Another sunny day in Sequim

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I had every intention of doing another road ride today but, after checking the forecast temps, decided I really need better gear to ride in for this weather. Instead, I drove downtown for pics of the tiny lending library on one of the main streets.

It would really be nice if this idea was adopted in more places around the country. As a fulltime traveler, I frequently run into problems trying to get a book from the local library since I’m not a resident. It’s also a cheap way to try different authors/genres. Today I switched it up a little by picking out a sci-fi paperback.

Moving on, I drove to an Olympic Discovery Trail trailhead. On the way there, I spotted 3 of these cuties in a local yard.

The Olympic Discovery Trail is fairly popular up here. I saw people of all ages walking, jogging, bicycle riding and skateboarding. This section of the trail was all paved and sometimes shared space with local roads. It also crossed over the Dungeness River. Where is my kayak now that I could use it?

Back on the bicycle

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Since the end of July, my road bike has been strapped to the ladder on the RV. Last week, it finally got taken down and used again. The chain certainly needed some oiling and a short ride around the park to unkink everything. That was followed by a leisurely ride into town a few days later. This morning, on a day when plentiful sun was in the forecast, I decided to take it for a longer ride.

It was about 40 degrees when I started the ride. I hoped that I’d dressed appropriately. From the bottom up, I had running shoes with hiking socks. bike shorts over sweat pants and a windbreaker over a long sleeved base layer. Everything seemed to work well except for 2 things. My feet were cold by the end of the ride (2 pair of socks next time) and the right leg of the sweat pants picked up quite a bit of chain oil. Not sure what to do about that yet.

So, other than cold temps, the winds were very light to calm. The roads were dry and the drivers were courteous. Washington is very bicycle friendly state. Lots of bike lanes, they’re even allowed on some portions of the interstate.

I saw lots of white-tailed deer along the roadside and in front yards, Lots of seagulls as I neared the Strait of Juan de Fuca and even a great blue heron. I saw a few places that I’ll probably revisit in the truck for hiking or picture taking. By the time I got back into Sequim, I really needed a break. I’d seen a place previously on the main drag that had several benches and stopped there to rest for a few minutes before finishing the ride. They had something there I’d never seen before. A lending library bookcase right there on the main street for visitors passing through. Right now, I still have a few books to finish but I’ll be sure to take them to the lending library when I’m done.

One of the strange things that happened on the ride involved my phone. I think I mentioned previously that I’m using T-Mobile. Apparently, while near the strait, it started getting its signal from Canada. I noticed a text message while stopped for my break. Fortunately, no additional charges were incurred for my fitness app on the phone.

The ride turned out to be about the same time I was used to in Florida but about 4 miles shorter (20 miles total). There were several hills along the route that didn’t look bad from the truck but had me downshifting all the way to first gear on the bicycle. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate enough for me to get a couple rides per week.

First impressions of WA

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I made it to a military campground with plenty of daylight left to set up. I’d made reservations a few days prior but not sure why I bothered. The office was closed when I arrived and the camp host was off site. There was no welcome packet for me. The brand new manager just happened to be there so he stepped in to help me. Finally got my site number and was able to set up. Some time later I left the base via the same gate and noted that it was an obstacle course that me and my 5er would never be able to navigate. The next day I asked the lady in the office how I was supposed to get out and she was clueless (brand new employee). Since I was staying there for 5 days, and with the help of Google Maps, I was able to explore the base and find a suitable route/gate to depart. The campground itself was nice, although rather gloomy with all the tall trees and frequent rain.

During this 5 day period, I was also able to personally visit the RV park where I wanted to stay in Sequim. When I introduced myself to the lady in the office, she immediately recognized the name and relayed some very good news. They usually try to keep one site open (the largest site in this small park) for overnighters passing through but they decided they’d rather have 2-4 months of guaranteed revenue. There were no problems getting from McChord to Sequim but I did make that trip on a Saturday since it included some I-5 travel. Of all the terrible commute cities I’ve seen, the Seattle/Tacoma area ranks second worst, right behind Atlanta.

So, I’m very glad to be far away from the madding crowd and will only return on weekends (for the most part) to visit family. It will also be nice to spend the next few months in a rain shadow, much drier than the surrounding area. I’ve been able to get in walks of 4-6 miles a day and will try out the road bike soon. I also found an RV dealer/repair shop about a half mile from the RV park and started the wheels turning to get my awnings replaced after the accident in Indiana earlier this year.

Totem Pole in Sequim WA

One odd thing I’ve noticed since arriving here is my gas mileage. It seems to be better than anytime since I’ve bought the truck. I’m not sure if that’s due to terrain and wind, or the station I’ve been buying from. Gas Buddy led me to a Shell station with the lowest priced diesel in the area by far. I guess we’ll see if that changes when I fill up someplace else.

And for the people who’ve noticed my tag line about Chinese buffets, I re-visited 2 that I’d previously been to on a prior visit. The AAA Buffet in Lakewood WA was disappointing. The Super Buffet in Lacy WA was still very good. And I discovered a new one, the Asian Buffet in Port Angeles WA. For a small town buffet, they had a very good selection of fresh food at a decent price. I especially liked that they had rice noodles, and coconut shrimp for lunch.

In the Pacific northwest

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After 1.5 days on the road, I made it safely to Tacoma WA. Big difference from my previous long drives.

I started out at an RV park in Rapid City SD. My main concern when leaving that park was a tree limb at the front of the site. Sure enough, as I started slowly pulling forward, it contacted the roofline of the RV. Fortunately, the site behind me was still empty (I’d pulled through that site earlier to get into mine). I backed up in the dark, frequently stopping and getting out  of the truck to check for hazards, then was able to pull forward through another site without tree limbs. The park was Happy Holiday RV Resort and there was a world of difference between high season and off season. The quality of the employees seemed to be much higher during high season.

Another bonus this time was that I was able to pick my travel days based on the weather. Just prior to this drive, my onboard computer average MPG was showing single digits since I was fighting winds most of the way. Now, with favorable winds for most of 1200 miles, the MPG never got close to single digits. And this was despite the fact that I traveled over the continental divide and through several mountain ranges. There was one bad spot in the middle of Montana where a rainstorm with headwinds hit but I pulled into a rest area for most of it.

Overall, the trip was non eventful except for my phone coverage. Somewhere in the middle of Montana, I lost my data connection, then couldn’t make outgoing calls. I switched to T Mobile a few months ago. I was still able to get enough info from the Trucker Path app to see upcoming rest areas and truck stops so that worked out OK. Soon after entering WA, I still didn’t have service even though I could see numerous cell towers on the side of the highway. I decided to reboot the phone and immediately got service back. I guess somewhere along the road, possibly when it dropped out of a partner coverage area, it just lost its mind.

Sugar beet harvest 2018, final

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Wow! It’s finally over and it was a very exasperating harvest. Lots of downtime due to weather. We only got one extra premium pay day. Towards the end, people with other commitments were leaving. We lost enough people at Stephen that a decision was made to just run a day shift with the remaining employees. We got one day shift in, then got stopped for weather again. After 2 days of everyone readjusting to a normal day cycle, the hotline message at 11 AM said to check back at 6 PM for a possible restart that night. No mention of extra incentive pay. I (and a few others) had no desire to switch from day to night again on such short notice so we notified Express that we were done.

While the remaining workers still had several hours to go on their last shift, I pulled out of the campground. One of these days I’ll catch a break on winds but not this time. The first third of the trip was into a direct headwind, the next third was a crosswind and the final third was back to a headwind.

I’m seriously considering Amazon next year instead of the sugar beet harvest. They’ve increased their wages, the weather is not a factor, and you have a firm end date so you can make plans and reservations based on that. The work is harder but since I know what to expect I should be able to prepare better before arrival.

On to the Pacific northwest!!

Sugar beet harvest 2018, great campground but…

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This is my 4th season working the sugar beet harvest and my 4th season staying at the city campground in Stephen MN. I have to say it’s head and shoulders above other campgrounds used in the area. It has full hookups (50 amp) at each site, great WiFi, over 150 channels of cable, clean bathhouse and laundry, and walking distance to the post office, grocery store and hardware store. Plenty of space between sites, easy to back in and the road through the campground does NOT turn to muddy ruts when it rains. All that being said, they are very protective of their water pipes. The other night, a hard freeze was forecast. Instead of asking everyone to unhook from campground water for the night, they elected to turn off the water and blow out the lines for the season. Water will be turned back on in the spring.

We’re not totally without water resources though. The water in the bathhouse is still running so we can do laundry, take showers and use those toilets when necessary. Everyone in an RV should have a freshwater tank and water pump but there’s at least one truck camper in the campground without those amenities. Some people didn’t have a chance to fill their freshwater tanks before the water was shut off. The harvest organizers have arranged for a truck to come to the campground twice a week to refill freshwater tanks. I’ve never had to utilize those services before so we’ll see how that works out.

On a semi-related note, a few months ago I realized that my water pump was defective. It would pump water but at very low pressure and would not shut off. I contacted the manufacturer and they were going to authorize replacement while I had the RV in for accident repairs. Since those repairs got delayed they said I could purchase my own replacement pump and they would reimburse me. I did that last month and was much happier with the new pump. I didn’t realize how much I would rely on it here.

Sugar beet harvest 2018, extended weather downtime

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I woke up this morning to this view:

 

Most RVers try to stay far away from weather like this but it’s fairly common at the sugar beet harvest. Unfortunately it kept coming down all day long. With temps in the mid 30s it didn’t get much deeper but that’s going to change tonight as it gets colder.

I checked the harvest hotline this morning and the recording said our piling station would be closed all day again today. For the people who came up here with limited time available, this is devastating. Today is Wednesday. My last full shift was last Saturday. I got 4 hours Sunday night but nothing since then. Looking at the weather forecast I suspect that we won’t go back to work until Friday night, maybe Saturday morning. The company has notified us that our first regular shift next week will be paid just like a Sunday (double time). That’s a great gesture but can’t make up for 4-5 days off.

For the people who aren’t on a schedule, I suppose this doesn’t make much difference, other than trying to stay warm. Campsite is still paid for and you’re sitting around watching TV or restocking supplies. I saw one younger couple building a snowman in front of their RV 🙂

Sugar beet harvest 2018, weather

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Sometimes, the weather up here just doesn’t cooperate. Right now I’m sitting in the RV in the wee hours of the morning instead of working because we got too much rain. That meant the farmers couldn’t get trucks in and out of the fields and the roads got too slick with a bunch of Minnesota mud. So the harvest stops temporarily while we wait for conditions to improve. Just as an FYI, the harvest could also be stopped for temperatures that are too hot or too cold.

We’ve certainly had cold weather, just not cold enough to stop yet. About the only good thing about the low temps is that we’re bug free. I suppose we also burn off a few more calories than usual as we try to stay warm.

Back to the RV in the middle of the night. My next stop after here is the Olympic peninsula in Washington. I’ve been operating under the assumption that no campgrounds along I-94 and I-90 would be open at this time of year but just found out I’m mistaken. Normally I wouldn’t even consider a campground for an overnight stop but this time I have a residential refrigerator that does NOT run on propane. With the use of an inverter it will run off the RV batteries; I’m just not sure how long. The truck will provide some charging to the batteries but it’s not the most efficient method. Since I didn’t purchase a generator, I’ll be better off plugging into shore power at night.

Since the trip to Washington will take 3 days, plugging in somewhere is virtually necessary. Somebody on rvillage.com mentioned a smartphone app called RV Parky. It shows various places to park your RV, including rest areas, truck stops, Walmarts and campgrounds. I started checking along my route and found several campgrounds that will still be open when I leave here, located very conveniently just off the Interstate. So, that’s the new plan. 2 overnight stops on the way where I can recharge the batteries, put the steps out without fear of someone driving into them and run an electric heater in the bedroom while I’m sleeping. I won’t even bother putting slides out or unhooking the truck.

 

Sugar beet harvest 2018, post 2

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Which shift is better? Right now workers at the piling stations (at least in the Drayton district) work 12 hour shifts, changing over at 8 AM/PM. Sometimes you just have no choice on the shift you’re assigned but if you do have an option, which one is better? It’s a toss up question depending on your preferences. There is no difference in activity level across shifts. They can pull as many sugar beets out of the ground at 3 AM as they can at 3 PM.

The good parts about working day shift are that your sleep cycle is not disrupted, you’re not as cold when working and you could get more hours than the night shift if the temps are dropping too much at night. The bad parts are that you can’t do regular daytime things (shopping, post office, etc) unless the station is down for a weather day. You might also be shut down for high temps.

The night shift allows you to do normal stuff during the day, but at the cost of some of your sleep hours. Your sleep pattern is definitely disrupted so that might not be as big a factor early in the harvest. It will definitely be colder at night but that could be an advantage if it’s too hot to pile beets during the day. If you have a ‘leaky’ RV then you could be warmer sleeping during the day. Night shift also gets the first shift of the main harvest, starting at 12:01 AM on October 1st.

Did you notice that I didn’t even talk about television watching? The night shift will miss out on all the prime time TV but I don’t think most people at the harvest are overly concerned about that.

Some of the permanent company employees working 12 hour shifts switch over at 12:00 AM/PM. Personally, I think that would be a much better option for all employees. Maybe they’ll implement it at some point in the future.

Sugar Beet Harvest 2018, post 1

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This season definitely feels colder than previous seasons. I got to work a full shift during pre-pile (that’s before Oct 1) and there were snow flurries at the site. Short duration and nothing stuck on the ground but they were definitely there. In prior seasons, I might have still been in shirt sleeves. That night the temps dipped down into the high 20s for a few hours. I woke up periodically during the night and opened a water tap each time so I didn’t have any problems. One of the other guys in the campground was not so lucky and woke up with no city water. Luckily for him, he had a full fresh water tank so he could at least make his morning coffee. Temps are back above freezing now and should stay that way for a few days. But the night shift could be brutal with temps in the mid to low 30s for awhile. I put the heat tape on my outside water hose today so it’s ready for the next drop in temp and will fill the freshwater tank tomorrow.

I’m not sure what some folks were thinking but there are 4 people in the campground without cars. 3 have bicycles and 1 is in a truck camper. Riding a bicycle on these roads, in the dark, with all the truck traffic is just not safe at all. The truck camper is just an annoyance to drive into work with all the disconnects/reconnects/stowing items. So, I cleaned out the back seat of the truck (found some stuff I haven’t seen in years) and will have a full truck going to work and back.