RTM How's this trip shaping up? You got the dates and picking spots locked in yet?
Yup, been and done. I prefer not to share details live, as I don't want to give away that I'm not home. Thanks for the prod to summarize this.
The raid is over, you can stop hiding all the Toolmobiles. Seriously, I looked behind 5 bushes, and under 4 or 5 rocks, and didn't see a single one. I think their availability has been over rated, or they were hidden while I was there.
Case in point here.
We traveled from Jan 5 - 18, put 2500+ miles on the truck, visited Seattle, Orcas Island, Glenwood WA, Portland, and Grants Pass. We were traveling in my Tacoma, with two adults and two large dogs, and all the accessories needed for weather below freezing (didn't know it snowed in Glenwood, so we didn't have snowshoes), staying in hotels, and rustic campsites, so space was tight due the extras we don't normally carry. With the weird dates (Wed - Tue), we often lost track of which day of the week it was, so missed visiting a few places, due to not realizing it was a day they weren't open. (Ted's Tool Shack hit this category). We hit some nasty weather, some
really heavy rain which closed the roads behind us, and knocked a few of our plans off track. We are used to walking in the rain with the dogs, but the rain closed a few events. There was also a
Tsunami warning on the day we were going to visit the coast, so it was nice to know that they rolled out all the distractions they could to keep me away from Toolmobiles. Our itinerary was not fixed, we made half our reservations after we were en route. We made lots of stops, at Bakeries, Cideries, Wineries, Coffee Roaster, Tea Mongers, breakfast places, clothing stores, antique stores, one indoor flea, and a few garage / estate sales . Due to Covid and the dogs, we ate lots of meals in the truck, or in our lodging.
In the touristy side, we think Orcas Island was the best, stayed in a west end resort, little bitty cabin. Only bummer, it was off season, so most of the businesses were closed, with only a handwritten note on the door to tell you they were gone til February. Greatly reduced the options of where to eat or visit. But what
views from Turtleback Mountain! And the Brown Bear Bakery, best baked breakfast goods on the trip. Unfortunately we missed a cider house right where the ferry docked, and they were closed for the rest of the week.
Bakeries yielded Brown Bear noted above, and a
great bread bakery in Ashland. We ate lots of cinnamon rolls, scones and other fun pastries. Some of the scones were great, others raised the question: is this really a scone, or a biscuit?. Morning mochas came from a different place each day, with a few stellar ones, and a few that were highly rated that did not fit into my palette (usually roasteries). A few places also yielded Chai lattes, but I did not keep track of where our favorites came from in either category.
In the Cideries
category, we visited Schilling in Portland and
Seattle,
2 Towns, McMenamins Edgefield,
Bauman's, and
Cider Bite, as well as
beverage
stores. We brought home around 30 containers of cider. Tasted
4 or 5 different flights, chatted with lots of fun people. On the dog side, only one cidery did not allow them in, as it was a combination tasting room and production site, so that was understandable. But the others welcomed them on the patio.
Eating sort of ran the gamut, from really bad to really good. Two of the times we ate out were disasters, including one where my vegetarian GF got a beef soup when she ordered vegetarian, with a very poor recovery by their staff, and another where they realized they were out of my prime rib, right as her fish was ready. But other places welcomed us and the dogs, great food and great staffing. In between we hit a few areas where pub grub was the only food choice at our dining hours, but it was decent food and good staff. Places like Pikes Market were fun to grab a multitude of food.
On to the important stuff, tools etc. We managed to visit a
few estate sales, mostly on the last day, so I picked up a handful of goodies cheap. The first day of one promising sale was pouring rain, and I was too lazy to get geared up after a long day of driving. We also hit a Parkrose Hardware (think OSH for the locals), where I bought a few containers of stuff that are currently not sold in California. Hippo Hardware yielded some fun vintage looking lamp cord, but its gotten quite pricey, I think I could buy a whole roll cheaper. It was fun to visit a
Hardware store / public house combination, so little browsing while waiting for food things to get ready. Also grabbed a
souvenir or two, again tool related. I enjoyed looking to see what special stuff is available for locals, like seeing hurricane bolts in Florida, as I wander through local hardware stores. Was hoping to find good winter weather proofed work gloves, but missed on them.
We didn't try to contact people to try to set up meetings or chats or swaps, as we were running so far behind plans each and every day. Sleeping until 9am gets addictive, and loading the trucks with help from the dogs can really slow down progress. Seriously, it was the dog's fault we were late, not the fact that we'd stop at 2 or 3 places to get coffee and breakfast.
That's pretty much it, still gathering the touristy scenic photos to be edited into a cohesive view.
Thanks to all who posted leads above, sorry I didn't hit many of them.
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