On the Road e-mail #12 Page 2 of 4 ( June 9 - 12) Mt. Rainier NP to McChord AFB Sat, June 9 - Sun, Jun 10, Joe & Nancy Sue "On the Road", Mt. Rainier National Park, WA: Saturday, it started raining about 9PM, and is still raining, off and on, at noon today. We didn't get up until 9:30 and are just resting today. The last few days have been hectic, and we're worn out. The rain stopped about 3PM so we drove back out of the park to see some yard art we saw coming in. One guy was doing chainsaw figures of bears, eagles, etc. and another was doing junkyard art, of horses and other figures. Then we drove about 15 miles into the park and stopped at a few spots. The park is a real rain forest, with big moss covered trees, ferns, etc. We saw many big Hemlocks that were over 4' thick. We saw a couple of nice waterfalls and some deer. We got pictures of Mt. Rainier. We are staying another day and hope for better weather to see more of the park. PS: Mt. Rainier, and all the other mountains in the Cascades are volcanoes. They say Mt. Rainier will be the next to blow. Sunday, it rained most of the night and the temp was 45 this AM. We drove back up to Paradise visitor center today, but the clouds were worse than yesterday. We didn't see the mountain at all today and there was some new snow up there. We drove on over to the visitor center in the SE corner of the park and back. We saw some new falls and made pictures of some wildflowers along the road. We also saw a couple of mormots. This is a very pretty place. We'd like to see it again when it's not raining. See Pictures of Mt Rainier NP. Monday, June 11 - Tuesday, June 12, McChord AFB, Tacoma, WA: Monday, it rained all night last night. We hooked up in the rain, drove in the rain, 60 miles, to McChord AFB near Tacoma, WA, and are sitting inside watching it rain here. I asked the campground host when it is supposed to stop raining and he said, "July 5th, the last I heard". We're ready to see some sunshine. We plan to stay here a couple of days, at least, then go to Olympic NP and then to Whidby Island Naval Air Station, where we'll get our last mail, before leaving the USA. We'll probably try to visit North Cascades NP from there, by car, before heading into Canada. We won't be able to get mail in Canada and may not have phone service, either, until we get to Alaska a couple of weeks later. Tuesday, it finally stopped raining at noon today. Joe had trouble with e-mail and some of it came back. Joe worked with e-mail most of the day, except for a trip to the commissary for food. This campground is pretty nice with big trees and grass. Joe & Nancy Sue "On the Road", McChord AFB, Tacoma, WA |