2011 Northwest Fall Colors Rally–Heading North to Sauk

Well, its another year and that means, another Fall Colors Rally! 

Once again, Moby the Wonder dog is back with me for more road tripping adventures, and this time my happy lady, Dawn, has finally come along to her first Truck Camper Rally!

Also, this is the first adventure that the Redneck Express has taken as a “Dually”, so everything’s new and untested!

Last year, I tried to drive the interstate as little as possible on my way north, however, with Dawn along and a later start on Thursday evening than last year, I opted for taking the more direct route along I-5.

This years Rally Route:
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With a minimum of issues, we headed out from my place on Sauvie Island, intent on making the drive all the way to Sauk Thursday night. 

We made it about as far as the Wal-Mart in Marysville before I ended up being too tired to keep driving any further. 

Fortunately, while I was inside the Wal-Mart getting some duplicate keys made for the camper (being locked out on the rally would have sucked!) I asked about nearby campgrounds and got an invite to just stay in the lot along the outer edge with the other RVs parked there.

Truth be told, this is the first time I’ve ever officially “Wally-Docked” anywhere and it turned out to work just fine.

We ended up being one of four truck campers parked there that evening, but sadly, the only one on the way to the Fall Colors Rally . 

After a light second dinner of sandwiches, we’d picked up mexican from Muchas Gracias in St. Helens, Oregon on our way north, Dawn and I both crashed. 

That night was the first and only time Moby was allowed to share the cabover bed with us.  After he kept trying to plant himself between us and ended up causing poor Dawn a poor nights sleep (when I’m that tired, I’ll sleep through the end of the world…), it was decreed that the “Wonder Dog” would spend his nights on the dinette, which he had no complaints about.

 

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By the time we got up around 8am the next morning, we were the last of the RVs from the night before still there.  There were a few more in the parking lot, but they had showed up during the daylight hours.

A light breakfast and we were on our way again, only stopping in Arlington long enough to get gas at the Safeway (and some canned wet food for Moby, which we would later give away, Moby + Pedigree = Bad) we continued on to Sauk, arriving around 2:30-3:00pm.

A few other early arrivals were already there, clustered together in the one “big” site near the entrance road coming from the highway.  We briefly entertained pulling in with them, but after looking at how flooded the site was, opted to go a little ways down from them and grab one of the river-overlook sites for ourselves. 

Far dryer and more level, much more to my liking.  Paul, folks, yer welcome to the puddles

 

After getting settled in, I wandered over to chat with folks while Dawn opted to make a bee-line for the cabover bed and catch up on lost sleep.  

While she was out, my plushies attacked!   Yes, it’s a bit odd for a big Redneck to have little plush critters, but I’ve had the Ninja Cat (a gift inspired by a slightly drunken viewing of Hitchcock’s “The Birds”) and my lucky Road tripping cabbit with me for a lot of safe and successful outings, call it superstition if you want.

Within the next couple hours, several more arrivals came in.  Shelia (Fibber McGee & Pepé Le Pew) and Sally joined us in our little corner by the river. 

A little after 5pm, Lancealot and his son and his amazing home built Tear Drop Trailer became our other neighbors .

 

I ended up fixing a feast, if you will, for dinner that night , proving that you can indeed making a full-sized dinner in a Truck Camper while dry-camping .

Dinner consisted of a scratch made meat-loaf, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Dawn and I invited Shelia to join us for dinner, no one should have to make due with cold cuts for dinner in cold weather, hot meals for all!

After a stuffing dinner, Dawn and I joined everyone else around the campfire for a few hours before hitting the sack, thus wrapping up our first day of the Fall Colors Rally!