It All Began With These Two Wet Spots On The Ground…

last Friday when Mary I were heading out for our day trip to Orcas Island. As I backed the Bronco back out of our camping spot at Thousand Trails in Bow, Washington…there were…these two wet spots on the ground…Hmmmmm…

They were obviously fresh and must have come from my Ford Bronco II…that I tow behind the motorhome. The Bronco does not leak any fluids I thought to myself…what could be causing them? I had just had the oil changed at Jiffy Lube a couple of days ago…that must have something to do with it. Crawling underneath the vehicle I discovered that the oil pan drain plug was loose…they had not snugged it up with a wrench. Okay…fortunately I caught it…got out a wrench and snugged it up. Let’s get on with our day.

Later that afternoon we…in the Bronco…climbed Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island…five miles to an elevation of 2,409 feet. Exiting the Bronco I saw a wet trail on the asphalt…leading to under the Bronco. Looking underneath…I saw a fluid liberally leaking out on to the ground. Not a good situation! Further investigation revealed it was not oil…but transmission fluid! I checked the transmission fluid dipstick…nothing! Fortunately I had about 3/4’s of a quart of high-mileage transmission stop-leak left over from my old 1984 Ford Bronco II. Since I had no choice…down the mountain we went. About 15 mile later we came to a small town where I bought a quart of transmission fluid. Put in about 1/2 quart and managed to get us back to our motorhome…a distance of about 40 driving miles. Further evaluation indicates the front seal of the automatic transmission is tired and the guilty party. Online I manged to find out the average mileage for this occurrence is 127,224 miles…the odometer on my Bronco is 128,122…less than 1,000 miles above the average. Interesting.

So…what this story is finally getting to is that…it appears the transmission needs repairing. Yesterday we had planned to cross the Cascade Mountains and spend some time in the area around Leavenworth…a Bavarian-like town…and as such…kind of out in the toolies. Instead I’ve elected to stay in the more-populated western Cascade area where repair facilities are more available. So instead…we’ve to stay another week here.

I’ve placed a call to my friend/mechanic Mike in Monroe about 60 miles distant and he’s supposed to call me back soon to let me know if he can find the time to do the job. If not…I know a good transmission shop in Burlington that did work on my old 1984 Bronco…only about 10 miles from here.

All vehicles are basically mechanical/electrical devices and periodically need attention. Fortunately it’s something that a little time and money can easily fix. Better that it happened in this area than in the toolies!

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust

A Day Trip To Orcas Island, Washington – Part 3…

Last Friday…A day that started foggy and cool which turned into a delightful sunny and 71 degree day…I drove the Bronco II on to the Washington State Ferry Yakima…for the 50 minute trip to Orcas Island..part of the beautiful San Juan Islands of Puget Sound. We spent about five hours on the island savoring the abundant beauty.

Here is a Google Earth view of the area…

This illustration is from the below Wikipedia link. There are MANY smaller islands not shown…

Below are just a few photos. You can left click on each photo and they should open to a larger view…

Our final stop of day was atop Mt. Constitution…at 2, 409 feet…the highest elevation on Orcas Island. From here…at about 52 crow-fly  miles away…Mt. Baker can been seen…

Here are four links describing this paradise…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcas_Island

http://www.visitsanjuans.com/The-Islands/Orcas-Island/

http://www.orcasisland.org/

http://www.rosarioresort.com/

To see all 30 photos I took on Orcas Island, click this link…

https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/8122011OrcasIsland

All in all…it was a pleasant and most enjoyable day.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust

ROSARIO RESORT

Once we landed on Orcas Island, we headed uphill toward Rosario Resort, our first stop of choice. Fields of hay, quiet farms, sheep, home gardens,old barns, small ponds or lakes and a few cows populate the view from roadsides. Peaceful.  The day turned sunny and I shed my jacket and enjoyed the first real sunny day since leaving Murphys.

This is my first day to use my new camera, a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V, and I liked the shadows on the walkway.  Jim got into shorts and a T-shirt.

We wanted to have lunch at the beautiful Rosario Resort Hotel only to learn that the Hotel only serves dinner. We were invited to look around the building because it was once the home its founder, Robert Moran, and is now a museum. Robert Moran arrived in Seattle penniless and managed to amass a fortune through his hard work. He was told in 1904 that he had one year to live. He moved to Orcas Island and built this magnificent mansion with his shipbuilding wealth. (He lived another 38 years on Orcas.) A link to Wikipedia about Moran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moran_%28shipbuilder%29

During this period, fireplaces were in vogue and one graced every bedroom in this house. The main fireplace was built from marble chips embedded in concrete and formed whole, then delivered to Orcas for this room.  Moran was maybe the first recycler. He used marble chips gathered  from the building  of  Seattle’s King St. station for this mantle. Jim used my new camera to take this photo. My old camera would never have  accomplished  this wide-angle. The mantle is cool and smooth to touch.

Here a close-up of that marble mantel. I loved this room, and other beauties.

This stained glass light fixture.

A unique stained glass window.

The rich woods, the view from the dining room window, (now hotel dining room window.)

There is a room sized organ, beautiful grandfather clocks, modern bathrooms and closets and other innovations for the time, but I became fascinated by the door hinges.

Cupboards also had ‘hell for strong’ hinges. Quality and craftsmanship showed through out the house.

Flower basket light posts line every walkway, which we took to the only other building in town. The Castaway, Marina  Store, grill, public restrooms and patio over-looking the beautiful pleasure craft harbor.

My new camera allows a 180 degree scan of an area and pastes it together as one picture. I’m not sure how well I will like this feature, yet. The food at the grill was of good quality. I had a fish burrito and a local craft beer.  Jim had fish and chips. We can recommend both. On to Olga.

A Day Trip To Orcas Island, Washington – Part 2…

Last Friday…A day that started foggy and cool which turned into a delightful sunny and 71 degree day…I drove the Bronco II on to the Washington State Ferry Yakima…for the 50 minute trip to Orcas Island..part of the beautiful San Juan Islands of Puget Sound. We spent about five hours on the island savoring the abundant beauty.

Here is a Google Earth view of the area…

This illustration is from the below Wikipedia link. There are MANY smaller islands not shown…

Below are just a few photos. You can left click on each photo and they should open to a larger view…

Here we are arriving in the hamlet of Orcas…

Here is a view of the ferry landing as seen from a cafe deck…

On the cafe deck was a wooden replica of an Orca Whale…

First stop was at Rosario Resort (see below link) which was the mansion built in 1909 by Seattle shipbuilder magnate Robert Moran…

Old time photos direct you to the appropriate rest room…

Not a bad view with which to enjoy a meal…

Part of Robert Moran’s library atop an unusual fireplace mantel…

The music room…

Includes a huge organ..

Here’s another view of the music room…

Lot of colorful flowers here…

The Rosario Marina. We had lunch overlooking this view…

Then we moved on to the small artist’s hamlet of Olga…

Where I met this guy…

Here’s a local artist’s interpretation of an Orcas Island scene…

And another view…

From here we moved on to 2,409 foot high Mount Constitution…the highest point on Orcas Island.

Here are four links describing this paradise…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcas_Island

http://www.visitsanjuans.com/The-Islands/Orcas-Island/

http://www.orcasisland.org/

http://www.rosarioresort.com/

Tomorrow you get to see more photos that I took atop of the island. See you then…

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust

ORCAS ISLAND

Adventuring out for the first time since arriving in Washington once again, we ferried to Orcas Island. The island has a State Park, a falls, several lakes, and one main community, East Sound, which isn’t very big.  Artsy, touristy, friendly, a lovely place to visit. Jim thought I’d like the two other main communities of Rosario Resort and Olga, so we took the Bronco over.

The ferry, Yakima , loads a couple of hundred cars and some trucks & trailers, a motor home or two. The ferry system here is part of Washington State transportation. For a  neophyte, the ferry is an adventure in itself. The ride over was about an hour. We idled around the outside decks and took foggy pictures.

The first picture of the nose of Yakima headed out to open waters was clear.

We hadn’t even cleared the dock before the weather was showing its misty character.  Coming from Murphys’ steady 90 degree weather, I was bundled with a sturdy jacket, a scarf and hat while many Washingtonians are quite comfortable in shorts and a sweater.

Even the baby has short sleeves.

Islands in the distance poke up out of the fog layer.

As you pass close to an island, you see it around the mist. There are many un-named small islands in Puget sound.  Or perhaps they have names on some geological map, but because they are unoccupied, they are anonymous clumps of beauty set there deliberately, no doubt,  by some tourist association.

This one reminds me of a cupcake. In fact there are a number of  perfectly round little islands of different sizes peppering the sound.

It’s hard to beat a day out on the sound with such beautiful scenery all around.

I took a lot of pictures because I bought a new camera and I’m experimenting with its various settings and features, which are many.

The colors seemed much cooler than those taken with my old Cannon and the foggy conditions left everything looking pretty gray and drab. That is reality.  I ran these pictures through a Picasa edit and pressed the saturation button to bring up a bit of color. Not quite sure yet what I think about them.  I have ten days to return the camera if I’m not happy with it.

Here we are, destination Orcas. I’ll report on Olga and Rosario Resort subsequently. We have set a  leisurely pace for this summer and  the next phase of my China journal from old notes must be typed.  I want to remember and share China from 2006 on these pages this summer as well. You know, part of my many unfinished projects I’ve talked about.