American Heritage Campground, Olympia
Wednesday, 8 through Saturday, 11 June 2022
The campgrounds
I stayed in 2 campgrounds over the 5 nights I was in town, because the state campground was full over the weekend, and there weren't many alternatives in the area. The name of that second one gave me pause, because I was afraid at first that it might be some in-your-face far-right-wing place. But after seriously searching their website, I decided they'd just taken that name for its historical connotations - they've been in business for several decades. And they turned out to be just a family-owned operation where the owner (a woman a bit older than me) went around in the mornings with a towel to wipe the morning dew off the benches so people could sit on them.
I'd heard of the state park the entire time I lived here but had never been out this way - it's about 8 miles south of any place I used to go. It's an okay place but even many of the paved campsites (like mine) were poorly graded and had large ponds of water in them after a heavy rain (which we had). Washington's state campgrounds charge for showers, which isn't something I've encountered anywhere else in the western US. And it's not just money: you have to buy tokens from a machine and use those. Two tokens for $1, and each token will buy 3 minutes of water in the shower. Of course, at least the first minute is spent waiting for the water to heat up and trying to get the right temperature mix. I overestimated how much time I'd want and ended up with extra tokens (which they refuse to buy back), but I figured I'd be able to use them at another state park later in the month.
I walked Dext as much as I could around the spread-out campground, but there was a fair amount of mud and puddles from the rain, and my boots do still have that slit in them, so I had to be vigilant on those walks, and areas with obviously deep puddles I had to find a way around.
But I could hear lots of woodpeckers enjoying the lots of trees, so that was nice.
The weather
I remember very well that it often rains a lot in this part of the state. But I also remember that June and August are the 2 best months for those who like sunshine. This year the Pacific Northwest was subjected to what meteorologists call an atmospheric river, that moved in off the Pacific and parked here for days. However, while I was here there wasn't any actual flooding, which I also remember very well - one year when I lived here the entire I-5 was shut down for a while because it was flooded in the next county south of here. So I can gripe about the rain, but it could have been much worse.
It seemed worse on Thursday, when the forecast for 100% rain was accurate, and it rained - sometimes heavily - off and on for both Wednesday and Friday. But we also had periods of sun, and Saturday was entirely sun, so I got reminded of the best and the worst of living in western Washington.
The errands
Wednesday morning I had an appointment to get Lily's claws clipped. While I was still in Oregon I'd called ahead to get an appointment for Gracie, who needed her rabies shot this month. Vets refused to see new clients - and even the vet I took my previous pets to wouldn't see Gracie because she'd be a new client even if I wasn't. The only place who would take us was Banfield because, even though these pets hadn't been to this particular one before, we were in the computer from other locations, so we didn't fall in the "new client" category. Anyway, after Gracie died, I called back to cancel and asked if instead they'd be willing to clip Lily's claws. They were so sympathetic about Gracie that they agreed.
When they saw in their records that Lily would need to have her shots updated in 6 weeks, they suggested they go ahead and do them now. I thought about trying to find a vet in Idaho or Montana in 6 weeks and decided to get it done while it was easy. So she got shot and clipped and dosed with flea medicine, and they said she expressed some displeasure about all that (I'd warned them she might bite and/or scratch, and she apparently tried both) but that she was fine. So that's done.
From there I went to keep the appointment at the car repair place, thinking it'd be a fairly quick take-out-a-few-screws-and-replace-the-headlight thing, only to learn they'd have to take out the whole front grill to get at it and the whole thing would take a minimum of an hour and they expected me and both my dog and my cat to stay out of the RV for however long it took. I've done that before - and obviously I'll have to do it again - but I wasn't at all prepared mentally for it this morning and decided I'd get it done farther down the road. The parking light still comes on, it's just the headlight that's out. And I never drive when it's dark, which is anyway hard to do since sunrise is at 5:15 and sunset is after 9:00, plus dawn and dusk before and after, so I wasn't as worried about safety as I would be at another time of year.
I stopped by Twin Star Credit Union, which I've been a member of since they were willing to give me a mortgage all those years ago when nobody else would. I've been forever grateful, and anyway they make it easy to do business with them. They have my only credit card and I can call to get them to transfer money from one account to pay my credit card bill and do it all over the phone (I don't trust the internet to do banking online safely). After 14 years of talking on the phone, I decided to go into a branch and meet actual people. The branch I used to go to isn't there any more, so that was one more thing that was different. But the people I saw at the one I went to were very nice, if somewhat confused about what I wanted. The nice guy I talked to helped me go over what I had and how to make it more convenient, and then made me an appointment with one of their investment folks to see if I had other options.
When I went back the next day for my appointment, he too was somewhat confused about what I wanted. But he did his best to show me how I could keep much of my savings liquid while still taking a chunk for a longer term investment. It sounded reasonable but would be a big change from what I'm doing now, so I decided to think about it for a while.
I stopped at a T-Mobile office to update my password on the hotspot. Sometimes I get a screen on my computer that wants a password and none of the ones I've used elsewhere work on this screen. But without the password, I'm sometimes blocked from getting reception, which is clearly not a great situation. These folks too were somewhat confused about what I wanted, and the nice young woman who helped me showed me where the password was already on my hotspot (it's actually labeled "password") and then wrote it down separately for me and tried really hard not to show what she thought of me not being able to figure out something so basic. But now I know.
I stopped at another campground, where I'd tried to make a reservation but no one had ever called me back, but they sell propane and I wanted to fill up my tank. It looked like a decent place, but I'm committed to the reservations I've got.
I stopped at Ralph's Thriftway, where I used to do a lot of my grocery shopping. Their prices were higher but I wanted to support them when their pharmacy was one of the only ones in town that would sell the morning-after pill (I think that was the controversy then - something anti-misogynistic anyway). Here too I found that 14 years was a long time and I barely remembered what I was seeing. It's funny but in my memory the store was larger than it seemed now - I'd thought that was a phenomenon limited to visiting places you knew as a child. I wanted to stop by the Olympia Co-op, which I'm a life member of, and actually passed it a couple of times, but I well remember their parking lot being small and worried about finding a parking place, or even being able to get in and out of the lot with the RV, so I decided to visit another time. They were remodeling when I left town anyway, so I know nothing will look the same.
I'd stumbled on a Half-Price Books when I was getting my Covid shot, and I went back to see if they had any of the videos I wanted. Incredibly, they didn't, but then they rely on what others want to sell them and anybody who bought Charade (Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn) in the first place won't want to sell it. Actually, I did buy Minority Report, which has a theme I've been thinking about lately when I start worrying about the direction of our country. (Along with The Handmaid's Tale, a book I've never been able to finish because my visceral reaction is too strong.)
A couple of times I took Dexter down to Deschutes Parkway where there's a sort of greenbelt alongside Capitol Lake, where I used to take my dogs to walk. I heard at least one eagle calling while we were down there, which was nice. And Dext liked it down there as much as my other dogs have. Lots of things to sniff.
I drove by the state capitol building, but thanks to low clouds/rain/mist, I was never able to get a decent photo of it myself. But I've seen it many times, since I used to live a couple of miles from it, and can say with assurance that this internet photo is what it looks like.
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| Washington State Capitol |
Besides these destinations, I chose routes to places that would take me through or past areas I used to know. All over town I found that the much older trees than I remembered changed appearances dramatically. And I found myself running across places (berry farms on Yelm Highway, for instance) that suddenly jogged my memory and I'd have an Oh yeah, I remember! moment.
I also found that Olympia/Lacey/Tumwater (they're all so on top of each other that it's hard to know where the lines are) have fallen in love with traffic circles. Places that used to have stop signs or traffic lights now have traffic circles. They're everywhere. I know there are advantages to them (if the drivers know how to use them), but they really get tiresome to negotiate on a constant basis. On one 20-minute drive, my route encountered 7 of them, which I think is excessive. I wonder if anyone's bothered to check the data on whether they've actually made driving safer in town or not.
When I was driving around, I was vaguely keeping an eye out for a section of Lacey we called Panorama City. Except I'd forgotten the name and the location and never did run across it. Until my very last drive, when I must have come near it and suddenly the name popped into my head. I was always at least a little impressed with this business, because it is a retirement community for seniors that lets people buy into actual houses, or duplexes or garden apartments or regular apartments (the costs vary, of course), but also has facilities for increased care as people's age and illnesses require it. All the senior housing I've seen elsewhere seems stuck on one building - usually a high-rise apartment - that doesn't allow much connection with nature. Now that I've looked at their website, I think Panorama (as they call themselves) seems to be an alternative with some advantages (other than the weather).
My friends
There were a lot more people I wanted to see than I had time for, but I was very lucky in having those I most didn't want to miss being available during this brief visit.
My friend Phil, who I met in law school, still looks and talks just like himself. He's remarried, and I hope on another trip I'll be able to meet Cathy. He said he's planning to retire soon (he and I were among the oldest in our law class), and they're thinking of building a home in southwestern Idaho. I expressed some concern about the recent seeming rise in whacko (and armed) behaviors in that state, but he figured they'd be living in a different part of Idaho than most of that. (And let's face it, every state seems to have groups like that these days.)
My friend Nancy, who first taught me feng shui and later counseled me (over a lot of time) out of a very unhealthy situation into a much stronger frame of mind, also still looks and talks just like herself. We had a great visit that included walks with Dexter around her neighborhood when it wasn't raining. She showed me a park a few blocks from her house that had been a triumph of neighborhood activism to prevent yet another convenience store from going in. Nice little park where, she said, they have music and other events from time to time. It was almost next door to a great little bakery/deli, where she bought me a curried chicken croissant sandwich - great food. So good to see her.
And my friends Kate and Deb and Cindy who I'd met at my public defender job and who helped give me moral support after they'd left but when I was still there. Actually, Kate didn't work there, her husband Bob did, but the 4 of us used to get together for brunch from time to time and they made a real difference in my mental health. I was able to see not only them but also Bob and Cindy's husband Dan and Deb's husband Dave, as well as Jim, another friend from the defender office. And Deb's sister and brother-in-law - I was worried at first about a possible super-spreader event. But Kate reassured me that not only was everybody fully shot but also several had such serious health problems that everybody was being extra careful in public. So I could go and relax and enjoy myself with a bunch of folks who all looked and sounded just like themselves. It was really great.
My visit overall
I'd been seriously considering moving back to the Olympia area. Partly because of the location (between the mountains and the ocean) and because I have valuable friends there. And I liked being back, but I also appreciated the reminder that nature gave me: it rains a lot here, and after 31 years (between southeast Alaska and western Washington) I'm tired of so much rain. I'm actually a fan of rain - but I prefer it in moderation, as I prefer almost everything actually. So I guess I'll keep looking.
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