RV ALASKA - "Welcome Home!"

We found a place to call home!  As Alan drove on through winds and rain that Friday evening, I continued searching for a campground that would hold us over until our reservations in Anacortes, Washington, kicked in on Monday.  Although we were still annoyed at the woman’s behavior in the gas station in Hope, British Columbia, we were thankful to be out of the Thompson River Canyon and past the danger of severe rockslides.  Before we hit the border, I had found an unlikely base camp for the weekend – and it reminded us an awful lot of Alaska.

Many RVers are big fans of “casino camping” – staying in casino parking lots or RV parks attached to casinos, but Alan and I had never tried it before that Friday night.  As I was searching for a reasonably priced campground in the Anacortes area, I somehow stumbled across the Swinomish Casino & Lodge on Padilla Bay in Anacortes.  Swinomish (pronounced “Swin’-uh-mish”) not only maintains a regular RV park onsite, but it also had an overflow lot for larger vehicles if the RV park was full.  I figured we’d have no problem staying in the overflow lot if we had to – heaven knows we had gotten pretty used to gravel parking lots.  When I called for a reservation late on Friday afternoon, the RV park was already full (not surprised – it was a weekend) – but we got the last spot in the overflow lot.  When I found out that site #42 was available for the whole weekend, I immediately booked it through Sunday night.  Although we still had a number of miles to cover, at least we had someplace the call home for the next three nights.  Wow!  Lady Luck was certainly on our side!  Maybe we should have run right over to the casino before that good luck wore off.

The next challenge was getting through the U.S. Customs station at the border.  Since we had planned to spend the weekend at Skihist Provincial Park in British Columbia, we hadn’t eaten down the fresh foods in our refrigerator.  I was seriously annoyed at the thought of having to relinquish our brand-new carton of 18 eggs – you all know how much money they’re costing us these days!  I figured the salad greens were goners, as would be the few bananas we had left.  Well, it couldn’t be helped.  We were going to sleep in the States that night even if we had to throw away everything in the fridge.

It's a funny thing, that license plate of ours.  We dealt with Customs Officials five times (including that Friday night) on this trip.  The only Customs Official who didn’t have a problem with our license plate (ALASKA24) was the very first one we met when we crossed into Canada toward the beginning of this trip.  She asked, “Is that a vanity plate?”  We acknowledged that it was, and she was fine with that.  The other four Customs Officials (American and Canadian) questioned our plate, like seriously questioned our plate.  I thought that they scanned your license plate as you approached the Customs check point.  If they did, they would have seen that the truck was registered to both Alan and me, and that the license plate was categorized as a vanity plate and the plate “number” was indeed ALASKA24.  So, I’m really not sure why it caused such confusion at 4 out of 5 check points.  Really, folks, who would try to get through Customs with a fake license plate?

As we (joyously, oh so joyously!) re-entered the United States at Sumas, Washington, the U.S. Customs Official once again focused on the license plate.  “Is that a real plate?”  “Yessir, it’s a vanity plate.”  That didn't seem to lessen his concern.  He walked around to take a look at the plate on the back of the truck, then walked all the way to the back of the travel trailer to look at that one.  Because they were issued seven years apart, the plates were actually a different color.  That probably threw him for a loop, too.  He was the only Customs Official who checked the plate on the trailer.  The good news was that he finally decided that ALASKA24 really was a legitimate plate.  The better news is that he was so concerned about the license plate, he barely asked us any other questions except the very basic ones – destination, firearms, cannabis, liquor and declarations.  He didn't ask us about the food we were carrying at all.  WE GOT TO KEEP OUR EGGS!!!  As we were about to pull away, I commented, “It’s good to be back.”  And he smiled and said, “Welcome home.”

Date(s) – August 23^rd – August 25th

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 15,329

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We spotted 5 rabbits (including a cute little baby bunny) on the grounds of the Swinomish Casino & Lodge, 1 great blue heron, and a flock of pelicans out over Padilla Bay.  So much for grizzly bears and moose. 

Our total wildlife sightings to date: 1 fox; 4 feral horses; 3 loons; 2 ptarmigans; 5 ospreys; 101 dalmatians eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 16 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 5 grizzly bears (including a sow with 2 cubs and the back end of one grizzly retreating into the brush); 8 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 8 rabbits (including one cute little baby bunny and one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 4 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) of the Day – Despite the dismal end to our travels in Canada, I can say that we thoroughly enjoyed 99.9% of our adventures in that magnificent country.  Most of the Canadians we met were friendly and welcoming.  We were impressed by the National Parks we visited, and loved the provincial parks and government campgrounds we stayed in.  Even if our wildlife sightings weren’t always spectacular, the scenery was.  This was our first experience vacationing internationally (not traveling internationally, but vacationing internationally), and we had a really good time.  I’d love to return to some of the wonderful places we visited on this trip and explore even more of Canada in the future.  Now if they could just do something about those gas prices . . .

Having just been through what was the worst day of the entire trip (from my perspective, anyway), I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was to crawl into bed on American soil.  We had a safe place to stay for the weekend, and we were back in familiar territory.  Our friends had lived on Whidbey Island for decades, and we’d been coming to that area at least since their wedding nearly 35 years ago.  The English author Geoffrey Chaucer is credited with the first use of the phrase, “Familiarity breeds contempt” in the 14^th century.  On August 23rd, in Anacortes, Washington, I can assure you that familiarity bred contentment.

Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to see our friends until the following week, Alan and I slept in on Saturday morning and did little else over the weekend except to recover from our ordeal on Friday.  We picked up some groceries, grabbed a pizza, did a little biking along the Tommy Thompson Trail, ate a couple of meals at Carver’s Café (a restaurant in the casino), and generally hung around not doing much of anything.  It was wonderful – the perfect antidote to Friday’s stress-overload.  And we sat in the sun by the train tracks watching the boats going in and out of the Swinomish Channel.  Oh, did I not mention the train tracks?

Lowlight(s) of the Day – When we pulled into the overflow lot late on Friday night, we were grateful to have a place to call home.  When we figured out that site #42 provided us with a beautiful view of Padilla Bay out our big back window, we were delighted.  When we got close enough to realize that the berm behind our “campsite” was a railbed, we were not so delighted.  Those tracks were close!  All we could imagine was hearing trains running all night long, blowing their whistles and shaking our rig to pieces.  At the time, it seemed like a fitting end to an awful day.  But the lowlight actually became sort of a highlight.  We figured out that the only trains that used that track were the ones going to and from the refineries along Fidalgo Bay. So, there weren’t a lot of them.  When they did come through, they came through slow and easy – and didn’t blow their train whistles.  While our preference would be to camp a little bit farther from a railbed than that, we really had no problem with what we initially perceived to be a really low lowlight.

I ended up with a leftover Canadian $20.00 bill.  Since we had planned to stay at Skihist Provincial Park for three nights, we knew we’d be using up more of our Canadian currency.  When we ended up bypassing Skihist, we decided that we’d use up whatever we had left when we made our next (and final) gas stop in Canada.  Unfortunately, our Canadian currency more than covered that last fill up, and we came home with another souvenir, quite unintentionally.  At least it’s lovely to look at.

Campground(s) – A big round of applause for Swinomish Casino & Lodge!  I know that Swinomish put in the RV park to help draw guests into the casino, but we truly appreciated the availability of the onsite RV parking.  We didn’t need anything fancy; we just wanted someplace safe and quiet to spend the weekend, and that’s exactly what we got.  Even though we were parked on gravel out there in the overflow lot, the sites were clearly marked and spacious – at least by Alaska standards.  We had access to the RV park dump station, the restaurants in the casino and, of course, to the casino itself.  All this at the amazing price of just $15.00 per night.  Yes, you read that right – it was just $15.00 per night to “camp” in the gravel overflow lot.  We paid a total of $48.87 (including tax) for three nights and couldn’t have been happier.  Well, maybe we would have been a little bit happier if the train tracks hadn’t been 60 feet behind our trailer.  Staff members at Swinomish were all friendly and helpful, whether on the phone while making reservations or in person at the front desk, in the casino or at Carver’s Café.  I consider this an excellent stop for anyone looking to layover in the Anacortes area at a really reasonable price.  The sites in the RV park itself are full hookups – water, electric, sewer and cable – for only $42.00 (back-in) or $45.00 (pull-through) per night, Sunday through Thursday, plus tax.  Friday and Saturday nights are $47.00 and $50.00, plus tax - dynamic pricing at play.  Those are summer rates.  I know the rates are adjusted in the winter, and for special events like New Year’s Eve.  Swinomish has a five day camping limit for both the RV park and the overflow lot.  There are no showers available to RVers, but there are, of course, regular restrooms in the lodge and dumpsters for trash in the RV park.  While we lucked out in getting a site in the overflow lot at the very last minute, I believe you actually have to call in for a reservation or book online.  My impression was that they don’t take “walk-ins,” but I could be wrong.  I’d suggest reserving ahead anyway – the RV park was lovely and, obviously, very popular.

Pics(s) of the Day

International border coming up within five miles - YAY!!!

Getting closer!

Can't we just push those people out of our way?

Are those train tracks behind our site?!

Yup, and there a quick, blurry shot of the train out the back window.

How does such a small branch support such a large bird?

A gorgeous view of Fidalgo Bay from the Tommy Thompson Trail

No, we weren't sitting on the train tracks.  There was a wide pathway adjacent to them.

We spent a lot of time simply enjoying the view, watching boats going in and out of Swinomish Channel.

Site #42 in the overflow lot

The actual RV Park is to the left of those trees; the Casino/Lodge is in the background.

Up Next – A delightful time in Anacortes, plus our new favorite base camp when visiting our friends on Whidbey Island.  (No, it’s not their backyard.)