"There's alot more of America to find, when you leave the freeway far behind..."
Howdy ya'll!
Welcome to the tale of the Redneck Express! If this is your first time here, turn back the clock to the beginning and read about how it all started and where we've been!
Continuing on in our fashion of going at our own pace, Dawn and I slept in a bit, had a good breakfast before breaking camp, saying out good-byes to Silverline before heading on to the last stop, Leavenworth.
The evening before, both Paul and Rick had come bearing gifts of Apple-cooler beverages from Canada and really good cider from the Methow Valley Ciderhouse.
After inquiring after its location, Dawn and I headed a short distance down the road from Silverline to the Methow Valley Cider house.
Dawn was quite happy with her cider findings , sadly, they only had our favorite, Honey Bear, left on tap, so we ended up picking up a bottle of Howling Wolf and Pinnacle Goat for the road.
Up in the hills, where’s our Mountain Goats? There were fences all along the side of the highway to prevent them from jumping out into traffic, but we didn’t see a one. This time of year is when they’re winter coats are growing in and the goats are somewhat interesting looking.
Paralleling US-97 now… This side’s still prettier, less like an interstate, more like a meandering highway, which is more my style .
High school graduating classes? Sadly our picture didn’t come out too good due to sun glare on the windshield.
Last year, I followed the Rally route to the letter and ended up caravaning with the rally for the last pull to Leavenworth. Because of my attempt to keep up with the rally last year, I ended up broken down in Toppenish, WA.
So, this year, given that we already were a fair ways behind everyone else, we decided to take a detour and travel the US-97A along the opposite side of the river and try a different view. We passed through Chelan along the way and big Lake Chelan tucked up in the hills, hidden from view from the main US-97 route.
We’d also heard tell of Mountain Goats being prevalent along that route as well, but sadly, we didn’t see a one.
Frankly, out of the two, US-97A is a far more scenic route, though not as flat or as fast. If I was to take the same trip again, I’d go US-97A every time.
When we pulled into Alpine View RV Park, we barely made it. Within a few short minutes after we’d gotten the camper plugged in and leveled off the bus to take us into town for the group dinner at King Ludwigs arrived.
Sadly, we missed out on Torklift Rob’s product demos this year due to our late arrival, but at least we didn’t miss the bus.
Talk about cutting it close!
This years dinner at Ludwig had alot more attendees than last year… Enough so that they had to move us down into the big lower area in the backroom to fit us all comfortably.
There was beer…
And random pictures taken of several of the “boys” coping a feel on the St. Pauli Girl cut-out, which I sadly have no picture of.
Frank, our favorite accordionist was back, and of course, the customary Chicken Dancing was performed .
After dinner, we returned to camp and huddled around two campfires built of the remaining wood brought from Silverline. Sadly, George, Alaskashooter wasn’t able to join us in Leavenworth.
As we huddled around the fires, the rains finally caught up with us again, having been left behind back on Friday when we first started over the mountains from Arlington.
Not wanting to leave my comfy spot by the fire, I brought out my trusty umbrella and hunched up under it as the rain came down and I puffed on one of my last cigars.
Eventually, we all retired for the night, Dawn having gone to bed far earlier with Moby, too full of food and spirits to stay awake for too long.
The next morning, I floated around camp in my shorts and a t-shirt, doing my best to get pictures of our gathering at little Alpine View RV park. We never did see the park owners, simply left our payment in the box at the door as we headed out.
Even as early as I had gotten up that morning, a number of folks had already pulled out and hit the road.
Eventually, we said our good byes to everyone, leaving behind only a couple of rigs before we too, pulled up and headed out onto Highway 2.
My last entry was getting a little long and with sixty-three pictures to use for Leavenworth, I figured it might be a bit easier on those with slower internet connections if I separated dinner and the tour of town off from the journey there.
* * * *
As I left off, I had finally gotten my rig hooked up, all was right and good with the world once more and I could finally wander down to the gathering of folks over by the campfire.
Have I mentioned that the moment this group gets some place, a campfire (or two) is immediately started?
* chuckles *
As I drift around chatting with people and looking for a chair to purloin to rest my tired feet, I notice folks gathering around a gentleman whose covered one of the picnic tables in interesting products.
Come to find out, it's Mr. Torklift Rob Rapose from Torklift International out of Kent, WA. He's made the drive all the way out to demo some new prototype camper loading guides his company is designing for the Lynx corporation, the same ones that brought you the Lynx Leveling blocks that so many RVers come to rely on for those almost never completely level campsites that plague us all :p.
In addition to the new guides, he's got several different deodorizer products, both for your RV holding tanks and for removing pesky odors that have built up in your RV.
Free samples for all, yay!
I think I can hear the Redneck Express's suspension groaning as I pick up a bottle of Tank odor remover to try next summer when the black tank start's getting that rather pesky odor that no amount of tank treatment seems to be able to eliminate.
* * * *
Eventually, the time to make our way into town comes around. Luck is with me at last as I manage to grab a seat aboard a jeep that's ferrying folks into town for dinner and I finally get a chance to actually see some of Leavenworth that doesn't involve the Blessed Leavenworth NAPA Autoparts store.
I join Camptoboat and a few others out in front of King Ludwigs as we wait for the others to arrive before going in to get our seats in the quiet group dining area in the rear of King Ludwigs.
Before we sit down to dinner, let me fill you in on a little history about the Bavarian town in the Washington "Alps".
The first route across Stevens Pass was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1892. The townsite was across the Wenatchee River from Icicle and was named Leavenworth the same year the rail construction began. Captain Charles Leavenworth, president of the Okanogan Investment Company, purchased the land in the present-day downtown and laid the streets parallel to the new railroad tracks.
The railroad construction was completed during the winter of 1893. Lafayette Lamb and his brother, Chauncery Lamb arrived in 1903 from Iowa to build the second largest sawmill in Washington state.
Leavenworth was officially incorporated on September 5, 1906. A small timber community, it became the headquarters of the Great North Railroad in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in the 1920s, greatly affecting Leavenworth's economy.
The city struggled until 1962, when the Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) Committee was formed to transform the city into a mock Bavarian village to revitalize its economy. Owen and Pauline Watson, owners of a business on Front Street, formed the committee after visiting Solvang, California in 1958 and thought it was an excellent idea for Leavenworth.
Leavenworth is home to the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, which opened in 1995 and contains more than 5,000 nutcrackers dating from prehistoric to modern. Leavenworth's annual Oktoberfest celebration is claimed to be one of the most attended in the world outside Munich, Germany. Leavenworth's transformation into a theme town was inspired, and assisted, by Solvang, California. Later the Washington town of Winthrop followed Leavenworth's example and adopted a town theme.
* * * *
Eventually, enough of our fellow campers had arrived and we made our way inside to be seated.
The menu at King Ludwigs isn't the biggest you'll find at a German Restaurant, but the quality of the food is good, and the Accordian Player who came and entertained us during and after dinner was well worth it.
I can't remember all of the songs that were played and the we sung along to, but I know we covered a fair number of the songs from the old classic movie, "The Sound of Music" in addition to one of my regular favorites, "Roll out the Barrel".
Eventually, that well known song and dance of almost all Octoberfests held in the US came around, "The Chicken Dance."
Our beloved accordionist asked for two people to come up and dance, a man and a woman. We got one brave lady and he started in, but we couldn't get a gentleman to join her. In the end, not wanting the dance to be incomplete, I joined in.
You may need to watch the video in a darkened room, Camptoboat shot the footage, but the low lighting in our dining area made getting a clear video a bit hard.
I'm the fat guy in overalls and the bright orange Dodge cap if there's any confusion :p.
Something I learned is, never try and do the chicken dance after stuffing $60 worth of food in yer belly, it left me percolating for the remainder of the evening, I'm still relieved that I didn't explode from sitting close by the campfire later that night with the amount of gas that kept leaking out of me, LOL!
* * * *
Eventually, we had to say goodbye to King Ludwigs, Camptoboat had once again come through for us and had arrange for a taxi-van to come and shuttle us back to camp. The effects of the several pitchers of beer had a firm hold on all those riding and it wasn't long before everyone launched into singing, "The wheels on the bus go round and round..." all the way back to camp.
Not all of the campers who were staying at Leavenworth that night had gone to the dinner, those that had remained behind had expanded the campfires by that point to two and created a mobius strip around the two fires with chairs.
I joined in around the campfires after fetching Moby from the camper, where he'd been staying with the TV on to keep him company till I got back from dinner. That's another thing he does well. Unlike Murphy, who will start barking and whining constantly the moment you're out of sight, Moby finds himself someplace comfy and curls up to sleep till you get back.
And he's really good and remembering folks who gave him food ;).
In the tradition of Caravan campfires, Rick continued to exercise his abilities as resident firebug and continued adding firewood to the campfires till he turned one of the two into a blazing smokey inferno by discovering the Super-Pitch logs that were towards the bottom of the firewood supply.
As you can see, everyone around that campfire wound up making for the hills to keep away from the thick, black smoke roiling off.
Eventually the fires burned themselves back down to a reasonable size and Moby and I were able move back in near the fire. The ground had been warmed enough near the fire that Moby found himself a comfy spot and laid down to keep warm. His short coat of fur wasn't helping him to stay terribly warm that cold October evening.
It was sufficiently cold that Peter got desperate and parked his rear directly over the fire. Remember my comments about my concern about myself detonation?
Before long, or rather, the moment we got back, the Scotch and Canadian Whiskeys came out once more and before long detailed discussions about "staying hydrated" began as the libations were dispersed.
But, as they say, all good things must come to an end and before too long it was once again a truly late hour of the evening and we all said our evening goodbyes, a few of the drivers were departing for home or parts elsewhere early in the morning.
Moby and I ambled our way back to the camper to ready ourselves for a long nights sleep in preparation for the long drive ahead.
* * * *
The next morning found me to be the only camper left in the park, all others had packed up and departed by the time I had set foot outside to begin preparations for our own departure.
To my amusement, I discovered that the Redneck Express was now nestled under its own blanket of pine needles. On more than one occasion the previous afternoon, we would bear witness to a "needle-storm" whenever the wind kicked up through the mountain peaks.
The internet at the park was finally working that morning, so I spent a little time to browse the forums and check my bank account before pulling up chocks and starting for home.
Before I close my Leavenworth chapter, allow me to provide you with a brief photo tour of the city along its main highway thoroughfare.
