left of this picture.
This four part picture tells the story of the eruption on May 18, 1980 
at 8:32:33 am the bulge on the north flank of Mt St Helens, had been growing at a rate of 5’ a day, collapsed following a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. This was the beginning of the largest landslide in recorded history.
2nd picture at 8:32:44. Two distinct areas of the eruption can be seen. The vertical eruption column is cresting the rim of the crater, while the lateral blast is overtaking the landslide.
3rd picture at 8:32:48. The higher velocity lateral blast is becoming more powerful and overtaking the slower moving landslide.
4th picture at 8:32:59. The landslide is completely overtaken by the lateral blast. Projectiles 30-40 feet in diameter are clearly visible.
The Johnston Ridge Observatory was busy with volunteers on their opening day. We listened to a lady ranger telling the story of the mountain. She spouted off facts as fast as the mud flow.
When the lateral blast took place it moved an average of 450 mph at a temperature of 575-750 degrees.
The Vertical Plume rose 15 miles into the atmosphere!
Lehars or Mud Flow moved 65.4 million cubic yards of mud down the North Fork of The Toutle River at 90 mph.
All 27 bridges within 60 miles and 200 homes were destroyed as well as anything else in its way. 57 people were killed including researchers and photographers.
We watched the movie about the eruption which ended with the curtains being opened to the
best view. This view shows where the avalanche occurred and below the Lehars flowed from left to right. 31 years of water have eroded the flow. We were five miles from the mountain.
Volunteers from the U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program caught Fred’s eye where he tested their knowledge with lots of questions.
Amazing things happen here? In the last three decades few events have been more awesome than the growth of one of North America’s youngest glaciers in the throat of an active volcano. Behind the clouds inside the rim on the south side of the crater and in the shadow of the rim, snow accumulated year to year inside the great bowl. Year after year, snow accumulation exceeds melting by the remarkable amount of about 25’ on average forming the new glacier.
The real treasure of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is not the volcano or the surrounding landscape; it lies in the idea that this monument should be protected so that nature can work at its own pace to renew the land. It was set aside in the hopes that the next generation will have an experience markedly different than the one we had today.
As we drove back down the mountain we could see the devastation still existing on the sides of the hills facing the explosion and the
result of the mud flow down the Touttle river.
The next stop on the way down was the Forest Learning Center where 
Olivia took a short flight over the new forests. When Mount St. Helens erupted, gale-force winds and intense heat flattened and burned 150,000 acres of prime public and private forests. During peak salvage efforts 600 log truck loads were removed daily.
Prior to reforestation, Weyerhaeuser recovered 850 million board feet of timber, enough wood to build 85,000 homes. Crews then hand planted more than 18 million Douglas and noble fir seedlings on Weyerhaeuser’s 45,500 acres.
We ended up staying in the National Monument about 4 hours. It was hard to comprehend the size of all these numbers of devastation that occurred in just a few hours, that day 31 years ago.
Sunday, May 15 we attended church at the
the Skamokawa United Methodist Church and challenged them to pronounce Waxahachie. We never mastered their name. It is a small church but warm and friendly. When we told them we had met Marge & Jerry, they knew them and had even seen them going to the cemetery earlier that week.
Back at the campground the fishing was on. Salmon were beginning to run upstream and the season started this day. The hosts had put up a
fishing tent at the end of the loop and we joined the group waiting. The technique is to bait the hook, then place the rod into a holder and attach a bell. They can then gather in the tent, with a wood heater and wait for the bell to ring. See the bell on the pole?
The bell rang and everyone came to life. Bob, the host, had
one on the line. The other fishermen reeled in their line and one grabbed a net. It is hard to pull in a fish over the riffraff rocks along the bank, so they went down the metal steps covering the rocks.
Bob played and worked the fish for about 10 minutes and had him almost to the steps, but it swam under the steps, breaking the line and 
it was gone. As you can see it was a nice size salmon. They estimated it at about 25 pounds. Too bad Bob. Later we were told salmon could be sold for $10 per pound at several of the local fish markets. Bob didn’t plan to sell his fish, but its interesting to note it had a value up to $300 dollars. Wow!
The fishermen re-baited their hooks and we waited again. After a while Bob gave up and we went home for supper. He had also told us about seeing an “Orka” whale this far up the river before. They are known to come up this far, but don’t stay long.
Periodically we could see a seal in the river. It was surprising to see them this far from sea water. The locals told us the story. Seal’s diet is primarily salmon. When the salmon enter the river for their spawning run some seals follow. Over the years the some seals have learned if they follow far enough (about another 100 more miles) they come to the Bonneville dam. At the base of the dam the salmon school and wait for a time before climbing the ladder over the dam. The seal love this. The waters are clogged with huge salmon waiting to climb the ladder. Sadly thousands of salmon are killed. Sadder still, the seals only eat the stomach and leave the rest. Fishermen are very upset over this carnage of their prized fish, but no solution is at hand.
Monday, May 16, we said our goodbye’s to the group at this wonderful spot. We hope we can go back to it sometime. We headed to I-5 north to Seattle. Immediately it was full of traffic going both ways.
Cheryl had told Olivia about Shipwreck Beads in Lacey so we just had to take a look. This business first location in 1969 was a tiny ship on Olympia’s Mud Bay. At 80,000 sq. feet it now has over 8.3 billion beads in stock. And they sell direct to the public in their
showroom or online at www.shipwreckbeads.com . It was a fun place to visit and Olivia covered every isle. The string of beads draped from the ceiling is in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest string of beads in the world.
Back on the road. When we reached Tacoma the pavement turned into washboard! Yikes! At first we didn’t know if it was the road or us! We were violently vibrating. Scary! In time the pavement changed for a short distance and we found it wasn’t us. Thank you God! We could not have stopped. No place to stop and lots of traffic. It was bad enough that it continued until our exit. Fred was exhausted!
We arrived at our destination and really wished we were back on the river. We were in an old RV park with permanent junkers around us. And it was pricey. If the Hensley’s had not been meeting us here we would have kept on going. Oh well, as Earl Spinks said many times, “You Win Some and Lose Some.” We have experienced both extremes of good and bad locations in the same week.
Tuesday, May 17 we went to the Microsoft Store and they gave Olivia some instructions on Word and Publisher. Olivia wished they had the stores all over. It was neat to be able to have a 15 minute tutorial in person. Then we went to the Chevrolet house to have our oil changed and check on few other items. We went back to Microsoft for some more instructions.
Wednesday, May 18 we went to a Doc-in-the-box Urgent care for Olivia to find out about her fingernail fungus and to receive a prescription for her dry eyes. We also attempted for Olivia to get her prescriptions filled, but it was too soon. We drove to the beautiful 
Lake Sammamish and the camp we had hope to stay in. Too bad they didn’t have vacancies for the whole week. The Hensley’s arrived and we made arrangements to see them the next day.
Thursday, May 19 we drove into downtown Seattle and met the Hensley’s at their hotel, then bought a greyhound bus tour for two days in the downtown seeing many interesting things including the
street art. 10 % of improvements have to go to art work. We took the tour, then jumped off at Pikes’ Market where 
Fred interviewed the fish monger, we saw the expensive
Copper river King Salmon filets,
big Halibut, and Fred drooled all around the Salmon and Halibut.
We watched them throw
fish from the show room to the purchaser to be weighed, wrapped and sold.
We walked on through the market where we saw lots of 
beautiful flowers then on to the harbor where we ate chowder and fish & chips at Ivar’s. Olivia enjoyed feeding the 
our left over french fries to the sea gulls. We had thought we would ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island and back but time was running out, so we headed back to the hotel and watched part of the Maverick’s game. On our way back to the trailer park we could view 
Mt Rainier in the distance and over Washington Lake.
Friday, May 20 John was having brake problems so we met him at the Seattle Lexus. While we waited a lady stopped by and asked if we would like a tour of their facilities. We had already realized they had a big operation as it was a large three story building. She took us into the 
service area where they have 70 bays for working on vehicles. Most were occupied.
The next stop on her tour was the show room, which held at least 50 new cars. Adjacent to it was the delivery room with seven new cars waiting for their new parents. All this was enclosed because of the inclement weather in Seattle. Upstairs she showed us a snack bar and outside on the roof of the service entrance was a
three hole putting green.
Our guide who found we were from Texas told us their new dealer complex was inspired by a visit to the Sewell Lexus complex in Dallas. Does it have all this? We don’t know but maybe some of our readers do.
When John’s car was ready we left ours at the dealership and rode with John to pick up Virginia and drive out to 
Red Mill Burgers. Fred had seen this on Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel as a famous place to eat. Their most popular burger was a Bacon burger with cheese. Note the 
stack of bacon on the grill in the background! We ate outside on a picnic table as there was no room inside.
From there we drove to the Crittenden Locks and Gardens where we saw an 
Alaskan Yellow Cedar. It ranges all the way south to California. We had read an article about this tree and had been looking for it since Northern California. This was the first time we were sure we were seeing the real thing. It hasn’t been harvested like other trees, but now is being cut to make furniture.
We missed the salmon run at this river, but did see a
Horse Hazelnut blooming.
It was getting late, but John decided we would visit the Boeing factory so we lit out for Everett. It was much further time wise than we thought and when we arrived the it was sold our for the day. Bummer! We did have some quality conversations in the car.
We were all tired so the Hensley’s returned us to our vehicle. We really enjoyed the Hensley’s company.
We visited the Microsoft Store again. This time we think we learned how to write these blog letters in Publisher before uploading them into the blog. Keep your fingers crossed.
We planned our attack on Canada and will stay at a city park in Lynden, WA where we would also receive our mail.
From Monday, May 22 we will not have cell service, and will only have emails via Wi-Fi hotspots and at Libraries.
Please answer us via email and we will attempt to answer you when we have a library.
In Alaska we expect spotty service for both cell and Wi-Fi.
We will continue to publish the blog for you to see what we are doing.
Please let us hear from you so email us at:
Olivia@bobheck.com or FredHarrington@yahoo.com
